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That is typically how it is done.  You can also call an image which is actually a PHP script so you can track who opens the email.

That is typically how it is done.  You can also call an image which is actually a PHP script so you can track who opens the email

Ok, I like this idea. ive heard of php images, but never really looked into them. Are they simple enough to create and use?
Have you any experience in this.

thanks

But if someone has images blocked (like Gmail alot of the time), you wont see those as an open would you?

Well I am very inexperienced with this kind of thing...never did a newsletter, or email campaign for that matter...

Isnt there some way to request a "read receipt"? I thought I saw something like that in Outlook once...

Also, since images can be blocked, couldn't you have a PHP script, or javascript for that matter, that notifies you once it is read?

I dont know PHP or Javascript, so I dont know how much help I can be. I just know that if images are blocked, then tracking opens with images wont be 100% accurate.

My apologies.

Well, using mod_rewrite you can easily have it call a tracking.gif image, but really go over to tracking.php.  In fact, using mod_rewrite, you could name it tracking_username_at_domain_dot_com.gif and send that to a PHP script.

To answer your question Mark, you could in theory have the image display something of value in the newsletter, such as a headline or a logo.

There's some desktop software you can get. I forget it's name, but will post it back here when i find it

mobtex,

any reports on the xx% at each stage?

So far i've seen that a 0.1% open rate (from the initial set) is good

Last edited by Northie (2006-08-31 07:46:12)

This instance wasn't me - i did some contact work for a guy in February and he was showingme this software. His clients would give him a list and he'd send out the emails. After a few days he was getting 1 in 1000 opened (or was it 1 in 1000 acted upon? - i can't remember now!)

Northie wrote:

any reports on the xx% at each stage?

So far i've seen that a 0.1% open rate (from the initial set) is good

That will vary on the type of mailing. And for an ezine, it will vary from publication to publication. When I get my articles published in various ezines, some of them I always expect great results, while others fall flat nearly every time. The size of the ezine and the number of subscribers matters not.

There are two ezines where I have been published and both have about half a million readers. Getting published in the smaller of the two will nearly guarantee me a profitable day. Getting published in the bigger of the two usually has little if any effect at all.

The smaller list has a higher response rate and read rate. The larger has a minimal response rate and read rate.

I have seen as much as a 0.5% click-through rate on my link in my article's resource box with the smaller of the two ezines --- the one with the smaller subscriber base. Now, if 0.5% are clicking my link, I would expect that their actual open rates and read rates are much higher.

I have not published an actual ezine in years, but when I did, I had a 40% open rate. It was a small ezine with only about 2,000 subscribers. But the read rate was very high.

I was looking at the php image redirect myself just recently, and I had decided that if I ever go back to an ezine format, I will definitely incorporate that technology into my new ezine.


Bill Platt