One of the more tedious but valuable tasks that must be performed is regular contact with the client base - to close clients (one theory argues that a client must be presented to 17 times before s/he will seriously consider a purchase), to cross sell, to market through Word of Mouth and a host of other functions.
This program sits and automatically runs on your ISP's server, so you don't have to have your computer turned on at all.
Most ISP servers run Unix or Linux and run Perl or CGI programs, so this program has been developed in that, very common, language.
This cgi program automatically emails a message to your client list. The message is contained in a file which can be named according to the day of the month, so you can automatically send a different message for each day of the month, if you so wish (file1, file2, file3 > file 31). This is helpful for reducing repetitiveness, tips of the day etc.
This program needs to be started automatically. To do this, the ISP server usually runs a facility called "cron jobs." However, many domains are located in shared space on ISP's where the facility to run "cron jobs" (automatically start programs) is denied. YOU DO NOT NEED THE FACILITY TO RUN CRON JOBS for this program to work - you simply input the path of your program in any of the free cron job sites (webcron.org, cronjobs.org, cron.fr etc). These sites will trigger the program for you at specific times.
This program contains the facility to start or not on specific days. So, for example, you can tell it to send emails on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays but not Tuesdays and Thursdays and weekends. So you only need to program the cron job sites above to run the program at certain times everyday. The program itself will know if it is the right day to run or not. So, for example, if you set the timing on the cron job sites to 10am everyday and set the day within the program to Monday, Wednesday and Friday only, then the program will trigger every day at 10am but will only send out a message to your email list on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This prevents you from having to set the program up for various days on the cron job sites.
This program also attaches an automatic unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email that is sent out. This way, the client can automatically unsubscribe or if you receive an invalid email back, you can click on the link to remove it from the database. It helps to keep your list clean.
It is incredibly simple to set up, but you must know the basics of perl or cgi (how to upload to your cgi-bin, chmod to set permissions, change parameters such as the path to your sendmail etc...). If you are unfamiliar with the basics, your ISP support should be able to direct you.
You will need to edit the cgi file (with notepad or other common text manipulator; make sure you upload and download to your server in ASCII):
a) Path to your sendmail program (the line that starts with $mail_prog = ).
b) Name of your message file (the line that starts with $message_file = )
c) Name of your email address list (the line that starts with $address_file)
d) Path to unsubscribe from mailing list (optional)
Then just:
e) Upload the program to your cgi bin and set permissions (CHMOD) to 755
f) Upload the message file and set permissions (CHMOD) to 755
g) Upload the address file and leave the permissions at default (should be 644)
h) Type the URL of the file in a web browser and it will send the message to your list; you will see a confirmation in the browser.
Then to automate the process, simply input the URL at (webcron.org, cron.fr, cronjobs.org etc).
Click on the PayPal button below to purchase. The download location and password will automatically appear on your screen: