feedburner rss to email vs mailchimp(or other)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Camden Ross on February 10, 2012 at 7:32pm

I have linked my Aweber account with my blog so it will automatically email my newsletter articles out.

I don't have any experience with Mailchimp, but I am pretty confident that it can be done.

~Cam

P.S. I would recommend a email marketing service over the FeedBurner option, because you have the email addresses that you can send out additional messages to. I have my blog newsletter set up to send messages that are part of a specific category so I have to categorize a blog post in order for it to be emailed.

Permalink Reply by Danny Mullen on February 10, 2012 at 7:59pm

Thanks!  I am glad to hear some other opinions.  I am currently in the process of setting up feeds and mailing list right now.  I had to ask, as I would rather try to do things once. 

One last question Camden, do you have any reason you picked Aweber vs some other?  I have researched Aweber/Mailchimp/icontact, I can't find a major difference for the basics.  Am I missing something?

Permalink Reply by Camden Ross on February 11, 2012 at 6:17am

The biggest reason I chose Aweber over the other companies is that they have the best autoresponder system out of all the companies available (even better than some of the bigger name companies). When I was researching companies, I was looking to make a very highly customized auto-responder, and Aweber was the only one I found that would allow me to block off days and times to send my messages out.

Also, from what I hear (this is something I haven't compared personally), Aweber has some of the best opt-in form templates around, and I can say that all of the dozens I have looked at are great looking.

Since I started on Aweber and didn't move my list there, I cannot comment on the deliverability rates, however I can say that in my almost 2 years, no one has commented to me that my newsletter appeared in their junk folder. Aweber has great spam checking scores to help keep your messages from even appearing spammy.

One thing I have heard from others is that it is more difficult to move an established list into Aweber, because they are huge proponents of the 'double opt-in' and if you end up moving to them later, things can get a little more complicated as everyone you are moving will need to 'opt-in' again.

I believe mailchimp is a good place to start if you are going for free, but unless they have changed recently, they don't offer their auto-responder service to their free customers.

If all you are looking for is an rss-to-email setup, I am sure mailchimp would work, but if you want to expand your marketing in the future with a complex autoresponder sequence, then its best to start with Aweber.

I am pretty sure that Dan uses MailChimp, however I know that there are several people on 48days who have tried all four main lower priced services (Aweber/Mailchimp/iContact/Constant Contact).

What I haven't heard many stories of is people leaving Aweber for another inexpensive service. I usually see stories like this one where the blogger went from Mailchimp to Aweber. Also, 48days.net member Cliff Ravenscraft wrote a great post a few months ago on why he made the switch from Mailchimp to Aweber here.

Hope this bit of information is useful to you. I see Andrew has directed you to mailchimp's answer. Hopefully, we can get you going with the best blogging to email solution for you!

~Cam

Permalink Reply by Andrew Miller on February 11, 2012 at 8:11am

Actually, they do offer their autoresponder to free customers now.

Permalink Reply by Camden Ross on February 11, 2012 at 8:17am

This is great news to hear. Last time I checked, it was not this way.  That is a great +1 for Mailchimp, even if Aweber's autoresponder has way better logic implemented into its system.

Thanks for the correction Andrew.

~Cam

Permalink Reply by Andrew Miller on February 11, 2012 at 8:49am

I agree with you there. Mailchimp's autoresponder is a bit of a pain to set up! It works, though, and it's free. Someday I'll most likely migrate to aweber.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Miller on February 10, 2012 at 9:00pm

I use mailchimp to send out my RSS feed, and it works quite well. It's very customizable, and it's really quite easy to set up. Here's how to do it: http://mailchimp.com/features/rss-to-email/

:-) 

Permalink Reply by Danny Mullen on February 11, 2012 at 8:31pm

Thanks for all the feedback guys! 

Permalink Reply by Camden Ross on February 11, 2012 at 9:11pm

You're welcome. Glad to help.

~Cam