> Steve,
> I just went to your site to subscribe to the
> free newsletter. I read the message there to
> mean that you are not accepting subs
> currently because of a faulty script.
> Is this right?
> Thanks

Hi John,

I could have emailed you and told you the problem was fixed, but I thought I would post a message here in case my experience can help others. Thanks for asking John. I edited my page to remove that statement.

To start with, the last couple of years or so I used the free service provided by Listbot. Although I was fairly happy with this service, there was a couple of things I didn't like about it. Mostly... it was not having the ability to personalize my newsletter. Other marketers I knew advised me that I could increase the response rate I received from my newsletter by personalizing it.

At this time, my service provider was Calgary online (a local ISP dial-up). I found some great software that I liked called Worldcast and started importing my database from Listbot, into a local database read by Worldcast. This way I was able to personalize my newsletters. This worked great. As a matter of fact, I wrote a tutorial on how anyone can do the same thing.

Then Calgary Online went out of business. I subscribed to @home.com for my service provider.

Anyone who has used this service knows that page and software downloads are lightening fast, but there has been a lot of trouble with their mail servers. This had affected many subscribers who were complaining they were not receiving my newsletter. I got to say RATS! 'Cause this method worked really well for me. Listbot handled the mundane chore of automatically subscribing and unsubscribing folks, and it also automatically sent out my "welcome message" etc...

After sending out personalized versions of my newsletters, my response rate and bank account both said it was indeed worthwhile to personalize my newsletters. Well...I figured, that isn't a problem. There are a lot of already written free CGI scripts to handle this; I will just install one of these.

The first couple of scripts I installed failed due to server time-outs. Many servers have restrictions on the amount of messages you can send at one time. This is set to curb would-be spammers. Then I installed Add2it, written by Frank Bauer. It was supposed to send out batches. This would provide a work-around for server time-outs. That seemed to be OK but the problem was, when someone new subscribed the database would become corrupted, and would not mail to everyone on the list.

I moved on. I tried Umail, StepWebs Auto Mail, RobMail and Subscribe Me before settling on two programs written by Ron Wooly. Listmerge used with E-lists has proved to be a worthwhile installation. Ron's scripts have the makings of becoming a great commercial package, but my experience with them is that it does take a little tinkering of the Perl code to make it work the way you want.

Now I suppose some of you might think: this guy is a web developer. He probably has other resources...

Yes and no!

It's true that there are commercial packages of CGI software on my hard drive that customers have purchased and sent to me to install for them on their sites. I do as I'm told. I install them and make sure they are working. That's it! My job is over. So I don't have any experience using them or working with them. To install and use scripts that I didn't purchase and have no right to use would not only be wrong it would be theft. Plus it would defeat the purpose of my free newsletter which is geared to helping people develop their own business web sites.



Custom Programming From Free Scripts

Just in case anyone ever wanted to know, sometimes I do use free scripts to create custom programs for customers. These are scripts where the author doesn't mind if you modify their script and use it anyway you want.

Here is an example:

Two years ago there was a script written by Leif M. Wright called leftform.cgi. It was a very simple script that would take the input from a form and write it to a flatfile database. At that time Leif didn't really care what anyone did with it. Since then it has gone through numerous revisions and two name changes. The original script, which no longer exists to my knowledge, was modified by me to work with the Redicart Shopping Cart from iTransact.com. Here is what I did:

Using this script as a basis for my work I modified it to capture data from people ordering from the customer's shopping cart. It is now programmed to write the contents to a flatfile database. (which the customer can import into his own database he keeps in his office on his computer). After the script writes this data it looks to see what product was purchased. Then it triggers a different autoresponder for each individual product that was purchased. This allows the customer to immediately backend the purchase with something extra and related to the primary product purchased.

What?

Well suppose I buy lawn seed from you. What would be better to back-end this purchase with? A new watering hose or website development?

That's the beauty of this script. The email it sends the purchaser depends on what product they bought.

Do I sell this script or other scripts I've done this to?

No! As far as I am concerned Leif doesn't have any rights to my modified programming. But because the work done was based on his programming, I don't feel I have the right to sell the script. In this case the customer is the winner, because he was only charged for the modifications and re-programming and did not have to pay for the initial script AND did not have to pay for having the WHOLE thing programmed from scratch.

Steve, why are you posting this rant?

I've had some people email me with messages like "...well don't you have a copy of the script you could install for me?"

Sure... if you buy a copy and send it to me.

Other scripting and programming is most likely custom solutions tailored to specific customer needs. These things are not for sale either, yet if you hire me to provide a custom solution there is a good chance I will be able to provide the solution.

In Conclusion

I would like to believe that I run my business as ethical as I can. This is partly why you hear me talk about free CGI programs more than paid for ones. Free scripts are something everyone has access to, which can often provide solutions for small businesses who are struggling to get their business on the web while working with a shoe-string budget. Been there! Done that! Guess what? I still like free things as well as the next guy. :-)

Best Regards, Steve MacLellan




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