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Ideas/Section-8
You are about to enter
a technical lesson that will leave a lasting
impression about how technology can really make you rich! So, it's
time to
turn on your thinking caps, and get introduced to the most powerful
marketing
tool of the new millenium.
As the name suggests, Bulk E-Mail is simply the process of sending
multiple
pieces of electronic mail in bulk quantities, usually anywhere from
100
e-mails at a time to 10,000 e-mails at a time.
To send bulk email, you need three things:
>> an email software,
>> a mail server,
>> and a list.
SOFTWARE
You can use any commercial email software
to send any volume of emails. Some
are faster than others. Chances are, if you have an existing email
service,
the software you are currently using is good enough to do a small
volume of
5,000 to 10,000 emails. However, a software called Stealth Bomber
is being
advertised on the Internet (via bulk email) with the claim that
it can send
250,000 emails per hour. One program we've heard of, called Max
10 GoldMine,
claims to offer the following features:
> Can send personalized email, which will greatly increase positive
responses
and dramatically lower flames... "Dear (recipient's address),"
> Automatically skips invalid email
addresses (missing .com or .net, etc.)
> Can open up to 10 simultaneous send-outs.
This means you can send 10 pieces
of mail in the same action. Allows you to complete your task 10X
faster.
> Automatically adds "remove"
and "unsubscribe" requests to your do-not-send
list.
> Automatically processes undeliverable
addresses and builds a "return" list.
MAIL SERVER
If you are going to send emails in bulk,
do not use your current Internet
Access Provider. Chances are, when they find out you are doing that,
they
will terminate your service. You have to find what are called "bulk
email
friendly providers". You use their service as a relay from
where your mail
is distributed across the Internet. BEFPs charge anywhere between
$60 to $125
per month, with unlimited usage. WORD OF CAUTION: Do not commit
yourself
with a long-term contract for any one provider. Chances are, if
a provider
offers excellent service, pretty soon it will have a lot of clients
like
yourself. There will be more of you using the same server and the
same T1
lines the provider has. In a few months, guess what? Their service
slows
down and you get very frustrated because your mail does not go out
as fast
as you would like to.
MAILING LIST
When buying a mailing list, there are some
things you have to look into:
(1) Make sure the list you buy does not
have (.gov) or (.org) addresses in
them. You would not want to spam people in the government. They
can get
upset and you don't know what crazy things they might do.
(2) Make sure your list is in TXT format. Some names come in database
format,
which you cannot use with your email software.
(3) Make sure the email addresses are complete. Some names come
without
the "@" sign, or the network name like "aol.com".
It only has the person's
name on it (like GRL0331) - which is really quite useless by itself.
PRICE: The going price for a good email list is around $79 per 1
Million
names. An order form comes with this software which offers 1 Million
E-mail
Addresses on CD-ROM for $79.
SOURCING: The best place to find the Stealth Bomber software, a
bulk email
friendly provider, or mailing list is to go to the Web. Go to
http://www.lycos.com. This is a search service. Under the search
category,
enter the key words you want: "bulk email" "email
software" "bulk email
providers". Lycos will give you the web addresses of companies
that deal
with any or all of these products and services.
