As the launch of the new GetResponse approaches, we’d like to give you some important information concerning the process of moving your current account to the new system. Here’s what you need to know:

Before the migration - schedule service disruption:

The data migration will begin on July 4, 2009 at 9 PM EDT and end on July 5, 2009 at 5 PM EDT, therefore service will not be available during that time period.

Note: During this scheduled data migration, all GetResponse sites will be down and you will not be able to access your account.

Your account during service disruption:

Please rest assured that no account data will be lost during migration! Your web forms will be working, however all processes related to sign ups will be queued and processed within 24-48 hours. That means that anyone who subscribes or signs up to your campaign will not be added to your contact list for 24-48 hours. If applicable, new subscribers will also be credited to your account within the same time period. Please note that new subscribers will not receive confirmation or thank-you messages immediately, but they will go out automatically after the above time period.

No payments will be processed on July 5. Therefore, if your recurring charge is set for this date, it will take place on July 6.

After the migration:

After the migration is completed, you will be introduced to the new GetResponse interface and the old version will no longer be available.

All the settings from your account will be carefully moved to the new system and will remain intact. You can be confident that no data will be lost.

As with most major migrations, the system may not be working perfectly from 2 to 3 days after the data has been moved. Please let us know about any problems you experience by contacting our capable Customer Service Team. It will help us to quickly address any issues.

We have performed migrations many times and, as always, we will do our best to conduct a smooth migration for the new launch. Again, you can rest assured that this process will not affect your account or stored data in any way.

If you have any questions regarding the migration process, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to answer any questions you might have!

Thank you for choosing our email marketing service! We hope you will be just as excited about this new version as we are!

Best Regards

GetResponse Team

Every day brings us closer to the launch of GetResponse 6.0, the biggest and the best release ever! The new version gives you a totally new interface, powerful features, multimedia, and much more.

Of course, we understand that change can be stressful, that’s why before the Big Day comes, we’d like to let you know more about what’s coming with the new and improved GetResponse. To review some of the new features, enhancements and new GetResponse for iPhone preview please watch our videos:

Attention Tweeple. We have decided to reward those “serious email marketers” who are first in line to take control of the power and possibilities of GetResponse 6.0. We will be soon launching an exclusive competition for @GetResponse followers to celebrate the launch of GetResponse V6.0.

Make sure to stay tuned! There’s lots more excitement to come!

Email Marketing – GetResponse

Join our Email Marketing Academy and leave the competition behind! You’ll get exclusive interviews with top email marketing experts, starting with “Unravelling Best Sending Practices” with Marcin Luks, GetResponse Email Deliverability Specialist.

Please explain your role at GetResponse?

Put simply, I ensure that our clients’ emails reach their subscribers’ inboxes. In practice, apart from maintaining
relationships with ISPs (like Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail or Gmail), it means constantly teaching clients how to keep up with the Best Sending
Practices, because each and every client contributes to GetResponse’s reputation as a whole.

How important is deliverability for a Email Marketing service like GetResponse?

To be reliable for our customers, we need to ensure that the number of received emails is as close to 100% of those sent as possible.
Deliverability is like a litmus paper of reputation. If a certain client conducts email marketing which might be considered as
spammy, it influences not only his own deliverability, but also that of other users.

Why do people try to spam?

Because they don’t understand their relationship with their subscribers. In reality, it’s an agreement: ‘I am joining because I want to
receive relevant content relating to my interests and expect you to respect me and my time.’ Spamming is treating subscribers
just as a list of prospects, not real people.

Is it getting harder to spam?

ISPs are developing new technologies to guard inboxes from unwanted content and spam filters are getting more and more sophisticated.
We also monitor our system daily in search of abusive behavior, so yes, it is getting harder. But it’s an ongoing battle all the time.

How is GetResponse improving its deliverabilty?

Apart from technological issues, like authentication or whitelistings that we take care of, deliverability is all about what, how and how often
our clients are sending. That is why our role is to teach our clients how to be responsible email marketers. We just share our knowledge, which is built on experience and multiple industry initiatives that we are a part of.

Email Marketing - GetResponse

I’ve got good news and bad news.

The bad news is that, according to a report recently released by Cisco, approximately 90% of all email is spam.

The good news is you’re not crazy after all!

Spam accounts for about 200 BILLION messages a day, and the United States is the biggest source with over 17%. Turkey and Russia tie for second place.

The hackers are using botnets to take over legitimate email accounts, where their spam messages are sent out with the email owner’s name. Unfortunately, this is easily accomplished because many businesses and individuals use weak passwords that can easily be cracked.

Now’s a good time to review ALL of your email accounts and upgrade your password if necessary. I’ve been the victim of crime and, believe me; you never want a customer emailing you to ask why you are sending out fake PayPal links! If you don’t think it can happen to you, think again.

It only takes a few minutes - check your accounts today.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

There is an interesting article at City News regarding what scientists discovered about how spammers make a profit.

It seems that everyone complains about spam - from business opportunities to the latest prescription drug – that clogs our email in-boxes. So, if everyone is deleting these messages, why are we still getting spam?

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and UC, San Diego, decided to find out.

It turns out that only one response was needed for every 12.5 MILLION (!) spam emails sent, in order for spammers to make a profit.

With those odds, you might think that spam is here to say. But you may be surprised! 

Read the whole Spamalytics report here.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

An eye-opening article at Direct Mag quotes from a study which found that 29% of Internet users have bought goods through a spam email.

The research study, conducted by online security company Marshal, found the most commonly purchased items were sexual enhancement pills and other adult material, software, jewelry and clothing.

Unfortunately, it looks like the percentage of people buying from spammers is increasing. In 2004, Forrester Research did a similar study, finding that 20% of those they surveyed reported purchased from spammers.

Marshall attributed the rise to the spammers’ ability to reduce their costs by using botnets, or networks consisting of thousands of infected personal computers, which are remotely controlled by criminals. Thanks to this, spammers have reduced or eliminated their need for their own servers because they can take control of other people’s computers.

Eighty percent of the world’s spam is accounted for by only five botnets.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

In the “You’ve Got to be Kidding Me!” category, the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the nine-year sentence of Jeremy Jaynes, who was listed in Spamhaus’ ROKSO database as the eighth more prolific spammer in the world.

Jaynes had been convicted of violating Virginia’s Computer Crimes Act, by sending unsolicited bulk email via a fake address.

The Virginia law, which has been around for five years, defines spammers as those who send high volumes of spam email (10,000 messages in 24 hours or 100,000 messages in 30 days), AND use a fictitious name.

So, what got Jeremy Jaynes off the hook? It seems that the first Amendment protects those who use anonymous names when sending emails expressing their political and religious opinions.  This goes all the way back to the Federalist Papers, which advocated ratifying the U.S. Constitution and were published with fictitious names.

The Virginia ruling states that since political and religious emails (with fake names) can’t be classified as spam because they are protected under the first Amendment, that same ruling must be extended to others….like Jaynes.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently released a statement that contains updates to the CAN-SPAM Act. Please take a moment to find out how these new rules may affect you.

What You Need To Do….

1.  Please review the “From” address in your campaigns. At all times, it needs to be clearly recognizable as belonging to you or your organization.

Remember: this change affects you especially if you co-operate with affiliates or third party email marketers. In such cases, you must also provide only one opt-out mechanism for a message.

What Else You Need to Know…

2.  Each commercial email you send needs to have a valid physical postal address. Update: You may now use a post office box or private mailbox instead of your personal physical address.

What GetResponse did….

3.  GetResponse has made sure the unsubscribe mechanism is very simple. CAN-SPAM specifies that if any subscriber wants to opt out, s(he) cannot be required to provide information other than his or her email address, opt-out preferences and definitely cannot be made to pay a fee. Any steps other than sending a reply email message or visiting a single page on an Internet website are illegal.

This is only a short summary of the most important updates and cannot be treated as legal advice. If you wish to know more about the update, you can familiarize yourself with the full text of the update. If you need legal advice, please contact your attorney.

While most of the world suffers with spam levels averaging 81.5%, the United States wins the “prize” of the most spammed country, with an 86% spam email rate.

Cities may fight to be named #1 on Money Magazine’s “Best Places to Live in America”, but they sure aren’t vying to be named the most spammed states. Those honors are shown below:

1. Illinois
2. South Dakota
3. Oregon
4. New Hampshire
5. Wisconsin
6. North Carolina
7. Indiana
8. Texas
9. Pennsylvania
10. Alabama

Want to know the real reason these states have the highest spam rate? Read Paul McNamara’s tongue-in-cheek report.

Adam Vitale has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years for spamming 1.3 million AOL subscribers. In addition to his sentence in a Manhattan federal court, Vitale was also ordered to pay $180,000 to AOL in restitution.

Vitale’s partner, Todd Moeller, had already been sentenced in November 2007 to 27 months.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse