I’ve been on the Internet for 13 years now - and because of this, I tend to take certain things as common knowledge.  Just the other day I was asked what an autoresponder was.  I was kind of shocked for a minute - and then I realized that not everyone understands what an autoresponder does, or how it can benefit your business.

So here is a brief explanation of what an autoresponder is:

An autoresponder is simply a piece of software that is used to automate emails being sent.  Your own email client may have an option that allows you to type a vacation message when you’re away.  This is a form of an autoresponder as it sends an “auto-response.”

Most hosting accounts come with simple autoresponders that send out a single email whenever an email is sent to a specific address on your hosting account.  These autoresponders are quite primitive as they only send one email per request.

Autoresponders are widely used in all types of online business transactions as well.  Have you ever purchased anything online?  If you have, chances are better than good that an autoreponder delivered the details of your transaction.

When an email marketer talks about autoresponders, they are talking about software that delivers multiple messages at set intervals to those people who subscribe to your marketing campaign.  You can program the software to send out follow-up messages at any interval you require - and as many times as you deem necessary.  This becomes extremely valuable if you are teaching  a series of lessons that you want delivered every few days.

An autoresponder also handles your subscriber list for you.  The better programs take care of bounced emails, deliverability issues, and unsubscribe requests so you don’t have to.  Once your campaign is set into action, you really don’t have to do anything except promote your opt-in pages.

Good autoresponders will also have a broadcast feature that allows newsletter publishers to send emails to their entire list.   This is the feature I use most.

All autoresponders are not created equal!  If you are going to spend a bunch of time and energy building your list, you need to get an autoresponder that is feature rich, and dedicated to it’s customers.  You also want to shy away from free autoresponders because they can go belly up and take your list with them.  I have had this happen to me on two seperate occasions.  I personally use Getresponse  as they have tons of features, high deliverability rates, great customer support, and they have been around since 1998.

If you have further questions don’t hesitate to hit the contact button and ask me. 

On May 30, 2008, I will be releasing the first of several ebooks that target email marketing and affiliate marketing.   The first book will teach you how to build a huge list of subscribers that have already purchased products from you.  No more tire kickers!  I have been perfecting this system over the past six months with outrageous success.

Imagine being able to earn a decent income and build a top quality list of proven buyers at the same time; this will be the way I build my email lists from now on.  I haven’t decided on the title as of yet because I have two titles I’m considering.

If you are interested in how I create these marketing lists, be sure to visit this site on May 30th to get complete details.  By the way, this product will be priced right to at just $7.00

See ya in a week or so.