Mailing List Services

We offer several services to help you manage your email "lists" in an automated fashion.  If you are trying to send out more than 100 messages we strongly suggest you use on of these services.  Because of the heightened anti-SPAM environment our firewalls are very sensitive to sudden bursts of email traffic and you may find your service suddenly suspended.  NOTE: Web servers should NEVER be used for sending out list type email. Below we present approved methods for handling such traffic.  Please contact us if you have any questions:

• Mailman - This is a full featured mailing list handler normally used for discussion type lists.   It makes managing lists having thousands of names very easy.   Cost is $10/month.
   

• Mail List software for your PC - Links to software you can download and install on your PC that allows you to run your own mailserver OR to send your mail through us at a controlled rate below firewall thresholds.
   

• Autoresponders  - Allow you to send an automatic reply to email messages.  No cost.
   

• Distribution Lists -  Take care of forwarding a single message to a small group of friends/staff.  Everybody gets a copy of the message.  No cost.

Note that our Company policy is you can only send E-mail to people who have explicitly "signed-up" for your messages. No broadcasting to folks who haven't asked for the mail. No use of your web site or email address with us as a reference in bulk mail sent elsewhere. Please contact us if you have questions.

Let us take care of your mailing lists for you, "your-list@your-domain.com". We can install and configure Mailman (Version 2.1.7), one of the most popular mailing list packages available on the internet, for your domain name. 

Mailman automatically processes your list's subscribe and unsubscribe requests. The list can be configured so that just subscribed members can post, or only with your approval (moderated). Estimate your cost based on .05 cents ($0.0005) per message we send (20 messages for a penny). 

Pricing (based on average message size of 50K (50,000) bytes):

100 megabytes/month for transmission of 20,000 messages -- $10/month.

200 megabytes/month for transmission of 40,000 messages -- $20/month. 

FOR EXAMPLE:

Assume your list services fifty people and you average 10 new postings a day. 

This would be 500 messages (50 people X 10 messages) a day 

500 messages X 30 days = 15,000 messages/month.

Cost would be $10/month, up to 20,000 messages.

We have highlighted some of the key Mailman administrative features below.  Please see http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman for complete documentation on this product.

Follow this link to administer your list:
http://www.your-domain.com/mailman/admin/listname.

By default, your list will be set up as an un-moderated list, but only current members signed up on your list have the ability to actually post/send messages.   People who are NOT signed up as a members of your list CANNOT post.

To change to a strictly moderated list, where anybody (both members and non-members)  that attempts to post must first have your moderator approval, go to
http://www.your-domain.com/mailman/admin/listname/general. Click on "Privacy Options," then "Sender Filters."

Subscribing/Unsubscribing

You can tell people how to subscribe to your list 1 of 2 ways:

1. Have your user go to http://www.your-domain.com/mailman/listinfo/listname to sign up.
2. The user can send an E-Mail message to listname-subscribe@your-domain.com with the word subscribe in the Subject line.

The user will receive an E-Mail message from listname-request@your-domain.com with instructions they must follow to complete the sign up process.

To unsubscribe, go to the above mailing list 'listinfo' web page, click on or enter the user's email address as if you were that user.  Put in your admin password where the user would put in their password to unsubscribe.  Users can unsubscribe themselves at the listinfo page or they can send an E-Mail message to listname-unsubscribe@your-domain.com with the word unsubscribe in the Subject line.

You can add/remove list members in bulk -- go to http://www.your-domain.com/mailman/admin/listname. Click on "Membership Management," enter the list admin password, click on "Mass Subscription." Enter each E-Mail address, 1 per line (importing from a text file on your PC is also available).   Notice some useful options here.  You can control whether or not to send these people a welcome message.  If you do send them this welcome message, they will receive a password they can use later to unsubscribe to the list if they desire. 

If you are an existing subscriber with an old Majordomo mailing list, the easiest way for you to migrate your current list over to the new Mailman system is as follows:

1. Contact us so we can install Mailman on your site.  Once the installation is complete keep a lookout for an E-Mail message (from mailman-admin@your-domain.com) with important instructions.
2. If you have a text file on your PC that contains a list of all your member E-Mail addresses, you can easily import this list to Mailman by logging into the Mailman list administration at http://www.your-domain.com/mailman/admin/listname.   Click on "Membership Management," enter the list admin password, click on "Mass Subscription."  You will see a feature that will allow you to import an existing list from your PC.    If you don't have an existing text file for easy import,  see Step #3 below:
3. Log into your Majordomo/Majorcool list admin utility under your Site Control Panel -- http://www.thebook.com/control-panel.html.   Type in your Majordomo list admin password and select "List Subscribers."  Highlight the list with your mouse, copy the contents, then paste them into the "Mass Subscription" section under the "Membership Management" section of the Mailman administration utility. 

 

Auto Responder for E-Mail

We can also help you if you wish to support automated replies to email messages. It works as follows:

Message arrives for you at "your-name@your-domain.com", our auto-reply program acknowledges receipt of the message by responding to the sender with a message you provide. Our program then forwards the message to your address for your review and potential action. Everybody gets a quick initial reply!

As a domain user, you can set this up yourself by using our Site Control Panel.

Limits - There is a nominal limit of TEN megabyte of responses/month, e.g. if your outgoing message was 1,000 bytes (an average size), the transmission of 10,000 messages would be included.  
 

Distribution Lists

E-Mail Distribution list allows you to send emails to multiple recipients using a single incoming address staff@mygroup.com. A distribution list is different than a mailing list. The number of lists and addresses per list are limited to 10 users on up to 5 lists.  As a domain user, you can set this up yourself by using our Site Control Panel.
 

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