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As discussed in Part I, Topica offers a free, all-in-one tool online for any business-owner to host, publish and manage their own e-mail newsletter.

 

As part of its service, Topica also offers list-owners the ability to easily manage their lists - adding or deleting subscribers, reviewing subscription requests, checking pertinent list statistics, or organizing an event.

 

All of the tools below are available to list-owners once they sign into their Topica account.

 

Maintaining a List with Topica

 

Topica offers two methods by which list-owners can add subscribers.

 

Add Subscribers - Potential Subscribers can be invited to join a list through Topica's "Add Subscribers" link. List-owners enter the e-mail addresses of the potential subscribers into a form in their web browser and click "Submit." Topica handles sending an invitation e-mail to each recipient and tracks whether the invitees have joined or not. (List-owners can monitor responses via Topica's "Subscription Offers" link.)

 

Import List - If list-owners have already compiled a list of subscribers who have agreed (opted-in) to receive their newsletter, the list-owner can upload the list to the Topica servers. The list must be in a text only format with a line return after each e-mail address. (Essentially one long list. Text files can be generated in Windows' Notepad, Mac SimpleText or by performing a "Save As" in Microsoft Word and selecting "Text Only with Line Breaks" from the drop down "Save File as Type" box.) Imported subscribers are added directly to your newsletter subscription list. *Those subscribers DO NOT have to register with Topica to receive your newsletter. NOTE that imported lists are limited to 500 entries.

 

Subscription Requests - For those list-owners who have opted to review list subscribers before adding them to the mailing list, this link shows the e-mail addresses of those applying to join the list. The list-owner may then accept or reject any of the potential subscribers.

 

List Statistics - This link gives list-owners a quick, graphical view of list data including, number of subscribers, number of new subscribers, number of subscription requests, messages per week (useful to discussion list-owners, but less so for newsletter lists) and errors (which includes non-delivered e-mails).

 

Organize An Event - This link takes users to the evite.com online invitation service where they can create an e-mail invitation for a seminar, networking meeting or any type of reception they might be planning.

 

By making an online newsletter mailing list easier to manage, Topica offers business owners the tools to extend the reach of their online marketing.

 

*List-owners using this method of adding subscriber names could collect opt-in e-mail addresses off-line or via their personal e-mail accounts to save their subscribers from having to register with Topica. See Part I for information solicited from Topica of potential subscribers.