When most bloggers think about building an email list, the first email service that comes to mind is AWeber. Of course there are other options available, and it's not my intention to debate the pros and cons of other popular email delivery services in this post. AWeber was an obvious choice for me, or anyone who wants to sell affiliate products while they are in the early stages of list building.
Before I go any further, I would like to take this time to thank each and every one who has subscribed to my mailing list and express to you how much I appreciate your emails, questions and feedback. Don't hesitate to respond to any of my broadcasts if you ever have a question or need my assistance. If you haven't signed up yet, here's the link.
AWeber Email Management Tips
One of the reasons AWeber has become so popular with many bloggers and small business owners has to do with the flexibility of the platform and auto-responder features. I first heard about the auto-responder sequence from Josh Zamora when did a guest post here.
You should read this one when you're done reading this one, it's called The Anatomy of a 25% Autoresponder Sequence. Josh shared some very effective strategies in that post that even got the attention of our friend Ana Hoffman from Traffic Generation Cafe. He subsequently did another post or her blog titled Simple Email Marketing Trick that will Skyrocket Your Open Rates. Josh's techniques for staggering the broadcast emails based on the optin dates are brilliant and AWeber has the perfect toolset to help us accomplish this task very easily.
 AWeber Improves the Broadcast Editing Tool
The folks at Aweber are constantly coming up with innovative enhancements to their suite of services and the newest edition is the drag and drop editor. In this video, I demonstrate the new broadcast editor and all AWeber customers have access to it. Watch the AWeber Drag and Drop Broadcast Email Editor
Based on the feedback from a previous post, I wanted to do a few AWeber tutorials. In this one I take you step-by-step through the process of creating an email with the drag-and-drop editor. I hope this clears up any confusion you might have. Continue to give me your feedback, it's much appreciated.
Now that you've watched the demo, tell me what you think of this new drag-and-drop editor. What do you think about AWeber vs MailChimp or compared to other email service providers like Constant Contact?
More email marketing resources:
- Email Marketing Tips for Beginners
- How to Thank Your Email Subscribers
- The Rebel's Guide to Email Marketing: Grow Your List, Break the Rules, and Win (Que Biz-Tech)
Howz aweber compared to Mailchimp? I have used Mailchimp free version just to get an idea of it as I don’t need those apps as my subscribers are handled by feedburner and it’s quite cool for me till now.
I didn’t try Mail Chimp because you can’t do any affiliate marketing in their emails. I also heard that people have a hard time exporting their lists. To be honest, I’m just going by word of mouth.
Hey Ileane,
What did you mean by “you can’t do affiliate marketing in their emails?” What does AWeber offer that makes this possible or easy?
Affiliate marketing through mailchimp is a violation of their TOS. although some people get away with it for a little while, you can easily lose thousands of subscribers when you get caught.
Aweber allows affiliate marketing as long as you have a double opt in list and don’t get too many spam complaints. if you follow the tips in the articles listed above, you won’t have any problems with that.
Thank you for the clarification. I was not aware. Appreciate it.
Thanks James. I’m glad you can offer your expertise about Mail Chimp. And I do see some people getting away with it and I’ve heard that it is very difficult to get your list from them – especially if they ban you. AWeber lets you download your list anytime you want.
I haven’t used Aweber yet, but this sounds like a cool feature. I’ve always used infusionsoft and it seems to work great. A little confusing at first, though.
Chris, Infusionsoft was too pricey for me and I think they might be more of an Enterprise solution. Big businesses use AWeber also, but not too many bloggers use Infusionsoft. I know a few who have started but had to get rid of it because of the cost – then they ended up with AWeber anyway. 🙂
Hi Ileane,
Way cool feature. Not using Aweber these days but I can see how helpful this feature would be. Drag and drop seems super helpful; although the old version was intuitive I feel this is a real step forward to make the tool even easier to use.
Thanks for sharing with us!
Ryan
Hi Ryan, I’m surprised you’re not using AWeber. I thought I was the last hold-out LOL!! Thanks for your comment Ryan and have a super weekend.
it sounds nice, i didn’t try these type of products but now i will use them.
thanks for sharing it………..
Prakash, AWeber has a free trial so you can test it out. If you do decide to try, please feel free to use my affiliate link http://ileane.aweber.com and let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks.
I haven’t used Aweber yet but soon I will buy it after getting a good traffic because i want to convert my Traffic-to-subscriber conversions,Traffic-to-sales-conversion.
Hope this Product help me to do that.
Thanks Ilean.
Hi Amit, one lesson that everyone has pounded in my head since I started blogging – don’t wait to start an email list!
It took me 2 years to finally “get it” but now I want to share that same advice with you. There is nothing wrong with having a small email list, start now my friend, start now.
Thanks iLean. Thanks for your advice. Okay i will work on it from today :).
I have to work hard for it as you know i am too new in this Blogging Arena :).
Thanks. I really got too many Advice and suggestion from you. Thanks for your all Suggestion and Advice. Hope i will get more on Future.
Thanks.
The tool is ok, it depends on what I am broadcasting if I am going to use this beta feature or not. It’s still kind of buggy but at least I can do a full html template if I wanted to which is pretty cool.
I agree that Aweber is best. But I am still satisfied with mailchimp!
Good for you Amrik. How long have you been building your email list?
I am building my email list from 6 month. MailChimp offers great features that help improve my email marketing campaigns. But on the other hand the links to funny YouTube videos can be distracting and may be perceived as less than professional. I like it just because it comes with MailChimp’s Forever Free plan, you can send 12000 emails a month to a list of up to 2000 subscribers. I think this is good for new bloggers who don’t want to spend a single penny. But If you have a big list and you are a pro blogger then it is vital to use Aweber. No doubt Aweber is best!
Hi Ileane,
Huge thanks for giving the video blog challenge a shout out, that was very kind of you and really appreciated this end. There are some fantastic tutorials and demonstrations being submitted that will help us all.
Just as your videos are doing Ileane. The beauty is that people can refer back to the forever more and watch, pause and apply the instructions.
I’m really pleased that you created this video Ileane. I’ve seen the new feature over at Aweber and opened it up once but as I was in a bit of a hurry I only had a quick look at it. Now I can go back and format my own newsletter to make them look less boring and all I have to do is Watch, Pause and Apply…. don’t you just love video 😉
I will head over and have a read of Josh’s guest posts, we all need to learn successful methods from successful people.
Thanks again for the shout out Ileane, your input throughout the challenge has been first class and very much appreciated.
Have a great weekend,
Barry
You’re quite welcome Barry.
Yes I do LOVE video. It’s always been my favorite way to learn and consume content. When I first started blogging I remember seeing one of Lisa Irby’s videos and thinking – I wish I could do that one day. It took me a few months to get up the nerve and a whole lot of practice but I feel like I’m helping people so it’s worth all the effort.
Thanks for your support Barry! I’ve found some awesome videos during the course of your challenge. Cheers!
Great information Ileane!
I haven’t really tried Aweber as yet, nor gone in with Mailchimp, but I need to really soon. So, am bookmarking this page to get started whenever I do.
Love the info shared that helps us a great deal. 🙂
Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Harleena, keep me posted because I’ll be checking up on you!
Hi Ileane,
Thanks for the great blog post and video walkthrough. Glad to see the new message editor is working well for you. We hope to catch you in person at one of our upcoming meetups. Have a great weekend!
Cheers — Hunter
Hi Hunter, I’m so glad you guys are located in my area, it will be cool for me to get out from in front of this monitor and hang out at one of your MeetUps. Thanks so much for stopping by and if you ever need to test any new features, just get in touch.
You have a good weekend too.
I’m going to have to give awber a whirl. Mailchimp I’m not to crazy about. Thanks for all the great info you share!
Ileane, I have used aweber and found it very easy to use. I had some disappointment about subscription confirmation. May be all autoresponders require that, but sometimes conformation is never submitted and the subscriber is lost forever. Can subscription confirmation be avoided?
Hi Margarita, that’s an excellent question and I find that the same thing happens for me as well. Many times the confirmation email goes unnoticed or it ends up in the spam folder. Unfortunately, that cannot be avoided by any reputable U.S. based email service provider. In the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau of Consumer Protection have created guidelines known as the CAN-SPAM Act and you can read more about it here http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
Be sure to add a note to your blog or your sign up form, reminding your readers that they will get a confirmation email. I need to start doing that too:)
the way I set mine up is to have a THank you for subscribing page that they go to as soon as they sign up. this page details the confirmation process and how to handle it if they don’t receive the confirmation email (some free email services like Gmail and Yahoo will automatically send those to the spam folder if you don’t watch it. )
Great suggestion James! Thank you.
Hi Ileane,
Nice post specially I really think Aweber implement good option in email marketing campaign.
I heard about AWeber for a long time but I am hesitating in migrating to the service because I have a few hundreds of subscribers on Feedburner now. Do you know any good way to transfer from Feedburner to Aweber? I am afraid that I could lose a lot of readers if I change now.
Thanks
Hi Tuan, you can log into Feedburner and export your email subscriber list and then import the list into AWeber.
However, you might find that most of your FeedBurner subscribers are not using email to subscribe to your blog. They are using feed readers like Google Reader instead. For example I have about 700 subscribers, but only 150 or so use the email option. So in my case I continue to offer FeedBurner subscriptions for blog updates but my email list has totally different content. In fact, I rarely mention any of posts from Basic Blog Tips to my AWeber list subscribers and I let them know that in the very first email that goes out.
If you’re thinking about using a service like AWeber to issue blog updates you can replace the RSS feed source from Feedburner with your AWeber blog update feed. It’s something to think about since you already have an established list. Weigh the options or do a poll and ask your readers if they wouldn’t mind the switch. Keep me posted on what you decide and I’ll be glad to give you a hand.
I am using aweber for quiet some time now and I am a bit satisfied with them 🙂
This new feature will be a great help for those who have tons of subscribers
Hi Herbert. I know the folks at AWeber will be happy to hear you say that. Thanks.
The ‘drag and drop’ feature, this does appeal to me. I think its because of the simplicity of the act of just dragging, dropping and you’re done. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, it looks great!
Hi Harriet, you’re welcome.
Wow! That interactive editor seems to be amazing! I’ve never used AWeber before, but I think now it’s time to give it a try! Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Julie, Let me know what you think about AWeber after you sign up. Thanks.
Ileane,
I started using the new Broadcast editor last week… I love it. The formatting is so much easier than the previous version and I really like the way it works with templates.
The drag-drop is very nice as well.
Thanks for a great resource here.
Ryan H.
Hi Ryan, Did you see how I added the newsletter to an app on Facebook using Lujure? Check it out when you get a chance. Here’s a link to the page with the app. Keep in mind this is my first time creating an app from a newsletter this way. LOL!
https://www.facebook.com/BasicBlogTips/app_206390086069750
Thanks for stopping by Ryan and thanks for signing up too!
This was information I needed as I’m looking at this now. It looks to me like building a feedburner list, while coming with some advantages, ends up being not as good as a email list whether you go with Aweber or other email-based autoresponder service.
Hi James, part of the distinction between Feedburner and the autoresponder service with AWeber is that with FeedBurner most of your subscribers will use Google reader or another feed catcher to get updated blog posts. For example (as I mentioned earlier in my response to Tuan) I have about 700 subscribers, but only 150 or so use the email option.
And the people that are on my AWeber email list, get exclusive content and not blog updates – unless they subscribe to FeedBurner also.
It’s always a challenge to launch something new when there is exactly one subscriber — me — just three weeks before the first issue is released, but we all have to start somewhere.
Additionally, it’s a challenge to have to create all the parts of a new email marketing campaign and get subscribers. Aweber makes it easier, but it still takes hours of work before things start working automatically and the snowball begins to roll downhill, attracting new readers along the way.
That’s pretty cool Ileane!
I saw that they had come out with the beta version but I already have my newsletter set up so I haven’t gone in and played around with that part yet. You just enticed me into doing that though so thanks for showing us around. Looks really cool and easy.
Love your video for this challenge. You’re doing such a fabulous job and so glad you’re a part of this. I have one more to share this week as well. So, see you then.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Barry has given us all a great way to connect with each other and at the same time increase engagement on our YouTube videos. He’s brilliant!
Thanks for stopping by and let me know how you make out with AWeber’s new broadcast editor. I’m pretty sure you can copy the HTML code from your current newsletter format and paste it into the beta editor, depending your formatting.
Chat soon!
Hi Ileane,
Great video indeed! Almost missed it. But, I will have to take some time and check other members videos. What a great job you all did!
Thank you for coming to my blog and watch my videos 🙂
Hi Sylviane, I think you will like AWeber’s new broadcast email editor . It should make it easier for us to move elements around in the email. I need to play around with some more of the templates until I find one I’m really comfortable with.
I’m having a good ole time checking out everyone’s videos from Barry’s challenge. I feel like I’m taking a training class. It’s great.
Thanks for visiting!
I’ve been using for a while now and I must say it’s an excellent tool. Lots of marketers are using it nowadays.
Spatch MErlin
How to Blog Guide
Hi Spatch, How are you growing your email list? Do you have any tips that you can share with us? Thanks for your comment here!
Ileane,
I use aweber but had never have used the broadcast tool. I like that.
I am going to have to go over to aweber and use that for my next broadcast. I have been wanting to do something more than the plain emails and never realized that it was so simple.
Thank you for the great info.
Dee Ann
Hi Dee Ann, I’m going to use the new beta editor for all my future AWeber emails. It’s really simple and the hardest part is deciding which one of the templates I want to use, most of them are beautiful. 🙂
Wow, Ileane – this is a really cool feature and one that I wasn’t aware of before reading your post. Great info as always, thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Niall, I’m happy to introduce you to this cool new feature on AWeber. Btw – I was just over on Tweak Your Biz and I think it looks great! The new theme and branding are really eye-catching. Thanks for stopping by Niall!
I tried the new broadcast editor when it first came out, but it had too many bugs in it at that point. will give it a try again. hopefully now they have it working right.
I love Aweber for all my email marketing. I have used a few other services in the past and AWeber blows them all away with their tools. The one thing I don’t like about them is their web forms. However, there are some really great themes and plugins that help overcome that barrier.
Hi James! I’m glad you’re using AWeber too and your newsletter always looks great. I’ve been in touch with them about some of the bugs I noticed in the new editor and when I created a broadcast this morning I can tell that they are working on it. The fonts were a little weird the first time I used it but they were stable this time around. Check out the latest one that I added to a Lujure app on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/BasicBlogTips/app_119255214825893
I have not used Aweber yet but after reading the article plus the comments, I think I must give it a try. I hear email marketing is very reliable and commendable? Are there any other, specific tasks I can perform using Aweber? Please let me know.
Mario, one task that you can perform with AWeber which I really like is an extension called Rapportive. It works with Google Chrome and Gmail and when someone sends me an email I can easily see if they are subscribed to my list or not. I can also see all of there social networks and connect with them and add them to Google+ circles right inside of Gmail. It’s a really powerful feature which I plan to blog about soon. Stay tuned…
I never tried Aweber before, thanks Ileane, I’m going to give their trial offer a try and see how it goes.
Ileane – Hello first all 🙂
So I’ve just started using Aweber about 2 days ago. That “Sign up for $1” attracted me. Now I’m good to go with all their wonderful features but there’s only one and the biggest problem – Subscribers! What do I do to let people know about something? Please help me regarding that! Thanks
Hi Raaj, I think you signed up for my email tips, and if you did you will get an email from me really soon describing how this is done. If you didn’t sign up and you say pretty please I will send you a link so you can read the email now 🙂
No one can beat AWeber, its the best, a little pricey for beginners but its all worth every penny. It is the best in the industry.
Hi Shalu, you’re so right, the benefits of using AWeber to build engagement with your audience make up for the cost in many ways.
Great post! I started with iContact, because I had an existing list and iContact doesn’t require the double opt-in or “confirmed” subscription. But their customer service isn’t great. When I launched a new niche business I went with Aweber and haven’t looked back since. Love the list segmentation, follow-up (autoresponder) flexibility and solid support.
Hey Ileane, till now i didn’t used aweber as i don’t know about it. but after reading your post i must use it.
Hi,
Yes I have been using this aweber new broadcast Email Editor for my newsletter. I like the fonts in it, They are just awesome.
Thank you
I didn’t try Aweber but it sounds useful to me, I should give it a try. BTW thanks for the post Ileane! 🙂
Nice post, I really think Aweber is really awesome.Thanks for sharing such nice tips.
I find the current system a bit cumbersome ,especially with the word wrap and page breaks in the html editor…so I am looking foward to giving this news editor a go.
I know this is an older post but I have been messing around with this feature and I keep going back to the old editor. I made a template and all but I found that for fast emails it really is a pain.
It is getting better I have to admit that, but for a person that is not technically inclined it probably will give them a headache :).
Great tutorial Ileane, I was looking for a good video tutorial explaining how to use their new editor. Even when I went on to Aweber.com I couldn’t find a good tutorial on this, thanks again for taking the time to do this.
I have been using aweber since 2008 and Yes it is bit pricey compared to other cheaper alternatives but then it is the best option out there. Never had any issues with it so far. One of the site I am using has more then 10K subscribers and almost all are happy.
I’m also interestedd in building a mailing list I’ll start over 😀
THAnks for sharing
I have read several comparisons between MailChimp and Aweber services. I am going to start a new blog, based on technology basis. A small portion of users do believe in signing-up for newsletter. But I want to use newsletter to push affiliate network promoted products within my content to make a best combination, and thanks to you for revealing the best / horrific drawback of MailChimp.
I really love this New Broadcast Email Editor. It’s very attractive for our Newsletter. I was very happy when a knew this. Thanks Ms. Ileane for your post.