Category: Blog

AWeber Review 2017: Why Email Marketing Consultants Are Recommending AWeber?
In this AWeber review 2017, we are going to take an in-depth look at one of the popular email marketing solution (that are even recommended by most email marketing consultants).

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Latest Update: Like email marketing? Read my latest comparison between MailChimp, ConvertKit, and Drip for 2017! Read more.

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We will go through everything you need to know about AWeber, including the advantages and disadvantages of using AWeber for business owners.

What is AWeber?

Until date, AWeber is one of the most popular email marketing and autoresponder tools for business owners and bloggers alike.

AWeber got its fame in the email marketing world because it offers excellent pricing, features, templates, interface and customer support.

AWeber Review: What are the features of AWeber

I’m planning to make this post as the best AWeber review, and therefore, I want this post to be as informative as possible. This post on AWeber review is more than 2,400 words and therefore, feel free to bookmark this for future reference!

AWeber is a full-fledged email marketing and automation tool and here are the complete (yes, C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E) features that it offers:

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- Campaigns
- Autoresponder Follow Up
- Expert Customer Service
- Subscriber Segmenting
- Sign Up Forms with Style
- Email Newsletters
- RSS to Email
- Drag-And-Drop Editor
- HTML Email Templates
- App Showcase
- Manage Subscribers
- Email Delivery Rates
- Email Marketing Tracking
- AWeber Stats App
- Atom App
- Email Marketing API
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Phew, that’s a huge list of 16 email marketing and automation tools that will skyrocket your email marketing strategy.

No wonder why email marketing consultants always recommend AWeber, right?

1. Creating Campaigns Using AWeber

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What I love about AWeber is the ability to automate your emails.

But wait! You probably heard that AWeber can’t do email automation like that.

Yes, you are right, but that was AWeber back in 2016. AWeber is now able to perform email automation and do all the excellent tagging you always wished.

The new AWeber sleek drag and drop editor will be the only thing you ever need when it comes to email automation.

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Through statistics, click through rates (CTR) for automated emails are up to 35% higher than broadcasts. So, segmenting and automating your emails will be an effective strategy in building long-lasting relationships with your email subscribers.

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When you use AWeber, you are no longer creating normal, boring email campaigns. With the inbuilt email automation by AWeber, you can not only schedule emails sequence based on time, but you can also create powerful action-based segmenting!

Here are three important email marketing strategies that you can use with AWeber (even though there are probably hundreds of them that you can build yourself):

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- Welcome campaign
- Educational campaign
- Linking one campaign to another
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NOTE: You can add elements like autoresponder emails and wait times, and set criteria for when someone starts a campaign.

2. Autoresponder Follow Up

Make no mistakes; AWeber email automation tool is powerful, and can skyrocket your email marketing to new heights.

AWeber autoresponder follows up sequence, you can:

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- Save a lot of time
- Build relationships that last
- Increase engagements and more importantly
- Making the great first impression
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Not only that, you can tag your email subscribers based on the actions they have taken. This ensures that you are growing your email lists and reduce the chances that your email goes into the spam folder and improve your unsubscribing rate as well!

3. Customer Support

AWeber customer support is good. At any point in time where you need help, you can fire up a question, and they are they to help out (unlike other AWeber competitors).

Here’s what you need to know about AWeber customer support level:

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- Just a call or click away
- Availability of knowledge base
- Weekly and monthly email marketing guides
- Constant updates on AWeber’s blog
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Current awards that AWeber had are:

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- 2017 Stevie (Bronze) Winner for Sales & Customer Service
- 2016 Stevie (Gold) Winner for Sales & Customer Service
- 2015 Service Team of the Year Runner-Up, NCSA All-Stars
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BONUS: Click here and try AWeber for 30-days free (no credit card required).

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4. Subscriber Segmenting

Segmenting is important because you want to send the right message to them, at the right time.

Always remember that segmenting ensures they only receive content that is relevant to their needs. As a result, you have more engaged readers, better click-through rates, and more sales.

Here are a few ways you can segment your email subscribers based on their activities:

5. Email Sign Up Forms

Let’s face this. You want to attract more subscribers to your email lists with sign up forms that look great on any device.

Need to grow your email list? AWeber can help!

AWeber comes with over 700 ready-to-use templates which make it easy to create professional sign up forms for your online business in minutes.

With AWeber, you can:

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- Add forms to your website, blog or Facebook with just a few clicks
- Get more eyes on your emails
- Easily use matching colour schemes and forms that look good on any device
- Test your forms using AWeber inbuilt A/B testing
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6. State-Of-The-Art Email Newsletter Software

Do you want to have an email newsletter software that connects you with your readers, and ultimately transforming them into die-hard fans?

I bet you do!

With AWeber, you can deliver the best email newsletters with just a few clicks.

Want to know why I recommend AWeber for all my clients?

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Yes, you read it right. The benefits of using AWeber is very clear. You have INSTANT ACCESS to over 6,000 stock images and 700 free newsletter templates.

And AWeber allows you to integrate easily with your social media accounts!

7. RSS to Email

Email marketing is a great way to boost readership but do you know why so many bloggers and business owners fail to achieve that?

They are not using the right email marketing software! A good email marketing software allows you to email blog articles directly from your website.

When you use AWeber, you can transform your most recent posts into a newsletter for your readers. And the best part, it is done automatically!

All you need is to hook up your RSS link to AWeber, and the rest are all taken cared of!

The technology that AWeber has allows you to broadcast email newsletter from all major blogs, regardless of the blog software you are using.

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Do you know that the easiest way to keep your subscribers updated with blog content is through email automation? Sign up for free 30-days unlimited access to AWeber and skyrocket your blog traffic today!

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8. Drag-And-Drop Editor

Drag, drop and send. How easy can that be?

Creating professional looking emails from scratch is easy. With the drag-and-drop editor, you no longer need to code and build your email templates.

A task that would take a few hours to complete could not be completed in just a few clicks.

Here is a few features of AWeber email marketing software:

9. HTML Email Templates

We receive hundreds of emails a day, and one of the best ways to make your email stand out is by making it memorable.

In this case, you wouldn’t want to send those plain text email. You want to send them using a standard email template that is customized specifically for you!

But here’s the thing. It is expensive to do one (apart from nerve-wracking with all the coding works).

When you use AWeber, you are going to benefit in terms of time saving and professional email template designs.

For starters, there are over 700 HTML email templates that you can choose from, ranging from 1-column, 2-column and yes, even plain text you’re a die-hard fan of those.

There are also many color themes that you can use to match your website, and this is crucial. You want to brand your email marketing campaigns with the signup forms and even emails.

With AWeber, all of the above are achievable at no cost to you!

And if you are coming from another email marketing software or have your custom design in mind, you can upload it directly to AWeber.

10. App Showcase

Do you have landing pages and shopping carts that you want to connect to your email marketing software?

You can do it easily with AWeber.

There are hundreds of different integration that you can use with AWeber, including:

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- Facebook
- WordPress
- LeadPages
- PayPal
- Launch Effect
- Cyfe
- Dasheroo
- Drupal
- Heyo
- Short Stack
- Rafflecopter
- Gleam
- Clickbank
- Etsy
- Shopify
- Magento
- 2Checkout
- SumoMe
- OptimizePress
- aMember Pro
- Member Mouse
- Zendesk
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11. Manage Subscribers

Do you wish to collect, manage and segmenting your subscribers with just a snap?

With AWeber, everything you need to build a healthy email list is available at your disposal, under one roof.

You can build your custom forms, tracking your subscriber’s activity and action, segmenting your list or even moving your list from other email marketing services to AWeber can be done easily.

When I wanted to move my email list from GetResponse to AWeber, it took me under 15 minutes to completely import the lists. There was no need of support as it is just that simple!

12. Email Delivery Rates

Email delivery rates are vital and seriously, make no mistakes from this.

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The ultimate goal is to get more eyes on your emails, and this can only be done when your email marketing software can deliver emails timely and accurately.

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How good is AWeber delivery rates?

I would say it is excellent, and probably as high as 99.99%. With a good and clean list, you are pretty much able to get perfect delivery rates with AWeber.

And if you ever need help (which you certainly will somewhere down the road), AWeber regularly provide insider updates to ensure that you stay on top of the frequent changes that will affect your email marketing and delivery rates.

Plus, easy to read analytics will make sure that you know what’s going on under the hood, any time of the day!

13. Email Tracking and Analytics

Ask any email marketing consultants (not marketers), and they will tell you that the only way to grow your email marketing is by understanding the analytics. Seriously.

Over the past decade, I’ve been helping business owners come in terms when email marketing; more specifically, helping them with email marketing consultancy.

One of the biggest concerns for business owners, entrepreneurs and bloggers is to understand the analytics. Strong understanding of email analytics will help you to:

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- Send better emails (emails that get open and read)
- Make more sales (raise your hands if you doesn’t like $$$)
- Drive traffic to your website
- Target (and understand) your audience based on their actions
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Sending emails is always the first part of email marketing. The second part is to analyze the results. Finally, you will know how you can maximize and make more sales!

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Important tip: If you want to start getting your emails read and ultimately achieve your business goals, start analyzing your email marketing results. You should start analyzing the results of your email after a few days of sending the email.

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14. Check stats via mobile (AWeber Stats App)

According to statistics, we spend more time with mobile devices than anything else on the planet. Therefore, it makes all the sense that you are concerned about your email marketing strategy.

When you use AWeber, you can easily download the AWeber app on Apple App Store and Google Play.

What you’ll get would be:

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- Check scheduled broadcasts
- View your subscribers stats
- Watch email opens and clicks rate on real-time
- Keep tabs on follow ups / messages
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With this feature, you can now gain a holistic view of your campaign that gives you up-to-the-minute stats on scheduled broadcasts, sent messages, subscriber activity and followed up messages.

15. Atom App

Now, hold on! AWeber also comes with Atom App which works as a mobile signup form that allows you to add new subscribers to your email list while you are on the go.

The magic starts when you successfully add the email subscribers to a list. For starters, they will automatically receive your first follow-up message immediately. As a result, you are not going to (ever) leave a new subscriber hanging and instead, creating the opportunity to connect with them instantly!

16. Email Marketing API

This. Is. Geeky. Stuffs.

When you use AWeber, you can easily integrate applications easily with AWeber’s API.

As AWeber is one of the best email marketing software in the market, the company has created ‘AWeber Labs’ where you can set up and find apps to integrate with AWeber.

For beginners, you will 100% enjoy it since it is free to create a developer account and right after that, you’ll have unrestricted access to all the information you need to start building your first app!

AWeber Review: Features (Recap)

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If I would sum it in one sentence, I would say that AWeber is a great email marketing software that provides flexibility and tons of features for its users.

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When it comes to email marketing software features, AWeber is very much at the top of the crop because it provides features that are high in quality and more importantly, reliable.

AWeber Review: How Much Does AWeber Costs?

According to AWeber, anyone can succeed with email marketing for less than a few lattes a month.

AWeber costs $19 per month, for up to 500 subscribers and unlimited emails.

For $19 a month, you’ll get:

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- Email experts who are available 24/7/365 to help you with email marketing
- Easy-to-use tools to create high converting emails and sign up forms
- Industry-leading deliverability
- State-of-the-art email automation system
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Here are a full list of features, as well as the different email marketing plans to fit your needs:

Even one of my close contact, John Corcoran has nothing but excellent AWeber review:

AWeber plans are very flexible and if you are starting out, consider using the lowest plan for a trial run.

And if you are looking for some AWeber discounts, going for quarterly and annual billing option will just do the trick!

AWeber Review 2017: Why Email Marketing Consultants Are Recommending AWeber?

When it comes to email marketing software, AWeber is one of the best in the market. Affordability and reliable, AWeber is one of the best I have ever used for both business and blogging. Email marketing consultants are recommending AWeber simply because it is really easy to use and extremely reliable.

I totally understand that AWeber may/may not be the best fit for you. If you are having trouble deciding or committing on AWeber, AWeber is offering a free 30-days trial. All you need to do is to click on this link and start sending emails today!

Try AWeber out and take it a spin for a full 30-days. If it doesn’t fit, just cancel the account at no cost to you.

BONUS: AWeber 30-days free trial doesn’t limit you on email marketing. It comes with full access to all features, just like having a paid account.
March 20, 2024
SendPulse Review – A Great MailChimp Alternative
SendPulse, ladies and gentlemen.

If you are looking for a good alternative to MailChimp, or have the question “is MailChimp good,” you’re going to love this post. This post will all about SendPulse, the latest email marketing service provider that I have come across recently.

It is important to understand that Sendpulse is exclusively email marketing platform would diminish its value since it also offers free unlimited web push notifications and SMS messaging. But for the sake of this review, we will focus on its emailing service.

Searching on Google, you may find a few thousand write ups about SendPulse and what it can do for you. I hope this write-up will give you even deeper insights, as well as some honest review for SendPulse.

What is SendPulse?

The tagline for SendPulse is ‘marketing made simple’. For me, what makes SendPulse unique is simply because it offers artificial intelligence (AI), hyper-personalization and predictive analysis to make your email go BOOM!

SendPulse features

Do you know why I said SendPulse is an alternative to MailChimp?

SendPulse is freemium email marketing service provider just like MailChimp.

For a free account, SendPulse allows you to have up to 2,500 email subscribers with 15,000 emails send out on a monthly basis.

And yes, the stats will automatically refresh once every month.

Email templates

With SendPulse, you’ll access to all their email templates and trust me; they are pretty well done!

Take a look at the image below for some samples:

Kind of cool, right?

SendPulse subscription forms

Another “wow” factor for SendPulse is the subscription forms. If you are a MailChimp user, you know that it has very standard, generic look for their subscription forms. While you can perform modifications on the forms, they require some coding knowledge which can be a pain in the a*s for beginners.

Now, take a look at what SendPulse can offer:

Now, it doesn’t take me long to be mesmerized with these! So many options and a form builder as well?

Perfecto, as what Italians always say!

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Autoresponders (the first ‘wow’ factor)

Keep the best for the last — this is what I always believe.

Let’s be honest here. I was surprised that SendPulse offers autoresponders on their free account.

As you can see from the image above, SendPulse provides three forms of automated series which are:
- Autoresponder
- Email triggered based on specific dates
- Email triggered based on action takes or predefined conditions
As email marketers, you probably heard how the big guns in nearly every industry use email automation to skyrocket their sales and visibility. You know, the soft sell, hard sell, etc.

In most cases, email marketing is always considered well used only when you have a good email automation that integrates with a sales funnel.

But the biggest challenge most people faced is that they are not leveraging email automation simply because of the price. And this is absolutely where SendPulse comes into play.

Email automation system that comes either super affordable or free in most cases.

A/B testing with SendPulse (the second ‘wow’ factor)

You might be thinking, “Okay, this is crazy. What is SendPulse doing? Are they killing the market?”

I would easily define the answer as they are revolutionary. With a freemium email marketing service that provides split testing features (also known as A/B testing) can be considered a home run.

Yes, this is just too good to be true.

Split testing can be very mind-boggling and complicated, but SendPulse makes it really, really simple.

All you need to do is to fill up the details such as:
- Naming the test
- Select an address book
- Choosing the right criteria for judging (opens or click through rates)
- Sending the finalized, winning email either through automation or manual
Allow me to I point out two important points on the final email sending.

When you select automatic sending, you can set the system to pick the best winner after a particular time. In this case, you can choose either days, hours or both.

Of course, the second point is the manual resend where you can decide to send the winning email at your pace. This option is excellent if you want to have more control over your email marketing strategy.

SendPulse Pricing

SendPulse comes with several different pricing structures. See below for better understanding.

When it comes to email marketing with SendPulse, the lowest plan is the free which comes with 2,500 email subscribers and is an excellent choice for beginners and small businesses.

If you require more features and services, you can purchase paid services instead which starts at $9.85 per month.

Don’t forget that you’ll get 3 months free when you sign up when you pay upfront for a whole year!

There is also Pay As You Go plans that start at $32 for 10,000 emails.

More SendPulse exciting features – Push campaigns

Wait! Do you know that SendPulse comes with push campaigns?

Push campaign can easily be said as an instant notification from your website on your subscriber’s desktops.

Looks familiar, right? You’ll see many websites doing that now (even those famous sites are using this technology as well).

Here’s how it works (credit to SendPulse) for the video.

SMS plans by SendPulse

SendPulse is one of those email marketing providers that provide affordable SMS (short messaging system) plans.

So, if your marketing goes beyond the standard usage of email and would want to engage using SMS, you should consider SendPulse for the matter!

Don’t forget that SMS messages are great when you want to send instant messages, discounts, and other offers directly to them instead of the emails.

Summary

I was lucky to be able to use SendPulse for a few weeks, and I got to say that it is really good. For the free account that comes with automation and split testing, there’s absolutely nothing to complain!

Plus, don’t forget that they have a lot of interesting email templates even in the free account.

If you are interested in using SendPulse, there’s another great offer for you!

Signup using this link to get a $50 discount for any monthly plan of your choice. The discount will be distributed equally for the first five months ($10 discount per month).
March 20, 2024
How To Make Money With Email List
Do you know that most of the articles you find on the Internet on ‘how to make money with email list‘ actually teaches you nonsense?

Forgive me for my rant, but I think that it is about time where someone stands up and put some serious facts on using the email list to put real money into your bank account.

For starters, there are just too many articles telling you how to make money using email list, but I realized they missed some seriously, crucial factors in it.

Now, don’t take my word for it. To justify the matter, take a moment to think about this.

Are you making $100 a month from your email list?

If the answer is ‘yes,’ you probably know what you are doing, and you can safely skip this post. However, you may want to continue reading to find some quick hacks to double your income generated from the email list.

If your answer is ‘no,’ please carry on reading and bookmark this! I promise you that you will find a lot of beneficial information from this post and it doesn’t take you more than 10 minutes.

1-minute recap: What you should know about building an email list?

Everyone who has a blog or website need to build an email list. While most email services providers charge you money, there are some who are offering free accounts such as MailChimp and Benchmark Email.

An email list goes a long way because he will help you generate money in a long run. Of course, more on how to make money with an email list is after this little segment.

Building an email list is also important because it is going to help you connect with your audience. You will connect with them in more ways than just psychological emotions with them, especially when your posts and writing resonate with them.

The result from this will be explosive:

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- They are going to help you boost your traffic
- They will share your content if they love them
- They are going to be your friends
- They are going to be your loyal fans
- They are going to look for you when they face challenges (usually within your niche)
- They are going to trust you so much that, they will buy anything you promote to them!
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Ladies and gentlemen, these are the exact reasons why you should build an email list.

How to make money with email list?

The million dollar question that you can find over a thousand tutorials on the Internet but yet, only a handful make money with email list.

The problem is fairly simple.

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- It is NOT because you are not using a paid email service provider
- It is NOT because you have a small email list
- It is NOT because you are not sending weekly newsletter
- It is NOT because you are not using an autoresponder
- It is NOT because you are using a free email service provider
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And the answer is this.

The simplest way to make money with email list

Segment your email list.

Yes, you read that right. If you want to generate real money from the email list, you need to start to segment your email list.

The biggest mistake you can ever do is to put everyone on the same email list. Here is a simple way to segment your email list:

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- General newsletter – Everyone goes in here once they sign up for your email newsletter
- Segment 1 – People with specific interest (example content marketing) only
- Segment 2 – People with specific interest (example social media) only
- Segment 3 – People with specific interest (example search engine) only
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When you send a weekly newsletter, send them by batches based on the segments. So, each newsletter can easily be custom made and be extremely focused on topics they interest them the most.

Do you know what happens when you do the above?
1. You will have low unsubscribing rate (with Google loves)
2. You can send highly targeted emails to the right audience which improves with click-through rate (CTR in short)
3. You resonate with your email subscribers and this build trust
Now, imagine doing this.

You send weekly emails to all these segments trying to provide tons of value. As a result, they love it and thank you for them.

Then, once every month, you send a newsletter that has some promotional items in it. For example, you can promote online courses, recommending an affiliate product or even upselling your services.

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Takeaway: Because there are a deep trust and understanding between you and your email subscribers, they are not going to be pissed off with you. Instead, they might even thank you for the promotional email and make some purchases!

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What’s next is simply, cha-ching!

How to start segmenting your email list?

Most free email service provider such as MailChimp doesn’t provide you with tons of options for segmenting. At least, in the point of view of a complete non-developer.

If you are interested to know the method to create tags using MailChimp, here’s an excellent article found on their knowledge base. Read more here.

The easier way is to create multiple signup forms and lists on MailChimp. This step allows you to send traffic to the right signup forms and ultimately helping you to segment your target audience.

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Important tip: Do not compile all your email subscribers under one email list!

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When you are sending your newsletter, make sure that you create different types of email based on your segment and always avoid recycling!

Bonus: Should you use email automation to make money with email list?

Yes, if you can afford it.

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What is email automation?

According to BigCommerce, email automation is the most effective way to engage in email marketing because it enables you to send out messages to your customers at designated times. … Using automation, they can save time by setting up the email platform to send messages when customers take specific actions.

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There are many email automation services that you can choose from in the market, but most of them cost above $15 a month. And I totally get it!

As a blogger or content writer, you might think that email automation system just adds more weight to your monthly budget.

I had the same mindset as well, and with having over 2,000 email subscribers, it gets pricey very fast. Recently, I move from a prominent email automation system to ActiveCampaign.

The result? I’m surprised!

Let me share with you some details here about ActiveCampaign. It comes with a free trial of 30 days which you can try out (using this link), and that’s not yet the kicker since every email marketing solution in the world provides that.

The kicker was the value and the price. For only $9 a month, you get a complete email automation system and trust me, a good email automation costs a lot more than $9!
- GetResponse starts at $15 a month
- AWeber starts at $19 a month
- ConvertKit starts at $29 a month
And yes, I was surprised and tested it out (thanks to my curiosity nature).

Here’s what you need to try on Active Campaign using their free trial.

1. Create an email list

2. Import contacts to the email list you have just created

You can either upload a CSV file using the default button (green button) or manually add into Active Campaign.

It would take around a few minutes to upload the contacts.

3. Create an automation for your email list

The above is the drag and drop automation system found on ActiveCampaign. You can choose from several pre-made templates or you can create one from scratch.

Why did I choose Active Campaign?

The email automation system is so powerful that I can easily create proven automation without creating one from scratch.

What?!

Yes, Active Campaign thought about this and kudos to them. I don’t have hours to create a good sales funnel, and this is exactly what Active Campaign does for me. It gives me some awesome pre-made templates, and I can easily duplicate them into my email list.

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The results: 100+ hours of time-saving (testing, modification, and A/B testing), 30% of improving results, 90% of satisfaction for my email subscribers, 25% improved in revenue generated from the email list.

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Now, go figure!

Quick Guide: How to use Active Campaign tagging feature and make money with email list

Tagging works when email subscribers perform a specific task. In this case, it can be clicking on a link in the email, being subscribed to a newsletter or being added to a new email list.

Here’s a quick GIF on how to use Active Campaign tagging feature.

Once the above is done, you’ll find email subscribers that are tagged accordingly based on their preferences or journey in your sales funnel.

You can find the tags allocated to each email subscriber when you check on their profile.

Summary

I hope you find the guide, ‘How to make money with email list’ useful and do tell me what you think about it. Feel free to reach out to me if you need help and looking forward to seeing you in the comment section below!
March 5, 2024
Cloudways Managed Cloud Hosting Review 2017
You found this article because you are interested about the Cloudways managed cloud hosting review 2017. I’m not going to disappoint you, you’ve come to the right place.

I promised to make this article as detailed and informative as possible. Therefore, I’ll be covering a wide range of topics related to Cloudways such as:
- What is managed cloud hosting?
- Introduction to Cloudways
- Cloudways managed cloud hosting review for the year 2017
- Advantages and disadvantages of Cloudways
- How to migrate a website to Cloudways?
I hope you find this article useful and I will appreciate it if you can share this on social media.

What is managed cloud hosting?

According to Techopedia, managed cloud hosting is a process in which organizations share and access resources, including databases, hardware and software tools, across a remote network via multiple servers in another location. In managed cloud hosting, servers are purchased in slices or as a virtual server.

If the above sounds geeky for you, don’t worry. Here’s a simplified version for the meaning of managed cloud hosting.

Managed cloud hosting is not like your average shared hosting service (example, Bluehost). In shared hosting service, you will most probably share the same hosting environment with over a thousand or other users.

Compared to cloud hosting, you can utilize the entire server allocation for your usage. The server is also hosted on a virtual server where accessing it would require a remote network connection.

The term ‘managed’ simply means that the server or servers are maintained by one or more support team. Thus you don’t have to worry about server maintenance.

I’m a huge fan of managed cloud hosting and to be extremely honest with you, cloud hosting services aren’t the cheapest in the market. However, they are probably one of the best especially when it comes to server performance.

Searching for the cheapest managed cloud hosting platform? You don’t have to look far as Cloudways is the best (and cheapest) managed cloud hosting platform you can find in today’s market.

Introduction to Cloudways managed cloud hosting platform

Cloudways has long been in the industry of virtual servers. I’ve used them several years back, and they are affordable.

Back in those days, Cloudways only have Digital Ocean and Amazon Web Services (AWS) as their provider. Now, Cloudways is working with several other partners such as Vultr, Google Cloud Platform Live, and Kyup.

Here are some reviews on Cloudways:

“Cloudways is an interesting company because it is in the process of moving from a service offering, where every deployment is essentially a custom one, to a far more productized approach.” – Ben Kepes, Forbes

‘Cloudways takes care of the management of open-source tools for hosting websites, like Magento, WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.’ – Jordan Novet, Venture Beat

“Cloudways indicates the emphasis is on simplicity, targeting SMBs that have little to no desire to operate or administer the infrastructure themselves.” – Liam Eagle, 451 Research

“There’s a lot to like about Cloudways. The Web host has flexible plans, killer Web-based customer support, and excellent uptime. It’s a company that you can count on to keep your site up and running.” – Jeffrey L. Wilson, PCMag.com

“Cloudways is always a fun company to test. It showed major performance improvements in this round (2015) and earned an honorable mention. It was by far the most improved provider between tests.” – Kevin Ohashi, Review Signal

Cloudways managed cloud hosting review for the year 2017

In all my reviews, I am always very strict about performance, scalability, cost and support. Coming from the customer service industry, these are just values that I cannot overlook and are often considered the core of any business.

1. Cloudways managed cloud hosting server performance review (rating 9 out of 10)

For starters, I want to be straightforward to say that I am not testing on their smallest package, 512 MB server. Instead, I’m using two servers of 1 GB and 2 GB respectively. Therefore, my review will be based on both of them.

Of course, 512 MB server would probably be enough to host a brand new website or smaller ones. With the websites that I manage, I need more firepower of course.

Regarding performance, Cloudways exceeds my expectations by miles apart. Due to traffic and security concerns, I always use managed WordPress hosting as my go-to web hosting service. If you are wondering, I’m using WP Engine, and the package was Professional.

Here are the stats when I was still using WP Engine:

Here are the stats when I am using Cloudways managed cloud hosting:

Now, take a look at the top. The stats are very clear and straight forward.

It certainly looks like Cloudways is really good and could easily consider as overperforming since I’m comparing it head-on with one of the world’s best WordPress hosting, WP Engine.

Cloudways comes with Varnish feature as well, therefore, works like a charm and allows your website to load faster than most web hosting services could.

Plus, being a managed cloud hosting platform, there are more allocated resources for your website which will directly affect the loading speed.

Bear in mind that I’m using Cloudways 2 GB ram on Digital Ocean that costs me $34 a month compared to WP Engine Professional plan at $99 per month.

A critical Cloudways managed cloud hosting review is not complete without sharing the information of Let’s Encrypt and RackSpace’s email feature. According to Google, websites that have SSL would rank higher than most websites that don’t. When you use Cloudways, it is easy to apply for an SSL certificate (for free). The entire process takes around 5 minutes and can be done only when you have the domain pointing directly to the allocated IP address on Cloudways.

As for RackSpace email feature, it is chargeable at $1 per email (per month) and trusts me; this is an awesome feature compared to others. Bear in mind that you can easily have this service by clicking on the “Addon” button to purchase the service.

2. Cloudways managed cloud hosting scalability (rating 10 out of 10)

Need to scale your website because you are growing? No problem!

With Cloudways, scalability is never an issue. As a matter of fact, you can easily do so by just dragging the scale up to the designated value, and the billing will automatically be reflected.

Managed cloud hosting such as Cloudways allows you to scale down your website as well easily. This can be done by creating a clone server and selecting a lower tier cloud hosting package that fits your need.

Noticed the ease of upgrading and downgrading on Cloudways?

When it comes to scalability, I would give Cloudways scalability of 10/10 because it is just that simple and can usually be completed in 10 minutes.

3. Cloudways managed cloud hosting pricing/cost (rating 10 out of 10)

At this point of writing, I’m residing in Malaysia, and my exchange rate for USD is approx 4.46. So, let’s take the instance that I’m using WP Engine $99 per month.

USD 99 x 4.46 = RM 441.54

This means that I should be paying approximately RM 441.54 every month just for web hosting!

Now, when I use Cloudways, I’m being charged at $32 per month.

USD 32 x 4.46 = RM 142.72

That’s approximately 67% saving every month!

Let’s do us all a favor and think hard on this. We all talk about web hosting speed, security, performance and probably a dozen more features but at the end of the day, the price matters the most.

When you use Cloudways managed cloud hosting platform, you are doing yourself a favor by getting the best performance as well as easy on your wallet.

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Oh by the way, do you know that Cloudways doesn’t tie you down with prepayment? All subscriptions are based on month to month basis.

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4. Cloudways managed cloud hosting support (rating 8.5 out of 10)

When it comes to supporting, Cloudways go a long way in making their customers feeling happy and satisfied.

For starters, you will receive a telephone call from their support team a few days after signing up for their service. And on top of that, you have the ability to hop onto their ‘live chat’ sessions for any help. Until date, the waiting queue for live chat is always fast and usually, the wait time is under 30 seconds.

Typically, their support team is very well trained in most scenarios, but from time to time, you will meet up with a few who are less experienced. While they will try to help out as much as they could, it would be a little annoying when you have to repeat yourself a couple of times!

Now, when it comes to rating the level of support provided by Cloudways, I would give them a nice 8.5 out of 10. If they could have more experienced staffs working throughout the clock, it will probably further increase the satisfaction level of the customers.

5. Simplicity in managed cloud hosting (rating 9.5 out of 10)

Simplicity and user experience are two vital components for any web hosting service. As most beginners or webmasters don’t want to spend the entire day getting the server up and running, both of these are more important than ever.

Here’s a screenshot of my dashboard:

As you can see, it is very straightforward and pretty for the eyes.

Managing a cloud hosting server is not an easy task. It often requires experience and certain knowledge before you can have a fully running service. With Cloudways managed cloud hosting platform, it is extremely easy to create and manage your cloud servers.

Cloudways allows you to:

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- Create managed cloud servers quickly
- Manage servers easily
- Scale up or down the server
- Turn on and off Varnish
- Reboot the server
- Purge the cache
- Clone the server
- Install SSL certificate under 5 minutes
- Change PHP settings
- And much more
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The above can be done on all Cloudways managed cloud hosting servers without any coding. You can either turn on or off specific services with just a few clicks.

It is so easy that you can even migrate your website using Cloudways’s migrator tool!

In the scale of 1 to 10, I would give Cloudways simplicity and user experience at the score of 9.5.

Yes, Cloudways managed cloud hosting is seriously that good!

How to migrate to Cloudways managed cloud hosting platform?

Do you remember paying hundred of dollars just to migrate your website from one web host to another? Yes, those days.

With today’s technology, you are no longer bound for that. Instead, you can use migration tools provided by some hosting companies to ease the job. Currently, Cloudways is the only managed cloud hosting platform that offers such service.

The process of migrating to Cloudways is simple. Here are the steps:

[step_graphics style=”4″ color=””][step style=”4″ text=”1″ headline=”Create%20a%20new%20cloud%20server%20on%20Cloudways”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”2″ headline=”Install%20Cloudways%20Migration%20Plugin%20from%20the%20WordPress%20repository”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”3″ headline=”Complete%20the%20information%20required%20and%20click%20on%20the%20’Migrate’%20button”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”4″ headline=”Typically%2C%20the%20transfer%20would%20take%20at%20least%2030%20minutes%20to%20a%20few%20hours%20for%20completion”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”5″ headline=”Check%20your%20newly%20migrated%20website%20using%20the%20temporary%20URL”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”6″ headline=”If%20everything%20is%20ordered%20and%20you%20are%20satisfied%2C%20change%20the%20IP%20address%20to%20point%20back%20to%20Cloudways%20managed%20server”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”7″ headline=”In%20Cloudways%20domain%20tab%2C%20add%20your%20primary%20domain%20name%20to%20the%20server”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”8″ headline=”Install%20SSL%20certificate%20using%20Let’s%20Encrypt%20for%20free%20version%20or%20upload%20your%20custom%20one”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”9″ headline=”Setup%20W3%20Total%20Cache%20plugin%20for%20better%20performance”][/step][step style=”4″ text=”10″ headline=”If%20you%20are%20crazy%20for%20speed%2C%20consider%20enabling%20Redis%20for%20your%20Object%20Cache%20on%20W3TC%20(ensure%20that%20you%20install%20Redis%20on%20your%20server%20before%20enabling%20this%20option)”][/step][/step_graphics]

IP propagation takes time. Therefore, do not panic if your website doesn’t load or shows 404 error.

Advantages of using Cloudways managed cloud hosting

Cloudways is still one of the best managed cloud hosting platforms you can find on the market today. It is highly affordable, and the server performance is better than most web hosting services.

When you use Cloudways, you will get powerful servers all to yourself as well as excellent customer service. Another plus point is that Cloudways is a fully managed cloud hosting platform. This means that you don’t have to go all the way to learn how to manage a server. Cloudways teams will take care of the maintenance for you.

As Cloudways is very affordable, it makes all the sense that Cloudways is more popular than most VPS or cloud hosting platforms within the industry. While most VPS and cloud hosting services would cost above $50, it only costs as low as $10 with Cloudways.

Disadvantages using Cloudways managed cloud hosting

Cloudways is not created to fit everyone’s needs. After all, there is no product in this world that fit everyone in the market. One of the biggest disadvantages using Cloudways is the price.

Allow me to explain.

When you use Cloudways, you need to understand that Cloudways works as an intermediary between you and the cloud provider. Therefore, you are required to pay slightly more when using Cloudways.

Take a look at Digital Ocean pricing structure:

And here’s the pricing structure for Digital Ocean on Cloudways:

Do you see the differences?

I know for a fact that many people consider it as a huge cost disadvantage. Well, it depends on how you see it.

Creating a droplet on Digital Ocean is easy and price efficient. However, you are required to do all the server maintenance yourself. Compared to Cloudways, the dashboard and systems are setups for you. Instead of using command code to get the droplet in Digital Ocean running (which could take hours if you are inexperienced), you can opt to pay slightly more for a full-fledged service through Cloudways.

Now, can you consider this as a disadvantage for Cloudways? Go figure!

Summary: Cloudways managed cloud hosting review 2017

If you are looking for a good and affordable managed cloud hosting service, you should consider using Cloudways. After all, the entire operation system is set up to ease your burden, save you more time and ensuring that your website is up and running the short time possible.

On the other hand, Cloudways is less effective if you know about coding and server management as there are many Cloudways competitors such as Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Services and Linode to choose from. Of course, those are an unmanaged cloud hosting compared to Cloudways managed cloud hosting platform.

To end my Cloudways managed cloud hosting review for 2017, allow me to stress that I highly recommend Cloudways because it is highly scalable, user-friendly and a high-performance cloud hosting platform for both beginners and advanced users. With affordability in mind, there is absolutely no doubt that Cloudways is the best managed cloud hosting you can find in 2017.

Click here to try Cloudways for free and judge Cloudways by yourself!
March 5, 2024
How to Serve Static Content From a Cookieless Domain
Want to know how to serve static content from a cookieless domain?

You came to the right place. In this article, I’ll be sharing with you how to solve the irritating “serve static content from a cookieless domain” warning.

If you are using Pingdom, this sight is just too common for many:

Disclaimer:

Due to the latest changes with the web and new protocols such as HTTP/2, it is safe to ignore this warning for now. However, I’m still a strong believer that we should find a solution to fix the “serve static content from a cookieless domain” warning if we can.

And yes, this article will show you how.

if we can.

And yes, this article will show you how.

How to fix the “serve static content from a cookieless domain” warning?

Here’s the quick and direct response to your question. In order to serve static content from a cookieless domain, you can either re-configuring your WordPress website or use a Content Delivery Network (or CDN in short).

Solution 1: Re-configure your WordPress website to serve static content from a cookieless domain

This method is free but at the cost of some work and knowledge.

For starters, you need to understand that the way your website is being configured will play a crucial role in the success of this method.

If you use a top-level domain such as domain.com, then you would need to actually use a separate domain altogether. If you are using www.domain.com then you could simply set up a subdomain such as static.domain.com.

As most websites are configured on www.domain.com, the method below is strictly for websites with www:
1. Create a subdomain
2. You can use any name and I’m using static.domain.com. This is where you will be delivering your files from (and ultimately solving the server static content from cookieless domain warning.
3. Point your subdomain to your wp-content directory with a CNAME.
4. Not sure what is CNAME? Here’s a quick source for you.
5. Edit your wp-config.php file to reflect the following:
define(“WP_CONTENT_URL”, “http://static.domain.com”);
define(“COOKIE_DOMAIN”, “domain.com”);

Not sure where to find wp-config.php file?

The configuration file of your WordPress script is located in the WordPress installation directory and its name is: wp-config.php

You can edit it through cPanel –> File Manager. Find the file, click on it and from the top menu choose “Edit”.

Solution 2: Using CDN to serve static content from a cookieless domain

The fastest solution to serving static content from a cookieless domain is by using a Content Delivery Network.

Here’s the concept: If you offload all your static content to a CDN or a file storage service like MaxCDN, keeping the static file requests cookie-free should be easy as long as you haven’t set up a CNAME record on a subdomain that receives cookies from your top-level domain.

For Google and other search engines, it doesn’t matter the files are hosted on 3rd party servers or your own.

Remember that it is all about the domain that the request is made to and making sure nothing on that domain sets any cookies.

Why use Content Delivery Network such as MaxCDN?

The answer is simple. It is easy and hassle free. You don’t have to crack your head or mess with confusing codes just to serve static content from a cookieless domain.

Besides that, MaxCDN is seriously affordable and apart from solving your static content serving, it also helps you to speed up your website loading speed by the seconds!

Don’t forget that Google gives higher ranking to websites that load faster (and under 1.5 seconds).

Learn more about MaxCDN and click here to get MaxCDN discount.

How to know if you have successfully serve static content from a cookieless domain?

Once you have completed either of the steps above, you would need to clear your browser cache and empty the cache plugin. You may also decide to leave it for a few hours before checking on Pingdom Tools.

You will know it is successful when you see the following:
March 5, 2024
9 Business Trends to Follow in 2017

The world is changing at the speed of technological innovations and the public is more digital, more demanding. The Millennials, as well known as Generation Y, grew hand in hand with technology and is today the main responsible for purchasing decisions, as the largest group of consumers.

The business trends for 2017 are following these changes.

The world is changing and businesses, for the coming years, will have to take care of this generation.

The 10 trends that will drive your business in 2017 will be focused on technological tools, on the growth of eCommerce platforms, on work remotely and more.

Here you go.

1. Web Design Trends

It is no wonder web design has become more important to business than ever before.

Long scrolling, flat design, micro interactions, rich animations and HD visuals are just some of the new trends. From logos to websites, to enriched graphics on social media accounts, consumers are becoming more obsessed with visually appealing content and companies need to take advantage of it.

Following web design trends for 2017 will be required for every business in order to compete at the highest levels. This holds true especially for those companies who refuse to embark on the Internet for fear of getting lost and not being able to emerge.

Every company, every startup, every small workshop will need a strategic online presence. CMS platforms like WordPress allow you to easily manage a website, with just a minimum of technical know-how to build your online activities.

2. Personal Branding

If you are a young entrepreneur then you should know that personal branding is a key element for the growth of your business.

The Internet has opened the field to a grueling competition among experts in this sector, generating a kind of uniformity among rivals. What matters is being able to find new personal branding tools to help bring out our companies, like Mention, which helps to monitor in real-time your business name or brand. Just enter a keyword in the search box and you can track what people are saying about you across different platforms.

3. Remotely Recruitment

Tech companies and startups are using different forms of remote working.

Since the meeting can be made on Skype or other video conferencing platforms, there’s a much better chance of taking true talents via the digital channel, without the tedious and costly grain of the work on site, in order to have an important role within the company and bring success to your business.

4. Millennials

People may think that Millennials are lazy kids who prefer to stay at home and work in pajamas and slippers.

On the contrary, they are just the opposite of the baby boomers. They seek creative ways to do their job, constantly improving the work process.

This means that companies have the opportunity to meet the needs of the talented Millennials to get in return success and turnover, following the trend of the business carefully.

5. eCommerce

2017 will be the year of the growth of online shopping: the spending is on the rise in both the US and Europe.

Just consider that one of the points in favor of the online business development is about shipping and for 2017 the business trends will be all oriented on electronic commerce.

The shipping cost has a very important role in decision making of customers. 58% of consumers are willing to add items to their carts to meet the threshold for free shipping.

Also, the web development and loading time of the ecommerce pages will influence the purchase decision. Be sure to choose the right web hosting to avoid losing customers.

Other important areas will be the social commerce, because many consumers can now make secure purchases using their smartphones.

6. Business Intelligence Software

In 2017 the Business Intelligence will give a big hand to SMEs. BI is a set of business procedures used for the collection and analysis of data and strategic information. Through software like Cyfe you can collect the data fragmented by translating them into valuable information for the development of our business.

BI has historically been used by large enterprises to treat, preserve and display what is known as Big Data. However, the growth of technological solutions and the large amounts of data gives the possibility to small companies to take advantage of BI solutions.

7. Green Business

The Millennials are quite aware of what types of products to buy. For this reason, they search for companies that pay attention to the planet’s health through the products they consume.

Green business is a very familiar term, but only recently has been taken seriously by the companies, which have developed specific products to contribute to the success of this mission. Nothing strange, then, of seeing a grow for green businesses in 2017.

8. Videos

2016 was the year of online videos, so much that Facebook has invested and continues to invest much on this powerful medium.

2017 could be the year when videos will be used to create useful content to solve the customer problems.

The video is becoming an essential source of information and many experts have understood in advance. Through powerful targeting tools offered by social networks, you can create a real-time video to address specific issues and help our users to solve them.

In essence, focus on videos to promote your product.

9. Fewer Emails

2017 could be the year of Slack overtaking emails. Just think this famous tool has exceeded 4 million users a day.

This does not mean companies will abandon emails so sudden, but it is certain these tools of real-time communication will become more used among users.

In an organization where internal and external communication takes place via email, you can save much time using real-time tools, other than spending most of the day with the mailbox open waiting for a response.

As we all know: time is money!

March 5, 2024