Review of Desktop-Hosted Autoresponders

What is a desktop-hosted autoresponder?

A desktop-hosted autoresponder is just a program that is run directly on your own workstation or PC. To use this type of autoresponder, you must purchase the program and install it on your computer.

The most important difference of a desktop autoresponder from other types of autoresponders is that you need to have the program running on a dedicated computer with around-the-clock access to the internet via a high speed broadband connection.

Desktop-hosted autoresponders are more suitable for non-professional marketers with a small subscriber list. They are not recommended for professional marketers who have a large subscriber list.

Currently, there are thousands of desktop autoresponders in the market with different prices and features.

In this review, we will look at two leading desktop autoresponders in the market.

1. Promasoft.

2. Mailloop.

Promasoft

Promasoft is a well known desktop autoresponder in the market. It provides unlimited use of its autoresponders with unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers.

It has most of the useful features found in other autoresponders including automatic subscribe and unsubscribe, and sending emails in text or HTML formats.

But it does not have features like: click-through link tracking, bounced emails handling and adding to a blacklist.

You need some knowledge in order to install the software. The program is installed onto your desktop computer.

In terms of features, it does not have some of the fancy features like GetResponse. But it is cheaper in the long run as it is hosted on a desktop.

But you must provide 24 hr broadband access to internet with dedicated computer. Anything else would not be adequate.

The purchase price is $176 and $344 for the single and unlimited licenses, respectively. There is no monthly charges involved, since it is locally hosted.

There is a free trial version, but no refund if you are unhappy with your purchase.

Mailloop

Mailloop is recognized as the leading desktop autoresponder in the market today.

It provides unlimited use of its autoresponders with unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers.

It has a lot of useful features including automatic subscribe and unsubscribe, link tracking features and sending emails in text or HTML formats.

You need some knowledge in order to install the software. The program is installed onto your desktop computer.

In terms of features, it does not have some of the fancy features like GetResponse. But it is cheaper in the long run as it is hosted on a desktop.

But you must provide 24 hr broadband access to internet with dedicated computer.

The purchase price for a single license is $379 or $697 for the basic and PRO versions, respectively. There is no monthly charges involved, since it is locally hosted.

There is no free trial version, but there is a 90 day refund period if you are not happy with your purchase.

Keng Hong Quek

Dr. Daniel Keng Hong Quek, a consulting civil engineer by practice, is the principal of the engineering consulting firm Dr. Quek & Associates. He graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Master of Engineering Science and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in 1986, 1987 and 1991, respectively, and has been active on the Internet since 1995.

Dr. Quek is a professional engineer registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia, and a corporate member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia. He is also a registered EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Consultant with the Department of Environment Malaysia and the Natural Resources and Environment Board, Sarawak.

Dr. Quek has over 20 years of post-graduate experience mainly in consultancy work. He specialises in the field of water resources including hydrologic and hydraulic modelling and environmental management. He is a regular contributor of engineering journals, seminars and conferences, with more than 30 publications to his credit.

Besides engineering, he is also interested in using the Internet to market his services.

One of his early ?successes? was a popular website called Water Resource & Environment Centre which provides free resources in water resources and environmental management.

In 2002, he started conducting training workshops for engineers. This was when he developed the website msmam.com for his participants to download his free software for use in the workshop.

He wanted to find ways of promoting his paid workshop. So he started offering free downloads of his software (evaluation version) to visitors at his website. He set up an autoresponder on his main page.

To request for the free software, the visitors must fill up a form on the page with their names and email addresses. This will be entered automatically into a database and the autoresponder starts to do the followup at pre-determined intervals. In this manner, he has built up a list of thousands of subscribers and many have signed up for his workshop :-)

Realising the potential of the autoresponder, he began selling it on the Internet in 2005. Besides selling software, he has also been successful in building portal sites to profit from Google?s Adsense program. This involves getting high ranking on popular keywords in major search engines to bring visitors to Google?s advertiser sites.