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A Desktop-Hosted Autoresponder

A desktop-hosted autoresponder is just a program that is run directly on your own workstation or computer.

Desktop autoresponders may or may not be cheaper or easier to use than other types of autoresponders.

The biggest disadvantage is that you need to have the program running on a dedicated computer with around-the-clock access to the internet via a high speed broadband connection. The use of a dial-up connection simply would not be adequate.

To use this type of autoresponder, you must purchase the program and install it on your computer.

Desktop-hosted autoresponders are more suitable for non-professional marketers who have a small subscriber list.

For professional marketers who have a large subscriber list, these are not recommended.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Desktop-Hosted Autoresponders

If you are a professional internet marketer or has a large subscriber list, you should consider using a locally-hosted autoresponder and not a desktop autoresponder for the following reasons:

1. Technical superiority and reliability of a web server hosted autoresponder.

2. Ease of expansion to meet growing demand as multiple autoresponders can be added later.

3. Ability to handle large subscribe list.

4. Lower overall cost- no need for a dedicated computer with around-the-clock internet access.

However, desktop autoresponder have its advantages too.

For example, if you are a professional internet marketer, you can use it for automating a lot of the tasks involved in answering emails.

In fact, you may consider using a locally-hosted autoresponder to handle tasks like subscription and follow-up, and a desktop autoresponder to handle tasks like sending a certain email-on-demand or for responding to specific enquiries.

Leading Desktop-Hosted Autoresponders in the Market

There are many desktop-hosted autoresponders in the market.

Following are two leading desktop brandnames in the market:

1. Promasoft
2. Mailloop

Almost all desktop autoresponders in the market provide unlimited use of the autoresponders with unlimited follow-up messages and unlimited number of subscribers.

However, not all of them provide useful features like automatic subscribe and unsubscribe, link tracking features and sending emails in text or HTML formats.

So it is important that you study the features of an autoresponder carefully before deciding to purchase.

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.