Almost every blogger and his dog tell you that AWeber is the best email marketing service.
AWeber is a good option indeed. It’s one of the oldest email marketing service providers. Don’t expect me to post some crappy lies here.
Many internet marketing veterans use it… “If ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” They also have another strong reason. You’ll find it within a few minutes, don’t worry!
When new faces show up, they check what the veterans do and say, “That’s what my successful mentor uses. I have to use it too.”
That explains why many internet marketers use it. But it doesn’t mean that AWeber is the best and that it’s the perfect choice for you…
1. AWeber is Expensive
“You get what you pay for,” they say. That’s not always 100% true. If you’re a blogger, ask yourself how much money you pay for your great WordPress software ;-)
While AWeber is far from being the most expensive email marketing service, it’s not one of the cheapest. Anyway, let’s see why you need such an email marketing tool…
“The money is in the list,” they say. “You must build a list.”
That’s true. But no one tells you that list building isn’t easy and it doesn’t work for everyone.
During their first months, sometimes even later, many internet marketers get only several subscribers, and don’t make any money.
For example, read this monthly income report issued by a blogger well-respected in her small community. [Update: I had to remove the link due to the fact that the blogger deleted the report ;-)] Not really a newbie. But …
Earnings = $12.75
Aweber cost = $29
Other costs: $38.90
That’s not a singular example and I guess you know it.
Not trying to be sarcastic, but I guess it’s better to get the same “nothing” while spending less money, isn’t it?
And by “business” I don’t refer to lucky sales…
A newbie, an AWeber user, was bragging on Warrior Forum that he got $97 while having only 9 subscribers.
If you were lucky one time, it doesn’t mean that you already have a business and what you do is fine.
| 0-500 subscribers |
501-1,000 subscribers |
1,001-2,500 subscribers |
2,501-5,000 subscribers |
5,001-10,000 subscribers |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWeber | $19/mo | $29/mo | $29/mo | $49/mo | $69/mo |
| GetResponse | $15/mo | $15/mo | $25/mo | $45/mo | $65/mo |
2. AWeber Charges for Unsubscribes
While the Pricing page claims that the customers are charged based on the number of subscribers, an unpleasant surprise is buried in a help article most of the marketers have no reason to read – “How Do I Delete My Unsubscribes?”
AWeber is one of the few email marketing companies that charge their customers for unsubscribes.
If you’re not aware of this piece of information and you don’t take action as described in the article mentioned above, then your cost may increase significantly.
3. AWeber Charges for Duplicate Email Addresses
If you’re a professional email marketer, then you segment your mailing list.
As a result of your list segmentation, the same subscriber may be added to more sub-lists. For example, John’s email address may be added to the sub-list “IM Newsletter”, but also to the sub-list “Affiliates”. Here’s the result if you use AWeber:
John is counted as two subscribers. Now multiply this practice for more subscribers and more sub-lists and figure out what the impact on your cost is!
4. Paying for Features You Don’t Use?
RSS to email newsletter.
Some email marketing companies provide this tool, others don’t do it. AWeber does it. But do you need it? Will you use it?
Quoting from an AWeber review, “Truthfully, I haven’t really use this feature much but this is one feature that will save you a lot of time.”
A well-respected blogger in her community, commented on the same review, “The only feature I’m not really using is the RSS to email feature either. I just haven’t bothered with it and most have told me if they subscribe to my RSS feed they know when my post is live so they don’t want to receive emails.”
It’s not important who those bloggers are. The point is that not everyone uses that feature.
On top of that… some people don’t even blog. So they really don’t need such a feature.
So why getting it and paying for it? Don’t even think about considering it a free feature added to the rest of the features that are paid for. Don’t fool yourself.
5. More Serious Competitors Than in the Good ol’ Days
“All the big dogs use it,” some AWeber fans say, and then they show you a list of several gals and guys who are famous in their tiny community. But if you think twice, these big dogs are actually just “some skilled guys I think I’ve heard of once” from the perspective of a larger community, and sort of “who the hell are they?” on a larger scale.
“I didn’t see X autoresponder (other than AWeber) used a lot,” say others fans, as if their limited experience is something relevant to the whole world.
The truth is that the world is larger than some people think or just pretend it is in their willingly or unwillingly biased reviews.
Tell me what email marketing service the famous X uses, and I’ll tell you a bigger name who doesn’t use it ;-) You shouldn’t lie to yourself… There are many serious competitors.
BONUS: AWeber’s Deliverability
When it comes to comparing AWeber with other email marketing providers, many AWeber users jump quickly and claim that they prefer AWeber because they want to be sure that their emails land in recipients’ inboxes. Example of comment from such a fan.
If you’re one of these users, I would suggest that you learn more about email marketing and then talk about facts, not about your or your friends’ assumptions.
Instead of Conclusion: The Best Email Marketing Service?
Search on Google for “AWeber sucks” or “I hate AWeber”. I guess you’ll find even more reasons for not using AWeber. I’ll stop here though… My goal isn’t to show you how bad AWeber is – it isn’t. I started to write this article having another goal in my mind. A hidden one. Let me reveal it now…
Aweber and many other services are just fine. However, if I look carefully, I’ll find out disadvantages and reasons for not using them. If you analyze the disadvantages I discovered, you may not consider some of them as being disadvantages. That’s not very unexpected if you ask me.
We have different needs. We have different perspectives. We are different. What is good to me may not be good to you. So… read, keep yourself informed, but don’t believe the crappy reviews that claim that “AWeber is the best email marketing service” or anything alike. It isn’t.
There’s no such thing as “the best” product, service, actor, car, whatever, generally valid for all of us. Things are moving. We are changing. And we’re different anyway.
Do your homework and don’t be a copycat.
See what your needs are (not other people’s needs, but yours!), compare more service providers, look for negative reviews too, and then choose an affordable email marketing service that matches your needs. Preferably the cheapest one – why not? If that happens to be AWeber, it’s fine. If it happens to be another one, that’s fine too.
You don’t have to buy an expensive thing just because you can afford it. You don’t have to choose a product or a service just because someone with another standing, other skills and other needs than yours chooses it. You don’t have to… Etcetera… Be you!
Finally, let me share with you a secret…
The Secret That Changes the Picture for Some AWeber Users
Some of the reasons not to use AWeber are related to the costs. Well…
Did you know that some of the veterans you see using and recommending AWeber do NOT pay the same price you’re supposed to pay?
Here’s a comment from this blog:
That looks like “another” AWeber, isn’t that so? But you don’t have access to it…
To your success!
Adrian Jock
P.S. There’s a huge difference between needing and wanting something. Copywriters know very well what I’m saying. If you don’t need AWeber but for whatever reason you want it… get it. Period. This article isn’t for you.
Your turn please, if you like …
P.P.S. Are you an AWeber user? How many other services have you tested and why didn’t you like them?
P.P.P.S. Not an AWeber user? What do you use? Why?
Very well written. Every one must decide for himself which is the best AR to use.
Hi Adrian,
Long time no see :-)
Okay! I know you always come up with a contrary post with some very logical thoughts. Well, the same thing here. You haven’t really said that Aweber is bad and something else is better than that. All you have said is, “People! Apply common sense and do not become a copycat”
I like it and I have nothing against that argument.
I use Aweber, I know they are not the cheapest but I will not change to anything else yet unless someone guarantees me for a better email delivery rates and a cheaper price without losing the functionalities. By the way, I think I use RSS to email feature and I think it does save time :-)
Cheers!
Kumar
Agreed. I like Weber, the customer services is great, I get everything I need, and yes it’s a bit pricey, but I’ve tried Get Response and Sendlane and others, and they have their issues as well. There is no perfect solution to ANYTHING out there. Good article though, we should always be thinking about how to improve and questioning what is deemed “established” and “not broke”.
Also it’s good that there’s a lot of competition now because it pushes Aweber to improve and become better, and that in turn pushes the competition to improve and make larger strides as well.
Hi Kumar,
Thank you for your comment. Maybe I should brand myself as, “Expect the Unexpected” :-)
As for deliverability… You know, I’ve recently read some comments on Warrior Forum (example) where the posters were complaining about Aweber’s decreased email deliverability.
I don’t know whether your IMPRESSION is right or not. I don’t know whether their impression is right or not.
What I know is that no one can guarantee what you ask for. Not even Aweber.
Why? There’s a simple reason: if your email lands in my spam folder, it doesn’t exist the technology to warn the sending company. Irrespective of the name of the company (incl. Aweber), that email will be reported as just fine.
There are broadcasting services having a bad reputation indeed. I don’t want to give an example here, but if you use such a service, you’ve got a problem.
However, the pro email marketing companies – a lot of them – have a good reputation. So it doesn’t really matter whether you use them or Aweber. Most of the times what matters is the wording you use, the domain name inserted in your emails, and other things that depend on YOU.
When I’m talking about good or bad reputation, I’m not referring to what people think, but I’m referring to what ISPs know based on their users spam reports and more. All big dogs have a good relationship with the major ISPs, exchange information (feedback loop), take action for correcting the issues, etc.
The only metric that is accurate is CTR. Open rates? Deliverability rates? Don’t rely on the figures provided by anyone. They aren’t 100% accurate. There’s no technology for that.
I’ll finish, I’m not going to write another article here :)
Hi Adrian,
True, but as you said, don’t fix what’s not broken. While the logic makes absolutely perfect sense, I have seen people having bad delivery using some of the other services while things improved for them after switching to Aweber.
Now, they may have a biased view on this whole thing but I have been happy about the delivery and CTR with Aweber and I am not going to rock the boat for a a few dollars of cheaper service.
If they have a good reputation, it must be for a reason? :-)
What do you say?
Regards,
Kumar
Kumar, if you’re happy with Aweber that’s fine. My explanation was “forced” by your “I will not change to anything else yet unless someone guarantees me for a better email delivery rates”
If you don’t want to switch to another service because you’re happy with Aweber’s services, that’s fine. If you add the part that is bolded above, that’s unrealistic.
While no one asked you to switch to another service (at least not me), what you’re asking from another company (to guarantee better delivery rates) it’s impossible.
For example, Aweber cannot and will not guarantee me a better deliverability for my emails ;-)
Hi Adrian
I’ve tried Mad Mimi, AWeber and GetResponse and all of them have their good and bad points.
I most recently moved from AWeber to GetResponse because there are so many more features for your money – particularly with autoresponders and list segmentation.
I like the idea of a self-hosted autoresponder but as I’m still on shared hosting I reckon I’d probably get in trouble with my web host!
Hi Tim,
Thanks for stopping by, commenting and sharing. I appreciate it.
Indeed all services, not only the ones you mentioned, aren’t perfect. I never seen anything done by humans that is perfect. That’s it, we have to face it :)
Hi Adrian,
I have many blogger friends, who pester me with the importance of building a list and recommend Aweber for getting the task done.
But so far, I haven’t really made up my mind to use it. According to my analysis, in my case, building a list is not of much importance. So, why waste precious time and money trying to build one that is of no use? :)
To satisfy the needs of readers, I’ve been using the humble Jetpack mail subscription service, which is free. It isn’t feature packed or stylish, but it does help send my latest posts to the handful of subscribers I have. :)
As I read the title, I thought that you’ll be exposing some serious drawbacks of Aweber. And yes, you did reveal some points worth noting down. Will sure bring this post to my friends’ attention! :)
Arun
Hi Arun,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
You can succeed online even if you don’t have a mailing list. Matt Zuckerberg and others have created online empires without building a list :)
True that Adrian :) !
I was advised by an expert blogger to go for commentluv or disqus! So i ended up having disqus! Aweber is expensive too!
Hi Tuhin,
I’m not sure that I understood exactly what your point is, but you may want to know that CommentLuv has a free version. Is that expensive? :-)
“Aweber” this is new for me. Really I wasn’t aware about Aweber but when I just hear “3 Reasons Why NOT to Use Aweber” than I came to know about it & how its useful !
Hi Maneesha,
Letting Aweber aside, shall I understand that every time when you see a headline that says “x reasons for NOT using a certain service” you think that you’ll read a piece of text about a service that is useful? :-)
I mean, do you understand the meaning of the word “NOT” from the headline and the HUGE difference between “reasons for using X” and “reason for NOT using X”?
Finally, if you’re wondering why I removed the link to your latest blog post, there’s a simple reason: I don’t allow on my blog texts on languages I don’t understand. Such texts may or may not be appropriate, I cannot know. I don’t take the risk.
Exactly. All the reasons for me to choose Mailchimp or Madmimi… They both are better than Aweber.
I don’t think so at all. Aweber to me is over hyped just like many other hosting companies online.
Emmanuel, what do you mean by “I don’t think so”?
Update April 27 – No response? Ok, here’s the thing. My article isn’t about hosting companies. But your latest article is about hosting companies. So … did you post a comment only for the sake of writing some words related to your latest article? OK. The link to your latest article is removed.
Never thought about it those terms before, so I guess I’ve been a ‘follow the crowd guy’, although the crowd I’m following is GetResponse (my choice though, not my mentor’s). Mind you my previous choice was ListWire which barely qualifies as ‘adequate’ except for the fact that it’s free.
Thank you for the thought provoking post. I’ll be back for more.
Regards,
Steven Lucas
Hi Steven,
Thank you for your comment.
If someone asks, “What autoresponder do you recommend?” then most of the answers that person will get are AWeber and GetResponse. Both are brands that take advantage of the fact that they were kind of pioneers in this field. Good to them :)
Hi Adrian,
Just few minutes ago I was reading the article about Aweber at Kumar’s blog. He has moved to an another company for his e-mail Marketing.
Like you said that it’s very expensive and charge for everything.
I hope people can find any other company which can provide better facility at affordable price.
Thanks for letting me know more.
Have a nice week ahead.:)
~Ravi
Hi Ravi,
At the time of writing this article, Kumar was still an Aweber happy user (see his comments above). In the meantime, he changed his mind ;-)
I notice a lot of people using Aweber, or perhaps they’re not and I just notice the ones that do. I’ve always considered moving over to AWeber from MailChimp as I’ve always heard people raving on about them. I was quite surprised at some of the things you highlighted AWeber does, but the one reason that I never moved over was because of the expense. Guaranteed delivery rate? Pffft, I’m sure most email marketing companies boast about those kinds of things in any case, so what’s the point, every company loves a bit of hype. Good points, thanks for sharing this Adrian, I guess I won’t ever be using AWeber.
Thank you for your comment, Fabrizio. It’s true that the deliverability of the emails depends on the sender (the email marketing company), but it also depends on other things out of their control. Guaranteed delivery rates? Jokes for attracting the noobs or claims from reviews written by email marketing noobs ;-)
I’m a user of both GetResponse & Aweber. I must say that GetResponse is better than Aweber in many aspects. Not only it is cheaper but also comes with better templates and features. Aweber is also a good service but the only reason I don’t like Aweber, it is very costly specially when you have a list of 20000+ subscribers like I do.
Hi Sensei,
It was the sheer gap in the price range that did it for me too. I had contacted them all before going for Mad Mimi to check all details including the price and the customer service.
Just like you stated, Aweber presented a over priced product and then “offered” me a discount. Sure, inflate the price, and then give me a “so-called” discount.
Sorry, but this old fashioned “sales” gimmick will never work on me. And I kept getting mails from the sales guy offering me to re-negotiate on the price.
Sorry Aweber, you lost me with your first email, Good Bye!!
Piyush
Hi Piyush :)
You reminded me of my previous cable company. They kept increasing the price while decreasing the level of their services until I said, “Stop. I had enough!” Then they called me trying to explain their problems. As if I care. Then… A final call from someone else – upper management level…
“What’s wrong? Ohh… I see, why didn’t you say it earlier instead of finishing the contract? Let us offer you a 50% discount!”
Me… “Nope, too late. I won’t come back even if you let me have your service for free. This isn’t about money, but about respecting your customer” ;)
Aweber is not letting me save my emails (it is not letting me move past the email creation stage or autosaving) and I can’t find any help. Why am I paying for something that doesn’t do what I’m paying it to do. Any help on this guys PLEASE!
Why don’t you ask their customer support? AWeber provides a good and fast support ;)
Some of the other options I’m looking at have an “agency” model where I can manage multiple accounts from one main account. I don’t think Aweber has this feature but I could be wrong…
Price is relative. If my autoresponder is not paying for itself and making a profit, the only one I have to blame is myself. Be it Aweber or any other reputable service.
Sorry, I get SO tired of hearing that Aweber is too expensive. For $29 a month you get 1,000 subs. If you can’t make a profit from 1,000 subs you don’t know what your doing or your not putting in the effort. Most people complain Aweber is too expensive, but in reality they are doing little to try and profit from their list.
Granted if some one is just using an AR to push their latest blog post and that’s all, then they probably shouldn’t be paying for a service. Plenty of free ways to accomplish that goal.
I am not saying Aweber is perfect, they have their faults.
Also, there is more to deliverability, or what tab your email ends up in, than the AR service your using. Can’t blame that totally on Aweber. Many marketers cause that problem themselves.
As for the RSS to email feature, I LOVE it. I use it for one list and that feature more than pays for the AR service, and makes some nice profit. I think many people don’t use it because they don’t know how it can be harnessed. Especially for ecomm sites.
Sorry to be negative, just get tired of this kind of gripe. Though I guess it’s useful to promote another product :)
For $25 a month you can have 2,500 subs and you get a better autoresponder from GetResponse. Action-based autoresponder, not only time-based. If you’re an experienced marketer – as your comment may suggest – then you know how important is to have also an action-based autoresponder. So… YES, Aweber is too expensive. You can get a better service for a lower price.
Sure. And I get so tired of hearing this faulty logic.
1) Some people don’t blog for money. Who do you think you are to tell them they don’t know what they are doing?
2) Yes, some people are noobs and can’t make a profit from 1k subs. Nobody was born with an internet marketing experience app loaded in their head. Why should these people use Aweber?
3) Following your logic… why do you use Aweber and not Infusionsoft or other service that is more expensive? If you can’t afford to pay $199/mo for 2,500 subscribers, then “you don’t know what your doing or your not putting in the effort” See how faulty this logic is? It could justify any price. Even the price of a jet ;-)
This article was written two years ago. GetResponse banner was inserted in this article two weeks ago. But… yes… it’s a good marketing tactic to analyze the problems a product or a service has and then to promote another product that solves said problems. Especially when the product that is promoted is better ;)
Good thing I have read this before actually using the application. I agree it is too expensive for its purpose. There are other programs who have the same use and have lower prices. Thank you for sharing this!
There is no doubt that Aweber is expensive and it is not really for small bloggers. If you ask me, their delivery and CTR are not great for small time bloggers.
I’m a user of both GetResponse & Aweber. I must say that GetResponse is better than Aweber in many aspects. Not only it is cheaper but also comes with better templates and features. Aweber is also a good service but the only reason I don’t like Aweber, it is very costly specially when you have a list of 20000+ subscribers like I do.
I’ve already used several types of auto responders on my digital journey, I’m currently using GetResponse, both for the lowest cost and I’m also finding the rate of delivery of emails much more efficient.
But I am using Aweber from last 1 year and I have got enough subscribers through this tool! Aweber has helped me a lot in increasing my email list!
Aweber did NOT help you in any way to grow your email list :)
For example, the list building plugin that you use helped you grow your list and that plugin integrates with many email marketing services.
From the perspective of growing your list, it’s irrelevant whether you use Aweber or another service. If you switch to another service, your list building plugin will show to the visitor exactly the same thing as it shows right now. So prospect’s decision whether to subscribe or not isn’t affected in any way by your email marketing service.
I particularly do not use Aweber, the delivery rate and the cost per leads are expensive in relation to GetResponse and E-Goi, but currently I am using a wonderful tool developed by a Brazilian called Lead Lovers, I recommend to everyone that try it because it’s simply fantastic.
I have not used Aweber in a long time, there are many other more advanced tools nowadays like GetResponse and Lead Lovers that are sensational and cost-effective.