Email marketing is one of the most targeted and cost-effective ways to make money online. Not only that, but it can be quite lucrative. According to Internet marketing expert John Chow, you should expect to earn $1 per month for every subscriber you have on your list. Imagine if you had 100,000 people on your list like some gurus do?
Double Opt-in
In 2003, Congress passed legislation preventing people from sending spam mail through email marketing. While this hasn't completely stopped it, it has made it a punishable offense. The way to use email marketing is to get double opt-in subscribers. What this means is that surfers are willing submit their details and then confirm they wish to receive information from you. This is both legal and ethical and is what the best email marketing software provide.
Building a relationship
The key way to use email marketing is to build a relationship with your subscribers. You can do this by sending them useful information regularly without trying to sell them something in every email. A good rule of thumb to follow is that for every three or four useful emails, send out one sales email. The beauty about this system is that by using the auto-responder feature available in most email marketing systems, you can create a system that runs on auto-pilot.
Aweber
Aweber is the most popular email marketing software available today with a very high delivery rate of 99 percent (meaning most emails make it through spam filters). This program comes loaded with predesigned templates and can be fully integrated with Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds. It's simple to use and free training courses are available. One of the strongest features is the option to use different types of opt-in forms, including pop-ups, pop-unders and hover light boxes (forms that cover the entire page). As of 2010, it comes with a $1 trial for the first month, and after that it costs $19 per month.
Icontact
Icontact comes with more than 300 templates, although they are not as customizable as aWeber's. Icontact also doesn't integrate with the social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook. However, the delivery rate with this software is as high, at 99 percent, and it is a viable option to aWeber. In addition, it has an application for the iPhone, which will allow you to check your stats online. The biggest advantage this program has is it is cheaper than the other options. It comes with a 30-day free trial and is $9.99 per month, as of 2010.
GetResponse
This software has a few innovative features the others don't have. For example, it has an email-to-voice feature, which allows your subscribers listen to your emails. It also has a video marketing feature that will allow you to send videos directly to your subscribers. It also has integration with Twitter, 300 templates and an iPhone application that allows you to check stats online. As of 2010, this program costs $19.99. However, you can get started for free, but your emails will have advertisements from Get Response.