Email marketing is the most cost effective form of marketing. Actually, it doesn't cost anything to send emails, unless you consider internet bandwidth as a cost! However, you do need to have systems to send emails to your mailing list. There are many ways you can do this, ranging from free hosted services and free software, to one time payment owned products, to monthly payment hosted solutions. All systems have their own pros and cons, their own features and advantages. Let us discuss these in detail so that we can decide which one is best for you:

Free Hosted Solution: There are several free autoresponder services available online, if you search on google. One of them is sendfree.com. The problem with these services is that they have very limited features and at some point of time you will require to upgrade to their paid solution, as your business expands. I wouldn't advice to go for it, unless you're doing it for entertainment purposes only.

Free Mailing Software: There are quite a few softwares available that you can install on your own server. This is OK to start with. But since it is free, you may be limited with features. Additionally, you won't get any support and neither will they hold responsibility for any bugs or security holes. You can opt for this solution if you're just trying your hand at it and are not very serious about it.

Paid Mailing Software: If you prefer to have complete control over your subscriber list and would prefer to pay a one time fee (and maybe a small annual fee for support and upgrades) instead of a monthly fee, this is a good option to choose. Depending on the software you purchase, there are a range of features to choose from, so do your research before taking a decision. Remember, taking backup of your lists is your responsibility. Depending on the number of subscribers you add to your lists on a regular basis, you should take a backup accordingly, like weekly, daily or even every few hours. Your list is your most important business asset, so take care of it. Autoresponse Plus is a good option to choose, if you opt for this solution.

Hosted Solutions: There are a whole range of hosted list management and autoresponder solutions available on the internet. A few of them are aweber, getresponse, emailaces, 123response, etc. Some of these solutions also offer an inbuilt ecommerce module like the 1shoppingcart. In fact, the professional package of 1shoppingcart has a complete online marketing system including digital delivery of downloadable products, affiliate tracking software, shopping cart, ad tracking, multiple payment gateway integration, etc.

Most popular hosted email solutions providers also maintain very good relationships with many ISPs, which is certainly an advantage when it comes to email deliverability. The chances of getting your email lost in a junk folder or not getting delivered at all decreases drastically, when you choose this option. However, this tends to be an expensive option and you need to fork out anything ranging from $10 to a few hundred dollars a month. The cost depends on which provider you choose and also the number of subscribers that you have / expect to have. Choose this option if you're confident of taking full commercial advantage of your list. Another good but very expensive hosted solution is infusionsoft. It has all the bells and whistles like open rate, click rate, unsubscribe rate, and other statistics.

Whatever solution you choose, remember to educate yourself with the spam laws and also keep your knowledge updated. You never know when an unintentional goof up can land you in serious trouble. Most importantly, use double optin, have your complete address in all emails, and have a genuine unsubscribe link within your emails.