As a service to Affiliate organizations and current Farm members, AOBA will send your electronic communication to selected portions or all of the membership in our database.  AOBA does not sell email address information to other organizations nor to the general membership.  This service makes it possible to communicate with AOBA members in a convenient and affordable manner.
Last updated: 5/16/08

• The Eblast process was designed to promote AOBA communications with members, alpaca events held by a breeder or affiliate and for educational or philanthropic purposes tied to members or alpaca research.  The use of the AOBA Email distribution process by and for commercial activities is not permitted at this time.
• Messages are to be used for announcing events by Affiliates or individual members. Messages containing commentary, opinions or solicitations considered contrary to AOBA's mission or policy will not be accepted.
• Electronic communication should be sent to the AOBA office in a ready to send format (subject to edit by AOBA office).
• The text and any artwork must be supplied as a html file, text file, or Word doc.
• Required Components:
• Subject line for email
• From name (may be the same as ReplyTo email address)
• Email address for recipient to "reply to"
• Message content (may include webpage links and images)
• Requested date and time to distribute message; allow 3 to 5 business days
• Specify email distribution list desired (entire AOBA membership or selected states)
• Physical address of sender (business address) for Can-Spam act compliance.

Cost for Service

• The fee for this service is minimal.  It is seven cents ($0.07) per member email address.  The minimum fee is $50.00 and the maximum fee is $200.00.  Payment can be made by the following:

• Provide credit card information for immediate processing
• Provide a check (USD Funds) in full payment (payment must be received first)

Content:

1. HTML format preferred: html is virtually the same as a webpage.
   If your email communication is already formatted in html then it is ready to go!
2. Text file: simple text message with or without images attached. Clean to use.
3. Word doc: convenient for design and layout. Fairly easy to convert to email. (Microsoft Word while useable, tends to add garbage code that must be cleaned up before it can make a good email and is therefore not consistent in results.)

Images:

• jpg, gif or png file extensions only
• max 700 px width by 300 px height

1. Don't use large images.
2. Don't use more than 3 images.  Webpage links are preferred over images.
3. Don't use giant font-sizes.
4. Don't be excessive with bold. If every word is bold the message will lose impact.
5. Don't capitalize too many words. It's like shouting and blunts the effectiveness.
6. Don't ramble, large texts are hard to read. Make the text concise and easy to follow.
   Get to the point!

1. Empire Alpaca Extravaganza
2. AlpacaFest West
3. Selling Tips #10

Maximum width for HTML emails

What about width?
Remember, your recipients are busy and impatient, so horizontal scroll bars are even more of a no-no in email than a web page. Because of this, it is a good idea to keep your emails to a fixed width of no more than 550-600 pixels. This should ensure that in most cases, your subscribers can view your email as you intended.

What about height?
Obviously the height of each email you send will vary depending on the amount of content. At the same time, it's good to keep in mind that a lot of your recipients may scan your email in a preview pane before they decide to read the entire thing. The average preview pane is around 300-500 pixels high, so make sure you include any important bits of your email in this area. First impressions count.

Image based spam on the rise

Recent mentions about the growing problem of image based spam on the web are of concern to everyone.  Unfortunately AOBA has noticed this in our own inbox of late.   Here is a statistic in a recent USA Today article:

Image-based spam accounts for 21% of all spam, compared with just 1% in late 2005.

It's only a matter of time before spam content filters respond by coming down even harder on predominantly image based  emails. With the continued popularity of email clients turning off remote images by default, and the continual tightening of content filtering rules, an image-heavy approach to emails just isn't a good option any more.

Make it easy for a reader to unsubscribe

Every eblast must include an unsubscribe link, but it's very important not to hide the link in small text at the bottom of your email. A prominent unsubscribe link conveys trust to all recipients and shows you're serious about maintaining permission.

By default we will place an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email. Example:

This email was sent to recipient@domain.com.
You can instantly unsubscribe from these emails by clicking here.

Note: If eblast content does not include the sender's physical or mailing address and contact info, then it will added to the bottom just above the unsubscribe link.