But, a month or so ago: late November 2009, and December 2009, my entire list started to disappear rather quickly, I was bouncing about 20% – 25% of my list on every send!  Wow, I thought maybe there was a problem with a black listing, but that does not seem to be the case.  At least not for the bouncing problem.

My first inclination was to move hosts, and I did do that quite quickly, moving to another hosting company on another VPS Mail Server. But, I had a problem with that host in that they could not get my send rate up high enough (5,000/hour) for me to even consider them. Even after several tickets and forum posts, I could not find a solution, unfortunately this host even runs on nearly the same hardware/software platform as my previous host, so, I’ll just cross this new host off of my referral list for large list mail server hosting at this point.

Back to my Old Host

A quick look around in WHM (Web Host Manager for unix/linux systems) and I quickly found the problem. There is a Mail section of the ‘Tweak Settings’ menu option and someone at my old host had limited my email sending to 2,000/hour!  Anything over that amount was showing up as ‘bounced email’ to my Mailing List Software (List Mail Pro – yes that is my affiliate link).  This is quite a disaster, but not one that required too much work to fix.  I quickly restored all of the bounces from December (manually using MySQL) and reset them all to a clean slate (zero bounces), and then I added some code into the bounce handler of ListMailPro (my affiliate link) so that it would never again consider those return emails as bounced messages.

Returned to Normal…

What a relief, I’m not back to my normal list size, and all is running smoothly again on my old host.  I will be posting an ‘Update’ to my Mailing List software recommendations, and also posting my newest findings (my click-throughs are actually higher on my own mail server than on some of the professional services) in the next week. If you would like to have your own Mail Server setup and running (for low cost) contact me through BGS Web Design – my web design company and let me know.

I’ve never been blacklisted before, that I know of, so I was shocked that SORBS was showing that I was blacklisted. When I got down to the final few pages of SORBS it turns out that I was blacklisted because my domain IP was within a range of 255 addresses, and someone in that range had been blacklisted!

Is there a solution? Well, for me, it means that it’s time to move hosts once again. One bad apple on your host can cause big problems with email delivery, and it’s not something you want to risk.  Below you will find my favorite places I used to check my black listing, and the hosts that I recommend.

To check and see if you are blacklisted, you first want to find the IP address of your mailserver.  Using a reverse DNS lookup can usually work, but only if you have your reverse lookup pointing back to your server (which you really need to do, if you are delivering email from that server). More info on how to do a reverse lookup on your IP address/domain is below.

To check your blacklisting status, have a look at these sites (in the order that I recommend their use):

1. http://www.e-filtrate.com  (a paid service, but well worth it, it includes the ability to check your email contents against spam content, let’s you re-phrase your content, and check for bounce backs. I’ve used this service for years and am quite happy with it, yes it is my affiliate link).
2. http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx (a free service that does something others do not, it will check your domain’s IP in a range of IP addresses, just in case). I found this useful recently when it seems my IP address was within a range of a recent spammer!
3. http://www.blacklistalert.org (a free service that also does something very useful, not provided by others services, it makes sure that your Forward DNS listing matches your Reverse DNS, this makes sure that your Forward-DNS and your Reverse-DNS are consistent).

You can check your reverse lookup IP (make sure your site’s IP addresses does a reverse lookup to your domain name) at 3 places I recommend:

1. http://www.mxtoolbox.com/ (a free lookup, but also shows you the DNS lookup (the A record for your domain), the NS lookup (the nameserver definition for your server, the MX lookup, the mail server records for your domain, and the WHOIS lookup, the domain registrar records for your domain).
2. http://www.robtex.com/ip/ (make sure that you click the link to your IP on the second page of this site to find all of the details on your Mailserver IP address.
3. http://dnstools.com/ (a more ‘techie’ oriented approach, but this one will show you everything about your IP address/domain, free).

The hosts that I like to use, and recommend for email hosting include:
http://www.jtlnet.com (dedicated servers for as low as $49.00/month, and yes I’ve used one for over 1 year and they work just fine, if you are mailing larger volumes though you may want to go for more horsepower).
http://www.servint.com (one of the best in the industry that has been around a long time, their VPS hosting can serve you just fine, as well as their dedicated hosting)

If you need help integrating and setting up your mail server, please see my BGS Web Design company website and contact me there (Brett Simpson), I can provide you full setup/installation of mail server hosting/software.

Well, the answers are still up-in-the-air right now, but I should have a definite answer in the next month or so.I’m exloring a few of the main autoresponders: Xmailpro, GetResponse, and I’m still using my own mail server.  Things are going to change a lot, now that GetResponse updated their software to v6.0, unfortunately they raised their prices considerably – as  I expected to come up to what Aweber is charging.

Keep in mind that I’m now paying $15.00/month (with 12 month prepay) for Xmailpro, which is a Aweber white-label, that does not offer some of the newer features of Aweber such as ‘email only to non-opens’, etc. Aweber, and now GetResponse have increased their pricing to ‘premium’ ranges as far as I’m concerned, and 80%-90% of internet marketers do not need the extra features.

Here’s what you really need to think about when you are considering autoresponder services:

1. Do you really need to spend the extra dollars the high-end benefits of GetResponse (surveys, video marketing, split-testing)?
2. How much are you paying now, and should you consider stepping down to a white-label alternative?
3. What are your deliverability rates?
4. What are your click-through rates?
5. Can you do this on your own server?

So far, I’m finding that having your own server, if it is setup properly, is definitely the way to go. I currently run my own mail server with over 50,000 contacts, I can do pretty much anything that the ‘premium’ services (Aweber, and now GetResponse) are charging very high monthly prices (in my opinion) – for example, I can pull out lists of people that did, or did not click on a link, that’s not a problem.

There’s only one area I am lacking at this point: the ability to email someone a followup message within 1 hour of when they originally signed up. For example, if you come to my site and sign up at 2:00PM, there is no way I can send you a followup message (3 days later), at exactly 2:00 PM, Aweber, and the white label both claim that they can do that within an hour or so either way…  So, it comes back to if that is worth the extra money, or if I should consider keeping the white-label (Xmailpro) just for that capability.  Right now, I’m going to keep Xmailpro for a while longer and see how it goes.

I cannot say that I do any worse, or better as far as deliverability is concerned. I’ve used emailreach and found that my deliverability using my own mail server is excellent. So, there’s no need to worry about that. The main point here is that if you want to get the best deliverability, and not spend 100′s of dollars a month, you may want to consider running your own mail server – mine runs me about $40.00/month, much less than the premium services now offered by Aweber and GetResponse.

That’s my opinion for now, I should have a definitive answer in the next month or so, but I can’t see it changing much. I’m going to keep the white-label Aweber alternative: Xmailpro, and I’m also going to continue on using my own mail server to fill in. Basically even if I wanted to consider moving my entire list to Xmailpro, it would take a very long time, because Xmailpro requires that you do a ‘opt-in’ confirm when you import email addresses into a new list, and that my friends can slow you down more than you would ever think…

For more information on having your own Mailing List server setup, contact BGS Web Design.

Watch for an update to this post in the next month or so, until then… keep on promoting!

The first step is to determine your market and then to research how viral marketing is being used to achieve search engine optimisation and to get your marketing message into your market. You probably already know your market, so continue to Google and do a quick search on “your market keywords” +viral (you can also add +ebook too) to see what comes up. You might be surprised to find that there are already many other products or services being used to spread a message virally in your market.

About Viral Marketing

Viral marketing happens when any marketing media (web page, ebook, private message, instant message, email, brandable software, video clips, etc.) allows the receiving person to pass the message on to another person in a self-replicating viral process. Word-of-mouth referrals are one simple example. Any social network method may be used. Eventually the spread of the marketing message becomes pathological, similar to the spread of a virus (and hence the term ‘viral marketing’). Products or services may be used to spread the message, or they may be part of the message
that is being spread – and hidden or transparent to the user. The more transparent the better the viral rate of transfer of the message and more people will see your marketing messages.

What are the advantages of Viral Marketing?

The main advantages are that your message will be able to reach a much larger group of people faster. If your message is one that is talked about and passed to many other people, your message can spread like wildfire to thousands, and even millions of other people. There is little extra work that you need to do as your message is passed from one person to the next.

Are there Disadvantages of Viral Marketing?

It is claimed that one customer will tell an average of three people about a product or service that they like. On the other hand, the average customer will tell eleven people about a product or service which they do not like. The disadvantages are few compared to the advantages, and as long as you have a viral product or service that is useful and works well you may never know of a disadvantage.

What can you do to try out Viral Marketing?

Probably the easiest way is to find a ebook that you would like to market and re-brand the ebook to contain your own website links, and/or affiliate links. This will help to spread your website address to many others very quickly.

ViralPDFSite.com

If you have a website and would like to provide a viral PDF option to any your website visitors on any type of computer, apple Mac, or Windows PC, then consider a viral marketing website service such as ViralPDFSite.com. This script will let you setup a viral marketing html to PDF converter right on your own website, others will come to your website to create eBooks, or to visit because of the static links in any ebook, which are not brandable.

ViralPDF.com

If you would like to create branded PDF’s from your own Windows desktop and distribute those to others so that they can rebrand them using rebranding software, consider a product such as ViralPDF.com. ViralPDF.com will let you distribute your eBook with a rebrander which anyone (with a Windows computer) can use to rebrand your eBook.Links to products/services mentioned in this article:

ViralPDFSite.com – lets you setup a free viral html to pdf converter right on your website.
ViralPDF.com – can provide you with an executable program that lets you create branded pdf/ebooks.

1.) Website Magazine – a completely free magazine that covers all of the bases.  When I first found out about this I thought it was too good to be true.  A free sample came to my mailbox, and now that I’ve read the last 15-20 issues, I have to say, this is one of my top favorites, and best of all, it’s free.   Get your free copy at this address: http://www.websitemagazine.com/scripts/sub/subscribe.aspx
Check it out at this address: http://www.websitemagazine.com

2.) The Net Effect – owned by Stomper Net, this great magazine just started a few months ago. I can tell from the content that this is going to be a great magazine. Everything is covered, SEO in great detail, linking, customer service and support, analytics and analysis, blogging, web audio and video. The magazine averages about 50 pages/month, the articles are detailed and actionable (they focus on you taking action) and it even includes a ‘How to turn this issue into a Goldmine!’ page at the end of each issue with 15-20 things you can follow up on from that issue. Great stuff. Unfortunately right now they are no longer accepting subscriptions, but you owe it to yourself to sign up for the waiting list, here’s the website to do it at: http://stse2.com/. The magazine goes for around $40/month and an additional $20/month for an accompanying DVD.

3.) Dot Com Profits – Russel Brunson’s magazine is a joy to read and also full of valuable content, just not quite as much as The Net Effect, but almost. The number of articles are fewer, but longer, and a DVD/video is included with each issue. I think this one runs $39.97, more info at: http://membershipsite.dotcomsecrets.com/

That wraps up my list for now, stay tuned and I’ll post others that I find useful – or post a comment and let me know of some that you enjoy…

I’ve tried and used about every internet marketing product on the planet.  I’ve marketed by email, before there were good ways to do it, and I’ve tracked stats, sales and header graphics for over 10 years.  To put it straight, I know what works in the Internet Marketing world and one of my goals is to share it with others who are also looking for freedom from their own jobs.

INFORMATION Overload has become a huge issue, everyone is suggesting to try this, or that, usually something like SEO or traffic tactics, or some new conversion method – the offers come in by the hundreds to my email account every day.  The best thing to do is find a good source for someone who has tried these methods, or who has a real good handle on how they work – so you can TRY to get a handle on whether or not they may be helpful for your business.

Some CALM In the Storm is what I hope to provide through this blog – a well referenced, thoughtful analysis of what works and what does not work in the online world.  In these pages and posts, audios and videos, I’m going to lay it on the line and let you know the best and most useful – THE VERY BEST tools, software, emailers, marketing strategies and techniques to make you successful.  So, watch for new posts coming every day as I document what worked, and what did not work in ‘REAL LIFE’ Internet Marketing.

 It’s the kind of knowledge you rarely find anywhere else – as most other marketers are selling to business owners, or other marketers, this is the real deal, and if I ever stray I want you to let me know about it.  Post your comments and keep them coming as we explore together the best methods and tactics for making it work in Internet Marketing.