Overwhelmed with Email: Help for a Computer Newbie

[cincychef]

Ok, I am hoping that someone here can help me or this might just be hopeless. I am not good with computers. I have over 600 email contacts and have been sending my emails through my hotmail account. Hotmail has a limit to the number of emails a day so I take about a week to send out my newsletters. I am trying to switch to something else, I have outlook express on my computer, I think, but it doesn't seem to be set up. Is there anyw way to take a class on this? I Am working on that. Can I use Outlook with my hotmail account and send more emails at once? What do other people use? I am not in able to pay for a service like constant contact right now. Any Help would be great.

 

[wadesgirl]

I use Yahoo. I can send up to so many an hour so I have my emails in 8 groupings of 20-25. It is a little slow but it's what I do for now.

 

[crystalscookingnow]

I use Yahoo Mail Plus. It cost me $20 for a year & I can download/send e-mail from my Outlook. I like that I can use outlook b/c it just doesn't seem as troublesome as using the web based mail.

I then set up distribution groups in outlook & send mailings that way.

 

[chefann]

Gmail is free, and you can use it with Outlook, so you don't have to use the webmail page. A nice thing about using Outlook for your email newsletter is that you can format it in Word, then use Mail Merge to create the actual messages. It creates one per email address, which you can then send out in bunches. As far as getting Outlook set up, check the help menu within Outlook. There should be something there.

 

[charisal]

hotmail with outlookI use a hotmail account and wanted to use it with outlook. When I tried it a few months ago I discovered that you can't use hotmail with outlook unless you have the hotmail that you pay for (the expanded services). I now use the email that comes with my internet access for things like my newsletter but it's hard having two different accounts. I'm slowly switching over to my other account but many of my customers just use the email they know so I'm not sure I'll ever really be able to eliminate my hotmail. The biggest challenge of a new email program is moving all of your contact information because hotmail doesn't have a way to export it out of their contact list into a form to be able to import it into another program, so you have to enter each contact individually into whatever email program you choose to use.

 

[crystalscookingnow]

I use a hotmail account and wanted to use it with outlook. When I tried it a few months ago I discovered that you can't use hotmail with outlook unless you have the hotmail that you pay for (the expanded services). I now use the email that comes with my internet access for things like my newsletter but it's hard having two different accounts. I'm slowly switching over to my other account but many of my customers just use the email they know so I'm not sure I'll ever really be able to eliminate my hotmail. The biggest challenge of a new email program is moving all of your contact information because hotmail doesn't have a way to export it out of their contact list into a form to be able to import it into another program, so you have to enter each contact individually into whatever email program you choose to use.

One caution with this - if you choose NOT to use a free e-mail, like hotmail, yahoo, etc and you CHANGE internet providers, you will have to go through changing your e-mail to your contacts again. That's very difficult. I learned the hard way. Now, I just stick with my Yahoo account & use the Plus services. Works like gold for me.

 

[cincychef]

I use a hotmail account and wanted to use it with outlook. When I tried it a few months ago I discovered that you can't use hotmail with outlook unless you have the hotmail that you pay for (the expanded services). I now use the email that comes with my internet access for things like my newsletter but it's hard having two different accounts. I'm slowly switching over to my other account but many of my customers just use the email they know so I'm not sure I'll ever really be able to eliminate my hotmail. The biggest challenge of a new email program is moving all of your contact information because hotmail doesn't have a way to export it out of their contact list into a form to be able to import it into another program, so you have to enter each contact individually into whatever email program you choose to use.

This is what I am worried about. I will never have the time to change all my contacts over. I have been using hotmail from the beginning. So can I use Outlook with my hotmail account? Will this allow me to send more emails in a 24 hour time frame? Thanks for the help.

 

[Nanisu]

I highly recommend Benchmark EMail. You can upload your contacts to them in just about any format and they will mail it for you--they have a very secure server and have a very low bounce back rate. (I usually maybe 1 or 2 bounce each month). The best thing about them is that you can download a report (also super easy) each month that tells you exactly who is opening your emails and who is not. I have Mike Mendyke from Myemaildesigns do my newsletter for $1.50 per month and it is so professional and looks great.. Use my name if you decide to use him, he has examples on his website. I upload his design to Benchmark, they literally walk you through it step by step so you can't mess it up. Every three months I go through my reports and pull the names that haven't opened the newsletter in three months--very easy to "houseclean". Benchmark has wonderful templates to choose from for your emails or you can upload your own graphics and stuff from word. I pay $10 a month to send out 1,000 emails, and it's less than a penny each for any over 1,000. The entire process takes me maybe 10 minutes each month. Way better and I get SOOO many comments from customers about how nice the newsletter is.

 

[crystalscookingnow]

This is what I am worried about. I will never have the time to change all my contacts over. I have been using hotmail from the beginning. So can I use Outlook with my hotmail account? Will this allow me to send more emails in a 24 hour time frame? Thanks for the help.

You probably won't be able to use Outlook for your hotmail account with out paying for the additional service. Yahoo was $19.99 a year, so I did that for my e-mail. Way less headache.