Building a mailing list

[Brian W. Foster]

Another vote for Mailchimp, they're excellent.

Most authors start out using Mailchimp because it's free until you get 2000 names. To the best of my knowledge, that's better than any of the other major services. It's also pretty easy to use and can do just about anything you want to do (like I'm pretty sure that you can attach files to the emails, which is nice for authors).

A word of caution, though: some authors report that Mailchimp is particularly bad about suspending accounts if you get too many spam reports. This usually isn't an issue for an organic list. If, however, you're importing a bunch of names from a cross promo, you might want to consider going with a different service.

 

[Keith Taylor]

I used Mailchimp for many years and was perfectly happy with it. It's a great service and the folks behind it are extremely professional, so it gets my endorsement. I've heard of a few users having issues with excessive spam reports, but that's just Mailchimp protecting the integrity of their service. By clamping down on the slightest hint of spam they protect the degree of trust given to their mail servers, which means that more of your mail gets sent to inboxes rather than spam folders. It's a good thing rather than a drawback.

All that said, about six months ago I jumped ship and moved to Mailerlite. I'd built my list up to around 4,000 and I was paying $50 a month for the service, but at the time I was only making use of it once every month or two. Mailerlite charges (I think) $10 for the same number of subscribers, and so far I've not found anything I could do with Mailchimp that I can't do with Mailerlite. YMMV, but both seem to offer a very good service.

N.B. I hear Mailerlite are increasing their prices soon, so do your research first.

 

[E.Maree]

Thanks Keith, that's very very useful to know (for the far-flung future when I have a mailing list that size, heh ).

I suspect, for those of us on Wordpress, there are plugins that could match Mailchimp & Mailerlite for even less cost. Maybe even for free. But honestly, digging through them all and trying to weed out the ones with hidden costs for add-ons and 'pro' versions is too much of a headache for me at this point.

 

[Keith Taylor]

There may be, but really both Mailchimp and Mailerlite are so user friendly and well designed I don't think it would be worth bothering to find another option. By the time you have enough subscribers to get a monthly bill it would be reasonable to expect that you'd be making enough money from your fans that you wouldn't sweat $10 a month

 

[Brian W. Foster]

I've heard of a few users having issues with excessive spam reports, but that's just Mailchimp protecting the integrity of their service. By clamping down on the slightest hint of spam they protect the degree of trust given to their mail servers, which means that more of your mail gets sent to inboxes rather than spam folders. It's a good thing rather than a drawback.

The stories I've heard relate directly to authors who have imported lists from cross promos.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, such promos are a fantastic way to reach new potential readers. The 2000+ list that I sent to responded at a rate similar to that of my organic list.

When you send out that many emails to a new list, however, you will get some spam reports. My understanding from others is that Mailchimp has reacted to these kinds of reports by suspending accounts. I get that they need to protect their mail servers, but from the perspective of the author, having an account suspended under those circumstances isn't exactly ideal.

So I stand by my statement:

If, however, you're importing a bunch of names from a cross promo, you might want to consider going with a different service.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just an aside, forums have a mailing list built in by default. So if I ever need to recommend a mailing list as a Call To Action, it would actually be to recommend my readers join the chrons community. They wouldn't have to post or get involved, but as a member they would get an email notification of any sequel upon release.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Just an aside, forums have a mailing list built in by default. So if I ever need to recommend a mailing list as a Call To Action, it would actually be to recommend my readers join the chrons community. They wouldn't have to post or get involved, but as a member they would get an email notification of any sequel upon release.

But that's only yourself, yes? Not us lovely plebs.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Not us lovely plebs.

The expectation is that quite a few will sign up and become active members. And thus introduce a knock-on effect to benefit active chrons authors by raising their profile with a wider audience.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

The expectation is that quite a few will sign up and become active members. And thus introduce a knock-on effect to benefit active chrons authors by raising their profile with a wider audience.

I was teasing, never fear.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It's actually a good point - I could easily send out email notices of books being released by our authors. The trouble is, sending emails out too regularly could result in them being ignored, and I want to guard against that. Hence why there are almost never any official notice emails ever sent from chrons.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It's actually a good point - I could easily send out email notices of books being released by our authors. The trouble is, sending emails out too regularly could result in them being ignored, and I want to guard against that. Hence why there are almost never any official notice emails ever sent from chrons.

Given the stable of authors the Chrons is building up there might be room for a quarterly update - not so much it irks, but enough to embed sffchrons as one of the leading sites for sf writers to succeed from?

With the onus being on the writers to provide the info to you, so you're not chasing people?

 

[Brian G Turner]

I still wouldn't risk it because of the danger of chrons being blacklisted as a spam source. I know an IP we used to use was blacklisted, and that could have caused by nothing more than a few people junking the forum email confirmation of joining. The result was that a couple of years ago chron emails were blocked from any Microsoft-owned network. And AOL have always been a problem.

Emails and spam are such a sensitive issue - certainly these days - that's it's a feature I figure best used minimally, so as to have the greatest effect. Maybe in future, though...

 

[Brian W. Foster]

I still wouldn't risk it because of the danger of chrons being blacklisted as a spam source. I know an IP we used to use was blacklisted, and that could have caused by nothing more than a few people junking the forum email confirmation of joining. The result was that a couple of years ago chron emails were blocked from any Microsoft-owned network. And AOL have always been a problem.

Emails and spam are such a sensitive issue - certainly these days - that's it's a feature I figure best used minimally, so as to have the greatest effect. Maybe in future, though...

If you're really interested in some kind of newsletter, maybe a better option would be to start a forum email newsletter through Mailchimp ... That way, you could feature your authors quarterly or whatever but not have to worry about you domain being blacklisted.

Sounds like a bit of work to do, though. Just a random thought ...

 

[Cathbad]

I just sent out a new mailing on Mailchimp (have 393 emails on the list). It always amazes me how fast they're opened. Within seconds, a dozen opens! Do people spend their time just watching for new emails? LOL

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Here's a question - is there anyway to send out a mailchimp campaign to people not signed up?

 

[Cathbad]

Here's a question - is there anyway to send out a mailchimp campaign to people not signed up?

You can manually add email addresses. Be warned, though: The recipients may consider this spamming.

 

[Keith Taylor]

Here's a question - is there anyway to send out a mailchimp campaign to people not signed up?

You can manually add email addresses to a list without any kind of confirmation that they asked to receive emails from you, yes. I think Mailchimp flashes up a disclaimer page as you're adding to remind you to make sure recipients *want* to be added, because the real purpose of it is to allow you to transfer an opt-in list wholesale from another mailing list service.

It's best not to do this, though. For one thing the recipients won't have whitelisted you to send them mail so you're much more likely to end in the spam box, and you're also presumably much more likely to get a few spam reports since you'd basically be cold calling folk while they're eating dinner. Both could affect the integrity of your existing mailing list, so you might do more harm than good in the long run.

Side note: If you're looking to build your list safely, here's an idea. Back at the beginning of the year when I was still writing romance I started up a cooperative effort between me and a handful of fellow romance authors to exchange mailing lists. I worked out that between about 20 of us we had something in the region of 50,000 mailing list subscribers, so I figured it was a good idea to try to get them to exchange them for the good of the group. We each mailed out an invitation for our fans to join another list, usually with some kind of incentive attached, and the others would reciprocate. I managed to add about 1,000 subscribers using this method in a couple of weeks.

Example:

"Hi folks! I wanted to get in touch with you today to let you know that my buddy (Author X) is offering a free copy of (crappy short story that never sold worth a damn) to new subscribers to his mailing list! If you want to check out (crappy short) just click here (insert mailing list signup link) "

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thanks, all. It is for a specific purpose but bookfunnel might work better judging by this.

 

[Nick B]

Quick question for those in the know... How do you (if you can) avoid having your actual physical address on your mailing list? Other than a PO box, which I can't afford.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Quick question for those in the know... How do you (if you can) avoid having your actual physical address on your mailing list? Other than a PO box, which I can't afford.

Nope. No way round it