Free Autoresponders

If you plan on making money on the Internet, one important tool you'll need to master is the autoresponder.  Using free autoresponders is acceptable in some situations, and in the world of Internet marketing, any autoresponder is better than not using an autoresponder at all!

One good place to start is to set up your first free autoresponder that comes with most webhosting accounts - that is if you have a webhosting account. These autoresponders can easily be set up through the website control panel and do not contain advertisements from the autoresponder company or webhosting service. If you don't have a hosting account, or your hosting
account does not include autoresponders, there are other options you can pursue.

There are many companies that offer free autoresponders. They make their money by placing a small advertisement in each message that your
autoresponder sends out. These advertisements may appear at the top of your auto responses, or at the bottom, depending on which company you use.

Many paid autoresponder services offer a free version as well. These free versions may or may not include advertisements in the outgoing messages. These lighter versions of the paid autoresponders typically do not include many of the powerful features of the paid versions. But if you don't need the more advanced features, this is a great choice. You may want to look at GetResponse for this option.

Most free autoresponders have a limit on the number of subscribers you can have. Many people start out with the limited free versions, and then upgrade to the paid versions once their lists are large enough to exceed those limits. Many marketers don't feel that the expense of the autoresponder is warranted until the list that they are building is turning a profit. From a business standpoint, this makes sense.

As the owner of a business, you are the only one who can decide whether you need a paid autoresponder service, or if a free one will do the job. If your list is small, a free autoresponder should do everything that you need it to do, but as your list grows, you should definitely consider upgrading.
However, having the small advertisements that the free services place in the outgoing messages may present a problem if the ads compete with what you are trying to sell. They may even pose a problem if they do not directly compete with your product or business. Again, this depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your autoresponder.