Administrating Mailing Lists

Written By:
Jos van Doorn

So you have subscribed to a lot of mailing lists. You
want to announce your newsletter. That's why you did
it. But what about the administration?

Let's talk about mailing lists as found in eGroups.
What goes for them also goes for the mailing lists
found in other services.

To start with you could save all pages of the mailing
lists that you've found in eGroups. That way you can
check whether you're subscribed to them.

After subscribing to a mailing list you'll get a
welcome e-mail. In that e-mail you'll find instructions
about posting announcements etc.

That's a thing that needs to be saved. It always comes
in handy to check whether the rules of the mailing
lists have been followed.

Read the welcome e-mail and find the e-mail address for
posting announcements. Copy this e-mail address to a
text file.

This is how announcements are made:

1. It's always done by e-mail. Address the e-mail to
yourself.

2. The subject of the e-mail is the name of your
newsletter

3. Write the e-mail addresses of the mailing lists in
the BCC field. The e-mail addresses are separated
by semi colons

Here is an example of such an e-mail. It's an example
of an e-mail I've send away to announce my own
newsletter.

To : josvandoorn@zwallet.com

Subject: ACAD Newsletter

BCC : A2ndIncome-subscribe@listbot.com;AardvarkMarke
ting-subscribe@listbot.com;AdvertExpressEzine-
subscribe@listbot.com;asti1-subscribe@listbot.
com;AWAHS-ubscribe@listbot.com

Body : Subscribe to ACAD Newsletter if you want to
learn AutoCAD and AutoLISP. The newsletter has
a lot of useful information. Subscribe for
FREE. Send an e-mail to:

mailto:acadnewsletter-subscribe@topica.com

Using the BCC field is very handy. It saves a lot of
time in sending out e-mails. You can send out the whole
lot at once.

The recipients of the e-mail will not see who else
received the e-mail. That's not mentioned on the e-mail
they receive.

In the example only a few e-mails are specified. In
reality send out my announcements to a loot more e-
mail addresses.

Use NotePad from Windows for making the text file for
announcing your newsletter. Make three separate text
files: week, bi-week, and - continued below ...

continued ...
month.

Being subscribed to a lot of mailing lists has a big
disadvantage. You'll receive a lot of e-mails. The e-
mails will fill your e-mail account quickly.

The first thing to do is open a separate e-mail account
for the e-mails from the mailing lists. Most of the e-
mails you'll just delete.

You can go a step further. Remember the home page of
Yahoo! Groups. There is a link with the words "My
Groups". Click on that link.

A page is displayed. On the page are all groups
mentioned to which you subscribed. You can make changes
to your subscription there.

The number of members of the mailing list is on the
page and also the delivery options. Click on the link
saying "Edit Delivery Options".

Now you can change the delivery options. There are four
delivery options:

1. Individual Emails
2. Daily Digest
3. No Mail/Web Only
4. Unsubscribe

As you subscribe to a mailing list the first option is
active. Individual e-mails will be send to you. That
will fill your e-mail account quickly.

Choose for daily digest to receive less e-mails. When
you do e-mails are bundled and put in one e-mail. That
e-mail is send to you.

But the third option is the best option. You're still
subscribed to the mailing list. But you don't receive
e-mails no more.

The last option is a sort of double option. To
unsubscribe you can also send an e-mail to the mailing
list.

There is another big advantage to the My Groups page.
You can see whether you can post messsages to the mailing
list.

If you can post messages to the mailing list then a link
saying "Post" is displayed. You can click on that link.
An e-mail screen appears.

I don't know about you. But I only want mailing lists for
posting announcements. So if I can't post to the mailing
list right away I unsubscribe!

This is all the administration that's needed for
mailing lists. Keep it simple. Don't save too much. You
don't want to spend days on your mailing lists.

About the Author

Jos van Doorn is an AutoCAD specialist, AutoLISP programmer and ACAD newsletter publisher. The newsletter is *
for people who want to learn more about AutoCAD
and AutoLISP. It's FREE. To subscribe:
mailto:acadnewsletter-subscribe@topica.com

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