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I discovered this morning that the newsletter that I have been writing weekly for 3 plus years has not been going out to any of the 1200 plus on my mailing list for the last month because it exceeded the amount of e mails I was permitted to send per hour. After contacting my web host, I was able to get the limit raised and I THINK that this week's newsletter finally went out to most of the addresses, though I have no way of knowing for sure how many are actually receiving it.
Anyway, in the discussion on how to fix the problem, they told me that lists like mine were becoming a thing of the past because of all the problems with spam and such. I'm sure that many of you have lists as large or much larger than mine. Have you experienced this problem and what have you done to solve it? Do I just need to find a larger host or is there a mailing list program out there somewhere that would work? I have, in the past, been approached by companies such as Cinema Source wanting me to pay for them to send a weekly newsletter, so I'm sure that they have a solution around it, but I really prefer to keep writing it myself not only because of the cost, but because I think that even though my writing is not the best or my newsletter is not the fanciest, that the it keeps it more personal than a pre fabricated newsletter that is only personalized by the specific theater's movies and show times. Plus it gives me the control to correct any mistakes myself immediately instead of writing to someone else and waiting (and hoping that it will actually get done)for them to correct it. Any suggestions on what I should do? Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

What are you using now for a mailing program? We use DaDa Mail. Person signs up and is then sent a verification email they need to click on the link for. I think the ISP's call it the double opt-in. Which verifies they do indeed want it. And that it is not just someone else signing up for it for them. It then can be set to send the emails at various rates. We have it send 50 every 30 sec. Which gets us past the ISP limits on mass mailings. Each email it sends out has a link in it everytime to click on to unsubscribe.
These three things, the opt-in opt-out first, the timed and measured email transmissions, and the unsubscribe easily available in each mailing. Seems to be what makes the ISP's happy.

I use a free CGI script from www.bignosebird.com

It's simplistic, crude and text-only, but I've had no problems with the numbers I send out each week... somewhat over 3,400.

Our current mailing list is maintained and is included in our web site host. It has pretty much all the stuff that sevstar mentioned except for the setting on how many messages are mailed out at the time
It has been suggested by our web host that we go to an RSS feed. Has anyone tried this? If you have, what kind of results have you had? It seems like it might be the way to go and according to my computer guru the times could be pulled from our RTS software automatically, virtually eliminating the possibility of any mistakes. And it would have the added bonus, I am told, of people being able to get our showtimes on newer cellphones and PDAS. What do some of you more computer savvy people think? Would/could it work?

[This message has been edited by Linda (edited October 06, 2006).]

There are other web based source like constant contact that do newsletters and have the software in place to mail large lists without these issues. Sevices like this and the one from Cinema Source work with the email services to keep the mail from getting blocked.

I chose Cinema Source because they do everything for the news letter and stay up to date on standards and spam blocking. I have accounts on AOL and Hotmail ( two services that block lots of mail ) If my newsletter does not come in then I just email them and they normally check what went wrong and resend it. I am sure constant contact and other services work the same. Even the DaDa mail service mentioned above seamed to address lot of this issues so your newsletter does not look like spam. I just did not have the time to create the newsletter myself the way I wanted to so I chose a service.

RSS feed is not a newsletter. You could have it send your titles and times and a link to the newsletter but your customers would need to have some RSS reader on the PC. Just another thing that if they don't do it they won't be seeing your news.

A small suggestion, but it may help: always send a copy of any E-mailing to yourself by putting your address in the E-mail bulletin list. If you don't receive a copy, it is likely that no one else did either.

Also, be sure that your ISP is big enough to handle a large list. Many of the least expensive ISPs started out as a server or two in some guy's basement and haven't grown much beyond that. He could be meeting you in a rent-by-the-hour office, so try to get a look at his actual machines along with your computer guru. If it is a shoestring operation, he may never be able to meet your needs with his limited computers already overloaded, but to keep you from going elsewhere he may say that it is your "improper" programming, computer or practices that is limiting his performance. Don't believe him; shop around for a new host.

[This message has been edited by jimor (edited October 06, 2006).]

The email newsletter service we use is MainStreetMail.com, and I know they
work with a number of other owner-operated cinemas.
The system is easy to use, reasonably priced, and whenever I have a question
I can talk with a live person.

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[This message has been edited by JohnVGB (edited October 17, 2006).]

I have given up doing a regular email newsletter..I was getting about 100 bounce back each time and hardly anyone read it. I tested that by doing a few competitions with free tickets as prizes. I would send out over 400 emails and the biggest return i got for a competiton was 3!! so I just send out a notice if anything important is coming up and just an occasional email to keep people imformed.It was a lot of work for no return.

we're at 2400 for one theatre in a small town and people do use and rely on it. Also we use it for periodic notes. I wish I could stop newspaper ads completely! We ignore bounce backs as it is often and many but new people are always signing up.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario

Oops. Didn't realize I couldn't use HTML tags!




[This message has been edited by JohnVGB (edited October 17, 2006).]

Mike, what do use to send your newsletter out?

Linda - Just want to let you know that I got your Newsletter. dr at bigscreenbiz.com.

Do you send out your mailing in one big batch? If you do you might want to think about spliting it up into lots of 50 or 100 at a time. This way the compiter doesn't work as hard and your mailing will run more efficiently.

The CGI script I use resides at my web server. The emails go out from there.

Aside from removing the load from a local computer, I understand that sending a large list out this way makes it less likely you'll be filtered as spam... at least that's the way I hear it. It works well for me, at over 3,500 addresses.

Good question. I'll find out. On biggie and the Colonial we use it as a built in web app. I know we do send it in batches at that time. I bought some software for the temple and I think I like the web based app better. I think I could do better with some suggests that are here.

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Michael Hurley
Impresario