A mailing list has a number of advantages, and is pretty easy to start up. We'll cover the advantages first, and the setup second.

Advantages

• The distribution list is kept on the server.
• The list is easily updated.
• Malformed addresses are skipped.
• Undeliverable addresses get removed.
• Messages are sent over time, efficiently.

The distribution list is kept on the server, and there is a web page where you can add email addresses, or delete some addresses, or even replace all the addresses quickly. You can even add adddresses by putting them in an email message to the list. If you include a bad address (e.g., no @ sign) in the To: field of your mail program (i.e., and ordinary email message), the message is likely to just sit in your Outbox. A bad address in your mailing list is simply skipped. If a recipient on the mailing list is not reachable (e.g., address no longer valid) that address is automatically removed from the list.

A message sent to the mailing list is not sent to everyone on the list immediately. In particular, if you have 30 names in your mailing list @aol.com, those will be spread over a period of time so that AOL doesn't mark you as a spammer.

Setup

Spanmail makes it easy to start a mailing list by walking you through a few steps to get the basic information. Then a mailing list is created with the default settings we recommend. In fact, if you create a mailing list called "friends," we create a second mailing list "friends-test" because we always recommend that you have a small mailing list (maybe just you and a critical friend) to which you can submit your message first in order to make sure it looks OK before sending to a bigger audience.

Needed to start:

• a name for the list
• who can send
• a couple of test recipients (you and a friend/associate)
• a few real recipients (you and 2 friends!)

Example

After using our simple setup for the list that you decided was "My Clients," we recommend that you send a test message. Note that you are automatically an administrator and can send to the list, although you can designate another person to send as well. So, you will compose a message (in webmail, or in your mail program) and send it to my_clients-test@yourdomain .com. You see that we turned your title into a legal malbox name in your domain, and built a test list for you to send to before you send the message to my_clients@yourdomain.com. Your message will be sent to the addresses in the list, which for the test list is usually you, and possibly one or two others.

In the simple setup:

• only you, and optionally one other administrator, can send to the list
• only those administrators can add or delete addresses in the list
• footer text is recommended to allow recipients to unsubscribe.

Call 513-579-1990 if you want to talk about using a mailing list.