That honestly depends on your idea of a "noob". By your definition, are you says a G.I. fire and forget IP attrition mailer?
There is literally a metric shit ton of possibilities out there. It all depends on your list, how it was generated, how many you have, and what you intend to do with it. http://www.mailerforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1016 Theres a list that should keep you in r&d mode for a bit E
First off, are you talking about an MTA or ESP? I'm going to go out on a limb and give you the benefit of the doubt that...despite being a noob...you are not a total retard and can at least figure out the difference between MTA and ESP. The type of MTA really doesn't matter until you're sending a decent volume on a regular basis...but assuming you don't want to remain a noob forever you should choose an MTA that will scale well. Qmail: If you are willing to pay a C programmer to customize it for you, it's still one of the best in terms of stability, performance and security. Modified versions of this are still used by Yahoo and Gmail. It's NOT user friendly. Exim: Highly configurable and stable. I don't use a MTA often, but when I do, I use Exim. Postfix: A more user-friendly but less configurable MTA. Decent performance but I wouldn't build my business around it. PowerMTA: Pretty good if you are willing to bend over and let them pull money out of your ass. It's used by many ESPs...but just because a lot of people use something doesn't mean it's good. A lot of people drive Hyundais but that doesn't mean BMW isn't a better car. MS Exchange: LOL really? There are more options but those are the ones you'll probably hear about most.
Robomail you can actually tweek and fuck with. You're basically shit out of luck with Onpoint. I'm not sure about Volo, but I think you can fuck with it now.
Why don't you recommend platforms? I'm guessing more than 50% of the people here don't have the tech ability to tweak exim etc, or build a front end. But yes some of these big name platforms are certainly missing key features.
I'd hope that more than 50% of the forum could actually run an MTA. If you can't you need to go back to mailing 101.
Not necessarily. I know plenty of guys who don't know the slightest thing about programming/tech related stuff and make a damn good living off mailing just using platforms...volo etc. I guess that's what they're there for.
Sorry, but they aren't mailers if they can't even tune the MTA they're using. They're button pushers. That's like saying "Hey, guys I'm a mechanic. I can't change a spark plug, but don't worry I have a guy who does that.".
Alright, I get what you're saying. But being a good strategic mailer doesn't mean you have to know how your platform was built. Using another car analogy, you CAN be a professional race car driver and NOT have the slightest idea how to change your oil. Clearly I'm defensive because I can't program or anything but do well for myself mailing. "Sorry, but they aren't mailers if they can't even tune the MTA they're using." -- Then we need a word for guys like myself. We can mail, make a living mailing, but aren't crazy tech guys. Creative Button Pusher that Understands Affiliate Marketing maybe?
Race car drivers typically don't work on their cars either but they can sure drive the hell out of them. Edit: Just saw Mikes post about the race car driver. We must think a lot alike.
That's why I do not recommend them. To be a successful mailer you should have an intricate functional and technical knowledge of the process. Not only for having better revenues but it allows you to adapt your processes more quickly as things change. The vocal minority are, the rest are most likely noobs...but that's why we're here. We share our experiences for free and lower the barriers of entry to email marketing. Precisely! You can make "good" money with little more than an ESP account and a webpage that says "enter your email here for a free report". Platforms are a solid choice for companies that want to add email marketing to their repertoire, but are not primarily email marketers - i.e. an online shop that wants to send newsletters/special offers on a regular basis. If ALL you do is email marketing and you build your business around a platform, you are always going to be forced to work within the limitations of the platform. Other benefits of learning to tune an MTA yourself include the ability to scale your operation up for little more than the cost of additional hardware and colocation fees. If you are using a platform, you'll be locked into whatever the licensing agreement says...some are more flexible than others. I think we're on the same wavelength today because that was pretty much what I was going to say... The race car drive analogy almost works, but you forget that pro race car drivers have an entire team whose job it is to ensure the car is running top notch. In this situation we have a noob who knows nothing asking about an MTA when he really wants to know about a platform. He's so far off he doesn't even know what to ask for...and I doubt he has his own "tech team" managing a cluster of servers so all he needs to do is click send. That being said, you don't need to be 45 year old virgin computer programmer type to be a mailer, but if you're going to mail and want to be reasonably successful...AT LEAST get a basic idea of what's involved.
Show me 1 professional nascar driver that is totally incapable of working on at least 1 aspect of his car.
Do you have anyone that's not Ricky Bobby? EDIT: We'll have to agree to disagree. You're apparently happy with things being magical instead of knowing what you're doing.
