Why Mailchimp Sucks for Internet Marketers

Internet Marketing / , , /

EDIT:

MailChimp has updated their terms and provided a lengthy rebuke to this post (well, not this one precisely, but the theme of this post). They still have Affiliate Marketers listed as prohibited content, though they state the following (outside of the terms):

If you’re someone who calls yourself an “affiliate marketer” whose content is strictly “whatever gives me the highest commission, relevance be damned!” we’re just not built for you.

What are they trying to say? Well, my interpretation is that if your a blackhat, no scruples, in it for the money screw the customer type of marketer, then they will remove your account. Otherwise your good to go.

I get that it’s hard to clarify things like this is a terms of use policy, but the blanket coverage is still slightly unnerving for me, so I will still be using Aweber for my main email marketing campaigns.

You can read the full rebuke here to make up your own mind.

ORIGINAL POST:

Recently I started to put some much needed time and effort into creating a mailing list, so that I can offer out tips and tricks about WordPress and website coding for beginners.

In order to do this I really needed to use an autoresponder service such as Mailchimp or Aweber, as it is much easier for me to write the articles in bulk and then parcel them out over time. This is pretty much standard fare for Internet Marketing and everyone who has an authority site should be looking to implement and optin box and start gathering an email list.

Anyway, I was checking pricing and terms as I have started a list already, via my free ebook HTML & CSS Primer for Internet Marketers, and using Mailchimps free service of up to 2000 users but no autoresponder, but obviously wanted to make sure Mailchimp was the best value for money before I parted with the cash.

Price wise Mailchimp isn’t too bad at all, it may even be slightly cheaper than Aweber in the long run. Usability wise, well I hadn’t used Aweber at that point so I knew no different but I knew Mailchimp wasn’t exactly user friendly in some ways.

Being a smart cookie (you don’t need to believe that) I actually checked the terms and conditions for using Mailchimp and guess what? The terms SUCK!

No offense intended, but because we must ensure the highest delivery rates possible for all our customers, we do not allow businesses that offer these types of services, products, or content:

  • Illegal goods or services
  • Escort and dating services
  • Pharmaceutical products
  • Work from home, Internet Lead-gen, Make money on online opportunities, etc.
  • Online trading, day trading tips, or stock market related content
  • Gambling services, products or gambling education
  • Multi-level marketing
  • Affiliate marketers
  • Credit repair, get-out-of-debt content
  • Mortgages and/or Loans
  • Nutritional Supplements, Herbal Supplements or Vitamin Supplements
  • Pornography or nudity in content
  • Adult novelty items or references in content
  • List brokers or List rental services
  • Marketing or sending commercial email without proper permission

Reading through that list you may notice a couple of key ones in there that affect Internet Marketers quite severely. Basically you can’t use Mailchimp for internet marketing.

Wow.

One of the biggest and popular services out there and you can’t use it for marketing? That is crazy. So I signed up with Aweber.

It really is a no brainer, no other services out there that I could find matched Mailchimp or Aweber, and the terms really mean you have one choice, Aweber.

The pricing of them isn’t too much difference thankfully, though if you have a list already you will need to move it, and what that means is that the user will need to resign up to your list. Yes you can explain why to them, yes you can offer a little sweetener to them in the form of a report or ebook, but you will still lose some subscribers.

Thankfully my list was still relatively small at the time, but if you have a 1000+ with mailchimp, be prepared to lose a chunk if and when you move.

I have to say that Aweber isn’t perfect, far from it, there are situations that really bug me already such as not being able to automatically link lists. However the overall site is much easier to use than Mailchimp and you can get lists and emails up in no time at all.

So if you are working in internet marketing, I would strongly recommend signing up with Aweber.

 

 

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