TOPIC: Email Marketing

How many guys do a newsletter?  I've been doing one for about 6 months now, and I'm wondering if I should go from just doing it myself to an automated system (ConstantContact, MailChimp, etc.).  Any thoughts?

Hi Casey,  I just signed up w/ Constant Contact for a free three month trial.  I haven't composed my newsletter yet but from what I've seen and read, it's a pretty good deal.  The caveat is that during the trial you are limited to 100 addresses.  I plan on hitting the top 100 in my area, then look at the results.  If it's working, then I'll probably decide to expand to 500 or 1000.

Evening Ron,
Through LinkedIn, I got info about MailChimp...you can pay for pretty much unlimited contacts/emails, or you can get a free account w/ 500 contacts and 3000 emails a month!  I thought that was pretty dang good, just trying to figure the thing out.  Plus I'm not sure if I want to replace my sign-up page or not since I was getting lots of spambots before Dom bumped up the security.
Tulsa eh...my sister and bro in law graduated from TU!  Nice town, fun places to hang out! 

I use iContact. The problem with going with lesser known companies is they don't have deals with ISP's to let your mail through. So it's easier to get blocked for spam. Since the ISP's know iContant or ConstantContact will ban spammers right away, there's less worry.

Dom, if I do use something like this, do they have their own anti-spam?  Meaning...you put the CAPTCHA on my "Sign Up" page.  I can get either a link or the actual page to embed on my site.  Am I going right back to dealing with spammer signing up? 

You could have a page with CAPTCHA that they enter in and then see the form. I don't know if they have CAPTCHA on their own forms. I haven't seen it and don't have it on the ones I've made with them.