Free Email Autoresponder

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Free Email Autoresponder

In this lens I am going to show you how to build an email list of friends, family or business leads with this simple to configure free email autoresponder. Why are autoresponders so useful? Well first and foremost it's a great way of sending a series of emails over a certain time period automatically. It also gives you the option to send a broadcast(email) out to your mailing list at any time. Great if you have a news flash or some important groundbreaking information. So lets get your free email autoresponder up and running.

An Example Sign Up Form 

Here is an example of what your optin or email capture form will look like.

It is completely customizable and you can add as many extra fields as you want. For example if you want to start a mailing list aimed at dog owners you could add an extra field asking what type of dog your subscriber owns. Then that information will be saved by your free email autoresponder for easy access at any time.

STEP 1: Sign Up For Your Free Email Autoresponder 

  • First of all you will need to go along to www.getresponse.com and sign up for your free account. Click on the free sign up link(it's a little hard to find so I added a graphic of where it is located below.



  • Fill in the form supplied, you can ignore the optional fields, and click submit

  • The next page will try and up sell you to the pro version and as you will see you do get a lot of added benefits. Upgrade if you wish if not click the GetResponse FREE button at the bottom of the page

  • Thats it! Your Free Email Autoresponder is now set up and ready to go. For details on how to use GetReponse Click Here

STEP 2: Sign Up For Free File Hosting 

These next few steps apply to Squidoo Lensmasters only...

  • You will need to sign up for free file hosting as you will need somewhere to store your files which will be loaded into an iFrame in your Squidoo lens. Don't worry if all that sounds super technical, it is actually very simple and I will explain in detail, step by step how they work.

  • To setup your free file hosting account click here and fill in the form. Personally I think MediaMax is great, you get a huge 25 GB's of free storage and you can easily upload and host any files you want plus loads of other really cool features.

STEP 3: Where It All Makes Sense ; ) 

Now you are ready to add your sign up form to your lens. To do this follow these simple steps..
  • Firstly you need to create a simple HTML file in notepad. Open notepad (if you don't know how the easiest way is to click start, then run, and type notepad into the dialog box). Copy and paste the following code into notepad.


    • The only changes you need to make are substituting "GetResponseID" with the name of your email campaign and for pro members you will want to replace "http://www.mediamax.com/MediaMaxID/Hosted/confirmation.html" with the URL of your confirmation page (scroll down to STEP4 for instructions on creating and customizing your confirmation page.

  • Once you are done, save your document somewhere nice and easy to find on your computer. Name it signup.html ('signup' can be whatever filename you want as long as the extension is .html). You can test the file by double clicking on it and you should be able to see your form in your browser.

  • Now you are ready to upload the HTML file to MediaMax. Log into your account and click on the 'File Manager' tab.

  • Click on the upload button, click browse and locate the HTML file you just created, select it and click open.

  • Return to the File Manager section and if all went smoothly your file should be sitting there happily. The last thing we need to do is move it to the hosted folder. Check the box next to the file and click the move button, select the hosted folder and click 'submit'. Thats it! Easy!

  • Now click on the hosted folder and you will see your file there along with a 'Hosted Link'. We will be using that link in our iframe code.

  • Now log in to your Squidoo lens and add a Text/Write module. Simply open the module and copy and paste the following code.

    You will need to replace "http://www.mediamax.com/MediaMaxID/Hosted/signup.html" with the URL of the 'Hosted Link' for your signup.html file from the previous step.

  • Thats it! I told you it was easy ;)

STEP 4: Creating A Confirmation Page 

If you are a GetResponse pro member you will want to create a confirmation page to get the full benefits out of your membership. Simply follow these steps.
  • Make a duplicate copy of the sign up file you created in STEP 3. Open it in notepad and remove everything between the <body> and </body> tags.

  • You can basically put anything you want on your confirmation page. Test out my sign up form below to see an example of a confirmation page. For some HTML tips go to HTML basics

  • Once you are happy with your confirmation page save it and upload it exactly the same way as you uploaded your sign up page in STEP 3

  • The last change you will need to make is to go back into your sign up page and enter your URL location of your confirmation page where it says

    name="confirmation" value="http://www.mediamax.com/MediaMaxID/Hosted/confirmation.html"

  • If you have come this far you now have a very powerful marketing tool at your disposal, congratulations!

To view my confirmation page sign up below (don't worry you won't be subscribed to my mailing list unless you click the link in the confirmation email you will receive).

STEP 5: Customizing Your Sign Up Forms 

Now if you want to take it a step further you can fully customize your sign up forms however I am not going to get into HTML too much as there are already plenty of resources around teaching HTML.

You can do a lot of creative things with your confirmation page(unfortunately only available with the pro version). For example you could use it to uncover a hidden bonus for your subscribers to download such as on this lens Online Paid Surveys. To do this you would change the content on the confirmation page and remove the redirect.

Partners 

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by Zachen

I am going to show you the ins and outs of email marketing, the most popular tools and tips on how to get your own email marketing campaign set up in... (more)

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