They've Got Mail

Try these products and resources to help get your newsletter online.

E-mail programs:

• Eudora Light is a free e-mail program that can be downloaded from http://www.eudora.com
• Pegasus Mail (http://www.pegasus.usa.com) is a free e-mail program with distribution options for online publishers.

Distribution programs:

• Coollist (http://www.coollist.com) and ONElist (http://www.onelist.com) are free mailing list services that will distribute your newsletter with their ad on each issue.
• Both Listbot Free and Listbot Gold (http://www.listbot.com) offer easy-to-use, feature-rich Web-based e-mail newsletter distribution, including a submission button you can put on your own Web site.
• Listhost.net (http://www.listhost.net) offers for-fee, Web-based distribution services and excellent customer service.
• OakNet Publishing (http://www.oaknetpub.com) offers both free and for-fee distribution services for online publishers.

List management programs:

These programs offer different levels of service. Some collect names and automatically distribute; some just manage subscriber lists.

• LISTSERV (http://www.lsoft.com/listserv.stm) and Revnet GroupMaster (http://www.groupmaster.com) let you send mail to a group of subscribers and manages administrative details. Mail-list.com (http://www.mail-list.com) helps you manage a list. Easy to use, this one's ideal for new Internet users.
• SmartBounce (http://www.bsabio.com/SmartBounce) is used in conjunction with a program like LISTSERV to purge bad addresses from your list.

  For more on list management programs, AOL members can visit http://library.ummed.edu/~naleks/mlmfaq/mlmfaq_1.html

Other:

• Increasing Hits and Selling More on Your Web Site by Greg Helmstetter (John Wiley & Sons, $24.95, 800-225-5945).
• Online Publishers is a discussion-based newsletter on producing an e-mail newsletter. For a free subscription, e-mail op-request@listhost.net with the word "subscribe" (minus the quotes) in the body of the message.
• The Marketing With E-Mail Idea Feed is a weekly tip from the author of this article about marketing with e-mail. Subscribe at http://www.ideastation.com/feed.htmlShannon Kinnard is Business Start-Up magazine's monthly "Browsing" columnist.

  Contact Sources

  Leslie Speidel, c/o The Speidel Group Inc., http://www.themarketingcoach.com

  Webbers Communications,gkfoote@webbers.com, http://www.webbers.com

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This article was originally published in the October 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: They've Got Mail.