Thou Shalt Not Use Autoresponders For...
by Gail McLaurin
Published on this site: December 16th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Autoresponders are a perfect way to increase traffic to your
site. They can save many valuable hours by automatically answering
emails concerning frequently asked questions about a service
or product or by sending a welcome letter to new members of
your program. There are many ways that autoresponders can
help your business. One of the most important is their ability
to track the effectiveness of your promotions. Since autoresponders
are one of the most popular marketing tools available today,
they are being used by a lot of different kinds of business
and websites. Some of these take advantage of the system to
use the autoresponders in a negative manner. You should be
aware of some of the "Golden Rules" when using autoresponders.
Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder Address When Submitting
to Search Engines.
Since you will most likely submit your site to search engines
such as Google or Yahoo!, directories, classifieds, and free
for all sites, you should be made aware of the fact that these
sites commonly use an autoresponder as well. If you were to
use your autoresponder to contact these companies, their autoresponder
will reply to yours and so on and so on. Thus creating a cycle
of autoresponses that will flood your email box and theirs
as well.
Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Subscribe to Ezines
or Discussion Forums.
Since most of the time an Ezine will send you updates and
new information regularly, your auto responder will send them
a message each time. In a discussion forum, every person in
the discussion forum will receive your auto response. This
can be irritating and most of the time you will be unsubscribed.
It is often hard for the administrators of the forum or ezine
to determine who is using the autoresponse and therefore it
is simply common courtesy to never use an autoresponer in
this manner.
Thou Shalt Not Use an Autoresponder to Take Advantage Of
Unsuspecting Individuals.
Some very unprofessional companies will use autoresponders
to respond to an automated message when this is done the address
in the "from" field will be automatically subscribed
to their mailing list. This is a extremely un ethical use
of autoresponders and those who do it are in jeopardy of creating
a very negative image of themselves and their company. Rather
than promote their service or business, this usually leads
to people becoming very upset and spreading a negative word
about your company rather than a good one.
The Internet can be a great place to do business and autoresponders
can be an excellent way to save time, however when used in
an unprofessional way, they can lead to frustration and aggravation
for others. Your company will suffer the loss of much business
if you choose to participate in these abusive practices.
The appropriate use of auto responders can generate a large
amount of business, while inappropriate use can drive away
that business.
Gail McLaurin is the owner of Home Biz Kid. "Dotcomology"
is The Science of Making Money Online download your copy for
free! click here: http://www.HomeBizKid.com/dotcomology.html
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