There are many uses for an autoresponder. One



such use is the publishing and distribution of an

ezine or newsletter. Since autoresponder services

usually are set up to send automatic responses to

the people on the list at certain intervals after they

sign up, setting up an autoresponder to send out an

ezine can be a little confusing.

Depending on the service or autoresponder that you

are using, you will need a ?broadcast? feature. The

broadcast feature works essentially the same as the

autoresponse feature, with one big difference. The

messages are not sent out at intervals. The

messages can, however, be scheduled to go out on

a certain day, which has no bearing on when the

subscriber was actually added to the mailing list.

Broadcast messages are ?one time? messages that

are only sent to your current mailing list. People

who sign up for your list after the broadcast has

been sent do not receive it, unless the specifically

request it with an autoresponder address, which

you must set up.

Using the broadcast feature of most autoresponder

services, you can simply go and either type your

newsletter, or copy and paste it into the editor, then

choose to send the broadcast to your entire mailing

list. More advanced autoresponder services will

usually have broadcasting features.

Using an autoresponder to maintain a mailing list

and to distribute a newsletter is a wonderful idea.

Your subscribers can easily opt-in, or opt-out, and

all of the distribution is handled for you, based on

the schedule that you set. List maintenance can

become very difficult without the automation that

autoresponders provide. You can write each issue

of your ezine or newsletter well in advance, and

have it delivered to your mailing list, no matter

where you are or what you are doing. That is the

beauty of automation!

Since all past broadcast and autoresponse

messages are saved, you can easily refer back to

old issues, or allow people to request past issues.

You can also use the tracking feature throughout

each issue of the newsletter to determine how

many clicks you are getting for the various products

or websites that you promote in your ezine.

If you have not yet purchased an autoresponder or

signed up with any autoresponder service, make

sure that you inquire about the broadcast feature

first. Not all autoresponders or autoresponder

services have this feature, and as your marketing

progresses, you will find that this is one of the most

useful features of the service or program.