Email Newsletter options

I have been looking into email newsletter programs for a project I'm working on, and thought you might be interested in what I have learned. I'm not endorsing any of these, and as always, I don't take payment for mentioning anyone's names or linking to their sites. I'm just sharing this for your information.

All of these programs allow you to customize your email, they offer attractive templates, and a the bells and whistles that you would expect from an email marketing program, such as tracking, etc. Here is a list of some popular email newsletter programs and a comparison on their basic info:

1. http://www.mailchimp.com/
   Cost: Free for up to 100 subscribers, tiered pricing starting at $10/month
   Use: Sign up for online service
   Limits: Send up to 6 emails per month to up to 100 subscribers, for free. Paid subscriptions include unlimited emails.
   
2. http://www.campaignmonitor.com/
   Cost: $5 per email campaign + $.01 per recipient, so an email sent to 100 subscribers costs you $6, and an email sent to 500 subscribers costs you $10. If you send quarterly newsletters, you only pay when you send a newsletter.
   Use: Sign up online
   Limits: Couldn't find any limits to this service
   Bonus: They offer a reselling program that you can customize to match your own brand. You set your own price, resell the service, and develop a nice little passive income.
   
3. http://www.sendblaster.com/
   Cost: 75 euros for lifetime email license, but p1xie said in an Etsy forum post that if your contact list is small, it's free.
   Use: Download the email program to your computer
   Limits: Send up to 100,000 newsletters per month
   (It didn't clarify if this means 100,000 email campaigns per month or if you can send one email campaign to up to 100,000 subscribers per month, or if you can send any number of campaigns to any number of subscribers for a total number of up to 100,000 emails sent per month.)
   
4. http://www.icontact.com/
   Cost: $9.95/month minimum
   Use: Free trial then buy monthly subscription
   Limits: Number of subscriber limits not listed without signing up for service
   
5. http://www.bravenet.com/
   Cost: Free for up to 500 subscribers, tiered pricing starting at $10.95/month
   Use: Online service with many free or paid add-on services
   Limits: Bravenet places their ads and their own branding on your free emails. Paid subscriptions remove Bravenet ads and branding.
   
6. http://www.constantcontact.com/
   Cost: Free trial for 60 days, then tiered pricing starting at $15/month
   RockOnAccessories mentioned on an Etsy forum post that if your contact list stays under 100, it's always free.

One thing to keep in mind - Since you're most likely using an email newsletter to promote your business, your sales are likely to increase as your contact list grows. Etsy's bohtieque, who uses MailChimp, said in a forum post "After you use up the first 100 or so free credits, you'll need to buy more, but I've found it's pretty cost effective--after I send out the newsletter I get more than enough sales within a few days to pay for it."

Do you use an email newsletter program not listed here? Please comment with the name of what you use and I'll add it to the list.











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