Hi chaps I’ve been asked to make an animated e-card for someone to add to their christmas e-news letter. Can anyone point me in the right direction ie how should I deliver the finished jod, as a flash file ? qtime movie and by the same token how do they create the mail-out (I can ask them this but would like not to appear too ignorant) - good of anyone to help me out here. Regards Roger
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
Hi Roger
if the newsletter ecard is going to be viewed by an email programe (probably yes)
then you are down to gif animation
as far as I know most normal mail programs are incapable of showing anything animated like a quicktime or flash file though they will show a animated gif.
First of all set your document to HTML 4
and turn off the css Blue Button.
If you are going to make a newsletter then you are going to have to get your hands a little dirty when it comes to the code.
Ideally all styles need to be as inline but as a second best the styles need to be within the HTML, but not where Freeway puts them, as not all email programs will see the styles where they are normally kept.
You will need to look at the HTML code and move (cut and Paste) the styles within Head tag into the Body tag
as per this
</head>
<body>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body { margin:0px; background-color:#e2e3e8; height:100% }
while you are there add an extra return after the body tag so there is clear air between and the first line of code. An exceptions to an item being able to use use normal styling methods is background images in cells they really really really do need to be placed as an inline to get anything like a constant show.
While I am on images they all need to be referenced to where the images are going to reside. Tim plums Remote Resources action does a blooming good job of allowing you to reference image. The only ones it doesn’t do is the image cell backgrounds which are added via extended attributes of an image cell an with those you need to use the full address. like this
Name: style
Value: background-image:url(http://www.servon.co.uk/newsletters/oldoct08/Resources/shadow_border_lef.png); background-repeat:y-repeat
other things that will need to be amended
remove the div id=“PageDiv” at the beginning and the
at the end of the html
if you are centering the document then you will need to add
align=center to the end of the first table in the HTML
so it will change from this:
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=535>
to this:
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=535 align=center>
After you have done all this you need to test it
I have had one bulk mailing program that couldn’t handle background images in cells though it could on table!!
Other things to look out for is text content, if you have words like: FREE rolex worth $$$ for any one who finances there viagra supply with us then this is a sure way to smack straight into an anti spam wall. These are called trigger words.
An unsubscribe is also mandatory in the UK, and so is a reference of the company its sent from. We normally use our address and our company reference number.
If you are going to send out this newsletter for your client your self then you should use proper bulk apps like:
IntelliMerge, Direct Mail, MaxBulk Mailer,
because these can be adjusted to look like its come from the client’s email rather than from your email address plus they can handle lists properly.
If you plan to bulk mail more than about 500 then you will need to look to see how many emails you are allowed to email out in a day. The bog standard is about 500, if you are going to be sending out thousands then you need to use a proper system like mail chimp which has severs that are white listed and can handle this sort of quantity. If any one is interested we as a company are setting this sort of system up right now and are in the process of testing an browser based system for our clients who want to handle there own bulk emailing. If people are interested let me know.
Anyway it looks like a lot but in reality once you have done it once it’s relatively straight forward. I do have an example if you need to see the freeway artwork and the end HTML. to get an idea of what you need to do to Freeway/HTML, (Unfortunately there isn’t much out there to help Freeway users understand what they need to do hence us setting our own system up).
here is an example:
http://www.servondesign.co.uk/newsletters/oldoct08/
remember to let me know if you need the freeway artwork ( I will need your email address)
kind regards max
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
Jeez Max … you must have been working on this all morning, I suggest you publish it somewhere other than ‘Off Topic’ so more folk can get a look. I think (only THINK) that the client is going to be sending there e-newsletter themselves so that helps.
Having said that I was intending emailing them some sample animations (just to show off) and figured I’d follow this ‘tip’ published in an earlier newsletter from Softpress:
Freeway Tips and Tricks
Easy HTML E-mails
Have you ever wanted to create a simple HTML email message using Freeway? It’s easy. Simply create a page in Freeway and using the third tab of the Inspector palette, change the HTML option to HTML 3.2 - this will make your e-mail accessible across the widest range of desktop and browser-based e-mail clients. To make your images available in the e-mail as well, you will need to use the Remote Resources Action. With your page created and the action applied to the page, you are ready to upload to your server. After the page is uploaded, navigate to the page in Safari and choose “Mail Contents of This Page” from the File menu (or press cmd-I). Apple Mail will launch and will display the contents of your page in a new e-mail. Just add the e-mail address(es) and send as normal.
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
Hi Roger
I am been doing so much email construction recently that I am starting to dream about it!!! last month we sent out in excess of 100,000 emails over multiple clients and lists… I cant even start to tell you how difficult it is to find definitive info on spam filtering and its getting harder all the time, I have even had talks with Microsoft cos there Hotmail accounts are the hardest to get past there filtering, google mail arn’t much better. I have researched and dug and I have blasphemed a bit too.
The upshot is for small things like a mini newsletter its fine to use the cmd I. But if you want to track links, edit the mail list or have an auto unsubscribe etc etc etc then you will need to do it properly and even that comes with different degrees of what properly is depending on what and who you are sending to. So that’s why for the last few months we have been putting together something that people like freeway users and our client can use without the need to do what we have had to do.
We are also going to produce an online video showing how to use the system so I hope this will make Freeway users a little more confident on what they need to do.
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
I would love to see that!
Nathan Garner
Partner
Member of NAPP
On 2 Dec 2008, at 14:32, max wrote:
Hi Roger
I am been doing so much email construction recently that I am starting to dream about it!!! last month we sent out in excess of 100,000 emails over multiple clients and lists… I cant even start to tell you how difficult it is to find definitive info on spam filtering and its getting harder all the time, I have even had talks with Microsoft cos there Hotmail accounts are the hardest to get past there filtering, google mail arn’t much better. I have researched and dug and I have blasphemed a bit too.
The upshot is for small things like a mini newsletter its fine to use the cmd I. But if you want to track links, edit the mail list or have an auto unsubscribe etc etc etc then you will need to do it properly and even that comes with different degrees of what properly is depending on what and who you are sending to. So that’s why for the last few months we have been putting together something that people like freeway users and our client can use without the need to do what we have had to do.
We are also going to produce an online video showing how to use the system so I hope this will make Freeway users a little more confident on what they need to do.
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
A really neat program for this is Direct Mail Pro
Tracks clicks and all sorts of stuff, and Subscribers etc. Even checks your message to see if spam filters would consider it as spam. And an option to user their servers to send out.
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
It’s not too far off
We have the whole shebang working and we are testing it out with a few clients. We still need to video how to use the system but it really will be 4 or 5 step thing on how to actually send out emails. And While I am at it I will record what the Freeway artwork should be like too.
so look out for it after Christmas.
max
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
Direct Mail pro is a good bit of software and does have a spam checker but it’s only avaialble on the pro version and I think it just checks content not structure, though it does give you a score. Some one who knows more about this app will know more as I am not sure how many spam filters it checks against. There are loads!!
The other two I like is Intellimerge and BulkMailer
both these can use webpages as a starting point for emailers and both have spam checkers, but again these are very limited in what they check for and oddly enough if you check one with another they come up with different results. So if you are going to use something like a destop app you will need to do proper checking.
As a special note: take email guidelines and rules like unsubscribing and content seriously!! things like emailing 500 hotmail accounts in one go over over from a dubious list that a client has given you is a sure fire way to get grey listed, it’s virtually impossible for the individual to find out if you are grey listed, though finding if your black listed is easier but by then its too late.
max
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
Direct Mail Pro does check the structure (as in, it tells you the likelihood % on the email being marked spam) against spam assassin rules.
e.g. just sending html with no plain text alternative. give a spam score. Just a picture a high spam score.
These products work find for subscribed opted in list members.
But anyone can mark and complain any email as unsolicited spam. (for example, Yahoo users can click the “Spam” button while viewing email to report a message as junk). Many email providers, including AOL and Yahoo, forward these complaints back to the Delivery Service servers, after first stripping out the recipient’s email address.)
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
things like emailing 500 hotmail accounts in one go over over from a dubious list that a client has given you is a sure fire way to get grey listed
Coincidentally Japan’s new anti-spam law went into effect yesterday. $250 fine per violation can add up!
Thanks Max and WebWorker for the info. Roger, this is another good thread you started.
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
Check out http://www.mailchimp.com/ easy to use and set up. They cover all the bases regarding spamming etc. Check out the Resource Center page, lots of info even if you decide not to us them.
Cheers, Marcel
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options
Yes Jim a great thread, as always there’s so much to learn and consider but with such assistance and advice the picture starts to become clearer, good of you all to contribute. I’ll now probably spend the rest of the day checking out everything. Roger
offtopic mailing list
email@hidden
Update your subscriptions at:
http://freewaytalk.net/person/options