How to Pick an Email Service for your Blog (without going crazy)

Every blog needs an email service! But, how can you pick an email service without going crazy? What is important to look for? Are the free plans any good? Today, we are going to help you pick an email service and feel confident about your choice. 

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Your list… everyone raves about the importance of your list. And, they should – because it is important. But before you can *build* your list, you need to have some way to *have* a list…

So where do you start? Well, you start by finding an email service for your blog.

What about the free plans? Are they any good? Let’s delve into those first.

Free Email Services: Mad Mimi & Mail Chimp

There’s a whole lot of options out there – the three I’ve used and tried are AWeber, Mad Mimi, and MailChimp. Why those 3? Well… let’s go back to building your list, ‘mkay? AWeber isn’t free, though, so we’ll shelf that for now.

When you’re first starting out as a blogger, the odds are that your budget/income is going to be, well, pretty close to zero. As such, you’re going to be snapping up free resources left and right. And that’s totally cool.

Disclosure: International Bloggers’ Association may receive a small commission if you use the links in this post, but this will not change the price you pay. See full disclosure here.

That’s why services like MailChimp and Mad Mimi offer free plans. And their free plans aren’t anything to scoff at.

• Mad Mimi offers a free plan for up to 100 stored contact names – and lets you send out unlimited emails.
• MailChimp lets you send 12,000 emails per month, as long as you’ve got 2,000 or fewer subscribers.

My own personal thoughts on each of the two services… go with MailChimp. First off, 100 stored contact names are nothing. You’ll go through that before you get to the end of your Facebook Friends list.

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When I used Mad Mimi, their free plan was a lot more similar to MailChimp’s. It was okay to use, but MailChimp seemed easier and more intuitive to use.

As your blog starts to grow, you’re going to outgrow the free email services options.

Paid Email Services: Upgrade your Mail Chimp, Mad Mimi, or AWeber

Once your list outgrows the “FREE” options, it’s time to either upgrade your mail service or jump ship entirely. It’ll be up to you… just make sure that you’re comfortable with the options you’re getting – and with the new expenses you’ve just acquired.

I used AWeber for a few months for a business venture. I absolutely loved their templates, their options, and their pricing was pretty awesome, too. They rolled out some pretty awesome features, letting me move subscribers from one list to another – like as they went from prospective clients to actual clients. That venture eventually had to be sidelined (for a variety of reasons). Otherwise, I’d still be with AWeber (at least for that business venture!).

Okay, but which email service do I pick (so I don’t go crazy?)

Well, there’s a whole lot that goes into which service you should pick.

• First off, you want an email service that invests in PR so that your emails don’t get auto-marked as spam – before anyone can even read them! In other words, stick with a well-known name-brand of an email service.
• You want an email service that you can afford – long term. Don’t just think about what you can afford this month. Can you afford them for the next few years? Your business or blog will have ups and downs… try to anticipate what you can so that you aren’t left broke.
• You’ll want features that serve your blog or business model. But that doesn’t mean you need every feature right off the bat. Changing email services does suck, but it is possible. Don’t let the fear of changing or being stuck hem you into a bad decision today.
• Finally, you’ll want an email service that lets you control what you want – especially that RSS feed. I’m a huge fan of Mail Chimp because it lets me automate my RSS feed to once a week. Once a week, it sends out a digest that has all of that week’s new blog posts in it – each with a short blurb and links. When I dropped my RSS blasts to once a week, click-throughs skyrocketed.

I know there’s a whole lot more email service providers out there – I’d love to hear what you think about your favorite! Leave me a comment below or on Facebook.

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