4 ms·

Ask HN: What newsletter software do you use?

7 points by dawie 17y ago

I looked into Campaign monitor and Newsberry, but both seem a bit steep. $10 per campaign is not cheap. What services could you recommend?

imp 17y ago
I use Mailchimp and I like it a lot. It has a lot of features and different price plans. See if it might work for you.
- dawie 17y ago
  I just checked out Mailchimp and they seem way more reasonable than the others. Thanks for you suggestion.
  - zacharydanger 17y ago
    Their API's not half bad either. Was also pretty well documented the last time I used it.
ratsbane 17y ago
I use sendmail, mysql, and handful of perl programs. We considered using some outside service a year or two ago but we were doing some targeted campaigns based upon purchase histories, geographic region, etc. and the trouble to pull out lists like that and then sync them with an outside service becomes a problem. Also our lists are large enough that the expense of paying someone to send them starts to add up. Also, we tag each email sent with a synthetic key to a table that stores the specific email address and time it was sent. This way we can do stats on effects of time-of-day of sending on conversion rates, etc. Not that we're actually doing those stats. Also, it's surprisingly easy to do mass emails and campaigns with a little perl or python and {sendmail || your_favorite_MTA} Some of the services are really good and easy to use if you are only sending a few, though. I've heard good things about Constant Contact.
- mahmud 17y ago
  Good idea, but please please be careful and take the necessary precautions before you send your IP/domain name to the abyss of spam trapping blackholes. If you're sending more than 200 messages to the big 4 (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL) take the time to REGISTER with them first and tell them about your messaging habits. Do not change the from FROM field ever! Try to minimize content changes between messages; rewrite the URLs in message bodies for tracking purposes. Don't send a message to an unverified mailbox. Make sure your users consent to receiving your message and you have a way to prove this (a check box on the post sign up screen.) Do not use a misbehaving SMTP server that doesn't accept returned messages and other housekeeping communication; gmail will say "message undeliverable" the first time around and look back at you to see if you acknowledge this, or it might not confirm delivery for a while, to see if you're a phantom smtpd who would disappear after an hour. Get DomainKeys, SPF and other credentials you need. Do all your mailing from ONE domain name, mail.example.com and make sure you have backup servers as well. Good luck. P.S. Postfix has various mailing list and newsletter management addons. Qmail was written JUST for that purpose.
- dawie 17y ago
  Thanks for your ideas. I don't really have time to set up my own system though. I decided to rather work on making my application great.
babyboy808 17y ago
PHP List, It's free and works great! - http://www.phplist.com/ http://www.phplist.com/
brm 17y ago
I used to use dada mail and now I use oempro If you're looking for a hosted solution that isnt too expensive Aweber is nice. http://octeth.com/products/oempro/ http://octeth.com/products/oempro/ http://dadamailproject.com/ http://dadamailproject.com/ http://www.aweber.com/ http://www.aweber.com/

7 points by dawie 17y ago

I looked into Campaign monitor and Newsberry, but both seem a bit steep. $10 per campaign is not cheap. What services could you recommend?

imp 17y ago

I use Mailchimp and I like it a lot. It has a lot of features and different price plans. See if it might work for you.

dawie 17y ago
I just checked out Mailchimp and they seem way more reasonable than the others. Thanks for you suggestion.
- zacharydanger 17y ago
  Their API's not half bad either. Was also pretty well documented the last time I used it.

ratsbane 17y ago

I use sendmail, mysql, and handful of perl programs. We considered using some outside service a year or two ago but we were doing some targeted campaigns based upon purchase histories, geographic region, etc. and the trouble to pull out lists like that and then sync them with an outside service becomes a problem. Also our lists are large enough that the expense of paying someone to send them starts to add up. Also, we tag each email sent with a synthetic key to a table that stores the specific email address and time it was sent. This way we can do stats on effects of time-of-day of sending on conversion rates, etc. Not that we're actually doing those stats. Also, it's surprisingly easy to do mass emails and campaigns with a little perl or python and {sendmail || your_favorite_MTA} Some of the services are really good and easy to use if you are only sending a few, though. I've heard good things about Constant Contact.

mahmud 17y ago
Good idea, but please please be careful and take the necessary precautions before you send your IP/domain name to the abyss of spam trapping blackholes. If you're sending more than 200 messages to the big 4 (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL) take the time to REGISTER with them first and tell them about your messaging habits. Do not change the from FROM field ever! Try to minimize content changes between messages; rewrite the URLs in message bodies for tracking purposes. Don't send a message to an unverified mailbox. Make sure your users consent to receiving your message and you have a way to prove this (a check box on the post sign up screen.) Do not use a misbehaving SMTP server that doesn't accept returned messages and other housekeeping communication; gmail will say "message undeliverable" the first time around and look back at you to see if you acknowledge this, or it might not confirm delivery for a while, to see if you're a phantom smtpd who would disappear after an hour. Get DomainKeys, SPF and other credentials you need. Do all your mailing from ONE domain name, mail.example.com and make sure you have backup servers as well. Good luck. P.S. Postfix has various mailing list and newsletter management addons. Qmail was written JUST for that purpose.
dawie 17y ago
Thanks for your ideas. I don't really have time to set up my own system though. I decided to rather work on making my application great.

babyboy808 17y ago

PHP List, It's free and works great! - http://www.phplist.com/ http://www.phplist.com/

brm 17y ago

I used to use dada mail and now I use oempro If you're looking for a hosted solution that isnt too expensive Aweber is nice. http://octeth.com/products/oempro/ http://octeth.com/products/oempro/ http://dadamailproject.com/ http://dadamailproject.com/ http://www.aweber.com/ http://www.aweber.com/