Building my own optin newsletter script, what else should i add ?
 

Hey guys.

I got a few questions for you.

I've built for my website my own newsletter script because i didn't find any other good one, so i had to have a custom one for myself.

The user enter his e-mail, then he receiving a confirmation e-mail with a link he should click on.

What i'm tracking is the ip of that user, i'm tracking both the ip used for placing the e-mail itself & the one used to click on the confirmation e-mail, with the data ofcurse.

Question #1 : There is anyting else that i need to track ?

Question #2 : Sending e-mails, i need to do a special thing for it on my script, or just send the e-mails using sendmail one by one ?

Question #3: What is being called a "big" newsletter ?
It seems like i'll receive around 330 confired newsletter signups a day (out of 1,000 it seems like only 33% of them are clicking on the confirmation e-mail).

Question #4: I'm not going to sell that list in the future or anyting like that, i'm just going to send in the mails the info promised + some adv e-mails around 1 to 2 times a week + ads on the e-mails themself, but i was wondering what is a value of each e-mail ?
I mean, wegcash are paying 1$ or maybe even more per e-mail, can i say that each of my e-mails could be worth 1$ ?
If i have 30,000 ppl signed for my newsletter, can i say it worth 30,000$ ?

Thanks.

Do not send the emails one by one using sendmail, especially not the php mail() function. Instead, use a smtp socket connection.
Best thing is to do this with a seperate shell scripts that runs until execution is finished.

No. When you'll try to convert your first 2-3k members that a sponsor would have paid you $2-3k you'll realise that things are not that easy. If you sign for a join4free, FEB etc site, you'll notice there's a huge backend that works on newsletters that are send more than few times per day. They use something more than the typical promo emails, they are all unique offering variety of paysites, products etc. If your traffic source is tgps, then things are even harder there. I don't think it worths the effort to deal with this. In reality there's a TON of work you have to do to overperform the amount of money a free sponsor offers.

Well, i guess that i won't be able to do the same amount of $$$ of it like the big mailers company does (wegcash and etc..)

But... i'm guess that if this companies are sending the surfer a few e-mails everyday, most of the surfers would unsubsribe really fast if they'll got tons of adult offers on their mail.
Am i right ?

I'm thinking more about sending them the newsletter everyday + few banners on it + not more than 1 or 2 times a week send them also a "special adult offers" which will be sponsers links and etc..

Things to look at for building your mailsending routine:
http://cr.yp.to/smtp.html
http://www.ima.pl/blizbor/smtp.phps

Well, i'm using perl to build that script, can you give me names of moudles to use, or example perl script that can does it (i'll buy one if there is).

Also guys, if you know a GOOD script which was built in PERL for sending that mails, i'll buy it.

You can also contact me on icq - 159514975

Please have a look on my reply about "i'm searching for this kind of perl module/script".

Let me know if you can offer me someting to buy.

so what would be the purpose of it since you'll put much effort and make less money? The chances to resell the list to someone for a good amount of money is minimal.

I don't want to discourage you or something. You can try at the level of 2-3k emails and see if it worths to further continue.

Just my thoughts :)

Try playing with this a bit:
http://www.gknw.de/nwperl/perlscripts/sendmail.txt

Well, like i said, i don't think that i'll try to sell it to anyone in the future, i'm thinking that the "converting" of newsletter signups would be alot higher of the surfers would understand that they are signing up for my newsletter and not to 3rd party's newsletter.

Well, i'm not using directly the sendmail software, i'm using a perl module to do the mailing - Mail::Sendmail
http://search.cpan.org/author/MIVKOV...79/Sendmail.pm

Is it ok to use it instead of playing with the sockets myself like your example, or does this module using the sendmail itself ?

Btw, why not using sendmail ?

Thanks.

Btw guys, another question, 90% of the ppl who signed for my newsletter are using hotmail.com or yahoo.com, what i'm saying is that when i'll be sending the daily newsletter it'll send tons of mails to hotmail.com for example.

Will hotmail.com detect it as "spam" or anyting like that (because their servers would receive tons of the same e-mail) ?

What can i do about it ?

I guess that i'll add the person name to that e-mail, like "Hello $NAME, here is your daily newsletter"

Will it be ok ?

Or there is anyting else that need to be done ?

Thanks.

Ah, so you are not using unix sendmail. You are using a sendmail script. Big difference.
The problem with this script is that it opens and closes an smtp socket for every mail sent. Not very efficient.
With the link I just gave you, you should be able to make something that opens an smtp socket connection, sends all your mail, and closes it again. See the difference?

Nope.

I wont point any fingers at any email programs, but I'll say this.. sign up for one yourself using an email address just for that program... ie [email protected] and over 30 days filter all the email that comes to that email address... unsubscribe once in awhile if you want to just for kicks -- if there is even on unsubscribe option :1orglaugh

After your test is done, be prepared to blacklist the email address :winkwink:

Yes, i understand it, i got a few questions ;)

1. Are you sure that this sendmail script isn't using the regular sendmail software ? (the moudle that i gave you).

2. As far as i undertand when you are saying open/close the smtp connection, you are talking about the local port, if that so, reopening it again and again each time won't do a big harm, am i right ?

3. About remote smtp servers, if for example i got alot of mails to send to diffrent users but on the same isp, like hotmail.com, on the smtp protocol, i can open one connection to there and send all of the messages, or i need to reopen it each time for every receipt ?

Thanks.

http://alma.ch/perl/Mail-Sendmail-FAQ.html#called
I am quite sure.

Opening and closing the socket again and again is much comparable to having a bunch of people standing in line in front of a door, and opening and closing it for each of them. The opening and closing costs more time than the actual sending, so I would advise against it.

I am not sure what you are trying to say about the remote smtp servers. What you need to do is simply establish a socket connection with an smtp server you can use, whether it be local or remote, push all the mail through, and close it again.

will you have some time to write for me a custom perl script that could handle all of that ?

No. But if you can code, you should be able to figure this out yourself.

Use the script you were planning to use, but alter it slightly, so the connection is made, <i>multiple</i> emails are sent, and the connection is closed again. Easy as pie. You just move the mailing loop to inside connection-making code.

yeah, well my problem is that i can't find time to do anyting lately ;)
so i alaways rather to pay to get it done ;)

the thing is that i'm using a module to send that e-mails, and like you said he is opening and closing that port everytime... i'm not sure if i can control it, but i'll try to read the info about that module to see if i can control, but 99% that i can't.

do you have idea if there is other perl module that let me do the same thing, and also let me control if i want it to reopen the port each time or not.. ?

Thanks.

Just use the join for free script from http://www.xascripts.com

Great program :)