Advice on auto responders

[Flatmate]

I have web designers designing my site at present

But i always think its good to know a little bit about what there doing or you'll never know how to question them when work is done

My sites being built bespoke

But i need to know about the auto responder

The auto responder spec is

To send random emails to certain people on my data base and when i like
To send instant alerts of new listings
To send daily alerts of new listings
Send confirmation emails
send emails to whole database
etc
What sort of a job is this to put in to a site
Cost etc
should it be easy to function
or have simple options i.e. send this email at this time to these members ?
I really do appriecate your time

[streetslocal]

Its quite hard to say without seeing the actual coding used in the design.

However a database usage like this is not too complexed i should know im in the process of updating mine:rolleyes:

[roove]

Depending on your specific requirements, you may be able to use an off-the-shelf autoresponder solution like AWeber or ConstantContact. These services are widely used, well regarded by most, and have fairly inexpensive subscription fees. Plus, they integrate easily with existing websites, and are already built!

Do a little research and see if your requirements can be met (or mostly met) by using an off-the-shelf solution. Unless there's a very good reason to build your own autoresponder, you are often better off using prebuilt solution that has been tried and tested by plenty of others.

[Rags]

Have to agree with Roove above.

A company like Aweber specialising in email marketing will always do a better job. For example, they have understandings in place with all the main ISP's which ensure that deliverability rates are high.

If you start shooting emails in any great number from your own servers, then there's a good chance your mails will be dumped in the spam/junk folder.

In extreme cases you may get blacklisted by Spamhaus/Spamcop etc - then you're really going to have problems getting your emails through.