The giveaway of $75-valued ActiveCampaign credits to 3 WRD readers each has ended today, the winners are selected and announced here.

If you missed the previous introduction and in search for a platform to send newsletters, here is a short re-introduction:

What is ActiveCampaign?

It is a professional yet not-complicated platform for sending newsletters, managing subscribers and analyzing the results.

The application offers well-designed and cross-email-client-compatible templates for an easy start (or you can design and use your own templates), allows you to test them in multiple environments before sending them and handles the deliveries for you.

If there is already a user list, it can be imported to the system (from many other popular web apps like Sales Force, Google Contacts, etc., databases like MySQL-MSSQL or with the help of a CSV-XML file).

ActiveCampaign also enables users to create custom forms to enable website visitors subscribe to newsletters.

Results of deliveries are presented in detailed reports which eases analyzing the subscriber-base and success of the newsletters.

Also, an API is provided for integrating the platform with 3rd party apps.

The winners

Here are the winners of $75 ActiveCampaign credits:

• bcarney (comment #403458)
• Nikita (comment #403230)
• sonu (comment #403438)

Congratulations.

TinyLetter is a free-to-use web service which enables us to create an e-mail newsletter and get subscribers.

It has a very straightforward functionality and interface. You just pick a name for the newsletter and embed a code into the website which displays a sign-up form.

Also, you can ask the users to go to the custom URL provided by the service (like http://tinyletter.com/listName) where the design of it can be customized.

You can see the past newsletters, read replies, see the list of subscribers and also import e-mails.

An original feature is the support for "asking a payment for subscription" to the newsletter where the amounts can be collected by the service or directly sent to any given PayPal address.

It doesn't have any advanced features like reporting, custom text per subscriber or ready-to-use templates but, for some projects, simplicity is all we need.

sendcube is presenting 10 free e-mail templates that can be used in the newsletters we send.

All of them are styled with inline-CSS & tested to work in major e-mail clients like Outlook 2000+, Lotus Notes, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo & more.

The templates (most of them) come in 3 versions: left-column, right-column or one-column to better suit your needs.

It is possible to preview them & download only the ones you prefer or in bulk.

Markup Factory is an impressive web publishing platform for web designers & developers.

It is a hosted-platform where you can create simple to complex websites easily with features including:

• content management system
• blog
• calendar
• event registration
• online store
• podcasting
• newsletter management
• & much more.

And, you or your customers can manage all the features with a powerful content management & administration interface.

I have been playing with Markup Factory for a while & the best part is, it does not limit or force you to a new way of development.

It presents you all the logics of a website, blog, online store etc., you continue developing how you used to, creating the template, css, even add JS functions if you want but don’t deal with the time-consuming programming part and take advantage of the ready-to-use modules.

Markup Factory is built with web standards in mind. It has a powerful template engine that supports native XHTML – CSS and system modules have valid XHTML outputs from end to end.

There are also 2 "in-beta" features that are about to make the system much powerful:

• built-In customizable online database
• form builder

The application is very well-documented & not complicated. This makes the adaption period shorter.

Markup Factory is offering different packages for different requirements.

For an example Markup Factory built website, check Marshill.cc.

For an overview/tour of the system, click here.

Conclusion:

Markup Factory is complete website creation platform for web designers/developers. It will enable you to create a  complicated website with a blog, e-commerce features, event registration, calendar, etc in a very short time.

On the other hand, the website manager will be able to manage the whole content & system easily (when needed, there is a ready-to-use documentation).

P.S. This post is a review.

MailChimp presents 4 free HTML e-mail templates that are well-optimized for most of the e-mail applications.

Templates include a basic newsletter, postcard and 2-column designs.

You can also find newsletter coding tips at the same address and a free e-mail marketing e-book which covers email marketing benchmarks (average open/click rates, bounces, unsubs), how spam filters work & more.