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1. Pricing and Billing
Q: Can I pay with Paypal?
A: No. Presently you can pay by credit card through the secure Linkpoint payment gateway which is accessible on the ‘Sign up here’ menu link on the TeamSportsOnline homepage. www.teamsportsonline.net
Q: If I cancel my subscription, how long will my account be active?
A: If you sign up for a monthly or annual subscription, your account with TeamSportsOnline will run to the end of the agreed period. If you sign up today and cancel tomorrow, your account will remain active for another 30 days (or 365 days if you subscribed for the annual plan).
Q: How do I know when my account has been debited?
A: TeamSportsOnline via Linkpoint server will confirm each debit by e-mail.
Q: Which credit cards does TeamSportsOnline accept?
A: Credit card payment is processed by Linkpoint. Linkpoint accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Linkpoint is one of the most established companies in eCommerce world-wide today. All transactions are encrypted using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) architecture (dependent on browser support), and are signed using Thawte digital certificates.
Q: Why can I not make a payment through Linkpoint?
A: Linkpoint uses Pop-up windows during its payment process. If you have a pop-up blocker in place, please switch it to of and you will be able to make your Linkpoint payment.
2. System Requirements
Q: Can I download the E-mail Marketing Newsletter program and install it?
A: No. The E-mail Marketing Newsletter program is a hosted application, like Hotmail. It is used online, by logging in with a username (e-mail address) and password at www.teamsportsonline.net.
Q: What software do I need to use the E-mail Marketing Newsletter?
A: Any Windows PC with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5, or higher. No downloads or plug-ins are required. Some advanced editor functions will only be available when running Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0, IE 5.5 or 6 can be downloaded free from www.microsoft.com or www.tucows.com. In Internet Explorer, you can check the version of your browser under the Help > About menu.
Q: I have a Macintosh. Can I use the Email Marketing Newsletter?
A: Macintosh users can use the system to manage and send to mailing lists, but not to design newsletters using the online HTML editor.
3. Security & Privacy
Q: Is my credit card data secure?
A: Credit card payment is processed by Linkpoint. Linkpoint is one of the most established companies in eCommerce world-wide today. All transactions are encrypted using 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) architecture (dependent on browser support), and signed using Thawte digital certificates.
Q: Do you sell e-mail address lists?
A: No. Your address lists, or your login e-mail address lists will never be disclosed to third parties. TeamSportsOnline does not sell lists of targeted e-mail addresses. Read our Privacy policy for full details.
Q: Are stored newsletters, images, and mailing lists secure?
A: TeamSportsOnline is hosted at multiple secure sites. Our hosting providers have state-of-the-art network operation centers providing full security, firewalling, backup, and multi-tier, redundant high-speed network connections. Our Privacy Policy strictly precluded us from providing personal data to any third party.
4. Subscribe & Unsubscribe
Q: Will I know when there are new subscribers (and unsubscriptions)?
A: Yes. In the Email Marketing Newsletter reporting tool, the number of un/subscribes are available per week, month, and year, as well as per mailshot sent.
Q: Why does my subscribe / unsubscribe form not list an “unsubscribe” option at the bottom when more than one list is selected?
A: If your client is subscribed to more than one list then the subscribe list will show which lists their subscribed to. If they wish to unsubscribe from one of those lists they much uncheck that list and then check on the “Update” link. If they wish to unsubscribed from all you lists they much click on the “Unsubscribe All” link.
5. Managing E-mail Lists
Q: How do subscribers unsubscribe?
A: Each e-mail your send using TeamSportsOnline has an unsubscribe link appended to it. If you have only one general subscriber list it will say ‘Unsubscribe from this mailing list’. If you have several categories of subscriptions active on your subscribe form, the link will be ‘Manage my subscription’.
Q: How do I get new subscribers?
A: The TeamSportsOnline subscription form builder (available under the Manage Mailing Lists section) enables you to collect new subscriptions from a subscribe link on your website. The website link enables users to subscribe to specific mailing lists (which you can set up to correspond to your newsletter categories). You can design your subscription form with logos, fonts, and colors. After you have set up the subscription form, TeamSportsOnline generates the HTML code for you (or your webmaster) to insert into your existing website code.
Q: Will I receive bounced return e-mails from (newly) invalid addresses?
A: No! This is where TeamSportsOnline saves you time and removes the headache of hundreds of undelivered e-mails bouncing back and clogging your inbox. TeamSportsOnline automatically flags invalid e-mail addresses (‘hard bounces’) so that they are excluded from future mailshots, ‘Soft bounces’ (addresses that are temporarily unavailable), go through a series of checks before they become a ‘hard bounce’. E-mail addresses are being checked for validity on a continual basis, even when you are not logged in.
6. Receiving Newsletter
Q: Why can my recipients not see my images?
A: In TeamSportsOnline, images are not embedded in the e-mail. Newsletters have code that points to the images, which either reside in your TeamSportsOnline pictures folder or on another website, according to your preference. When a recipient opens the e-mail, the newsletter calls the image externally, and it is downloaded to the recipient’s computer. If the recipient is not online, they will see a broken link.
Q: Why are people not getting my mails?
A: Unfortunately, no e-mail service can guarantee 100% dvery. People change e-mail addresses when they move or leave jobs, auto responders are set up when people are on vacation and spam filters trap messages before they arrive based on key words and phrases in the content. Industry averages for delivery rates are 30-40% fbusiness to business newsletters and 10-15% fconsumer newsletters according to eMarketer. Your message content and your relationship with your list (whether or not they white listed you in their e-mail client) also have a lot to do with successful delivery. With TeamSportsOnline, you’re able to see exactly who has opened which e-mail over time and work on improving your open rates. Without a similar tool you never have any idea who’s receiving the e-mail.
Q: Why have open rates of my e-mails dropped?
A: As of November 16, 2003, we changed the way we track opens. Prior to this, if someone opened an e-mail twice, it was counted twice. If half of the recipients opened their e-mail twice, stats showed a 100% o rate. This anomaly has been rectified. We now track individual e-mail addresses. An individual is counted once even if they opened many times. Open rates of newsletters may seem smaller, but they are more accurate.
7. Sending Newsletters
Q: What is a hardbounce?
A: A hard bounce is an e-mail message that has been returned to you because the recipient’s address is invalid. A hard bounce might occur because the domain name doesn’t exist, the recipient is unknown, or there’s some type of network problem on the recipient’s end.
Q: Can the Email Marketing Newsletter be used for unsolicited bulk e-mail (spamming)?
A: To send one million e-mails using TeamSportsOnline would cost $15,000. The Email Marketing Newsletter was not designed as a SPAM tool, and it would be illogical for it to be used as such. The Email Marketing Newsletter has been designed as an online, value added service for a range of functions, including personalized opt-in marketing to clients and in-house communication with colleagues, as well as private use.
Q: What is the Email Marketing Newsletter used for?
A: The TeamSportsOnline tool is mostly used by corporations, associations, clubs, small businesses and private individuals. The uses are endless, but most people use the Email Marketing Newsletter to communicate with clients, staff, members, colleagues, and relatives or friends. Private use would include invites, announcements, travelogues, and picture albums. Small businesses might use TeamSportsOnline for press releases, newsletters, quotes, letters, proposals, and more. Corporations, on the other hand, might have an in-house communications department that wants to send out internal newsletters, reports, memos, and directives to other offices, as well as a range of opt-in or other marketing functions.
Q: Does TeamSportsOnline CC (carbon copy) or BCC (blind carbon copy) e-mails sent to multiple recipients?
A: No. When sending, each newsletter is addresses and sent individually. This is much more effective. When people see a single stock phrase in the “To” field of the received e-mail, they usually associate it with SPAM.
Q: Can I personalize the e-mails or use different subject lines?
A: Yes. We offer a range of personalization functions. You can address the e-mails to individuals, based on fields you set up in datasets managed in the Manage Subscriber Info area. You can also personalize the subject with a data field representing each individual recipient, such as their name.
Q: Can I do scheduled sends with TeamSportsOnline, choosing the time I wish my newsletter to be sent out?
A: Yes. Scheduled sends are part of TeamSportsOnline’s functionality. They can be sent by hours and days, up to one month ahead.
Q: Why do my subscribers get blank e-mails?
A: This is usually as a result of using absolute layers when designing a Newsletter using either the editor or another HTML program. Absolute positioning does not work well in e-mails, because you’re not sure of the mail size that will be appearing in your subscribers e-mail client. We advise you not to use absolute position when designing your Newsletters. If you have in order to fix it, you will need to click the edit HTML code at the bottom left hand corner of the editor and go through and delete all instances of the word. You may have to redesign your Newsletter after these deletions.
Q: Why do the images not show up in my e-mails?
A: The images are not embedded in the e-mails. The e-mail contains HTML code that calls the image up from our server. For the images to load you need to be online and the images must have been loaded onto the TeamSportsOnline server. For instructions on how to load images, please review the help menu in the Manage Images Menu.
Q: Can the recipient’s name appear in the ‘To’ field?
A: The TO field has to contain an e-mail address. If you want to add the recipient’s name, use our personalization tool.
Q: Can I send out personalized e-mails?
A: Yes. TeamSportsOnline allows you to personalize your e-mails and set up subscribe forms where your users fill in their details to populate sets of data that you can set up, with a choice in the type of information you wish to get from them. Go to Manage Subscriber Info and Create New (dataset). Full instructions are available in the help files. A small icon next to the subject line in the SEND area enables you to personalize the subject line.
Q: Can you cancel an email once it is sitting in the queue to be sent?
A: No. Only scheduled e-mails can be cancelled. If an e-mail is sent immediately then the sending cannot be cancelled. Make sure your e-mail is correct before sending it.
Q: Can I add attachments to my e-mail newsletters?
A: Yes. A download link to the file from your e-mail will be almost the same thing as an attachment. It is also much more likely to get through corporate firewalls. In the editor position your cursor and then choose the Internal Link button (next to the table symbol). Upload your attachment to the Pictures folder – now select it in the list by clicking the ‘Select’. Enter your link text (e.g. Download it here) and click Ok.
Q: How do I set up the auto-responder – the automatic e-mail that clients receive when subscribing to my newsletter – to go out with an attachment?
A: This functionality is not available as yet. We are working on it. However, you can set up auto-responder text that your clients receive when they subscribe to your e-mail, and when they unsubscribe.
Q: Is there a limit to the size of my newsletter when sending?
A: Some e-mail software freezes up when an e-mail is too big. The limit, more a practical maximum, is 200 kilobytes. This is a very large file anyways, and we advise against sending so much data. 200kb is 200,000 bytes, or about 25,000 words and 3,000 lines. This is without the pictures – remember that images are not embedded in the e-mail, but exist externally, either in your TeamSportsOnline folder or in a folder on a website. This means that your recipient must not only download 200kb of (words and code) data, but also all the images. You are unlikely to endear customer to you or your product if you’re subjecting them to that ordeal. We recommend that the size of a newsletter (words and code) does not exceed 70 kb, and that the newsletter, links to a minimum number of small, carefully compressed images. There are many image editors on the market. Some, such as Irfan View (Tucows gives it a five cow rating) are freeware or shareware and are free or cheap to use.
Q: Can TeamSportsOnline deliver statistics (such as open rates and clicks) on text e-mails sent instead of HTML messages?
A: No. Our reports depend on an action being taken (such as an image being downloaded) or a click through. One way around it is to design the newsletter in HTML but make it resemble straight text by using only text in a simple table structure (in a font such as Courier New).
Q: Does personalization work with plain text newsletters?
A: At this time personalization only works in HTML and not in text-only e-mails. However, a work-around is to design a text-only e-mail using HTML, but choose a plain text font such as Times Roman. This way, you can personalize the e-mail as well as track clicks and other, useful statistics. HTML contains code that communicates with our server to register these stats, whereas text-only e-mails do not.
Q: How does personalization work?
A: Under Enhanced mode – Manage subscriber info, you can create your datasets there. Help files are available. You can personalize your TO field and the SUBJECT, as well as a range of options.
Q: Is there a cost involved in personalizing e-mails?
A: Personalization is one of many useful features that come free with the E-mail Marketing Newsletter.
Q: Can the recipients name appear in the ‘To’ field?
A: The TO field has to contain an e-mail address. If you want to add the recipient’s name then you can use our personalization tool.
Q: Does TeamSportsOnline automatically sent the correct version (HTML or text) to recipients?
A: Yes. The E-mail Marketing Newsletter is reverse MIME compliant and will automatically determine whether an e-mail client can read HMTL. If it cannot, TeamSportsOnline will deliver the text version (a setting that can be turned on or off in your TeamSportsOnline account).
Q: Can you cancel an e-mail once you have sent it?
A: Once an e-mail has sent, it cannot be cancelled. To eliminate this possibility (discovering a mistake or sending to the wrong list) send a Test e-mail to yourself, and double check that the mailing list, subject line and content are correct.
Q: My newsletter was sent successfully, but no one has received it?
A: This could mean that either our servers were busy, or you have a big file so downloading takes longer.
Q: Why do my subscribers get blank e-mails?
A: You probably used layers with absolute positioning. Absolute positioning does not work well in e-mails, because you’re not sure of the height of your body. To fix this in the future, simply go into HTML mode and search for the word absolute. Then delete all instances of this word.
8. Designing Newsletters
Q: Do you cater for power users?
A: TeamSportsOnline has a Basic Mode and an Enhanced Mode, which offers advanced functionality around the management of your newsletters, mailing lists, subscriber data, subscription methodology, and more. The power of TeamSportsOnline lies in the flexibility of the product. You can design your own subscriber forms and select – even customize – the type of data you wish to collect from subscribers to your mailing list. In the TeamSportsOnline Editor, power users often prefer to cut and paste their own HTML code into a newsletter, especially when working with embedded Flash files and other objects. The HTML View takes you right into the code, where you can, for instance, use CTRL F to find the tag you wish to work on. Most Windows shortcut keys work in TeamSportsOnline.
Q: Where can you view the sub-account feature?
A: The sub-account feature is part of the resellers’ package. You can view this feature under trial or resale setting. Go to profiles and settings and press “sub accounts.” There you can create and manage an account for your clients.
Q: What is the meaning of the codes S2 and SP next to certain e-mail addresses in the E-mail Marketing Newsletter?
A: These are new status codes for Double opt-in e-mail addresses. SP means Subscription pending. This is when someone subscribed via the website but still needs to click the confirmation link in the inbox for the double opt-in. S2 means that this e-mail address subscribed with the double opt-in method.
Q: What is a softbounce?
A: A soft bounce is an e-mail message that gets as fas as the recipient’s mail server, but is bounced back before it reaches the recipient. One of the most common causes for a soft bounce is a full mailbox. This will happen A LOT with your subscribers who use free e-mail services like Yahoo and HotMail, because they allow for very little e-mail storage.
Q: Does TeamSportsOnline provide sample newsletters?
A: Yes, but you are not limited to these. You can design your own or have a TeamSportsOnline designer create one for you. When you create a newsletter, we give you the option to save it as a template. TeamSportsOnline provides a growing range of templates for different audiences: press releases, invitations, product launches, newsletters, quotes, memos, letters, travelogues, announcements, and a series of e-cards relating to holidays or religious holidays. To make sure your template appears with the TeamSportsOnline templates, insert a __ (underscore) in front of the name, for instance, __mytemplate.
Q: Can I add (Flash) animations to a newsletter?
A: Yes. The Newsletter Editor enables you to place a range of visual objects, such as Flash files and animated GIFs, as well as the usual range of pictures.
Q: What kind of universal settings can I get for my newsletters in TeamSportsOnline?
A: Our profile and settings have a range of useful features, including “Create text version with HTML version”, “Enable password on subscribe form for users with additional data”, “Display ‘Subscribe’ link on all e-mails”, “Display ‘Forward to friend’ link on all e-mails”, and “Append the address (in Profile) to the footer of all e-mails sent out.” (Obligatory, by the US CAN-SPAM act, for e-mails to US resident recipients) You can also set your date format and the Time Zone you operate in. You can even set the Start page for each section to save your time.
Q: Can I have my own branding at the footer of my e-mails?
A: Yes. Get the TeamSportsOnline footer removed or replaced with your own branding for a one-time fee of $250 US. Please contact us if you’re interested in this option. The branding effect of the TeamSportsOnline footers allows us to minimize our advertising spend and therefore maintain our low price structure.
Q: How do I know if e-mails that I sent out were actually opened?
A: TeamSportsOnline provides statistics of sent newsletters and reports the percentage of e-mails opened per mailshot, how many were sent, how many website click-throughs were generated, and who clicked on what links and who actually opened the e-mail. We even enable you to generate or export these addresses as a separate list so that you can target your users based on their click behavior.
Q: How does TeamSportsOnline manage images?
A: You can upload and insert images from your computer hard drive into your TeamSportsOnline newsletter, or use images that are elsewhere on the Web. TeamSportsOnline stores your images in a folder for convenient access at any time. TeamSportsOnline enables you to either upload images straight into your pictures folder to be inserted into a newsletter later, or you can upload and insert an image at the same time while working in the TeamSportsOnline Editor.
Q: Can I edit images when working in the E-mail Marketing Newsletter?
A: Yes. The TeamSportsOnline Editor includes an image button on the toolbar similar to the picture icon in Microsoft Word. A pop-up window appears with the attributes and current settings of your picture. It contains a list of pictures in your pictures folder, with a preview of the image you selected showing in the left-hand pane. It tells you the Image Source (the URL path to the image in your TeamSportsOnline folder), the alternative text (text that appears when a reader mouses over an image in your newsletter), as well as Height, Width, Alignment (the abs in absBottom stands for absolute), Image Border (thickness of the rule used as a border) and Vertical Spacing. You can change any of these attributes to change the way the image is presented. The image pop-up window includes other features, such as the functionality to upload images from your hard drive and inser them into your newsletter, or to insert pictures straight from your TeamSportsOnline image folder.
Q: Can I import HTML files into TeamSportsOnline?
A: Yes. You can import HTML Web pages from your computer into your TeamSportsOnline account. When you upload the HTML file’s images to your TeamSportsOnline images folder, your TeamSportsOnline newsletter will automatically insert the correct path in the code to the images you have uploaded. You can also import an HTML Web page from another URL.
Q: Can I create templates for the E-mail Marketing Newsletter?
A: Yes. You can save your newsletter as templates for use later, along with the variety of pre-designed TeamSportsOnline templates. TeamSportsOnline provides a growing range of templates for different audiences: press releases, invitations, product launches, newsletters, quotes, memos, letters, travelogues, announcements, and a series of e-cards relating to the holidays or religious holidays. You can also create newsletters based on other newsletters, which us useful when you want your newsletter to comprise other pages with the same look and feel. It’s easy to cross-link to these pages. For customers who need help in designing templates, a TeamSportsOnline designer can create one for you.
Q: Can I create newsletters that link to other pages in the E-mail Marketing Newsletter?
A: Yes. You can use a newsletter as a template, you can repeat the look and feel to create ‘pages’ of a newsletter. And you can cross-link to them from your main page.
Q: Can my TeamSportsOnline newsletters contain PDF files?
A: Yes – a download link to the file from your e-mail will be almost the same thing as an attachment. It is also much more likely to get through corporate firewalls. In the editor, position your cursor and then choose the Internal link button (next to the table symbol). Upload your attachment to the Pictures folder – now select it in the list by clicking the ‘Select’. Enter your link text (e.g. Download it here) and click OK.
Q: How can a newsletter be personalized?
A: To personalize a newsletter, go to the editor, First, you have to have imported datasets relating to the e-mail address, then select the area that you wish to personalize, click insert field, select the data set and data type you would like inserted. Save it, Then, go to “Send Newsletter”, send to mailing list and go to the line that says “Preview Pane, if you wish to use personalization click here”, click in the word here and a preview will show.
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