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  1. #1
    PaulDow's Avatar
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    Email Newsletter Distribution Method Question

    I assume that virtually all chapters with newsletters now use email for distribution. I’d like to ask what method you’re using to send them.

    I’m looking at converting our web site over to the chapters.eaa.org standard format, but there are a couple things I have running on EAA1310.org that I would lose.

    Right now I have PHPList to send to distribution lists. I think its similar to Constant Contact. I have lists for Members, Directors, Young Eagles, Event notices, Newsletter only, and the local airport community. Several people are on multiple lists, but PHPList doesn’t send duplicates.

    A down side is that I have to recompose the newsletter in PHPList’s own editor, since I create it in Word. Within Word, I can print to pdf in order to keep an archive version. An up side is the email sent from PHPList can be viewed directly without a pdf or docx viewer.

    I could send using bcc with a standard email program, but I want to avoid having the chapter email list on my own computer. We end up with versions between multiple people that are never synchronised. I also use Microsoft’s Office 365 for non-profit organizations, so email processing for eaa1310.org is handled through that. Our web site is hosted elsewhere.

    I’d like to make the process easier, but also maintain the central list capability. Unfortunately, Office365 doesn’t have a mass mail feature.

    Thanks,
    Paul

  2. #2
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    For my airpark HOA, I bought redirection services from a company called Gaggle.email. They're hosted on AWS and provide just about every feature and tweak I can imagine. Support is very responsive as well.

  3. #3
    PaulDow's Avatar
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    Thanks Ron,
    It looks like I would need the $2/year per email address plan since I have 6 groups and 186 addresses. I'm sure that could be cut back to about 100 if I sent a Google Analytics code out with the messages to see who is actually opening them. I don't think the membership would go for the $200 for what's been free, especially since most aren't chapter members.

    I started searching a bit and see Mailchimp has a free plan for up to 2,000 addresses and 10,000 messages per month.

  4. #4
    FlyingRon's Avatar
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    The problem with MailChimp and similar services is that they're more targeted to bulk mailing rather than ListServ type operation. I looked at a bunch of those.

  5. #5
    CarlOrton's Avatar
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    We use mail chimp. List maintenance is great, composition is a bit clunky. As an example, it cannot import PDFs. If someone sends you a Word doc and you paste it, no pics are included. You have to have the pics sent separately then import into MC, then embed, do word wrap etc. Caveat: I’ve been using MC for about 2 years, But have not Looked at any of the tutorials or guides available.

    Carl Orton
    Sonex #1170 / Zenith 750 Cruzer
    http://mykitlog.com/corton

  6. #6
    Aviatrexx's Avatar
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    We had our chapter website hosted on an inexpensive "shared server" provider. Among the server's many free software packages is Mailman, which we use to provide a variety of discussion and announcement listservers. Mailman allows members to share photos, videos, and any sort of formatted file attachments (subject to compatible software being available on the recipient's device) via plain old email. The vast majority of the traffic is plain/rich text, but we regularly share PDF's, Word docs, spreadsheets, and even the occasional questionnaire/survey created by another one of the server's free offerings.

    We have just recreated our webpages on the EAA chapter.eaa.org site and are struggling to replace the functionality we lost (specifically, our "members-only" pages). Before the recent change in EAA hosts, all we had on the EAA website was a redirection to our much more capable server.

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