Email Aces Autoresponder: Free Version
June 11th 2008
The last of free autoresponders to review was Email Aces. This is the new kid on the block, so-to-speak.
Their free version is not obvious to find. I had to Google Email Aces Free, but you can also find it if you go to the Email Aces home page and look for the small link that says, “Click here if you’ve decided not to sign up with us.” Note that the page claims the free version is a limited offer. That was four years ago, so how limited could it be?
The first thing I noticed is their site seemed a little cheezy. I found some obvious typos, but I’m chalking this up to the fact that they’re fairly new. Since this isn’t a lack of a feature, I pressed on.
Pros
Pro: Attachments!
This is the first free autoresponder that actually let me attach a file to the email! Yay!
Pro: The only ad is for themselves
My email had an ad for Email Aces at the top, but it wasn’t bad. It was a couple of lines set apart with a border. I can live with that:
Pro: After subscribing, visitor goes to home page
This is the same as Royal Responder. I like that the user remains on my site.
Con: Opt-in message contains email
The first thing that’s a little odd is when the visitor gets the confirmation email, it says, “We recently received a request for subscription to our list from the email address, myemail@rcn.com.”
The email address it uses is what I put for my administrator email.
First of all, this is just the admin address I want Email Aces to send notices for me to. I don’t want this given out to the public. And secondly, to tell someone that an email address requested for them to be signed up is very confusing. All they know is that they filled out a form on a website, which has nothing to do with email. It should say “We received a request from mywebsite.com” or my company name.
Con: Sparse online help
Looking at the items under their support menu choice, it’s obvious they’re pretty new. I found two FAQs (in four categories) and no forum or blog. (But I must say I was happy with how quickly customer service got back to me when I asked a question via their help desk ticket system.)
Con: Big graphic on web form
Their webform has a very in-your-face graphic:
Con: Short username field
What you choose for your username is what shows for the Email Aces link, for example squirrelfree.emailaces.com. But they only allow 12 characters for the name, so you most likely have to abbreviate or truncate your business name.
Con: Tedious interface
This is one of the worst selling points for me. The interface is very text-heavy. For example, on the main screen where you set up emails, there are about eight paragraphs of help text at the top of the screen before you even get to the edit fields for your email text. This means that once you’re comfortable with the system and you don’t need to see the help text anymore, you still have to scroll down every single time you want to edit your message text. That’ll drive me crazy.
Here’s a screen shot of what I mean. I spliced together two pages worth for this image, but normally you would have to scroll down to see the edit fields:
The menus also have a lot of text; it seems like they have every choice listed under their main menus instead of breaking the choices down by logical groupings. For example, below is one menu that has all the possible choices for autoresponder management and message management. If all I want to do is edit a mesage, I have to do a lot of reading before I see the right menu choice.
Con: Buggy
I just did a simple test and I encountered a bug. When setting up my email messages, the help text for the interval field said, “You must have an autoresponse, with an interval of 0, set up in order for any of your followups to be sent.”
But…somehow it let me enter two follow-up emails with no autoresponse email. I recognized my mistake when I tested because I did not get an email immediately after filling out the webform. So I tried to change my first follow-up (inteval = 1) to be an autoresponse (interval = 0), but it didn’t let me. I changed it to 0 and saved, but the system did not save the change; the interval was still 1. I had to delete the email series and start over.
If I found a bug like this in the first hour of using the system, there are probably many more.
Summary
Although this is the only freebie autoresponder that lets me include attachments, it’s clear they’re pretty new. They have very little help text and their system is a little buggy. I don’t think I would want to rely on this system to be the interaction with my potential clients. .
The first thing I noticed is their site seemed a little cheezy. I found some obvious typos, but I’m chalking this up to the fact that they’re fairly new. Since this isn’t a lack of a feature, I pressed on.
Unavailable Features
Similar to the others:- No broadcast messages
- Only one campaign
- Cannot set a confirmation URL to point to a page on your site
- Cannot export
- Forced double opt-in
Unique Available Features
One thing got my attention right away; the first item listed under Pro:Pros
- Attachments!
- The only ad is for themselves
- After subscribing, visitor goes to home page
- Opt-in message contains email
- Sparse online help
- Big graphic on web form
- Short username field
- Tedious interface
- Buggy
Pro: Attachments!
This is the first free autoresponder that actually let me attach a file to the email! Yay!
Pro: The only ad is for themselves
My email had an ad for Email Aces at the top, but it wasn’t bad. It was a couple of lines set apart with a border. I can live with that:
Pro: After subscribing, visitor goes to home page
This is the same as Royal Responder. I like that the user remains on my site.
Con: Opt-in message contains email
The first thing that’s a little odd is when the visitor gets the confirmation email, it says, “We recently received a request for subscription to our list from the email address, myemail@rcn.com.”
The email address it uses is what I put for my administrator email.
First of all, this is just the admin address I want Email Aces to send notices for me to. I don’t want this given out to the public. And secondly, to tell someone that an email address requested for them to be signed up is very confusing. All they know is that they filled out a form on a website, which has nothing to do with email. It should say “We received a request from mywebsite.com” or my company name.
Con: Sparse online help
Looking at the items under their support menu choice, it’s obvious they’re pretty new. I found two FAQs (in four categories) and no forum or blog. (But I must say I was happy with how quickly customer service got back to me when I asked a question via their help desk ticket system.)
Con: Big graphic on web form
Their webform has a very in-your-face graphic:
Con: Short username field
What you choose for your username is what shows for the Email Aces link, for example squirrelfree.emailaces.com. But they only allow 12 characters for the name, so you most likely have to abbreviate or truncate your business name.
Con: Tedious interface
This is one of the worst selling points for me. The interface is very text-heavy. For example, on the main screen where you set up emails, there are about eight paragraphs of help text at the top of the screen before you even get to the edit fields for your email text. This means that once you’re comfortable with the system and you don’t need to see the help text anymore, you still have to scroll down every single time you want to edit your message text. That’ll drive me crazy.
Here’s a screen shot of what I mean. I spliced together two pages worth for this image, but normally you would have to scroll down to see the edit fields:
The menus also have a lot of text; it seems like they have every choice listed under their main menus instead of breaking the choices down by logical groupings. For example, below is one menu that has all the possible choices for autoresponder management and message management. If all I want to do is edit a mesage, I have to do a lot of reading before I see the right menu choice.
Con: Buggy
I just did a simple test and I encountered a bug. When setting up my email messages, the help text for the interval field said, “You must have an autoresponse, with an interval of 0, set up in order for any of your followups to be sent.”
But…somehow it let me enter two follow-up emails with no autoresponse email. I recognized my mistake when I tested because I did not get an email immediately after filling out the webform. So I tried to change my first follow-up (inteval = 1) to be an autoresponse (interval = 0), but it didn’t let me. I changed it to 0 and saved, but the system did not save the change; the interval was still 1. I had to delete the email series and start over.
If I found a bug like this in the first hour of using the system, there are probably many more.
Summary
Although this is the only freebie autoresponder that lets me include attachments, it’s clear they’re pretty new. They have very little help text and their system is a little buggy. I don’t think I would want to rely on this system to be the interaction with my potential clients. .
Pro: No forced double opt-in!
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