Ever since I wrote my post on Why I Chose MailChimp Over Aweber I’ve had several people ask me about what other auto-responders I had tried out. Before I get into that there is something you need to know about me. I hate to shop around, I feel its just a waste of time. If I find a product or service that I like I just go out and buy it. This surprised the heck out of my wife but she’s used to it by now. It’s like when we needed a new car, I knew how much I wanted to spend so when I found a car that was within the budget I bought it.
In the case of auto-responders I wanted one that was free and so I was pleased as punch when I found MailChimp. The only reason I looked any further was because Ben brought to my attention how they wouldn’t allow affiliate links to be used in campaigns. Read the above post to find out how you can use affiliate links with MailChimp as long as it’s done properly and in a non spamming way. Once I had found that I could use affiliate links the search stopped, but just I thought it best to post my results of the other two I had tried out.
List Wire
List Wire is the brainchild of Gary Ambrose. This auto-responder is completely free, forever, no matter how big your list grows. A word of warning though, the sales pitch starts from the moment you land on the home page where you will see a rather entertaining video where Gary uses a sales pitch to promote Listwire as well as trying to sell you some of his other products. Nothing wrong with that as that’s what online marketers do.
So, knowing full well I would be signing up for a list that would more likely than not fill my inbox with offers, which it does on a daily basis, note to self to unsubscribe, I signed up. After using MailChimp I found Listwire to be cumbersome and that it lacked the features I was used to. I’m a person that likes things to be easy to use and my personal opinion is that Listwire lacked that. Perhaps if I stuck it out it would have become clearer but I wasn’t prepared to do that when I already had one that was so easy to use.
Auto-Responder And Mailing List Manager
One other option I had thought about was to have my own auto-responder. I was sure that somewhere out there I would be able to find a way of having my own auto-responder thereby having complete control and never having to pay anyone for having a list. I came across the Auto-Responder and Mailing List Manager. That link will take you to their home page where you can either try the free unrestricted Lite version or opt to buy the Pro Version for around $74 for one domain. Needless to say I opted for the Lite version.
I downloaded AMLM, unzipped the file and uploaded it to a directory on my Wassupblog domain. The installation instructions are quite simple but there were some technical problems with the installation. I found the solutions to the problems quite easily in the forums, and apparently it only occurs with the Lite version. One would have thought though that they would have resolved those issues even with the Lite version as it makes the whole product somewhat suspect.
Anyway, I got it to work and all and all it is pretty simple to use. You can send plain text as well as html but unlike MailChimp that has professional templates ready for you to use you have to design your own. You can produce your own subscription box of which this is a sample. Take note that although this box is fully operational I will not be using this as a list were you to accidentally sign up. If you want to join my growing list you’ll find the real form in my sidebar over there on your right.
While it does all the basic stuff you would want from an auto-responder it lacks some of the features, which even at such a short time, I’ve become accustomed to with MailChimp. Having said that you may still want to trial the free version, who knows, you may find it adequate for your needs.
Edit: I just tried to unsubscribe from Gary Ambrose’s list and got the following message.
WARNING! You are canceling your List Wire account!
Please read this short message before you continue!
If you remove yourself from this list you will also be permanently, and irreversibly canceling your List Wire account, and any sub-accounts you have under the username, sire!
If you choose to continue the unsubscribe process, you will no longer have access to any of your lists, sub-lists, prospects, messages, and any other data stored with List Wire.
Unsubscribing will also cause all of your subscription forms, squeeze frames, followup messages, and tracking links to stop working immediately.
To keep your List Wire account, and continue using our services, you must remain on this list and continue receiving our promotional messages. Simply close this page, and take no further action.
If you are absolutely sure that you wish to continue with the unsubscribe process, knowing that you will be canceling your List Wire account, and permanently losing access to all List Wire services and data, you can remove yourself from this list by clicking link below.
Needless to say I went and unsubscribed. Lucky for me there was nothing for me to lose. I just thought you should know in case you were thinking of using Listwire.
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Tagged with: autoresponder • MailChimp • mailing list
Filed under: Reviews
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Hmm, not sure if either of those would fit my needs. I reckon I’m gonna have to write my own.
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Cool, when you get it working send it over and I’ll review it for you.
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Listwire and AMLM. You sure did make a thorough research. I didn’t know about these two. I bought an autoresponder software a couple years ago for just $45. It’s still lying somewhere in my folders. It requires me to do some techie stuff with cron jobs, which is sort of testy, in that a little mistake on my part could cause the whole thing to go awry. I did not go further beyond testing its basic feature. Maybe, I’ll get back to it and poke around some more. :) But I got MailChimp now, so why bother getting a possible headache messing with highly techie stuff. :)
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That’s what I say too James, why fart arse around when you have a great site that already does all the hard work for you.
I have to edit the post because I’ve just discovered something very negative about Listwire.
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I have been using AMLM Lite on some of sites and have been satisfied with its features (especially since its costing me 0$) Didnt run into any technical troubles while installing which could be my luck or the efficiency of my hosting. But since you mention that mailchimp outstrips it, I am very much inclined to try it out. I am going to hunt down your earlier review.
I think it may depend on various factors and perhaps a developer can’t allow for all of them. Still, like I said I was pretty easy to resolve thanks to their forum.
I use MailChimp and I’ve never had any problems with it. Having said that, I’m often guilty of “the grass is greener” type thinking and was thinking of checking out some of the alternatives… Thanks for saving me the trouble!
Glad to be of service Thomas.
Hi Sire,
I only know MailChimp, but I haven’t looked into it much yet. Thanks for sharing with us what you think about Listwire and AMLM. :)
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You know how it is Johanna, we bloggers just love to give out free advice
Check out what Sire recently posted..A Collaboration Of Bloggers- The Synergy Of Blogging And Business
Hi Sire,
I’ve tried List-Wire, not recommended at all for anyone who is not in the make money, Internet Marketing nice… period.
I’ve tested parabot which is now free, you need to manipulate cronjob for it to run… it works very well, except my email often end up in the spam box… the deliver-ability was very poor. And there is the risk associated with people complaining of spam and get my domain or hosting closed down.
There are also the free WordPress plugin called Newsletter plugin which is worth trying.
WordPress is just amazing with those plugins, it runs by itself.
Ben Wan
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Ben, seeing as how they can yank your list right from under you if you ever decide to unsubscribe to ‘their’ list I wouldn’t even use them in the first place.
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Thanks for the update Sire
From your observations it appears that Mailchimp is the one to go for.
Hate free things that try and sell you something!
A real turn off.
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You got that right Keith. Thanks for dropping by mate.
I’ve been using AWeber for a while while my list isn’t huge mail chimp seems like it has it uses, any way I can import an existing list?
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MailChimp does have an import feature Donace. If you’re thinking of changing I would make sure the import feature works to your satisfaction before cutting your ties with Aweber. Also if your list is still way under 1000 subscribers why would you want to outlay any money when it’s not necessary.
Yeah, I remember your previous post about choosing mailchimp over aweber. I already shut down my account with aweber. I prefer to go with mailchimp. Free rocks! And btw, ListWire makes it easy for subscription forms and add them to your own website.
You may want to read the edited post if considering Listwire. MailChimp also subscription forms a also very easy to set up and place on your blog.
I’ve been using Mailchimp for long now, especially because it was recommended to me by my good friend Dean Saliba (another blogger who manages all his mails through Mailchimp). Must say, it’s great to use.
Need to try my hand at Aweber. What I’ve heard so far isn’t so motivating!
Why do you need to try Aweber if you’re satisfied with MailChimp?
I like checking new stuff out, so that I can see what the difference is for myself :)
OK, Sire, let me tel you one thing. I am NOT going to leave MailChimp :)
I’ve just put up the subscription box on my blog yesterday and tested it. Loved the way it works so if nothing big happens (some mess up on their side, which I doubt) I will probably stay with them until I get my subscriber number 1001.
Also, I didn’t like this warning message you displayed, I hate those use us or lose everything services!
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There is now way in bloggers hell that I would try to dissuade you from using MailChimp Brankica. I think it rocks. I just had to do this post to fulfill my obligation to my readers.
As to warning message, man I was pretty shocked they would go that far. In essence the program isn’t really free as there are condition attached to it, ones that were not disclosed when signing up.
Thanks for these additional insights, Sire. On your recommendation I threw in with mailChimp and have been very happy with it. It’s easy to use and free for small lists. When I get to where my list has to be paid for, I’ll be happy to stay with them. These reviews simply reaffirm that decision.
I’m pretty sure there’s something coded into one of those Man genes that causes goosebumps to rise at the thought of wandering around in a mall and doing other comparison shopping. I prefer mission oriented shopping; get what you need and get out. :-)
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That’s because we’re the hunter Allan, it’s built into our genes. We know what we want, we target it, capture it and then bring it home. Women are gatherers and that’s why they spend all their time shopping.
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Thanks for that post Sire… I didn’t know that they actually had decent free autoresponder services out there. Guess that’s because we continue to hear that you can’t get anything good for free these days, you have to pay for it.
I’m with Aweber and I do like their service. Never really liked the price but thought I had no choice. Appreciate you opening my eyes to other options. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
Adrienne
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Hi Adrienne,
I do believe this is your first time to Wassupblog and so I bid you a hearty welcome.
It’s always been my opinion that one of the best ways of increasing the amount of money in your pocket is to spend it wisely. Naturally if I can find something that does the same job as a paid product and for little or no cost I like to share it with my readers.
Unfortunately not everything that’s free, as in the Listwire example, is of a good quality and it’s only fair that I make them aware of that as well.
Check out what Sire recently posted..The Good The Bad & The Ugly of Lists & List Building
I absolutely adore MailChimp, and I’ve recommended it to several friends, as well. Not that there’s anything wrong with Aweber. It’s fantastic, too, and the customer support is amazing. So I hear, anyway. But still, right now “free” is about all that’s in my budget. And I love all of the tutorials, video how-to’s, and the web conferences where part of the team actually shows you the ins and outs of how to utilize the most out of MailChimp.
It’s by far and away the awesomest auto-responder out there.
Delena
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I agree with you Delena, 100% Let’s drink on it
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Nice work, my man. You know, you’re close to convincing me to set up an auto-responder account for my business newsletter, something I’ve fought for, well, almost 8 years, but know that one would make part of my business life easier to deal with. Great reviews; so this is what you’ve been doing with your time. :-)
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No, I’ve actually been working my butt off doing necessary maintenance around the home. I do this to relax and as an excuse to get out of the heat. How about sending some snow down my way? :tongue_wink_ee:
Well, we’ve already hit 110 inches of snow so far this season and our official average per year is only 115 so if I can figure out how to get it to you I’ll certainly do it. lol
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I was looking to get an auto-responder to help me communicate with my clients to let them know of the latest fabrics and designs coming through on my site. And I stumbled upon your review. I hope I have the same great experience with MailChimp as you (and others judging from other reviews) have had. And the real deal sweetener seems to be ‘Its Free’ :D
I am sure you will Robinson, perhaps you will even come back to tell us how you went.
I’m with you on MailChimp and I have not yet found a similar service that is as good and specially considering that up to a certain extent for free. Since you seem to be in review mode for eMail Marketing and autoresponders, I would like to invite you to take a look at this allinonemarketing.org
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Nah, I think I’m finished with doing reviews on autoresponders DiTesco. Still, there’s no reason why you couldn’t get into the act.
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Oh, I will and very soon, lol. Anyway, just wanted to share with you SimplyCast as it is quite interesting, even if it’s just for a test drive :)
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Hi Sire
Glad you happy with your choice. Got to go with what suits you eh. I use Get Response and as Ben set it up for me can say it works great;-) Not a free service but it was affordable and I wasn’t going with Aweber.
Great that you have done your reviews as then people can now make informed choices.
Patricia Perth Australia
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Yeah, I don’t think Ben would steer you wrong Patricia, he obviously made the right choice for you.
Check out what Sire recently posted..To Moderate Or Not To Moderate- That Is The Question
Sire,
I promise to GET mailchimp LOL..Have visited the website a few days ago, and i almost signed up, but havent done it, will defo look into it.
I am soooooo busy with the kids and blogging and forums and clients ..
I have heard only mailchimp and aweber, and mailchimp seems the best FREE one :-)
Thanks.
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No worries Kimi, there’s plenty of time and MailChimp will be there when your ready for it.
I’ve tried ListWire in the past because it was free and I was still on testing phases for defining my main email campaign provider.
I was aware that I was going to be emailed a few affiliate offers when I signed up.
After a couple of weeks I just couldn’t stand the constant emailing and totally unsubscribed.
For me it was just not worth it.
Check out what Sergio Felix recently posted..How I Got Rid Of Information Overload
Yeah, it was pretty bad wasn’t it Sergio, and as long as you wanted a free account you had to remain subscribed to them. As far as I was concerned it wasn’t good enough to pay for and there was way to much crap being mailed out to remained subscribed so the only option was to give it the flick.
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