I want to know what would be the best way to send out a newsletter to all of my clients. I did it before with a built in mailing list feature in my Plesk dedicated server, but when I did that I was put on mchsi.com black list, and couldn’t send email to a number of my clients. I have also done it where I put everyone’s email in Bcc line of the outgoing email, which worked ok, but I think that there must be a much better way.

Another question of mine is; how you include pictures in an email, possibly with a background, set up like a webpage?

The place I work for usually does use some kind of pre-built module. So maybe someone else on the forum will have a better reply for that question...

As for your second question though - sending out a formatted email - just send it as an HTML email. As for inserting images, I always upload the images to the webserver, and then in the HTML of the email, I use the absolute path to the image, like http://www.blah.com/images/header.gif or whatever.

Mail merge.

Thanks a lot raspberryh , that’s a really good idea…

I don’t think that the mail merge thing is really what I am looking for. Maybe I am wrong about the uses of it, after just doing a quick Google search.
I need to send an email to a large number of people with out everyone seeing everyone else’s email address.

Hi Magiccupcake,

I think what you're looking for are the services of companies like Constant Contact, Aweber, Campaign Monitor , Vertical Response or MailChimp. They are what you'd call Email Service Providers. There are other, more advanced (and more expensive) companies out there, but I think you're looking for a low-cost one, right?

These companies will allow you to create the email on their platform, then upload your mailinglist and they will send out the email on your behalf.

Good luck!

Tamara Gielen

To answer your other question on how to include pictures in an email, possibly with a background, set up like a webpage: I'd advise you to read this article on my blog and download the pdf . There's a whole section on email design & layout that you can browse through. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.

If not, send me an email.

If you are looking to create a newsletter, make sure you only send it when you have relevant things to tell them.

My advice on wanting to send a newsletter... I can only see really two facts regards this... One! You want to inform your readers of upcoming events and news about you or a subject if interest... Two! gain more visits to your site.

I feel number two is a general case. I suggest you fill your site with lots of interesting content first and then worry about sending the mailer out.

Free advice is always available on the web.

Kind regards,

SpikeyByte

Hi,

I use a variety of email programs to send out newsletters for my clients, some that are based on my server and others that are third party enabled, just as TamaraGielen suggested above.

I think that using a third party provider will free you up from the issue you had when you did it from Plesk.

I guess one question is just how often do you want to be contacting people that will be of value and interest to them and keep them on you list - if you intend on regular mailouts I would recommend you find a professional solution, there are so many as mentioned by TamaraGielen that do a good job and are not that expensive.

You can try sending mail with mailmerge or as a HTML mail.

I can advice you in order not to be abtrusive then ask your clients if they want to receive this newsletter. If you ignore them in this question - it can seriously spoil your image.