Hirst

Recently, some members of the Online Think Tank started to consider the problems associated with the recent down turn in the economies real estate market in the United States. Much of the public perception has not fully taken into account just how bad things really are. One Online Think Tank member stated matter of fact: The US Real Estate Market Dead in the Water for the Next 10 Years.

Well that is definitely something that no one wants to hear these days still many analysts believe that the nationwide average of home values can and will go down another 8%. Indeed most consumers and home owners are expecting a rebound in 2-3 years. The real estate analysts think that is unrealistic and say that the home owners are nuts.

Many folks simply are not looking at the fall-out rates and all the foreclosures and a downturn in the economy will create more unrest in consumer confidence. People will not have a reprieve this time from credit card debt, no equity in those homes to cash out and pay off debt, there are huge implications. Commercial real estate might be much different.

Some markets will rebound, others the net population loss; moving West and South are at issue for them. The Online Think Tank wants to stay positive in its news to the public, but it is time to face up to reality and be thinking on ways to make things better than assuming everything will turn around in a few years on its own, not likely many analyst and think tankers agree.

L. Winslow is an Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur http://www.worldthinktank.net . Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by http://www.Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.

If you're anything like me, you're probably constantly looking for the best deal out there. Whether its shopping for a new car, home or just groceries, I'm always drawn to the freebies! I guess its the same with Email Marketing. Especially when you've first started and "getting your feet wet", you might not be prepared to spend too much on your tools yet.

Although there's some really great tools out there, like Aweber and Send Studio, I'm going to be talking about a few Open Source (read free) alternatives that you can start with. Now, these software are not for the faint-hearted or technologically challenged. Although most of them are quite simple to install, you still need to have some grasp of the technical jargon involved. You'll find that popular hosting panels like cPanel and Fantastico might have them pre-installed.

1. DadaMail - http://mojo.skazat.com/
Dada Mail has been around for awhile. Its written in Perl and can be set to use a flat file or a database like MySQL or PostgreSQL. The installation can be a bit daunting, but worth the effort. Once installed you can use it to generate your subscription form and cut and paste that into your website easily. Read our Dada Mail review here.

2. PhpList - http://www.tincan.co.uk/phplist
The description on their website reads: "PHPlist is a double opt-in newsletter manager. It is written in PHP and uses an SQL database for storing the information. PHPlist is software that runs on a server." The install is also quite simple but I found the interface less friendly than Dada Mail's. However it has some nice prebuilt features like Open and Click Tracking, plus a nice ability to pickup from the last email in case the sending fails midway.

3. Infinite Responder - http://infinite.ibasics.biz/
Unlike the 2 above, this is an Sequential Autoresponder developed with PHP that allows you to time your messages. It has an opt-in feature plus allows for Unlimited Autoresponders. A nice piece of software with an active forum to ask for help when you need it.

That's an intro to some of the more popular Open Source Email Marketing tools you can use. I've left out Mailman and Majordomo as its far too complicated for this purpose. If there's more that you'd like to see added, please contact me. But tools aside, its how you use them creatively that matters, but use them you must! A website without a mailing list is leaving a lot of money on the table as you would not have any means of contacting your prospects!

What I also like about using tools like these is that the information is in MySQL and that's easy to integrate into other membership registration forms and systems. You can even program your order form to automatically capture buyer's email addresses into the same database but use these email marketing tools to contact them.

If you don't know where to start or find installing scripts like this daunting, then head on over to Scriptlance or Elance and you get someone to do it for you affordably. Or perhaps if you ask nicely, some tech support at your hosting company might do it for you.

That rounds up my quick tour of Open Source Email Marketing tools. Remember that free is not always bad as these tools are often developed with collaboration from many brilliant programmers, ensuring you stable and reliable software.

T.C. Watts operates http://www.TopEmailMarketingSoftware.com, a website filled with tips, articles, reviews and how-tos dedicated to Email Marketing Software. Compare the best Autoresponder service with the Autoresponder Comparison chart - http://www.topemailmarketingsoftware.com/software/autoresponders/comparison