Servers for the Information Age

The never-ending need for File Servers in the modern world

Handling the ‘Data on Demand’ needs of a New Generation!
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Without a doubt, being able to market through email plays a critical role in how successful you will be on the internet. So, choosing the right listserver to power it will be one of your most important decisions.

So, which one to choose?

There are many worth consideration, so here is a list of ‘filter’ questions that will help you make your decision. Remember, no listserver has ALL of these features - prioritize their importance based on your business:

*Do You Want Your Listserver Located In Your Desktop, Or Hosted By A Third Party?

A Desktop Listserver (as the name implies) is installed in your own desktop computer. ASP (Application Service Provider) programs are hosted on a separate server.

ASP enables a quicker distribution of email, since outside servers typically have access to faster internet connections. However, if you choose to use a desktop listserver, ask whether it distributes emails using multi-threaded internet connections (instead of sending out emails sequentially, one by one, does it search out different ‘threads’ and distribute multiple emails simultaneously, through your internet connection)?

*Does the Listserver Support Both Text and HTML Messages?

Most emails are sent in simple ‘text’ format, though sending graphics, banners, etc., through HTML, is becoming more popular. Consider your current and future needs; many listservers offer both options.

*Does The System Support Multiple Languages?

Group Mail, for example, currently supports 30 international character sets. Remember, the internet is a GLOBAL medium.

*Does It Have An Autoresponder Function For Automated Follow-up?

*Does The Listserver Offer An Automated Subscription and Removal Support for Newsletters?

At the bottom of newsletter messages, there MUST be a way for the recipient to unsubscribe, if they wish.

*Can Your Listserver Process and Remove ‘Bounces’ (Returned Emails)?

*Can New Prospects Be Added To An Opt-in List Automatically?

[NOTE: Make sure these last three functions can be applied to multiple mailing lists, email accounts and newsletters, if you have more than one site. ]

*Does The Listserver Protect The Privacy Of Your Customer Data?

Unfortunately, there are some programs out there that expose client details. Make sure yours keeps your list detail confidential.

*Does The Listserver Limit the Size of Your List?

Some ASP services have a built-in ceiling of around 10,000 names/email addresses per account (if you have multiple lists, all names are included in this total). Many offer expansion options, at additional cost. Again, ask.

*Does Your Listserver Allow You To Do A Personalized/Customized Email Merge?

Some allow you to isolate the first name for salutations, others personalize using both first and last.

*Does The Listserver Offer Ways To Filter Your Mailings?

Can you filter your list to send messages, for example, to only those in a certain state or region?

*Can You Easily Import And Export Your Database?

Does the listserver have restrictions in the way an exterior database can be imported? This is important especially for an offline business coming online, that may have an existing, computerized customer list. Some are more flexible than others.

*Can You Easily Monitor The Status Of Your List?

Can you monitor list size? Daily sign-ups? Determine the number of recently unsubscribed? Determine the status of an email broadcast?

Here are a few services to start your research - click on the provided links to go to their sites and learn more:

Desktop’s:

Corey Rudl’s Mailloop
http://www.marketingtips.com/mailloop .x/655541/

Infacta’s GroupMail Plus
http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=3937&U=50182&M=1465

MessageMedia MailKing
http://www.mailking.com

Gammadyne Mailer
http://www.gammadyne.com/mmail

ASP’s:

AWeber (also has an autoresponder system)
http://www.aweber.com/?67609

Autopilot Riches (also has an autoresponder system)
http://www.autopilotriches.com/app/default.asp?pr=7&id=27041

SparkList’s adaption of Lyris
http://www.sparklist.com

MessageMedia’s UnityMail
http://www.unitymail.com

Email Factory
http://www.emailfactory.com

About the Author

Paula Morrow is president of http://www.idealmarketingcorp.com. She specializes in public relations, information marketing and creating cashflow systems, plus coaches new webpreneurs on innovative ways to promote online. Her newsletter, IDEALProfits, is read in over 12 countries. Subscribe, and receive the co-brandable ‘How To Start Your Own Traffic Virus’ and 4 other ebooks FREE. http://www.idealmarketingcorp.com/subscribe.html

The never-ending need for File Servers in the modern world

Handling the ‘Data on Demand’ needs of a New Generation!
-
If you are a business owner and you rely on email, spam is going to be a major concern. How you address it can make a big difference in employee efficiency. Email spam has been a nuisance and has gotten even worse over the last several years. Email spam slows down server performance and can eat away at storage. Cleaning all those bad messages out of your inbox is time consuming. The easiest way for viruses to spread is via email.

Having a strategy to deal with email spam and viruses threats is essential for any business to survive and be productive. You can limit the negative impact to your business by having policies and guidelines in place.

Tips to avoid getting email spam:

If you have a company web site, use a contact form that the web site visitor can fill out. Some spam mers use robots that crawl web pages looking for email addresses. Your web site designer should be able to help you with this.

When signing up for forums, products and services use a free email or throwaway account like hotmail or Yahoo mail.

When signing up for offers be careful what boxes you check although technically not spam you may get a lot of email offers you do not want. Never reply to an email spam message, this just lets them know that your account is active.

You may want to use a throwaway email address if you post on newsgroups or forums.

These measures may help to reduce spam, but if you have an old email address you may want to change your email address or deploy a spam filter system. There are several choices for anti spam systems you could buy software that runs locally on your PC to filter the spam, but this can be expensive, does not prevent virus infection, and is not a good choice in a networked environment. Managing individual machine spam software is inefficient.

If you have limited technical resources you can outsource you email spam filtering to a hosted anti spam and virus solution provider. Spam filter service providers colocate their spam and virus filters in data centers with redundant power and network connections. You will need to change your mail exchanger on your dns servers to point to the service providers spam filters. Your service provider will then scrub your email for spam and viruses. They then forward your email to your mail server minus the spam and viruses. This gives you a few extra layers of protection. In the event of a network outage or server downtime your email is held and is delivered when the network or your server is available minus the virus and spam. Spam filter services also scan for viruses; this adds another layer of defense to the virus software already running on your network.

If you have an organization with more than one hundred email boxes investing in your own spam filter appliance is the most cost effective solution if you have the technical expertise to manage the system. A spam appliance sits in front of your email server and blocks spam and viruses. The price of the spam appliance will depend upon your number of users, amount of mail and storage requirements.

Fighting spam is no longer be a losing battle if you have a good strategy to deal with the threat.

About the author:

John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks Data Center Colocation, Disaste r Recovery Services, and Spam Filter Service

The never-ending need for File Servers in the modern world

Handling the ‘Data on Demand’ needs of a New Generation!
-
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About the author:

Leading manufacturers of the Small Business Server in UK Small Business Server Installation London Network Support Essex services from the remote ports Intranet based