In this article, we will look at the following issues:

1. What is a remotely-hosted autoresponder?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a remotely-hosted autoresponder.
3. Leading brandnames in the market.

A Remotely-Hosted Autoresponder

A remotely hosted autoresponder means that your autoresponder will be hosted on and work from someone else's website rather than your own.

These are web-based subscription services and the provider usually provides you with a HTML form and an email address (usually the provider's) for you to receive emails and to send follow-up messages.

These autoresponders are usually written in Perl, PHP or ASP scripts and are installed on and run from a web server. The programs often require a database backend as well e.g., mySQL, SQL2000 or Postgres.

This option is suitable for you if you do not have your own web space.

This is ideal for beginners who has a fairly small subscriber list and do not require multiple autoresponders.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Remotely-Hosted Autoresponders

The main advantage of this type of service is they are very easy to set up and can be fairly reliable.

There are many good services to choose from, some of them have been around for a number of years.

The user does not need a script, a database or a web server. In other words, the services are host-independent i.e., there is no need to seek the permission of your web host to allow you to run any particular services on your site e.g., cgi access or mySQL.

Users of these autoresponders are charged a monthly subscription fee (currently around $20 each month for each account).

There is usually no initial cost involved. So the initial cost of using such a service may be lower than locally-hosted ones which require the purchase of a script or program up front.

But if you need to run multiple autoresponders, the cost will add up quickly and soon exceed the cost of the locally-hosted ones.

Another drawback is that they can be a bit inflexible with little room for customization. This is because the programs are not hosted on your site and you do not have access to them.

However, remotely-hosted autoresponders usually have more features than the other types of autoresponders e.g., spam checker and list builder. So if you really need these features, you should consider using them.

Leading Remotely-Hosted Autoresponders in the Market

There are many of them currently available in the market. But not all of them have an established track record.

Below are four remotely-hosted autoresponders. The first three are leading brandnames in the market, while the last is showing good potential.

1. Get Response
2. Aweber
3. Royal Responder
4. Email Aces

It is important for you to compare their features and licensing conditions carefully as not all of them provide unlimited use of their autoresponders, or allow you to send unlimited follow-up messages and to have unlimited number of subscribers.

Keng Hong Quek

Dr. Daniel Keng Hong Quek, a consulting civil engineer by practice, is the principal of the engineering consulting firm Dr. Quek & Associates. He graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Master of Engineering Science and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in 1986, 1987 and 1991, respectively, and has been active on the Internet since 1995.

Dr. Quek is a professional engineer registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia, and a corporate member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia. He is also a registered EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Consultant with the Department of Environment Malaysia and the Natural Resources and Environment Board, Sarawak.

Dr. Quek has over 20 years of post-graduate experience mainly in consultancy work. He specialises in the field of water resources including hydrologic and hydraulic modelling and environmental management. He is a regular contributor of engineering journals, seminars and conferences, with more than 30 publications to his credit.

Besides engineering, he is also interested in using the Internet to market his services.

One of his early ?successes? was a popular website called Water Resource & Environment Centre which provides free resources in water resources and environmental management.

In 2002, he started conducting training workshops for engineers. This was when he developed the website msmam.com for his participants to download his free software for use in the workshop.

He wanted to find ways of promoting his paid workshop. So he started offering free downloads of his software (evaluation version) to visitors at his website. He set up an autoresponder on his main page.

To request for the free software, the visitors must fill up a form on the page with their names and email addresses. This will be entered automatically into a database and the autoresponder starts to do the followup at pre-determined intervals. In this manner, he has built up a list of thousands of subscribers and many have signed up for his workshop :-)

Realising the potential of the autoresponder, he began selling it on the Internet in 2005. Besides selling software, he has also been successful in building portal sites to profit from Google?s Adsense program. This involves getting high ranking on popular keywords in major search engines to bring visitors to Google?s advertiser sites.