Create a Newsletter

Newsletters are effective in right hands, they can keep the visitors in touch to you and your offers and news. Even though they have forgotten about you, they are too lazy to get themselves removed from it (just like I am) and get your offers.

They can drastically increase your sales due to the circumstance that most human beings do not purchase on their first exposure. They demand reassurance and they as well demand to know that you are a credible seller.

In order for the free newsletter script presented here, you must have your own domain and have complete access to a cgi-bin folder. If you are not confident you have access to your cgi-bin folder then you can ask your web hosting company.

Therefore this article has been split up to two sections, "I Have Full CGI Access for Newsletter" and "Paid Newsletter Option"

I Have Full CGI Access for Newsletter

Downloading the Free Newsletter Script

First you demand to get a copy of the script. I've pasted the decree on this site so you won't have to download and unzip it.

1) Click this link to download the mail script (22 kb). Make sure you don't change the file's name.

Configuring the Newsletter Script

As simple as it is, all you have to do now is changing few lines in the file and other little things...

The following HTML code is for subscribing into your newsletter, add it into the web page you want visitors to subscribe from.

<form action="/cgi-bin/mailmachine.cgi" method=post>
<input type=text name="address" size=50><br>
<input type=radio name=action value=Subscribe checked>
Subscribe | Unsubscribe <input type=radio name=action value=Unsubscribe>
<br><input type="submit" value="Update">
</form>

Now you can start changing the variables in the file. Open the .cgi file with Notepad or other plain text editor. Remember, don't change dollar signs, quotes or any other things otherwise the script won't work. Only things you may change are BETWEEN the single quotes, ( ' ).

$mailprog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail'; - This is the sendmail folder in your web hosting directory. If you are unsure where it is located, contact the service provider.

$admin_email="your_email\@yourdomain.com"; - E-mail address you will be sending the posts from. Note that slash sign ( \ ) is needed so don't remove it.

$list_name="Name of Newsletter Here"; - Name of the newsletter.

$adminpass="Your_Password_Here"; - Create a password for your newsletter. Note that you shuld NEVER use your main password in plan text files.

$file = "list_of_email_addresses.txt"; - E-mail address list file. Create a blank .txt file with the name of your choice. If you already have a list of subscribers, make sure you add one address per line.

There are more options, you can go for it and study them too but these are the most important ones.

You may need to change permissions on the files, chmod 755 command is read access for others, full access for you. If this doesn't work, ask your web hoster..

When everything else has been done, go to the similar kind of destination in your browser like below:

http://www.yoursite.com/cgi-bin/mailmachine.cgi?admin

Enter the password and you will enter the control panel of the newsletter. Enjoy gathering addresses and administrating the newsletter!

If you see errors, check the variables and paths. If you are unsure about paths, ask your web hoster.

Paid Newsletter Option

This is mainly for those who want to pay for their newsletter e-mail services or they simply don't have the CGI access. I have been doing research on this and ended up that there are many good e-mail autoresponders. A good autoresponder offers at least these features:

1) Automatic mail sending at a specified time.

2) Create unlimited e-mail campaigns.

3) Statistical information about subscribers.

4) Easy to use.

5) Subscriber list backup

The service I would like to recommend is Aweber

It has all these and even more features. It's one of the leading autoresponders for newsletters and other e-mail needs.

Aweber helps you to create the sense of invidualism for your subscribers instead of "one of millions". Because newsletters can be one of the major factors for sales and affiliate incomes, I really, really recommend this. Tools, it has them all!

Try the mentioned e-mail service for 30 days and if you are unsatisfied, you can be sure to get your money back, as a market leader they can't afford to betray their customers with money back guarantee things.