Two Top Email Programs For Serious Internet Marketers

by Marty Foley

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Your email program is a fundamental tool in your online marketing arsenal. The selection of the right one for your situation can be a real time- and money-saving asset. The purpose of this article is to help increase your email productivity and effectiveness.

Many serious netpreneurs (who are in the online trenches daily) agree that the two best email programs around are Pegasus and Eudora. As someone that has used Pegasus and both versions of Eudora (Light and Pro), following are some insights to consider before you run off to get one of these programs.

First let me mention what prompted me to start comparing them. For some time I rented an automated listserver to send out issues of my Global Profit$ (now named ProfitInfo) Email Newsletter. I would email a single message to the listserver, which would then distribute it to all subscribers. But suddenly, the company I was renting the listserver from exited the automated mailing list business.

Fortunately, I didn't lose my valuable subscriber list, but the simple method I was using to send out each issue no longer existed. What was I to do? Could I find an easier way to maintain control of my own valuable in-house email list, automating where possible, and maybe save money to boot? (Listserver rental can cost several hundred dollars per year. You don't really need one if your list has less than several thousand subscribers. Plus, you can set up a virtually unlimited number of distribution lists with Pegasus, as you'll see below.)

I started my email newsletter by copying and pasting all subscriber email addresses into the BCC (blind carbon copy) section of an email message, using Eudora Light. Then I started to use the Address Books feature. While those methods worked in a pinch, they were time-consuming. That's why I started using a listserver.

NOTE: If you want to use the above method, don't confuse the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) feature of an email program with the CC (Carbon Copy) feature. If you paste email addresses into the CC section of a message, every recipient will see all other email addresses it has been sent to. This looks very unprofessional, and your subscribers don't want their email addresses distributed all over the 'net. Spammers would love to get their hands on them. Email addresses pasted into the BCC section cannot be seen by other recipients.

After comparing Eudora (in both the Light and Pro versions) with Pegasus, I've decided to go with the latter. Especially for automation of many email operations, Pegasus is definitely better than Eudora Light. Eudora Pro, on the other hand, is about neck and neck with Pegasus, but only in some features. Pegasus has other useful features currently not available in either version of Eudora.
First let's compare some features that Pegasus and Eudora Pro (and sometimes Eudora Light) hold in common. As we do this, why not compare them with your existing email program?

Filters are a powerful feature that allow automated processing of email when certain text that you specify is found in the header, subject or message body. Filters in Pegasus and Eudora (more in Pro than in Light) allow you to automatically:

*Reply with specific email messages. This feature is similar to an autoresponder, except responses are only queued up for sending when you download your email, rather than being available 24 hrs. a day.

You can set up as many of these "semi-autoresponders" as you like, and they cost nothing but a little time. Extremely handy if you want to reply with the same template messages. Pegasus also allows other ASCII text files to be automatically sent in reply.

*Forward messages to other email addresses.

*Make messages stand out by highlighting or flagging them.

*Make copies of messages.

*Move messages to folders.

*Delete messages, such as spam email from certain domains.

Other than filters, another very useful feature offered by Pegasus and Eudora Pro are multiple signature (sig) files. Both programs let you set up several and easily select any one of them to include with a given message.

Additional Features Offered By Pegasus
Here are some areas where Pegasus surpasses Eudora Pro:
*Pegasus filters also allow others to automatically Subscribe and Unsubscribe their email addresses from your distribution lists. (Neither Eudora Light nor Pro have this feature, although it's simple to manually add email addresses to Eudora mailing lists.)

The only "catch" is that the Subscribe or Unsubscribe command must be typed in precisely by the email sender in order for it to be read by a Pegasus filter. A misspelled command won't be detected. (These can be easily added to your list, though.)

To deal with that problem, you can use the mailto: link in your email messages, and a similar one on your web site. The following example of a mailto: link makes it very easy for others with email programs that display interactive links. They don't need to type anything in the Subject line; just click and send.

TIP: Unfortunately, the mailto: link doesn't work with all email programs. You might give people an option by also telling them what to type in the subject line. For example:
To subscribe to ProfitInfo Email Newsletter: Email: <Subscribe@ProfitInfo.com> Subject: Subscribe <mailto:Subscribe@ProfitInfo.com?subject=SUBSCRIBE>

*The distribution lists in Pegasus will not accept duplicate email addresses. Eudora'saddress books, however, will accept them, which results in some recipients getting duplicate copies of your messages. If such people ever unsubscribe from your list, they'll still receive your mailings if all copies of their email addresses haven't been removed. In addition, Eudora will stop in the middle of a mailing whenever there happens to be an improperly formatted email address in the list. This is not a problem with Pegasus.

*Mail merge, for sending customized form "e-letters."

*Built-in encryption for email privacy. (A separate plug-in must be obtained for email encryption in Eudora Pro.)

*Pegasus also allows you to run your own discussion list. (A manual may come in handy for learning how to do this.)

*Price is another area where Pegasus beats Eudora Pro. Pegasus is free, but the manuals cost about $40.00 (US) per copy. The online help file is pretty thorough, so you be able to get along without a manual. Eudora Pro costs around $45-$90 (US). Eudora Light is also free, but it lacks several features available in the Pro version.

NOTE: Unfortunately, a few of you may not be able to switch email programs because you're required to use a proprietary one that your current ISP provides. This may include those using online services such as Prodigy, Compuserve, AOL and possibly others. If you don't know, simply ask your tech support or customer service department.

If you're serious about your online productivity, but are sure you aren't allowed to use these helpful programs through your current Internet Service Provider, you might consider switching ISP's.
We've just considered several reasons that Pegasus is the email program of choice for a growing number of savvy Internet marketers.I recommend that you download a copy today, at: <http://www.pegasus.usa.com>.
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