# Newsletter in HTML format?



## Matsaki (Feb 11, 2005)

Hi,

I need to send an email to my 14.000 + members on my site. This time I would like to make it an HTML mail. I am looking for some advices in this matter, such as:

Send the mail with HTML from a direct HTTP page
or
make the HTML direct in the email?

Do I need a special newsletter application that also is able to send HTML code? (normally I send newsletter's from Eudora)

If thats the case I would like some tips on a good newsletter application (Idon't mind for a freeware  ).

Is it a bad Idea to send in HTML format, in respect of that some ISP will reject this type of mails?

Hope for some good advice here


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## michaelsanford (Feb 11, 2005)

I don't think any good ISP would reject an email becasue it contained HTML. Maybe if the HTML contained a VBScript or JavaScript attachment that looked dubious, but I doubt you were planning on including something like that from the sounds of it.

You can do either delivery method really, embed the HTML in the email or send them to an HTML page. With the link method you'd also get to see how many people actually read it (how many people bothered to click the link to read it).


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## Matsaki (Feb 11, 2005)

> or send them to an HTML page



How will I do this the best way? and in what application /what would be the best application to do this in?


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## TommyWillB (Feb 12, 2005)

I do a small scale christmas email this way:

1) I make a web page with all of the images hardcoded to the full http://www.jeffntom.com/images/*.* URL's.

2) I wrote a PHP script that a) retreives this page over HTTP and then B) puts the contents of this page into the body of an email. (PM me if you want the PHP script...)

This year I went the extra step of learning how to include the images as BASE64 encoded attachments. The main reason to do that is some ISP (AOL) will mark emails with remote images as SPAM. (MANY MANY ISP's will mark BCC'd emails and/or emails with more than 20 recipients SPAM... so that is probably the bigger issue to get around.)

So while this is fairly straighforward if you are tecnical and know your way around PHP and the arcane formatting of MIME emails... this certainly is not the novice way of doing it.

...but I'm a geek, so it works for me.


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## Matsaki (Feb 12, 2005)

Hi Tommy,
Some really good input there 

I tried to send some clean HTML code mails with a newsletter app. "iMailist" and I notice that only every seccond mail goes throug? And as you describe most of them will be spam marked as well 

But using a newsletter app. would not make the mails Bcc or would it?


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## TommyWillB (Feb 13, 2005)

Matsaki said:
			
		

> ...But using a newsletter app. would not make the mails Bcc or would it?


If you're sending out LOTS of email, you have only two choices to ensure that you don't share your email list with everyone (thus breaching your customer's privacy):

1) Send one big email with your customer's BCC's... to make the distribution list invisible to the recipients

2) Send seperate emails TO each customer.

In no situation should you ever send one email with all of your customers in either the TO or CC filed... this is a privacy breach and will guarantee that your customers hate you!


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## Matsaki (Feb 13, 2005)

Yeah that I know. But as you said some ISP block the mail if there is to many addresses in the Bcc. (I have 14.000 members)

Is the newsletter/maillist applications sending them one by one? I am looking for a good maillist application.


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## mdnky (Feb 14, 2005)

http://www.borderlandconsulting.com/bc/mqp_overview.php
http://www.maxprog.com/MaxBulk.html

We're using MailDrop 1.3.4 right now to keep our clients aware of what's going on with their properties and to keep in contact with previous clients.  It works pretty good, but we'll be migrating to an automated server-based solution soon to save time and hassle.

You're probably better off looking into a server-run script like PHPMailList.  With that, you'll at least have a way to easily handle the people who want to opt-out of your mailings, as well as sign-ups and such.

Also be aware that some ISPs will flag you for sending more than a couple hundred messages in a short period of time.  Some even go as far as making such actions a violation of their TOS agreements, and will drop you without notice for doing it through their systems.  Having access to your own SMTP server is a must.


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## Matsaki (Feb 14, 2005)

A very big thanks for the info.

Now is just the question if this applications send the mails as Bcc or one by one and how many ISP don't accept HTML and images in mail??


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## Natobasso (Feb 14, 2005)

Etiquette-wise, I'd much rather receive a link than an HTML email. So much so that I turn "View HTML" off in Entourage.

It also ensures that I'm not receiving a virus laden email.

Just my two cents.


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## Matsaki (Feb 14, 2005)

How about the EZmlm with qmail?


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## neph (Feb 14, 2005)

Natobasso said:
			
		

> Etiquette-wise, I'd much rather receive a link than an HTML email. So much so that I turn "View HTML" off in Entourage.



  I'm with Natobasso.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that if I was subscribed to an email list, and it started sending HTML-laden messages, I'd unsubscribe.

  The best approach would be to send a link to the HTML version.  This is especially true since you have far less reliable HTML display than you do in a web client.  (As mentioned above, many people have HTML display turned off because of the security and spam hazard that goes with it.)

  What you might consider doing is this: in your next newsletter, give your subscribers the chance to "opt-in" to the prettier HTML version by going to your web site and filling out a PHP form.  Also, place this option on your subscription form.  That way, people who want text get text, people who want HTML get HTML, and everybody's happy.

  With regard to sending the message, we use a PHP solution.  We use mySQL to store the mailing list, and then we have a PHP script that will send out the messages.  In our case, the PHP script nicely formats the HTML message (since it pulls from a database for its content), but you could just as easily accept a file from a form to turn around and send out.

  Hope this helps.


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## mdnky (Feb 15, 2005)

Matsaki said:
			
		

> Now is just the question if this applications send the mails as Bcc or one by one and how many ISP don't accept HTML and images in mail??



MailDrop sends them individually.  Not sure on how many ISPs limit HTML/Images in e-mail myself, but I've heard of a few.  I do know it's a prime indicator for most SPAM 'interventions'.

The 2.0 (beta currently) version of MailDrop is going to allow multi-part messages to be sent (plain-text & HTML versions in the same message).  That's a nice feature to have.


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