What Is An Autoresponder and Do You Need One?

Internet Marketers are just like any other skilled worker: They have their own set of tools. Autoresponders are just one of them.

If you have got anything to do with Internet Marketing, you must have heard the saying “The money is in the list”. You must also have seen many pages on the Internet where you’re asked to enter your name and email address to get access to some offer.

The autoresponders gather the names and email addresses of the people visiting such pages and put them in a database. Autoresponders are then used to automatically communicate via email with all those people who leave their names and email addresses on such sites.

If you have a database of the email addresses of your website visitors, then you can regularly remind them about your products and services and can provide them with more information about yourself and your business, all with the use of an autoresponder.

There are different types of autoresponders and I will talk about them briefly here.

Hosted Scripts

These scripts, or software programs, are hosted on your website by your web host.

You will need a hosting account where you will host your website and then install, run and manage your autoresponder from your own website. You can either install the script yourself or hire somebody to do it for you. Some hosting providers may offer you free support for this but it depends on the hosting package you have bought.

You will have to manage all your campaigns yourself and you will be solely responsible for any spam complaints received. If too many spam emails are sent through your account, then mail servers can permanently blacklist your emails! You have been warned.

Subscription Services

You can do a Google search for available subscription services; there are a wide variety of suppliers. The service provider will charge a small monthly fee and will professionally manage your autoresponder, which will make it a lot easier for you to build your list.

Some autoresponder services are free to try, but for less than $20 per month you can find some very good deals.

If you opt for a professional autoresponder service then in my opinion you will have numerous benefits. Perhaps the top benefit being that professional autoresponder service providers nearly kill spam complaints, and ensure that virtually all of your emails are delivered in a timely fashion to your subscribers.

Imagine if you have a list of 1000 subscribers but only 60% of them are actually receiving your emails, that would be 400 people missing out on every email you sent out and you can imagine the impact that would have on your profits.

Some good examples of autoresponder service providers are Aweber, Mailchimp, Get Response and iContact. You will find a lot of other options if you Google it, but these are the most trusted services providers.

Your list should be growing every day once you’ve got your recruitment system in place. But, make sure you first master your autoresponder and learn its technicalities before you promote it to your subscribers, otherwise your effort in attracting fresh subscribers will result in many of them clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link.

Finally, and as an added bonus, most paid autoresponders also have affiliate programs attached to them which can be used to cover the cost of your monthly fee. In fact, with a little promotional work you can not only cover subscription costs but can earn a decent profit as well from your referrals.

Liferay Portal Development and CMS Are Suitable For Every Size Company

Liferay portal development and themes can benefit small, medium and large companies. With the right developer, even the smallest business can create a compelling, easy-to-use CMS system, employee self-service (ESS) portal or other corporate intranet or website. Liferay portlets development tools are flexible and robust and can satisfy a full range of portal configurations and implementations from the simplest CMS sites to the most complex business requirements for content management systems, document management, portal or web or intranet application.

The rich collaboration features of this technology includes web publishing, content management, collaboration and social networking and offers practical, functional tools innovatively designed to satisfy technical and usability concerns. The suite of Liferay portal development tools supports easy, affordable enterprise application integration, so the enterprise can integrate legacy system data, HR, accounting, CRM, ERP, or sales information or other critical sources of data. The framework and platform incorporates the open source technologies of many popular tool sets, suites and languages, and provides a rich environment in which the enterprise and an expert developer can work to create a flexible, compelling website, CMS system or other enterprise site.

Experienced developers can leverage Liferay themes to quickly design and develop a new site and support your work flow, products, market presence and sales channels. Consider all the ways in which your business can expand its web presence, improve its collaborative and team activities and increase market presence. The framework is helpful in designing and developing variety of websites, portals (listed below).

  1. Professional, community, organization or association portals
  2. Small business websites for auto mechanics, landscapers, dry cleaners, coffee shops and more
  3. Medium sized business sites for IT consulting firms, discount furniture stores, regional hardware chains, car dealerships, community colleges
  4. Large corporate sites for product and service sales, software sales and licensing, retail chains, grocery stores and more, medical centers
  5. CMS sites to manage projects, content, file taxonomy, teams, calendars, time, billing, and inventory
  6. News, media, event, ticketing, travel and other sites
  7. Liferay e-commerce portals, shopping carts, product galleries, shipping and more

These are some of the opportunities your business can leverage with Liferay portal development with the help of an experienced developer. Skilled developers understand the tools and functionality within the framework and can use these tools and techniques to satisfy your requirements for mobile access, technical and usability needs and integration of enterprise applications to deliver accurate, up-to-date content to users and customers alike. This makes the framework flexible and useful for every size company from big and medium to small store owners.

Next Generation Game Consoles: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii

You probably spend the majority of the time playing either your Xbox, Nintendo or PlayStation, or perhaps a little bit of each depending on which console you own. Have you ever asked yourself what is going to be next, I know I have, as they say curiosity killed that cat, but sometimes it’s good to know what is coming out next in technology.

Let’s start off with the Xbox 360, the next generation console or at least the pet name for now is the Xbox 720. The new features will include improved processors and parts, the console will also be completely redesigned, the release date is expected to be sometime in 2011, probably a few months before Christmas to improve sales. The release prices is expected to be around $600.00 USD.

The infamous Nintendo Wii is expected to be released with the next gaming console possible going to be called the Nintendo Gamesphere, although the pet name for now is just the “Nintendo Wii 2”. We can expect to see the same type of gameplay which involves physical movement, the designers are going to be more elaborate on getting the players involved. Once again we will see a new design and more features, the release price is expected to be somewhere around $350.00 USD.

PlayStation 3 to… PlayStation 4, that is really a no brainer. The Xbox and PlayStation have always been top competitors for the gaming consoles, we will definitely see the competition heat up with the next consoles coming out this year. The expected release price for the PlayStation 4 is somewhere around $550.00.