If you are active on the web promoting your products, affiliate programs or services, you probably sense where Im going with the title of my article. We all put a lot of effort into our internet business. We all have the same hopes and dreams about where our internet business will go. Unfortunately we are all depended on too many variables that have to be just right at the right time.
What is he talking about you might ask. Lets take a simple example. Listening to self declared gurus of internet marketing they all tell you the same thing. You have to build your list, by that they mean your email list.
After following this advice and spending hundreds of dollars in opt-in email leads and maintaining a list of over 5000 subscribers I was pretty convinced that success is just around the corner.
This is as far away from the truth as human possible. Im running a newsletter delivered daily and I send additional sales letters to pitch some of my affiliate products. I track every email with ad tracking and click through analysis.
Guess what Nothing! Sending daily emails and sometimes an additional sales letter would trigger something, at least a wave of cancellations, dont you agree Well, my conclusion of this mess is that over 90% of the emails never passed the SPAM filters.
This is devastating. As you know most people sing up for newsletters through their free email accounts. The few who use their regular email address unsubscribe within a few days.
Dont get me wrong, newsletters are great and if done right they can help you to promote your business. I believe the key is that your newsletter needs to be unique and very narrow focused on a niche target.
Going back to the email leads issue. Buying email leads from email harvesters it is a waste of money. Even if they are double or triple opt-in leads. Promoting a copied newsletter is a waste of money. Why bother to promote something that is already promoted hundreds of times
If you are targeting the people who are looking to make money online, your target audience is pretty narrow and they probably have already subscriptions to one or another form of marketing newsletter.
Im actually shifting my focus completely and put a newsletter together to help people to get started with real estate investments, especially Florida real estate. As you can see this is a very narrow target audience. If I get a couple of hundred subscribers I will be happy. If youre interested send an email to mailto:pdobler@suncoastrenttoown.com I will let you know when the newsletter will be available.
The bottom line of my story is, dont advertise to the advertiser. You just waste your time and money. Thats the main reason why people getting frustrated with their internet business and simply quit. This is like car dealers advertise solely to other car dealers. What do you think will happen
I know what you are thinking. What happened to him Didnt he tell us in his article Wheres the Traffic that email lists are the cure to non-visited websites Yes, thats true. I still believe that autoresponders are good business practice to communicate with your customers. I just didnt see the value of buying email leads. Yes, I changed my opinion, which is plain human nature and happens to all of us.
I hope this made you think a little bit and if you can turn your business into the profitable margins based on my little advice please let me know. Im eager to hear if somebody actually is listening to what I have to say.
Peter Dobler is a 20+ year veteran in the IT business. He is an active Real Estate Investor and a successful Internet business owner.Learn more about the concept of residual income at or send a blank email to
I am frequently asked how to create and send HTML email, usually with regard to how to broadcast it to a mailing list. This article presents the various options available to you.
How to create HTML email:
Creating the content of an HTML email is very similar to how you would create a basic web page. Just use your normal web page editor, such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver (or even Notepad can be used, in conjunction with a browser to preview the code), and construct a web page in the normal way, saving it as an .html or .htm file.
You may consider creating an HTML email template that you can use as a basis for all your future HTML emails. If so, once youre happy with the basic look, save it and then just open and re-edit for your future emails.
There is an important difference that you need to remember between writing HTML for your web site, and writing HTML for email.
All the URLs in your code need to be absolute, rather than relative, for all links and images, eg. rather than something like just image.gif. This also means of course that any images used in your HTML email need to be stored on a web server, the same as when you use images on a web site.
How to send HTML email:
To send the HTML email to an individual, such as to yourself in order to check on its appearance, you can open the web page (i.e. the HTML email) you have created in the latest version of IE (File -> Open...), and then click File -> Send.
However, if youre creating HTML email for use in email marketing, you will normally want to use a completely different tool in order to send it to numerous recipients.
There are two main options to enable you to send email to a mailing list - you can either use some special software on your own computer; or use a web-based solution, either on your own web site, or via a service run by a third party.
If you are looking for software, you can find a variety of solutions by going to somewhere like download.com, and searching for send email.
You can also install some software onto your own web site, which can give you more control but also gives you all the responsibility for maintenance of the software/script if things go wrong.
However, I personally have a preference for using a third-party web-based service when sending out my newsletter. For one, it means my broadcasts are not reliant on my own Internet connection or PC, and it also lets someone else take care of delivering my messages to several thousand recipients.
There are literally hundreds of third-party web-based services available, all varying widely in quality and ease of use, and suiting different budgets and email requirements. One of the best ways to do your research on this is to check out your competitors or your favourite newsletters and ezines, and, if they send out HTML email, find out what service they use. Often the unsubscribe link, that should be at the bottom of their messages, will point towards the relevant web site.
(HINT: By signing up to my own newsletter at you will be able to find out which service I personally use.)
Finally, and importantly, should you send out HTML email It entirely depends on the preferences of your own list. But, in general, look towards big business. Most big businesses tend to send out HTML email, and theres only going to be one main reason for that - response rates. But you do need to ensure that your HTML email is professional, easy to read, and has an attractive layout.
Copyright 2004 Steve Shaw
About The Author
Steve Shaw creates systems and software for effective e-marketing. His powerful PopUpMaster Pro software creates popups that beat the popup blockers and can significantly increase your conversion rates. For more information:
Steve Shaw has been marketing full-time online since March 2002, developing software products and systems for effective e-marketing - for more information see