which auto responder?

Hi,

I am about to invest in an auto respnder (yes, about time!). I have a dedicated server which helps in making a decision.

But can someone recommend which of these to use?
-

1. Aweber
2. LisMail PRo
3. AutoResponse Plus

And - are the following statements true?
-

1. My feeling is that Aweber pro may be easier and simpler, but isn't as powerful as the other solutions.
   
2. Aweber forces double opt-in - resulting in less signups.
   
3. Aweber has some weird integration issues with Amember - have they been resolved?
   
4. Using ListMail or AutoResponse, my server could be blacklisted as as spam (even if I don't spam!).

I'm soo looking forward to hearing people's experience with all this...

Ronnie

I'm not familiar with AutoResponse Pro, although I know of AutoResponse Plus. I did some heavy research into autoresponders about a year ago, and have reviewed a few things several months ago.

Aweber is a good option when you don't want to install software on your website and want to have others deal with the issue of working with ISPs to ensure email delivery. There are other options, but Aweber really is one of the better choices in this area.

As far as the double opt-in situation, you really want to use double opt-in. Otherwise, it's too easy for people to enter other people's details and get you into trouble.

ListMailPro is software I have myself, although I'd like to replace it. Dean, the developer, has not updated it for a LONG time and it's more or less a dead project. There are many features missing, such as letting subscribers update their own details, and a few other things. Even so, it has an impressive array of scheduling features, and is the only AR software to offer cron-style scheduling.

I've used LMP for several years now, and I've never had my server blacklisted. I have a mailing list of over 6000 subscribers to whom I email at least 6 times per month on average, and as often as 4 times in a week.

AutoResponse Plus has continued development and has a lot of the features missing from LMP. One reason I haven't gone with this is because it's written in Perl and I prefer PHP applications, mainly because I know something of PHP, and I can make modifications if needed.

I posted a blog entry on one of my sites with more details on autoresponders. You can find it at:
http://www.alantutt.com/blog/alant/searching-perfect-mailing-list-manager

Thanks so much for your feedback. I *think* most of the pro users on this site are using ListMail Pro.

It's such a shame they're not updating it anymore.

Alex also from Amember recommended I go with listmail.

However, I'd still love to hear from some other power users what they use.

I'm curious, is the support for listmail any good? Or are there active support forums?

Ronnie

ListMailPro does have a support forum, which is publicly available. You can go to www.listmailpro.com and click the Forum link in the menu to see it.

When I bought the script several years ago, Dean wrote a custom script for me to transfer subscribers from a different system, which is certainly "above and beyond" the norm for customer service.

From what I can see, the main problem is that Dean gets so caught up with other things that he doesn't "get around" to his work on LMP. The other issue is that he wants to completely rewrite the script to make it the BEST possible. Truly a case where the search for perfection gets in the way.

Just found out of another email software -- Email Marker by Interspire. Honestly, I don't know much about this company. Go to www.interspire.com.

Yes, that's one I reviewed on my blog. Great software, although they raised their prices so much I decided not to go with them.

Thanks Alan, I should check out your website. Sorry for the duplication information.

I'd recommend Interspire as well. If you are not willing to put up that much money right up front, go with something like www.mailchimp.com, www.aweber.com, www.icontact.com or any of the other alternatives for starters - that way you don't have to worry about being blacklisted and whatnot as all that has been taken care of by the providers of those services (at a cost, of course).

i been using aweber for a quite a while and i have tried several paids ones and I feel aweber is far greater than any other service out there

I have a list of 23000 and I dont want to go with aweber as they will make my list opt in again. I would like to use icontact. Does anyone know if there is an icontact plug in that someone has made that is available for sale?
thanks - Dawn