The best ezine service is not (technically) an ezine service!

People often ask me what service to use for sending their Ezines out as the "Caboose" (keep-in-touch) strategy of their Marketing Train. I've tried several, and my recommendation is to go with AWeber.

Technically, Aweber is not an ezine service (unlike Constant Contact, a well-regarded ezine service that I once used). Aweber is actually an "autoresponder" service.

An autoresponder is a tool that sends out a sequence of emails to your list at the frequency you choose. Autoresponders are great for automating your most common emails, like all those emails you need to send before, during and after a teleclass, workshop or event.

I like Aweber for that function alone, because for one low monthly fee you get unlimited autoresponders on an unlimited number of campaigns.

But Aweber is also a great "broadcast editor" - which is a service that sends out a mass email to a bunch of people on your list. In other words, an ezine!

What I like best about Aweber is the html templates. HTML templates are nifty graphics programming that allow you to make "pretty" (and professional) ezines just by typing in your text and formatting it like a simple Word document.

Other ezine services also have templates, but what I like about Aweber (over, say, Constant Contact, which I've also used personally) is that you can type your text straight into the pretty template - so you can see how it's all shaping up and fitting together as you go. With Constant Contact you first pick your template, then you go to a separate editing page - where you just type into these blank boxes - and you can only see how it looks by hitting the "preview" button over and over.

This template design in itself would be enough to "sell" me on Aweber. But on top of all that, Aweber helps you gather emails from visitors to your website by hosting the "Sign Up" box for your newsletter.

That's its main purpose and is a very important reason for picking Aweber.

Most wellness professionals can really benefit from having a sign-up box on their website that invites visitors to subscribe to the practitioner's "tip of the week", monthly newsletter, or other follow-up campaign.

Visitors submit their email address and permit you to email them on occasion with helpful tips, book recommendations, announcements of events or classes that you are running. It's a great way to turn visitors to your site into potential clients by putting them straight onto your Marketing Train "Caboose".

We're all familiar with this kind of feature. On the technology level, this is all handled with an "Autoresponder" or "Listserv" service. Many websites require an outside service if you wish to have an autoresponder or listserv. So you'll probably need one of these if you're planning on having newsletter subscription boxes on your website.

Autoresponders vs. Listservs People often ask me the difference between an autoresponder and a Listserv. Here's what my own web host service says about that:

Listserv - You can only set up a message to be sent out at a "broadcast" message to your list on specified date in the future.

Autoresponder - This allows you to also send out a "broadcast" email at a specified date (such as a tip of the week). But, you can also "preload" your messages for new signups to receive as well. For example on day 1 of signing up they get your "welcome aboard" email, perhaps on day 3 you send some helpful tips, on day 7 you can send more tips, day 14 you have a follow up etc. These responses happen automatically, hence the name "Autoresponder". A Listserv does not have this ability to preload messages that get delivered in a sequence.

Aweber is A Frequently Recommended Autoresponder

Membergate, the website publishing company that hosts my website, recommends Aweber as an autoresponder for their supported sites. We use them with great success for Helping The Helper's anouncements, newsletters, and mailings. Membergate has this to say about Aweber:

"Not all autoresponder services are equal. A big factor is their delivery rate. That means, what percentage of the emails they send actually make it to the inbox of the recipients. We have found one of the most effective autoresponder services to be Aweber.

Here are some of the benefits of their service:

Their emails get through - Our experience has shown that Aweber has one of the highest delivery rates that we've seen. There is a reason for this. Aweber is not only a leader in autoresponders, but they have a very good relationship with major Internet Service Providers. They meet with companies such as AOL, Earthlink etc and have worked out a mutually beneficial arrangement. That is, if anyone reports an Aweber email as being spam, the reporting parties email address is immediately removed from all of the lists of that Aweber customer. No questions asked. Because of this instant and effective response to a spam allegation, the major ISPs keep Aweber's mailservers off of their blacklists. Other autoresponder services who don't take these proactive steps typically suffer lower delivery rates due to spam complaints.

Well Documented - Aweber has well documented tutorials to help you use their services. Their videos are similar in nature to the online video tutorials which are available to you at Membergate.

Testing and Tracking - Aweber has many added functions built into it to let you test and track your sign up boxes. You can find out how many people are clicking the links in the emails that you are sending out as well as which signup boxes are performing the best for you.

Value - You can have as many email lists that you want with one Aweber account. You could use one account across multiple sites or for multiple purpose within one site if you want."

So there you have it - not just Coach Jaz, but her technical advisors and software programmers of Helping The Helper agree - Aweber is the way to go!

An email automator, a marketing tool, a website sign-up manager, and an ezine broadcaster and html editor in one. Not too shabby for a $20 service.

They even offer a free demonstration and no-risk trial. Here's the sign-up box. I decided to put this on here because I know it will encourage you to get cracking and start that Ezine!