A
Do It Yourself Tutorial
Using WorldMerge Personalized E-mail
 How
to Capture and Manage E-Mail Addresses using Inbox Organizer from ColoradoSoft - Download FREE Trial Version Here
PREPARATION
Once you decide to maintain your own subscriber list, you MUST evaluate your computer
backup system. Your subscriber list is a very important asset to your company and
you should treat it as such. Back it up on a regular basis (daily).
I Do Not advise anyone to manage
their own list without a daily backup.
What exactly is involved in
managing an E-mail List?
1. Collect e-mail addresses.
2. Manage e-mail addresses - subscribe and unsubscribe.
3. Send your newsletter.
STEP 1 - COLLECT E-MAIL ADDRESSES
1. Create an email address dedicated to managing your subscriptions. This is
the address your subscribers will use to send their subscribe and unsubscribe requests.
For demonstration purposes we will use e-zinename@yourdomain.com.
2. Establish your SUBSCRIBE instructions. To subscribe to our E-zine, send an
e-mail to
e-zinename@yourdomain.com with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
3. Establish your REMOVE/UNSUBSCRIBE instructions. To get off of our mailing
list, send an e-mail to e-zinename@yourdomain.com with REMOVE/UNSUBSCRIBE in the
subject line.
To make it easier to subscribe/unsubscribe
as well as eliminate some of the possibility of errors, code your links so the subject
line is automatically filled in like these links:
mailto:e-zinename@yourdomain.com?subject=SUBSCRIBE
mailto:e-zinename@yourdomain.com?subject=REMOVE/UNSUBSCRIBE
When these links are clicked on, the word SUBSCRIBE or REMOVE/UNSUBSCRIBE is automatically
inserted into the subject line.
STEP 2 - MANAGE THE LIST
Now you need to move the e-mail addresses you have collected into a master e-mail list.
You will need to add and remove names from the list. You will use the Inbox
Organizer to automate the process of moving e-mail addresses from your inbox into your
master list.
First - Create Your Master List File
Your Master List will be a simple text file.
It will have only one field - the email address.
Each e-mail address will be on a separate line.
Create an empty text file with your text editor and save the file using the name
masterlist.txt. Create a folder called "master" and save your
masterlist.txt in it.
Second - Download your e-mail for
e-zinename@yourdomain.com
Third - Download a FREE Trial version of
InBox Organizer from ColoradoSoft
Once the InBox Organizer is installed and configured you
will no longer have to manually go through each message in your inbox to gather your
subscribe and remove/unsubscribe information and copy & paste it all manually.
InBox Organizer automates this job for you.
The Inbox Organizer Screen
Fourth - Install InBox Organizer
When you start Inbox Organizer you will need to
configure the path to your email directory - so the program can find your Inbox.
Configuration Box
The example above shows the Inbox file for
the Netscape e-mail program. The Eudora inbox file is called in.mbx and is found in
your Eudora installation directory. Please consult your e-mail programs user's guide
for the name of the inbox file for your particular e-mail program.
Fifth - Click on the Actions menu and select E-mail
Addresses
On the E-Mail
Addresses dialog box you are presented with
a search options screen. Your selection options are subscribe, unsubscribe,
undeliverable, and custom. Additional search parameters include (1) searching the
message subject and (2) searching the message body.
E-Mail Addresses Dialog Box
Select Subscribe and also select the options to search the message subject and message
body. Then click OK.
By selecting these search options the Inbox Organizer will find all e-mail messages with
SUBSCRIBE in the subject line as well as SUBSCRIBE in the message body (just in case one
of your subscribers made an error when subscribing to your newsletter).
Once completed, a
Searching dialog box will appear indicating the number of messages read
and the number of addresses found meeting your search criteria.
Searching Dialog Box
Sixth - You are given the option to edit or save the
results
When you click on Save The Results a new window appears displaying the
e-mail addresses resulting from your search.
Save The Results Screen
You can edit the e-mail addresses in this
window as shown above. You can add, delete, or edit entries as you would in any text
editor.
Actions Menu
You can select to Remove Duplicates or Remove
Invalid Addresses from the Actions
Menu.
When you are finished editing, save the results to a new file by selecting
Save As from the File menu or save them to your master list by selecting the
List Management option.
You will want to save the results as a separate list so that you can send welcome letters
to your new subscribers. You will also want to save the new addresses to your master
list by selecting List Management.
Saving The New Subscribers File:
To save as a new file, select the Save As option under the File Menu.
Name the file "new073199.txt" (or "sub073199.txt") and
save it in a directory called <subscribes>.
Process your e-mail in one daily batch and save the new subscribers' e-mail addresses to a
new file. Each time you process a new batch name the file newxxxxxx.txt where the
xxxxxx is that day's date. In this way with just a glance at the file you will know
that this is the new subscriber list for July 31, 1999.
Saving the New Subscribers to your Master
List:
Select the List Management option from the Actions Menu
List Management Dialog Box
The dialog box for List Management
gives you the option to enter the name and path of your master file (you can use the
browse tool to find it). Remember you named your file in a directory named
"master" and your file is called "masterlist.txt".
Your options are: Add to master list or Remove from master list. Select the
option to Add to master list.
Once the save operation is complete, you will see the number of entries that were added or
removed from the master list. Just to be on the safe side you should make a backup
of your master list before each update to the master list.
To Remove/Unsubscribe e-mail addresses
Follow the same steps as you did for new subscribers,
except in the sixth step - click on Unsubscribe instead of Subscribe. (You can also
use the custom feature if you asked your
subscribers to use Remove instead of Unsubscribe). Name your new file for
unsubscribers "remove073199" (or "unsub073199.txt") instead of
"new073199" and save it to a directory named <unsubscribes> or
<remove>.
Sending Your Message with
Worldmerge
STEP 3 - SEND YOUR MESSAGES
WorldMerge is a sophisticated e-mail management program
with an easy to use interface. You are going to use WorldMerge to send your welcome
letter to your news subscribers and your e-zine to all of your subscribers.
Before you can send mailings with WorldMerge, you must configure Your Name, Your Return
e-mail address, and your SMTP server. If you do not know the your SMTP server, look
at your existing e-mail setup for it or contact your ISP. (The SMTP server is in the
format of mail.yourdomain.com)
Your First Mailing
WorldMerge works with "projects" and uses wizards to help you create a new
mailing project. Your first project will be sending your welcome letter to your new
subscribers.
To send The Welcome Letter to your new
subscribers:
1. Open World Merge. Select New from the File Menu.
The Project wizard appears and prompts you with a few options.
2. You are first presented with the option to select a message file. Select New
Message.
Project Wizard Dialog Box
3. You need to select the database type and file
that contains your contact database. You select text for the database type and use
the file new073199.txt in the <subscribes> directory. (You created this file
in sixth step of using InBox Organizer above.)
WorldMerge Project Wizard - Database Type
4. You now need to select the field in your
database that is the e-mail address. Your file has only one field which is the
e-mail address.
The setup is complete! Now you are ready to save and name your project. Select
the File Menu, and the Save option. Name and save your project.
Time to Save Your Project
Now you are ready to insert your message.
5. After you have completed creating a new mailing project you will see the main
WorldMerge window. Just copy and paste your pre-written welcome letter from your
text editor into the message area. Save your project
again before sending.
6. Now you are ready to send your message. Your message is the same to all
recipients so you will use the Send Broadcast Message method from the Messages
Menu.
Congratulations! You have just completed sending your first Welcome Letter to your first
set of new subscribers.
To send your Email Newsletter or E-Zine
1. Open World Merge. Select New from the File Menu.
The Project wizard appears and prompts you with a few options.
2. You are first presented with an option to select a message file. Select New
Message.
3. Select the database type and file that contains you contact database. You
will select text and use the file masterlist.txt in the <master> directory.
4. Select the field in your database that is the e-mail address. Your file has
only one field which is the e-mail address.
5. After you have completed creating a new mailing project you will see the main
WorldMerge window. Just copy and paste your newletter from your text editor into the
message area. Save your project again before sending.
6. Now you are ready to send your message. Your message is the same to all
recipients so you will use the Send Broadcast Message method. You
send Broadcast because this option sends the same message to all recipients without
personalization. This is the method to use for sending newsletters - you can send
approximately 8000 messages per hour in broadcast mode (tested using a 32K modem).
Check the status of your messages
 WorldMerge
updates the send status of messages as they are being sent. A green check mark means that
the server has sent the message and a red x means that the server was unable to send the message due to an
error. If you stop your broadcast, a red dot will appear by the record where the
mailing stopped at.
WorldMerge provides log reports that you can review to determine if any errors occurred
and which messages may need to be sent again.
You can send personalized e-zines with WorldMerge which means you must ask your
subscribers to provider their full name when subscribing to Your E-zine.
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