Hi Everyone,

My website is near completion and just needs a few things added to it before it is ready.

On my website I would like to do two things build a subscription list and send automatic newsletters etc and the other is the same but a paid for ezine. So someone would pay for a publication etc, payment would be excepted ie paypay the publication would then be sent automaticly.
Have I explained that right?? hope so.

Would the publication etc be kept on the server/hosting and then supplied from there?

Sorry for all the questions.

Michelle

Yes, if you want it to be sent out automatically by the server, then the e-zine will need to be on your server.

You could also set up a script on your PC to send out the e-zine when you get the confirmation e-mail from paypal, in which case, you could keep it locally on your pc.

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Jodith Allen
Administrative Arts

Agreed with what Jodith already said! Have you already located a specific program/script for supplying your newsletter/e-zine? Because I think that will dictate where your newsletters are stored.

I'm no expert, but if you haven't already decided on how to provide it, I'd look online for cheap or free services that will do this. (Especially on VAF, if you haven't already!) If someone specializes in this, why reinvent the wheel?

I'd expect that it might be something you integrate into your website & server, or it may be a stand-alone website where you send people to sign up. I'll be interested to hear your final solution. Good luck!

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Liz
Blue Canary Design & Virtual Assistance

Ok, you can set that up in a couple of ways, depending on your payment type:

1) if you have a shopping cart, you can add the publication as a product, and only have people added to the list after they've bought. Then, when you're broadcasting, you only send the messages to members of that list. (there's no online storage, though, so you'll have to create this yourself). Personally, I LOVE 1AutomationWiz (which is a 1shoppingcart product)

2) With PayPal, I'd suggest using a email broadcast service such as aweber (which is fantastic). Then, all you'd have to do is have PayPal send aweber an email (there's a simple process to get this going) and whoever pays for the publication will automatically be added to the broadcast list in aweber. THen, you can send your broadcasts directly to the list through aweber.

Above someone mentioned going with a very cheap service - this I would not recommend. When you're sending out ezines - especially paid ezines - you need to ensure that your list is receiving your messages. 1AutomationWiz, Aweber, iContact, ConstantContact, and other respectable email broadcasting services charge $15+ monthly to ensure that your email messages are delivered on time to everyone in your list. They go through a painstaking process to make sure they're whitelisted, or allowed delivery. Free or very cheap publications don't offer the delivery rate and instead your emails will fall in a spam hole. And, if your email is caught in the spam hole in mass services (such a yahoo, gmail, etc.) everyone using that service won't get email from your domain at all - sometimes even personal emails. The risk is too high, IMHO.

Best,
Erin

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~Erin Banister
TheMarketingVA | TrinityJacobs

Thank you for your advice. There would only be one ezine to buy per month so im thinking that I dont really need a shopping cart as such. Plus im in the UK and I have looked at them here and they are quite expensive for what I want it to do.

Originally Posted by Jodith

Yes, if you want it to be sent out automatically by the server, then the e-zine will need to be on your server. You could also set up a script on your PC to send out the e-zine when you get the confirmation e-mail from paypal, in which case, you could keep it locally on your pc.

How would you set up a script to do it as im not to hot on the technical stuff.

Michelle

Originally Posted by chellawson

How would you set up a script to do it as im not to hot on the technical stuff. Michelle

Sorry, hon, my scripting abilities are slim. I usually make my husband do those things for me.

If you want scripting done cheap, check out rentacoder.com. You can get work done quite cheaply through them.

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Jodith Allen
Administrative Arts

If your using outlook you will do the following:

a) create a new email
b) If using Publisher (create a new email from publisher with your news letter)
c) select File, save as, outlook template
d) click on Tools and select Rules & Alert
e) Select New Rule
f) click on Check Messages when they arrive
g) Click next
h) select with specific words in the subject line (if you have set up Pay Pal with a special word usage) or through the specified account (if you have a special email address for this specific ezine.) or with specific words in the subject or body (this can be used for the title of your ezine)
i) Click on specific words, add the words that you want picked up by outlook. Click add for each word and then ok when done.
j) Click next, here you will select reply using a specific template
k) click on A Specific Template
l) click the drop down box and select User Templates in File System
m) Select the template you just created.
n) Click Open, then Finish

This is for sending auto reply's using Microsoft Outlook ONLY. You can set up any type of auto reply you want just by selecting the right boxes.

Always create the template first. Then follow the steps above.

I hope that helps anyone who wants to use MS Outlook for auto replies.

Andrea

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Action Jackson Virtual Assistant|

Andrea, you're brilliant!

Man, I know Outlook inside and out and it didn't even occur to me to use that functionality *laughs*. Sometimes I get it stuck in my head that one way of doing something is the only way.

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Jodith Allen
Administrative Arts

Originally Posted by Jodith

Andrea, you're brilliant! Man, I know Outlook inside and out and it didn't even occur to me to use that functionality *laughs*. Sometimes I get it stuck in my head that one way of doing something is the only way.

Stop it LOL Thank you Jodith you are very sweet

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Action Jackson Virtual Assistant|

Pretty darn cool, Andrea. Too bad I don't have Outlook, but will see if I can do sorta the same thing in Windows Mail.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com