AutoResponse Plus

Version 3.6

USER GUIDE

Powerful permission based follow-up

and mailing list software for web sites
hosted on UNIX and Linux web servers
 AutoResponse Plus
Version 3.6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copyright and Disclaimer ............................................................................................................. 8

Copyright ........................................................................................................................................................ 8
Disclaimer ...................................................................................................................................................... 8

License Agreement ........................................................................................................................ 9

Copyright ........................................................................................................................................................ 9
Unsolicited Commercial Email (“Spam”) ..................................................................................................... 9
Legal Jurisdiction ........................................................................................................................................... 9

Disclaimer Of Warranty ............................................................................................................... 10

System Requirements ................................................................................................................. 11
General Requirements .................................................................................................................................... 11
Perl Modules ................................................................................................................................................... 11
Emailed Subscriptions And Bounce Management ......................................................................................... 11
Browser Compatibility .................................................................................................................................... 11

Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 12
Welcome to AutoResponse Plus ...................................................................................................................... 12
Getting Help ................................................................................................................................................... 12
Resources On the Web .................................................................................................................................... 12

Permission-Based Follow-Up Marketing ................................................................................... 13

Installation ................................................................................................................................... 14
Note About Case Sensitivity ........................................................................................................................... 14
Create Your MySQL Database ....................................................................................................................... 14
Getting Ready To Install ................................................................................................................................. 14
Upload The Files ............................................................................................................................................ 14
Run The Installer ............................................................................................................................................ 15
Run The Program ........................................................................................................................................... 15
Create The Cron Tasks ................................................................................................................................... 15
Emailed Subscriptions And Automatic Bounce Management ....................................................................... 15

Getting Started ............................................................................................................................ 16

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 16
Logging Into AutoResponse Plus ................................................................................................................... 16
Logging Out .................................................................................................................................................... 16
Basic Profile Changes .................................................................................................................................... 16
Retrieving Your Login Name and Password .................................................................................................. 17
The AutoResponse Plus Screen Layout .......................................................................................................... 18
The Online Help System ................................................................................................................................. 19
Some More Important Settings To Change .................................................................................................... 20
Testing Your AutoResponse Plus System ........................................................................................................ 21
The E-Mail Send Test ..................................................................................................................................... 21
The E-Mail Capture Test ................................................................................................................................ 21
The Blast Timer Test ....................................................................................................................................... 22
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Creating Your First Autoresponder: A Tutorial ......................................................................... 23

Step 1: Creating the Autoresponder ............................................................................................................... 23
Step 2: Adding the Immediate Message ......................................................................................................... 24
Step 3: Setting the Message Properties .......................................................................................................... 24
Step 4: Entering and Personalizing the Message .......................................................................................... 25
Step 5: Previewing Your Message .................................................................................................................. 26
Step 6: Saving the New Message .................................................................................................................... 27
Step 7: Adding the Two Follow-Up Messages ................................................................................................ 27
Summary of Creating a New Autoresponder .................................................................................................. 28
Checking the Length of a Message ................................................................................................................ 28
Some Additional Points .................................................................................................................................. 28

Adding Subscribers ..................................................................................................................... 29

Subscription Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 29
Manually Adding a Subscriber ...................................................................................................................... 29
Subscription By E-Mail .................................................................................................................................. 29
Subscription By Web Form ............................................................................................................................. 30
Multiple Choice Forms ................................................................................................................................... 31
The Automatic Subscription Form Generator ............................................................................................... 31
Styling Your Subscription Form ..................................................................................................................... 32
Custom Fields ................................................................................................................................................. 32
Inserting Custom Field Information Into Messages ...................................................................................... 32
Importing Subscribers .................................................................................................................................... 33

Subscription Cancellations ......................................................................................................... 34

The Unsubscribe Link ..................................................................................................................................... 34
The Unsubscribe Form ................................................................................................................................... 35
Unsubscribing By E-Mail ............................................................................................................................... 36
Automatic Cancellations (Dropping) ............................................................................................................. 36

Working With Subscribers .......................................................................................................... 37

Viewing the Subscriber List ............................................................................................................................ 37
Controlling the Number of Subscribers Per Page ......................................................................................... 37
Navigating the Subscriber List ....................................................................................................................... 38
Editing a Subscriber ....................................................................................................................................... 38
Deleting a Subscriber ..................................................................................................................................... 38
Viewing a Subscriber’s Send Log ................................................................................................................... 39
Subscriber Quick-Find ................................................................................................................................... 40
Filtering the Subscriber List .......................................................................................................................... 40
Setting a Filter ................................................................................................................................................ 41
Clearing the Current Filter ............................................................................................................................ 41
Group Tasks .................................................................................................................................................... 42
Group Tasks - Broadcast ................................................................................................................................ 42
Group Tasks - Exporting in CSV Format ....................................................................................................... 42
Group Tasks - Edit .......................................................................................................................................... 43
Group Tasks - Delete ...................................................................................................................................... 43
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Group Tasks - Clear Send Logs ...................................................................................................................... 44

Global Tasks ................................................................................................................................................... 45
Global Tasks - Quick Remove ........................................................................................................................ 45
Global Tasks - Delete Unsubscribers ............................................................................................................. 46
Global Tasks - Delete Failures ....................................................................................................................... 46
Global Tasks - De-Duplicate .......................................................................................................................... 46

Working With Tracking Tags ....................................................................................................... 47

Tracking Tags Explained ................................................................................................................................ 47
Viewing the Tracking Tag List ........................................................................................................................ 48
Creating a New Tracking Tag ......................................................................................................................... 48
Editing a Tracking Tag ................................................................................................................................... 48
Deleting a Tracking Tag ................................................................................................................................. 48
Deleting All Tracking Tags ............................................................................................................................. 49
Using Custom Confirmation Pages ................................................................................................................ 49
Grouping Subscribers ..................................................................................................................................... 50
Working with Grouped Subscribers ................................................................................................................ 50
Tracking the Source of Subscribers ............................................................................................................... 50

Dynamic Content ......................................................................................................................... 51

What is Dynamic Content? ............................................................................................................................. 51
Dynamic Content Tags ................................................................................................................................... 51
Default Values In Dynamic Content Tags ...................................................................................................... 51
Obligatory and Optional Default Values ....................................................................................................... 52
Forcing Default Personalization .................................................................................................................... 52
Creating Time-Sensitive Messages ................................................................................................................. 52
What Dynamic Content Tags Can I Use? ...................................................................................................... 53

Link & Click Tracking .................................................................................................................... 54

What is Link Tracking? .................................................................................................................................. 54
Impressions, Clicks and Ratio ........................................................................................................................ 54
Viewing the Link List ...................................................................................................................................... 54
Refreshing the Link List .................................................................................................................................. 54
Creating a New Link ....................................................................................................................................... 55
Including a Link In Messages ........................................................................................................................ 55
Editing a Link ................................................................................................................................................. 55
Deleting a Link ............................................................................................................................................... 55
Deleting All Links ........................................................................................................................................... 56
Resetting a Link .............................................................................................................................................. 56
Resetting All Links .......................................................................................................................................... 56
How Does a Link Appear in a Message? ....................................................................................................... 56

Using Subscription Confirmation .............................................................................................. 57

What is Subscription Confirmation? .............................................................................................................. 57
Enabling Subscription Confirmation ............................................................................................................. 57
Customizing the Subscription Confirmation Message ................................................................................... 57
Customizing the Subscription Confirmation Page ........................................................................................ 58
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Removing Unconfirmed Subscribers .............................................................................................................. 58

Some Subscription Confirmation Default Settings ........................................................................................ 58

Working With Autoresponders .................................................................................................. 59

Copying an Autoresponder ............................................................................................................................. 59
Editing an Autoresponder’s Messages ........................................................................................................... 59
Changing an Autoresponder’s Properties ...................................................................................................... 60
Deleting an Autoresponder ............................................................................................................................ 60
Deleting All Autoresponders .......................................................................................................................... 60
Testing an Autoresponder ............................................................................................................................... 60
Setting Subscription Permissions ................................................................................................................... 61
Completion Management ............................................................................................................................... 61
Subscriber Self-Edit ........................................................................................................................................ 61
Admin Subscription and Unsubscription Notifications ................................................................................. 62
Headers and Footers ...................................................................................................................................... 62
Automatic Unsubscribe Link .......................................................................................................................... 62
Importing Messages From One Autoresponder to Another ........................................................................... 63
What is Open-Rate Tracking? ........................................................................................................................ 63
Setting Up Open-Rate Tracking ..................................................................................................................... 63
Enabling Open-Rate Tracking ....................................................................................................................... 63
Selecting Subscribers Who Opened a Message ............................................................................................. 64
Resetting Open-Rate Tracking ....................................................................................................................... 64

Broadcast Messages .................................................................................................................... 65

What is a Broadcast? ...................................................................................................................................... 65
Creating a New Broadcast ............................................................................................................................. 65
The Broadcast Queue Manager ..................................................................................................................... 66
Refreshing the Queue Manager ..................................................................................................................... 66
Pausing a Broadcast ....................................................................................................................................... 66
Unpausing a Broadcast .................................................................................................................................. 67
Suspended Broadcasts .................................................................................................................................... 67
Editing a Broadcast ........................................................................................................................................ 67
Deleting a Broadcast ...................................................................................................................................... 67
Deleting All Broadcasts ................................................................................................................................. 68
Cloning a Broadcast ....................................................................................................................................... 68
What is Open-Rate Tracking? ........................................................................................................................ 68
Setting Up Open-Rate Tracking ..................................................................................................................... 68
Enabling Open-Rate Tracking ....................................................................................................................... 69
Selecting Subscribers Who Opened a Broadcast Message............................................................................ 69
Resetting Open-Rate Tracking ....................................................................................................................... 69

Your Profile ................................................................................................................................... 70

Basic Profile ................................................................................................................................................... 70
My Record ....................................................................................................................................................... 70

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Custom Tags ................................................................................................................................. 71

What is a Custom Tag? ................................................................................................................................... 71
Creating a Custom Tag ................................................................................................................................... 71
Including a Custom Tag in Messages ............................................................................................................. 72
Editing a Custom Tag ..................................................................................................................................... 72
Deleting a Custom Tag ................................................................................................................................... 72
Deleting All Custom Tags ............................................................................................................................... 72

Backing Up and Restoring Your Data ......................................................................................... 73

Manually Creating a Backup ......................................................................................................................... 73
Automatically Creating Backups ................................................................................................................... 74
Restoring a Backup ........................................................................................................................................ 74

Ban and Reserved Address Lists................................................................................................. 75

Banned Domains and E-Mail Addresses ........................................................................................................ 75
Reserved E-Mail Addresses ............................................................................................................................ 75

Ads In Messages ........................................................................................................................... 77

Viewing, Creating and Editing Advertisements ............................................................................................. 77
Inserting Advertisements In Your Messages .................................................................................................. 77
Tracking Links In Your Advertisements .......................................................................................................... 77

Signatures .................................................................................................................................... 78
Viewing, Creating and Editing Signatures ..................................................................................................... 78
Inserting Signatures In Your Messages .......................................................................................................... 78

System Settings ........................................................................................................................... 79

Changing the AutoResponse Plus System Settings ........................................................................................ 79
What Can be Changed? .................................................................................................................................. 79

Integrating AutoResponse Plus With Other Software ............................................................. 80

The Remote Control Feature .......................................................................................................................... 80

APPENDIX A - Dynamic Content Tags ........................................................................................ 81

Subscriber Tags .............................................................................................................................................. 81
System Tags ..................................................................................................................................................... 81
Autoresponder Tags ........................................................................................................................................ 82
Date Tags ........................................................................................................................................................ 82
Link Tracking Tags ......................................................................................................................................... 82
Custom Tags .................................................................................................................................................... 82
Signature Tags ................................................................................................................................................ 82
Advertisement Tags ......................................................................................................................................... 83
My Record Tags .............................................................................................................................................. 83

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APPENDIX B - Command Summary ........................................................................................... 84

Autoresponders ............................................................................................................................................... 84
Subscribers ..................................................................................................................................................... 84
Tracking Tags .................................................................................................................................................. 84
Link Tracking .................................................................................................................................................. 85
Your Profile ..................................................................................................................................................... 85
System ............................................................................................................................................................. 85
Help ................................................................................................................................................................. 85
Log Out ........................................................................................................................................................... 85

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 AutoResponse Plus
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COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

Copyright and Disclaimer

Copyright

© Copyright 2000-2005, ECom24 Ltd. All rights reserved. This product and related documentation are protected by
copyright and are distributed under licenses restricting their use, copying and distribution. No part of this product or
related documentation may be reproduced in any form by any means without written authorization of ECom24 Ltd and its
licensors, if any.

Software Version 3.6

Disclaimer

ECom24 Ltd has reviewed this manual thoroughly. All statements, technical information and recommendations in this
manual and in any guides or related documents are believed reliable, but the accuracy and completeness thereof are not
guaranteed or warranted, and they are not intended to be, nor should they be understood to be, representations or
warranties concerning the products described. Further, ECom24 Ltd reserves the right to make changes to the information
in this manual at any time and without notice and without obligation to notify any person of such changes.

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 AutoResponse Plus
Version 3.6

LICENSE AGREEMENT

License Agreement
You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using the AutoResponse Plus software ("the Software"). Your use of the software indicates
your acceptance of this license agreement (“the Agreement”) and disclaimer of warranty.

By installing and using AutoResponse Plus on your server, you agree to the following terms and conditions.

The Agreement grants you the right to run one instance (a single installation) of AutoResponse Plus on one web server and one web site for each license
purchased. Each license may power one instance of AutoResponse Plus on one domain.

Copyright
This product is © Copyright ECom24 Ltd, 2000-2005 and is protected by United Kingdom copyright law and various international treaties.

You may not use, copy, modify, translate, or transfer the Software, documentation, or any copy except as expressly defined in this agreement.

The Software is licensed to you. You are not obtaining title to the Software or any copyrights. You may not sub-license, rent, lease, convey, the Software for any
purpose.

All AutoResponse Plus copyright notices within the Software and documentation must remain unchanged and visible.

Registered users may modify the AutoResponse Plus code for their personal use, at their own risk, but any altered code must not be redistributed or resold in any
form without the explicit written permission of ECom24 Ltd. Modified code will not be supported in any way by ECom24 Ltd.

Unsolicited Commercial Email (“Spam”)

AutoResponse Plus may not be used to send unsolicited email or "Spam". ECom24 Ltd reserves the right to revoke the license of any user they believe to be
using AutoResponse Plus for sending unsolicited email. ECom24 Ltd is not responsible for any repercussions that arise from your use of AutoResponse Plus to
send unsolicited email.

Legal Jurisdiction
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of Scotland, and each of the parties submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
courts of Scotland.

If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck out and the remaining provisions shall remain in force.
This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between us concerning its subject matter.

If any terms are violated, ECom24 Ltd reserves the right to revoke the license at any time. No license refunds will be granted for revoked licenses. License fees
are non-refundable. Refunds, when granted, will be at the sole discretion of ECom24 Ltd.

All other rights not specifically granted in this license are reserved by ECom24 Ltd.

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Version 3.6

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

Disclaimer Of Warranty
This product and/or license is provided as is, without any representation or warranty of any kind, either express or
implied, including without limitation any representations or endorsements regarding the use of, the results of, or
performance of the product, its appropriateness, accuracy, reliability, or correctness. The entire risk as to the use of this
product is assumed by the user and/or licensee. ECom24 Ltd does not assume liability for the use of this product beyond
the original purchase price of the Software. In no event will ECom24 Ltd be liable for additional direct or indirect
damages including any loss of profits or other incidental or consequential damages arising from any defects, or the use or
inability to use the Software, even if ECom24 Ltd has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

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 AutoResponse Plus
Version 3.6

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

System Requirements
General Requirements

• A web site hosted on a web server running UNIX or Linux (not Windows NT or 2000)
• MySQL (at least 3.23.39)
• Access to the MySQLDump and MySQL utility programs for backing up and restoring data
• Perl 5.005 or greater with your own CGI-BIN
• FTP access for installing and configuring the software
• Sendmail, Qmail or Exim on your server (Exim and Qmail are much faster than Sendmail)
• Ability to create and run cron tasks in your domain
• PHP4 (this is used only for message open-rate tracking)

Perl Modules

Like most Perl based systems, the software requires certain Perl modules to be pre-installed on the server. On
modern installations of Perl, all of the required modules would normally be installed as standard.

If any modules are not already installed, your host can install the missing modules. All Perl modules are available
for no charge from CPAN.ORG. The software has a utility called arp3-modules.pl which tests the server for
required modules.

Emailed Subscriptions And Bounce Management

The system can accept subscriptions through web based forms. It can also react to incoming email if your server has
a way of piping incoming email through a Perl script.

For example, you may be able to do this with a .forward or .procmailrc configuration file on Sendmail or Exim
servers and .qmail files on Qmail servers. Check with your web host. If your server does not have this facility, the
following parts of the system will not work:

• Emailed subscriptions and unsubscriptions

• Automatic bounced email management
• Remote control features

Browser Compatibility

The software has been tested with the following PC based browsers:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, Netscape 7.0, Opera 6.05, Mozilla 1.1

Your browser must have cookies and Javascript enabled. Any “popup killer” you are using must be deactivated or
some features of the software (eg help and message preview) will not be available.
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 AutoResponse Plus
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INTRODUCTION

Introduction
Welcome to AutoResponse Plus

Thank you for choosing AutoResponse Plus to manage your web site’s follow-up and opt-in mailing list strategies.
This guide will help you to get the best from your new AutoResponse Plus system. It teaches you how to use
AutoResponse Plus to create and edit follow-up campaigns and to manage your subscribers.

Getting Help

AutoResponse Plus can be used by just about anyone, regardless of technical skill or knowledge. Installation does
require some technical knowledge and you may require professional or volunteer assistance to complete it.

• Professional installation

If you are not technically inclined, we recommend that you have AutoResponse Plus installed by someone familiar
with the installation of Perl scripts.

• Context Sensitive Help System

AutoResponse Plus has a built-in help system. Every screen you will see in AutoResponse Plus has a Help link on
the menu bar. When you click the Help link, a new window will open with detailed help on your current action. The
Help menu also has a link to the Help Index.

Resources On the Web

• Licence Manager

The Licence Manager is used to generate an activation code for your system. You can also enter your contact details
so that we can keep you informed of upgrades.

www.ecom24.com/lm/

• Upgrades & Support

You can download the latest version of the software and access the help desk in the private Upgrades & Support
Area:

www.ecom24.com/members/

You can check on the status of your Upgrades & Support Plan and renew it securely:

www.ecom24.com/renew/
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 AutoResponse Plus
Version 3.6

FOLLOW-UP MARKETING

Permission-Based Follow-Up Marketing

A permission-based automatic follow-up system for your web site can increase sales dramatically, boost your efficiency and
save you loads of time. In short, a follow-up autoresponder is an automated “e-mail-on-demand” system that automatically
responds to e-mails sent to your domain or when a form is completed on one of your web pages.

Have you ever used a “fax-on-demand” system? You know, where you dial a certain fax number and automatically receive
a fax back without actually interacting with someone? If so, you know they're great because they allow you to get the
information you want quickly and easily.

Follow-up autoresponders work in a similar way, using email instead of fax. They instantly reply with a pre-written email
message. For a long time, functionality of autoresponders was very limited in that you could only receive one message
back. That made autoresponders a great way to send information, but they weren't too effective at increasing sales. But
why?

• Because it normally takes around 5 to 7 exposures to a product or service before most people will buy!

So clearly, creating only one exposure with a single autoresponder message wasn't getting the job done - potential
customers simply weren't being exposed enough to the product. Not only that but the two vital ingredients for a sale were
not there - trust and credibility.

• But that’s all changed...

With AutoResponse Plus, you can automatically send a series of pre-written follow-up messages that are almost certain to
boost your response rate. Here's how it works:

You set up a series of messages that are sent to your prospect over a set number of days. For example, message #1 may go
out immediately, message #2 in two days, #3 three days later, and so on. By doing so, you can "stagger" your contacts with
your potential customer and not overwhelm them, but at the same time, you're making those
vital exposures needed to close the sale.

• So, what can you do with your autoresponder system that will increase profits?

• Send follow-up sales messages, carefully tailored to move your prospect closer to a sale.
• Send more information about your product, interested prospects want as much information as they can get!
• Send a free report. Give your customers some free information, build credibility in your chosen field.
• Offer specials and offers to previous customers.
• Run training courses over a period of time.
• Deliver e-books, screen-savers and other free viral marketing devices.
• Run a newsletter or e-zine - widely recognised as one of the best ways of boosting sales.
...and so many more!

Visit the web sites of some of the Internet’s best known entrepreneurs and successful business owners - you’ll see that they
almost all use follow-up email marketing. Why? Because it works!

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 AutoResponse Plus
Version 3.6

INSTALLATION

Installation
Note About Case Sensitivity

Directory and file names on a UNIX or Linux server are case-sensitive. So, for example, the directory name MIME is not
the same as Mime.

Create Your MySQL Database

The software requires one MySQL database which you need to create manually using the method supplied by your hosting
provider. If you need to change the table names, these are held in the arp3-config.pl script file.

Getting Ready To Install

Unzip the issue ZIP file to your local computer, preserving the directory structure.

Using a text editor, modify the script file arp3-config.pl that you’ll find in the upload/cgi-bin/arp3 directory. Follow the
instructions in the file.

Using a text editor, modify the file arp3-hit.php that you’ll find in the upload/public_html/arp3 directory. The MySQL
settings in the file must be changed to be the same as the MySQL settings in the arp3-config.pl script.

Upload The Files

In the upload/cgi-bin directory, you’ll find a directory called arp3. Upload this entire arp3 directory to your server’s cgi-
bin directory. You must use ASCII transfer mode.

Using your FTP software, set the rights of the script directories and files:

Directory cgi-bin/arp3 ........................................................ 755 [rwxr-xr-x]

Directory cgi-bin/arp3/MIME ............................................. 755 [rwxr-xr-x]
Directory cgi-bin/arp3/Mail ................................................ 755 [rwxr-xr-x]
Directory cgi-bin/arp3/attachments ................................... 777 [rwxrwxrwx]
Directory cgi-bin/arp3/temp ............................................... 777 [rwxrwxrwx]
Directory cgi-bin/arp3/backup ........................................... 777 [rwxrwxrwx]
Directory cgi-bin/arp3/logs ................................................ 777 [rwxrwxrwx]

All files in cgi-bin/arp3 ...................................................... 755 [rwxr-xr-x]

Address.pm in cgi-bin/arp3/Mail ....................................... 755 [rwxr-xr-x]
Lite.pm in cgi-bin/arp3/MIME ............................................ 755 [rwxr-xr-x]
Type.pm in cgi-bin/arp3/MIME .......................................... 755 [rwxr-xr-x]
Types.pm cgi-bin/arp3/MIME ............................................ 755 [rwxr-xr-x]

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INSTALLATION

In the upload/public_html directory, you’ll find a directory called arp3. Upload this entire arp3 directory to your server’s
web space (ie public html) area. The files in the images directory must be uploaded using binary transfer mode, everything
else using ASCII transfer mode.

Run The Installer

Run the installer program using:

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-install.pl

You will see a screen summarizing the information in the arp3-config.pl script file. Click the Install Now button to install
the system.

If you get any errors, check the settings in arp3-config.pl and re-run the installer.

IMPORTANT!
Delete the arp3-install.pl script. If someone were to run it, all your data would be deleted.

Run The Program

Run the program using:

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3.pl

or click the link at the bottom of the installer’s confirmation page.

The initial login name is owner and the password is 12345.

When you log into the system for the first time, you should change these by choosing Your Profile > Basic Profile from the
menu.

Create The Cron Tasks

The software requires two cron tasks to be created. This is normally done on the domain control panel supplied by your
hosting provider. The two scripts to be run by cron tasks are in your cgi-bin/arp3 directory:

• arp3-auto.pl to be run hourly

• arp3-report.pl to be run once nightly at around 11.45pm

Emailed Subscriptions And Automatic Bounce Management

The system can accept subscriptions by email and also manage messages that bounce back.

Read the file emailed-subscriptions.txt in the docs folder for more information.
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GETTING STARTED

Getting Started
Introduction

This chapter covers your first AutoResponse Plus session. We assume that you have the software fully installed and
working. We will cover logging into your AutoResponse Plus system, logging out, the menu and help systems and a few
basic settings you should change before setting up your first autoresponder.

Logging Into AutoResponse Plus

If you installed AutoResponse Plus yourself, you will know what URL (web page address) of your AutoResponse Plus
system. If someone installed the software for you, they will tell you the URL. Assuming your domain name is
yourdomain.com, you would normally find your AutoResponse Plus system at

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3.pl

although some servers are different. You should see a login screen like this:

The first time you login to AutoResponse Plus, the login name is owner and the password is 12345. If you want
AutoResponse Plus to remember these for your next session, check the Remember Next Time box. Click the Login button
to enter the system.

Logging Out

At the end of an AutoResponse Plus session, you can log out by clicking the Log Out option at the top right of the menu
bar.

Basic Profile Changes

The first thing you should do is change your login name and password from owner and 12345 and enter your email
address. This is the address that AutoResponse Plus will use to send you system generated messages. Point your mouse at
Your Profile on the menu bar at the top. The menu will open up.

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GETTING STARTED

Point to the Basic Profile option and click to open up the screen shown below. Enter a login name, password (twice), your
email address and click the Save Changes button. These are the login name and password you will need to enter when
using AutoResponse Plus in future.

Retrieving Your Login Name and Password

If you forget your login name and password, you can ask your AutoResponse Plus system to email them to you. Click the
Forgotten Your Login Details? link on the login screen.

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GETTING STARTED

The AutoResponse Plus Screen Layout

When you login to AutoResponse Plus, you are shown a list of your autoresponders. At any time, you can get to this list by
either clicking Autoresponders on the menu bar or hovering over Autoresponders on the menu bar and clicking Show List
in the drop-down list.

Menu Bar
Background Activity Sub Menu Bar
Current Action

News Banner

• Menu Bar - a drop-down menu giving single-click access to most areas of AutoResponse Plus.
• Sub-Menu Bar - a clickable list of further options relevant to the current screen.
• Current Action - your current location or screen in AutoResponse Plus.
• News Banner - a clickable banner that we update with news on AutoResponse Plus.
• Background Activity - what AutoResponse Plus is currently doing as a background process.

Also shown on the above diagram are:

• Last Cron Run Time - the date and time that AutoResponse Plus ran its automated processes.
• Action Links - clickable links to work with the information on that row of the table.
• Your AutoResponse Plus Version - the version of software you are running.

Technical Sidenote - Cron Tasks and Background Activity

AutoResponse Plus performs many of its resource intensive tasks as background processes. These processes continue to run
regardless of whether you have AutoResponse Plus open in your browser or are even connected to the Internet.

A cron task is a UNIX/Linux background process that is set to run at certain times. In AutoResponse Plus the main cron task
(arp3-auto.pl) has several functions - for example, sending out due follow-up messages, sending scheduled broadcast messages,
creating database backups and de-duplicating your subscriber database.

An additional cron task (arp3-report.pl) can be created that sends you a daily reports on subscriptions and unsubscriptions.

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GETTING STARTED

The Online Help System

AutoResponse Plus has a context-sensitive help system on every screen. Context-sensitive means that detailed help on all
the options available on the screen you are looking is only one click away.

On any page, click Help on the menu bar. A new window will open similar to the one shown below:

Note the links at the top right of the help screen. Every help screen has these links. The Close link closes the help window.
The Index link changes the help window to a list of available topics. The Print link allows you to print the help page and
the Back link takes you to the help page you were previously viewing.

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Some More Important Settings To Change

Before we create your first autoresponder, there are two more settings that you should make sure are set. These are your
System E-Mail Address and Support E-Mail Address. Both are found on the System Settings screen that you can get to by
choosing Settings from the System drop-down on the menu bar.

You will find the System E-Mail Address and Support E-Mail Address in the Domain and Web Site Settings section of the
System Settings screen.

• Support E-Mail Address

AutoResponse Plus has several screens that your subscribers will see from time to time. Examples include subscription and
unsubscription confirmations. Each of these screens has a support link, asking your subscriber to email your support desk
if they have problems with their subscription. The Support E-Mail Address is the address that is shown in these links and
to where support email should be sent.

• System E-Mail Address

One of the ways that your AutoResponse Plus system communicates with you is by email. For example, if you request a
daily report on subscriptions and unsubscriptions (explained later), the report will be sent from the System E-Mail
Address. This is a fictitious address that does not need to exist.

When AutoResponse Plus needs to send you some information by email, it sends it to the address you entered for Your
E-Mail Address on the Your Profile » Basic Profile screen.

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Testing Your AutoResponse Plus System

There are several tests that you can do to make sure that your AutoResponse Plus system is working correctly. These tests
are

• The email send test

• The email capture test
• The blast timer test

The E-Mail Send Test

This test sends you one email message, proving that the send engine in AutoResponse Plus is working correctly. If this
simple test works, all parts of AutoResponse Plus that send out email should also work.

To do an email send test, select the System » Tests » E-Mail Send Test option and follow the instructions.

The E-Mail Capture Test

This test proves that your AutoResponse Plus system is correctly configured to react to incoming email. You need to have
set this up. The document v2-v3-upgrade.txt in the docs directory of the issue ZIP file explains this.

You perform an email capture test by sending a blank email to arptest@yourdomain.com, where yourdomain.com is
replaced by the domain where AutoResponse Plus is installed.

Note that the address you send the email from should be outwith the domain where AutoResponse Plus is installed. Some
servers don’t like sending email to themselves. So, for example, use an address at your ISP or a free email service.

When the email arrives at your domain, AutoResponse Plus will process it and created a subscriber called
Test Only - Please Delete in your subscriber list. You can view your subscriber list by selecting Subscribers from the menu
bar.

The email capture test only creates a test subscriber, it does not send back a response.

The test subscriber can be safely deleted by clicking the Delete link in the Actions column of the subscriber list.

To step through the email capture test, select the System » Tests » E-Mail Capture Test option from the menu bar and
follow the onscreen instructions.

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The Blast Timer Test

This tests the speed at which AutoResponse Plus sends out a batch of small email messages from your domain. This is a
rough guide because the actual speed of sending will depend on factors such as message size, server load, MySQL server
speed etc.

To perform a blast time test, select the System » Tests » Blast Timer Test option from the menu bar and follow the onscreen
instructions.

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Creating Your First Autoresponder: A Tutorial

In this chapter, you’re going to create your first autoresponder using AutoResponse Plus. The autoresponder you create
will:

• Have one immediate message that’s sent out immediately someone subscribes.
• Have two further follow-up messages, each sent one day after the previous message.
• Have messages in plain text format.
• Send messages personalized with your subscriber’s first name.
• Insert an unsubscribe link at the end of each message.

Step 1: Creating the Autoresponder

Select Autoresponders » Create New from the menu bar. The screen containing the properties of your new autoresponder
appears.

Type your company name into From Name and your company’s email address into Reply Address. For Subscription
Address, type factsheet, for Description type Product Fact Sheet.

Click the Create button. The properties screen will be replaced with the Autoresponders » Edit screen for your newly
created autoresponder. The table of messages says “There are no messages” which is correct because we haven’t added
them yet!

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Step 2: Adding the Immediate Message

Let’s add the first (immediate) message to the sequence. Click the Add Message link on the sub-menu bar.

Clicking the Add Message link adds a new message to the sequence for this autoresponder and takes you into the
Autoresponders » Edit » Edit Message screen for your new message. This is where you enter the settings of the new
message and also the message text.

This is the first message in your example autoresponder, and as we said, it’s going to be sent back as soon as someone
subscribes to your autoresponder. This is called the immediate message of this autoresponder.

Each of your autoresponders can have one immediate message, or none.

Step 3: Setting the Message Properties

So let’s set up your immediate message. In the General Settings section:

• Choose Immediately for the Schedule option.

• Type Our Product Factsheet for the Subject.
• Choose Plain Text for the Default Format option.

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Step 4: Entering and Personalizing the Message

Scroll down to the Plain Text Message box. This is where we enter the text of the message that will be sent back to your
subscriber.

We want this message to be personalized with your subscriber’s first name. We can insert that into the message using a
special tag that will be replaced by your subscriber’s name when the message is sent.

For first name, the tag is {FIRSTNAME}

But we also need to control what will happen if AutoResponse Plus does not have your subscriber’s first name stored. For
example, they may not have included their name in their email address or they may omit to enter it on your subscription
form.

We handle this situation using a default entry. The default entry is the text that will be inserted into the message if
AutoResponse Plus does not know the subscriber’s first name. For our example, we will use “Internet Marketer”.

So the complete tag that we will use to insert your subscriber’s first name is {FIRSTNAME Internet Marketer}.

Enter the text shown below in the Plain Text Message box in the Message Text section. It’s common practice when
sending plain text e-mails to press return at the end of your lines of text, rather than letting the recipient’s email software
decide where lines should break. By inserting hard line breaks (ie pressing return), you have greater control over where
your lines of text will end. Lines should be no longer than 60 characters, certainly no more than 65.

Here’s the message text that you need to type:

Dear {FIRSTNAME Internet Marketer}

Thanks for requesting more information on our product. It is the

best in it’s class and costs just $10.00 if you buy it before the
end of the month.

It’s available in red, green or blue and in standard, super and deluxe models.

Thanks again for requesting our factsheet, we look forward to

welcoming you as a new customer.

Regards

The Widget Product Development Team

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Step 5: Previewing Your Message

Before you save the message, you can preview it. Click the Preview button on the Plain Text Message heading line.

The screen will redraw and a new window will open showing how the message will look when your subscriber views it in
their email software. The {FIRSTNAME} tag has been replaced with an example first name, John.

The message automatically includes an unsubscribe link at the end of the message. Later you will find out:

• How to switch the default unsubscribe link on and off.

• How to include an unsubscribe link any part of your message.

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Step 6: Saving the New Message

For now, we’ve completed creating the immediate message for your new factsheet autoresponder. So close the preview
window by clicking the cross in the top right corner and save the message and its settings by clicking the Save Changes
button at the top or bottom of the Autoresponders » Edit » Edit Message screen.

You will be taken back to the Autoresponders » Edit screen for the “factsheet” autoresponder. It shows the message you
just created as the only message in the “factsheet” sequence. Note its Schedule setting is Immediate.

The Actions column in the list offer you some choices for working with the message you just created:

• Edit for editing the message properties or text.

• Delete to permanently remove the message from the sequence.
• Move Up to move the message further up the sequence (the immediate message is always first).
• Move Down to move the message further down the sequence.
• Test to test this message (ie send it to your own email address).
• Filter to filter your subscriber list on those who have opened this message (HTML and multi-part only).
• Reset to reset the open-rate tracking for this message.

Step 7: Adding the Two Follow-Up Messages

Add two more messages to the sequence for the “factsheet” autoresponder. The only difference is that each of them will
have their Schedule set to Use Interval and their Interval set to 1 day. This means that the first follow-up will go out one
day after the immediate message and the second will go out one day after the first follow-up.

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Are you ready to add those two new follow-up messages? Click Add Message to begin! You can use your imagination for
the message text. “Just a quick follow-up to check...”, “Can we be of further help....?” etc.

Summary of Creating a New Autoresponder

Congratulations! You have now created your first follow-up autoresponder called “factsheet” in AutoResponse Plus. It
contains one immediate message that will be immediately sent back to your subscriber, and two further follow-up messages
that will be sent at intervals of one day. The messages are in plain text format and are personalized with your subscriber’s
first name. We have told AutoResponse Plus what to do if it doesn’t know your subscriber’s first name.

Finally, each of the three messages has an unsubscribe link at the end.

Checking the Length of a Message

You can check the length (in characters) of your plain text message by clicking the Message Length link under the
Plain Text Message box where you typed the message text.

Some Additional Points

• As you’re saving your new message, you can check the box called Create A New Message After Save. This will
automatically add another new message to the sequence and take you directly to the edit screen for the new message.
This saves you from going back to the message list and having to click Add Message each time.

• In our example, we used the {FIRSTNAME <default>} tag to insert your subscriber’s first name into the message.
AutoResponse Plus has dozens of tags like this. These are explained later in this user guide.

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Adding Subscribers
Subscription Methods

Subscribers can be added to your AutoResponse Plus system (and hence your follow-up sequences and contact list) in
several ways.

• By you manually adding a subscriber in the AutoResponse Plus admin system.

• When someone sends an email to an autoresponder’s subscription address.
• When someone completes a subscription form on a web page (including multiple choice forms).
• By importing lists of subscribers from files on your local computer.
• By “remote control” from other software.

Manually Adding a Subscriber

To add a subscriber into your AutoResponse Plus system, select the Subscribers » Add Subscriber option.

This brings up the Subscribers » Add Subscriber screen with all the settings and options for the new subscriber.

The very least you need to add is an email address. Everything else is optional. Click Help on the menu bar for a detailed
explanation of each setting and option.

Try creating a new subscriber for your “factsheet” autoresponder. If you select a Starting Message of 1 (one), the subscriber
will be sent the immediate message of the chosen autoresponder as soon as you click the Create button.

Follow-up messages will be sent out as defined in the settings of each message.

Subscription By E-Mail

To sign up to an autoresponder, your contact sends a blank email to your autoresponder's subscription address. This is
defined in the Properties screen of the autoresponder. Your contact can choose what message format they would like to
receive by optionally putting plain or html in the subject line of their email.

They can also have the word subscribe in the subject line of their email but this is not necessary.

The message body of the email can be left blank - AutoResponse Plus ignores anything typed there.

Here are some examples of clickable links you could use to offer this method of subscription. The uses of tracking tags and
tra=whatever are explained in more detail later in this guide.

• mailto:info@yourdomain.com
• mailto:info@yourdomain.com?subject=subscribe
• mailto:info@yourdomain.com?subject=plain
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• mailto:info@yourdomain.com?subject=html
• mailto:info@yourdomain.com?tra=001
• mailto:info@yourdomain.com?subject=html&tra=001
• mailto:info@yourdomain.com?subject=plain&tra=002

Subscription By Web Form

Most of the time, people will subscribe to your autoresponders by completing forms on your web site. At its simplest, a
subscription form simply asks your contact to enter their email address and click a button.

You can also ask for more information on your form, first name, last name, full name and any number of custom fields
(explained later). Here is an example subscription form:

It is a good idea to at least ask for your contact’s first name so that you can personalise your messages to your new
subscriber with the {FIRSTNAME <default>} tag.

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Multiple Choice Forms

If you would like to let your subscribers choose which of your autoresponders they would like to subscribe to, you
can create a multiple choice form. With the automatic subscription form generator (see below), you can quickly
create the HTML code for your multiple choice form.

The Automatic Subscription Form Generator

AutoResponse Plus has an automatic form generator that makes it very easy to produce the HTML code for
subscription forms. The HTML code produced can then be copied from AutoResponse Plus and pasted into your
web page editing software for integration into your web pages.

To create a subscription form for an autoresponder:

1 Select Autoresponders from the menu bar.

2 Click the Messages link beside the autoresponder you want to generate a form for.
3 Click the Generate Code link on the sub-menu bar.

This brings up the Autoresponders » Edit » Generate Code screen for that autoresponder.

Select the fields that you want to include on the form and click the Generate Code button. The yellow section at the
bottom of the page contains the generated HTML code.

You can click the Preview button to view your form. It is a live form and can be used to test that subscription
actually happens. If the form is not correct, simply select some other options and again click the Generate Code
button the recreate the HTML code.

When you are happy that the form is correct, select the HTML form code, right-click and select Copy or press
[CTRL]+C to copy the code to the clipboard. You can then paste it into your web page editing software with
[CTRL]+V or right-click then choose Paste.

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Styling Your Subscription Form

The HTML code for your subscription form created by the automatic form generator deliberately has no font, color or other
formatting information.

This allows you total flexibility in how your form will look on your web site.

Simply copy the basic form code from the automatic form generator and paste it into your web page editing software.
There, you can add color, fonts and any other formatting to make it match the style of your web site.

Custom Fields

AutoResponse Plus allows you to collect any number of custom fields on a subscription form. This information is stored
with the subscriber’s record and can be included in messages to that subscriber using the {CUSTOM_whatever <default>}
tag (more on that later).

You can add custom fields to your subscription form in your web page editing software. Custom fields are not part of the
automatic code generation process.

Any field on your form that contains arpcustom_whatever or custom_whatever will be captured by AutoResponse Plus and
stored in the subscriber’s record.

For example, if you want to ask the subscriber to enter their fax number, you could create a form field called
custom_faxnumber. An example HTML tag for this would be

<input type=’text’ name=’custom_faxnumber’>

Note that AutoResponse Plus only allows custom field information that fits on a single line so multi-line textarea
form fields cannot be used to gather custom field information into AutoResponse Plus.

Inserting Custom Field Information Into Messages

The {CUSTOM_whatever <default>} tag is used to include the contents of custom fields in your messages.

For example, if you have been collecting your subscribers’ fax numbers as described above, you could use the tag
{CUSTOM_faxnumber unknown} in your messages. Like this:

Your fax number is {CUSTOM_faxnumber unknown}

This will either appear as

Your fax number is 123-456-7890 or Your fax number is unknown

depending on whether or not your subscriber’s fax number is on file.

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Importing Subscribers

AutoResponse Plus has an import facility. It’s used to import contact data from CSV (comma separated variable) files that
are located on your local computer. Follow-up sequences will be automatically created for each subscriber in the file,
assuming you assign them to one of your autoresponders during the import process.

The only obligatory field is email address. All other fields are optional. The fields that can be imported are email address,
title (eg Mrs, Mr), first name, middle name, last name, full name and format preference (plain or HTML).

The CSV file must have one contact record per line. The fields may be enclosed in double-quotes ("") although this is not
necessary. The fields do not need to be in a particular order because you tell AutoResponse Plus which is which as part of
the import process.

Here is an example of a valid file structure:

field_1,field_2,field_3,field_4, ..., field_n

field_1,field_2,field_3,field_4, ..., field_n
field_1,field_2,field_3,field_4, ..., field_n

For example:

johndoe@hotmail.com,John,Doe,John Doe,H
janedoe@yahoo.com,Jane,Doe,Jane Dow,P

To import subscribers:

1. Select Subscribers » Import From File from the menu bar.

2. Click the Browse button and select the CSV file to be imported.
3. Click the Proceed button.

This takes you to the Subscribers » Import screen.

4. Step through the import screens.

Importing takes place in the background. You will be sent an email both when the process starts and finishes, assuming
you have entered your email address in the Your Profile » Basic Profile screen.

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Subscription Cancellations
Your subscriber can cancel their subscription in one of three ways:

• By clicking an unsubscribe link in one of your messages to them.

• By sending an unsubscribe message to your autoresponder.
• By using the unsubscribe option on your subscription form.

The Unsubscribe Link

The quickest way for your contact to unsubscribe from an autoresponder series is for them to click the “unsubscribe” link
that appears in your message. When they click the link, they are immediately unsubscribed and will be shown an
unsubscribe confirmation page.

Customization of confirmation pages is explained in the chapter “Working With Tracking Tags”.

There are two ways of inserting an unsubscribe link into your follow-up messages:

• Adding it in the autoresponder’s page properties

If you add the unsubscribe link with this method, it is inserted at the end of your message. The link will automatically
be formatted for plain text or HTML depending on the message format that your subscriber receives.

1. Go to your autoresponder list by selecting Autoresponders from the menu bar.

2. Click the Messages link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to work with.
3. Click the Page Properties link on the sub-menu bar.
4. Check the Include Unsubscribe Link box and click the Save Changes button.

Note: Checking the Make unsubscribe link global? box will unsubscribe your subscriber from all autoresponders. This
can also be achieved manually by adding &scope=all to the end of an unsubscribe link.

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• By including an {UNSUBSCRIBE_LINK} or {UNSUBSCRIBEALL_LINK} tag

If you insert the tag manually, you can put it anywhere in your message. If the tag is being inserted in an HTML
message, then it needs to be embedded in an <a href> tag like this:

<a href=“{UNSUBSCRIBE_LINK}”>Click here</a> to unsubscribe

Note: The {UNSUBSCRIBEALL_LINK} tag will unsubscribe your subscriber from all autoresponders.

The Unsubscribe Form

Your contact can unsubscribe from your autoresponder using a form on your web site. The automatic form generator
(described in a previous section) has an option that allows you to include “subscribe” and “unsubscribe” radio buttons on
the form.

If you have chosen to include the “unsubscribe” radio button on your subscription form, you can direct your contact to that
form to unsubscribe. They need to enter their email address, choose “unsubscribe” and submit the form. They will be
unsubscribed immediately.

When someone unsubscribes using a form, they will be unsubscribed from all the autoresponders that the form is linked to.

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Unsubscribing By E-Mail

If your AutoResponse Plus is set up to react to incoming e-mails (see the installation instructions), you can accept
unsubscriptions by email.

Your subscriber can:

• Send an email to your autoresponder with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
• Send an email to your autoresponder with the word “remove” in the subject line.
• Send an email to “unsubscribe-info@yourdomain.com” where “info” is the subscription address of your autoresponder.

Automatic Cancellations (Dropping)

When a subscriber is “dropped” from an autoresponder, it means they have been unsubscribed from one autoresponder
because they subscribe to another.

In other words, dropping means “automatic unsubscription”.

For example, you might decide that you’d like contacts to be dropped from your “prospects” autoresponder when they
subscribe to your “customers” autoresponder.

This is set up in the Subscription Options section of each autoresponder’s Properties screen.

1. Go to your autoresponder list by selecting Autoresponders from the menu bar.

2. Click the Properties link beside the autoresponder you want to work with.

3. Choose the autoresponder(s) that the subscriber will be dropped from when they subscribe to this one.

You can select multiple autoresponders by holding down the [CTRL] key while you click in the list.

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Working With Subscribers

AutoResponse Plus has a large number of features for working with your subscribers. The actions that you can perform
with subscribers are explained in this chapter.

For a detailed explanation on all the settings on a particular screen, click the Help link in your AutoResponse Plus system
while viewing the appropriate screen. Alternatively, select Help » Help Index from the menu bar then choose the help page
from those available.

Viewing the Subscriber List

To view your subscriber list, click the Subscribers link on the menu bar or select Show List from the Subscribers drop-
down menu. The list of subscribers displayed depends on the current filter that you have set. The box at the top of the
subscriber list screen shows if you have a filter set or not.

It also shows:

• The total number of subscribers in your AutoResponse Plus system.

• The number of subscribers that match the current filter.
• The page number that you are currently viewing.
• The time it took to retrieve the page of subscribers from the MySQL database.

There are also links for:

• Viewing or editing the current filter.

• Clearing the filter (to select all subscribers in the database).

Controlling the Number of Subscribers Per Page

You can change the number of subscribers that are shown on each page. The default is 50. To change this, select
System » Settings from the menu bar and edit the Number of Subscribers Per Page setting in the Display Settings section.

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Navigating the Subscriber List

When viewing the subscriber list, you can move between pages in the list using the navigation buttons and the page
selector. These only appears when there is more than one page of subscribers.

Editing a Subscriber

A subscriber’s contact details and all settings for their subscription can be edited. To edit a subscriber, click the Edit link
in their Actions column in the subscriber list.

When you click the link, the Subscribers » Edit screen appears for the selected subscriber. Click the Help link on the menu
bar for a detailed explanation of each setting and option on the screen.

Deleting a Subscriber

An individual subscriber can be completely deleted from your database by clicking the Delete link in their Actions column
in the subscriber list.

When you click the link, the Subscribers » Confirm Delete screen appears. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm
that this subscriber should be completely removed from your AutoResponse Plus system.

When a subscriber has been deleted, there is no way to retrieve their record. All follow-ups to the subscriber will cease.

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Viewing a Subscriber’s Send Log

AutoResponse Plus keeps a log of every follow-up and broadcast message that you send to each of your subscribers. To
view the send log for a subscriber, click the Log link in their Actions column in the subscriber list.

When you click the link, a new window opens with details of all follow-up and broadcast messages that have been sent to
this subscriber. The log looks like this:

Some actions that you can perform on the send log:

• Print - click the Print link at the top of the log window.
• Refresh - click the Refresh link at the top of the log window.
• Clear Log - click the Clear Log link at the top of the log window.
• Close - click the Close link at the top of the log window.

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Subscriber Quick-Find

AutoResponse Plus has a “quick-find” feature that lets you locate a subscriber quickly, if you know part of their name or
email address.

1. Select the Subscribers » Quick Find option from the menu bar.
2. Enter a part of the subscriber’s name or email address.
3. Click the Quick Find button.

The list will be filtered to show all subscribers that match the criteria you entered.

Filtering the Subscriber List

AutoResponse Plus has a powerful filtering system for selecting groups of subscribers that match certain criteria. The
Quick Find system that you just read about is a simple form of filtering.

When you’ve filtered your list (even by using Quick Find), that filter remains in place until you clear it. The filter even
remains between AutoResponse Plus sessions.

When your subscriber list has been filtered, the selected subscribers are said to be “grouped”. You can then perform actions
with these grouped subscribers by selecting options in the Subscribers » Group Tasks menu.

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Setting a Filter

1. Select Subscribers » Filter » Set Filter from the menu bar.

2. Choose your selection criteria.
3. Click the Apply Filter button.

The Subscribers » Filter » Set Filter screen has many options for selecting the group of subscribers that you want to work
with. Click the Help option on the menu bar for a detailed explanation of all those options.

When you set a filter as described, any current filter will be replaced. You can only have one filter in place at any one time.
Remember that Quick Find is also a filter and will replace any other filter currently in place.

When a filter is in place, you’ll find that many screens in AutoResponse Plus (mainly those chosen from the Subscribers
menu) show that a filter is in place.

Any actions chosen from the Subscribers » Group Tasks menu act only on the subscribers that match your current filter.

Clearing the Current Filter

When you clear the current filter, all subscribers become selected. Any actions chosen from the Subscribers » Group Tasks
menu act on all subscribers in the database.

There are a few ways to clear the current filter:

• Select Subscribers » Filter » Clear Filter from the menu bar.

• Click one of the Clear Filter links that you’ll see in various screens.

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Group Tasks

The Subscribers » Group Tasks option on the menu bar contains a list of actions that can be performed on the subscribers
that match the current filter.

It is important to remember that if no filter is in place, that the group actions will affect your entire subscriber database.

The group actions that are available are:

• Broadcast
• Export in CSV Format
• Edit
• Delete
• Clear Send Logs

Group Tasks - Broadcast

The broadcast feature is used to send a “one-off” broadcast email to a selected group of subscribers, or your entire contact
last. For example, you might use the broadcast feature to send out a monthly newsletter.

The broadcast feature is covered in a later chapter.

Group Tasks - Exporting in CSV Format

This feature exports your subscribers in CSV (comma separated variable) format. This is a text file format that many
software programs, such as contact management systems will import.

When you export your subscribers in CSV format, the file is called export.csv and can be downloaded via FTP using
ASCII transfer mode from your cgi-bin/arp3/temp directory.

To export, select Subscribers » Group Tasks » Export from the menu bar. Follow the instructions on-screen. You can click
Help on the menu bar for a detailed explanation of the operation.

Exporting is a background task. This means that it does not tie up your browser. You will be emailed a report when the
export is complete. (Make sure you have entered an email address in the Your Profile » Basic Profile screen.)

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Group Tasks - Edit

Using this facility, you can make mass changes to all the selected subscribers. Remember that changes will affect all
subscribers in the current filter, or your entire subscriber database if no filter is in place (ie if your list is unfiltered).

To export, select Subscribers » Group Tasks » Edit from the menu bar. Follow the instructions on-screen. You can click
Help on the menu bar for a detailed explanation of the operation.

Group Tasks - Delete

This option deletes all the subscribers who match the current filter.

IMPORTANT NOTE
This option permanently deletes subscribers. Remember that if no filter is in
place, every subscriber will be permanently deleted!

To export, select Subscribers » Group Tasks » Delete from the menu bar. You will be asked to confirm that you wish to
delete those subscribers and will be shown how many subscribers will be deleted.

Only click the Confirm Delete button when you are sure that you want those subscribers deleted.

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Group Tasks - Clear Send Logs

As explained in a previous section, AutoResponse Plus logs every follow-up and broadcast message sent to each of your
subscribers. You can clear the entire send log for the selected subscribers with this feature.

Remember that if no filter is in place (ie your list is unfiltered), this operation will clear the logs of every subscriber in the
database.

To clear the send logs based on the current filter, select Subscribers » Group Tasks » Clear Send Logs from the menu bar.
You will be asked to confirm your choice.

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Global Tasks

The options in the Subscribers » Global Tasks menu affect the entire subscriber database, regardless of whether a filter is
currently in place.

The global tasks are:

• Quick Remove
• Delete Unsubscribers
• Delete Failures
• De-Duplicate

Global Tasks - Quick Remove

This feature is for quickly removing a list of email addresses from your subscriber database. To use this feature, you need
to have a list of email addresses, one per line, that you can paste or type.

The Quick Remove procedure allows you to choose what you would like to happen to those subscribers:

• Set status to user cancelled

• Completely delete

To use the Quick Remove feature:

1. Select the Subscribers » Global Tasks » Quick Remove option from the menu bar.
2. Type or paste the email addresses to be removed.
3. Choose your preferred action from the Remove Action drop-down list.
4. Click the Confirm button.

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Global Tasks - Delete Unsubscribers

People who unsubscribe from your autoresponders have their status automatically changed to “user cancelled”.
These people have stated that they don’t want to receive any further email from you.

You can quickly remove these subscribers by selecting Subscribers » Global Tasks » Delete Unsubscribers from the
menu bar. You will be asked to confirm your action.

This action is a global action. It ignores any filter you have in place.

Global Tasks - Delete Failures

AutoResponse Plus has the ability to manage bounced email. Each time an email to one of your subscribers
bounces, the failures is noted in the subscriber’s record.

When the number of failures reaches a certain level (as defined in the E-Mail Failures setting in the
System » Settings screen), the subscriber will have their status changed to “Failed” and no more attempts will be
made to send email to that subscriber.

These failed subscribers can be quickly and permanently deleted from your AutoResponse Plus system by selecting
the Subscribers » Global Tasks » Delete Failures option from the menu bar. You will be asked to confirm your
action.

This action is a global action. It ignores any filter you have in place.

Global Tasks - De-Duplicate

A duplicate subscription in AutoResponse Plus is defined as multiple subscriptions to one autoresponder by the
same email address.

The De-Duplicate function quickly removes duplicate subscriptions. The first subscription remains - all others are
permanently deleted.

To de-duplicate your subscriber list, select Subscribers » Global Tasks » De-Duplicate from the menu bar. You will
be asked to confirm your choice of action.

This action is a global action. It ignores any filter you have in place.

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Working With Tracking Tags

Tracking Tags Explained

In AutoResponse Plus, tracking tags are used for several useful purposes.

• To track the source of your subscribers.

• To group subscribers into categories.
• To implement custom subscribe and unsubscribe confirmation pages.

All of these uses are explained in this chapter.

A tracking tag is simply a small label like “POPUP”, “AD99”, “HOMEPAGE” or whatever, that can be assigned to your
subscribers by the subscription process, or manually using the AutoResponse Plus admin system.

Each tracking tag has only a few settings:

• The name of the tracking tag.

• The description of the tracking tag.
• Custom subscribe success page URL.
• Custom subscribe failure page URL.
• Custom unsubscribe success page URL.
• Custom unsubscribe failure page URL.

A common question about tracking tags is why they (and not your autoresponders) contain the URLs of your custom
confirmation pages. The reason is so that you can use different confirmation pages for the same autoresponder, by
assigning a different tracking tag to each subscription form.

Here’s an example. Suppose there are two forms on your web site where you accept subscriptions to your newsletter - on
your home page and in an automatic popup window. Both of these forms are accepting subscriptions for the same
autoresponder.

But it’s quite likely that you’ll want to use different custom confirmation pages for each because of the different window
sizes, styles etc. So you would create two tracking tags - one for your home page form and one for your popup. Each
tracking tag would have the appropriate custom page URL’s in its settings.

The double benefit from using tracking tags in this way is that (1) you’ll be able to track which form pulls the most
subscriptions and (2) you’ll be able to have different confirmation pages for each subscription form.

Later in this chapter, you’ll learn how to assign a tracking tag to a subscription form.

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Viewing the Tracking Tag List

To view your tracking tag list, click the Tracking Tags link on the menu bar or select Show List from the Tracking Tags
drop-down menu.

Creating a New Tracking Tag

There are two ways to create a tracking tag:

• Select Tracking Tags » Create New from the menu bar.

• Click the Create Tracking Tag link on the sub-menu bar while viewing the tracking tag list.

When you do one of these actions, the Tracking Tags » Create New screen appears where you can enter the settings of your
new tracking tag. Click the Create button when you’re done.

For a detailed explanation of each setting, select Help from the menu bar.

Editing a Tracking Tag

1. Select Tracking Tags from the menu bar to display your tracking tag list.
2. Click the Edit link in the Actions column of the tracking tag you want to edit.
3. Make the changes to the tracking tag’s settings as required.
4. Click the Save Changes button to return to the tracking tag list.

For a detailed explanation of each setting, select Help from the menu bar.

Deleting a Tracking Tag

1. Select Tracking Tags from the menu bar to display your tracking tag list.
2. Click the Delete link in the Actions column of the tracking tag you want to delete.
3. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm.

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Deleting All Tracking Tags

If you want to remove all your tracking tags, you can do so in one step, without having to delete them one by one.

1. Select Tracking Tags from the menu bar to display your tracking tag list.
2. Click the Delete All link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm.

Using Custom Confirmation Pages

When someone subscribers or unsubscribes, they are shown a default confirmation page. There are also default error pages
if their subscription or unsubscription failed for some reason. Here is an example of one of the default pages. The rest are
very similar:

Confirmation pages are used in four situations:

• To confirm that a subscription was successful.

• To inform your contact that their subscription failed (shown above).
• To confirm that unsubscription was successful.
• To inform your contact that their unsubscription failed.

All of these default confirmation pages can be replaced by your own pages. These are known as custom confirmation
pages. You can have different sets of custom confirmation pages, even for the same autoresponder. This is possible because
the URLs of your confirmation pages are part of a tracking tag’s settings. You can assign different tracking tags (each with
its own set of custom confirmation pages) to each of your subscription forms.

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Before you add the URLs of your custom confirmation pages to AutoResponse Plus, you need to create those pages and
upload them to your web server.

To use custom confirmation pages:

1. Create your custom confirmation pages and upload them to your web server.
2. Create a tracking tag for each subscription form that will use a different set of custom confirmation pages.
3. Enter the URLs of your custom confirmation pages in the settings of each tracking tag.
4. In each subscription form, create a hidden field “tracking_tag” with its value set to the correct tracking tag.

<input type=“hidden” value=“POPUP”>

When someone subscribes, the confirmation page they see will be taken from the settings of the tracking tags that you
assigned to the subscription form.

Grouping Subscribers

Every subscriber can have a tracking tag assigned to their subscription record.

If a subscriber signed up to your autoresponder through a form, their tracking tag will be the value of the “tracking_tag”
field on the form. The “tracking_tag” field would normally be a hidden field.

If a subscriber sins up by email, the subject line of their email can contain a tracking tag. For example, if you wanted to
accept subscriptions by email, and to track the source of those subscribers, you could use a link like this:

mailto:info@mydomain.com?subject=TRAad56

The subject line will contain TRAad56, and the tracking tag “ad56” will be assigned to the subscriber.

Working with Grouped Subscribers

You can select subscribers that have a certain tracking tag using the filtering system described in a previous chapter. Once
the filter is in place, you can work with those subscribers using the options in the Subscribers » Group Tasks menu.

Tracking the Source of Subscribers

If you have the arp3-report.pl cron task running once per night as described in the installation instructions, you will
receive a daily report by email showing the number of subscriptions and unsubscriptions to each autoresponder, broken
down by tracking tag.

Note that the Send Daily Subscription Report box on the System » Settings screen also needs to be checked for the report
to be generated and sent.

This reporting system allows you to track the success of failure of your various subscription methods on a daily basis.
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Dynamic Content
What is Dynamic Content?

Dynamic content is information in your messages that changes from message to message. For example, your subscriber’s
first name is dynamic content because it is different in every message.

Dynamic Content Tags

You insert dynamic content into your messages using dynamic content tags. There are around 70 of these and they are all
listed in Appendix A of this guide.

For example, if you want to insert your subscriber’s first name into a message, you would insert the dynamic content tag
{FIRSTNAME <default>}. Your subscriber’s email address can be inserted with the {EMAIL} tag and their unsubscribe
link can be inserted with {UNSUBSCRIBE_LINK}

Default Values In Dynamic Content Tags

The piece of information that you have inserted into your message might not always be available. For example, you may
wish to include your subscriber’s first name. But what if they chose not to type it into your subscription form?

Many dynamic content tags have an default value that will be used if the required piece of information is not available.

For example, let’s assume that you want to insert the words “Internet Marketer” if your subscriber’s first name is not
available for insertion. The correct dynamic content tag would be {FIRSTNAME Internet Marketer}.

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Suppose you had created a custom field on your form called “arpcustom_fax” to capture your customer’s fax number. The
dynamic content tag for this would be {CUSTOM_fax unknown}.

So the sentence “Your fax number is {CUSTOM_fax unknown}” will appear as “Your fax number is unknown” if the
subscriber did not provide their fax number when they subscribed.

Obligatory and Optional Default Values

Some dynamic content tags must always have a default value so that AutoResponse Plus always has something to insert if
the required information is not available. Tags that must have a default value are shown like this:

{TAGNAME default}

If the default value is optional, the tag is shown like this:

{TAGNAME <default>}

When “default” is shown in angled brackets <default>, it means that the default value is not required.

When writing your messages, try to think of what will appear in the message when the required information is not
available. Don’t assume your subscriber will enter the information you asked for!

Forcing Default Personalization

You can tell AutoResponse Plus to always use the default values in your tags, rather than inserting the required
information in your messages. This would be a good way to check how your message will read if none of the required
information is available.

This can be turned on and off by checking/unchecking the Force Default Personalization box in the Dynamic Data and
Personalization section of the System » Settings screen. You can get there by selecting System » Settings from the menu
bar.

Creating Time-Sensitive Messages

In email marketing, it is very common to send time-sensitive messages:

“Buy our product before midnight on Tuesday, November 5th and receive a FREE bonus!”

The date that appears in this message is based on the date that the person subscribed.

As you look through the list of dynamic content tags in Appendix A of this user guide, you will find that many of the date
tags have an “offset” value - which is a number of days. Whatever number you enter for the offset, AutoResponse Plus will
add that number of days to the date before inserting it into your message.

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For example:

“Please order before midnight on {LONGDATE 5} and receive a FREE bonus!”

This gives your subscriber the impression that they only have five days from their subscription to respond to your call to
action.

As your message sequence progresses, you can reduce the offset so that the date stays the same:

“Yesterday you subscribed to our newsletter - remember that you need to purchase before midnight on {LONGDATE 4} to
qualify for your FREE bonus!”

What Dynamic Content Tags Can I Use?

A complete list of the available dynamic content tags is included in Appendix A of this user guide. While using your
AutoResponse Plus system, you can get a complete list onscreen by:

• Selecting Help » Help Index from the menu bar and selecting Autoresponders » Dynamic Content from the help index
page.

Clicking the Dynamic Content link on the sub-menu bar while editing a follow-up message.

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Link & Click Tracking

What is Link Tracking?

Link tracking is a way of monitoring the click-through rate of links you place in your messages.

Impressions, Clicks and Ratio

AutoResponse Plus stores both the “impressions” (the number of times the link has been shown) and “clicks” (the number
of times the link has been clicked. AutoResponse Plus also works out the ratio of clicks to impressions.

For example, if you send out a broadcast containing a link to 1,000 subscribers, the number of impressions is 1,000. If 100
of those subscribers click on the link, the number of clicks is 100. The ratio is 100 divided by 1,000 expressed as a
percentage, in this example, 10%.

The impression counter is incremented once per message, no matter how many times the same link appears in the
message. This gives a more accurate picture of how many subscribers saw your link and how many clicked it. The unique
counter shows the number of unique subscribers who have clicked on the link. Clicking the Filter link in the actions
column sets the subscriber filter to select those subscribers who have clicked your link.

Viewing the Link List

To view your link list, click the Link Tracking option on the menu bar or select Show List from the Link Tracking drop-
down menu.

Refreshing the Link List

To refresh the link list, click the Refresh link on the sub-menu bar while viewing the link list.

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Creating a New Link

To create a new link:

1. Select Link Tracking » Create New from the menu bar.

2. Enter the settings for the new link, including the URL that your subscriber will go to when they click it.
3. Set the initial impressions and clicks (usually zero).
4. Click the Create button.

Including a Link In Messages

The link list shows the dynamic content tag that you should use to insert that link into your messages.

When you include a link in your messages, the subscriber does not see the actual URL. Instead, they see a link to one of
the AutoResponse Plus scripts.

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=4

When they click that link, the “clicks” counter is incremented and the subscriber is redirected to the URL you entered in
the link’s settings.

Editing a Link

A link can be edited by clicking the Edit link in the link’s Actions column in the link list.

When you click the link, the Link Tracking » Edit screen appears for the selected link. Click the Help link on the menu bar
for a detailed explanation of each setting and option on the screen.

Deleting a Link

An individual link can be deleted from your database by clicking the Delete link in the link’s Actions column in the link
list.

When you click the link, the Link Tracking » Confirm Delete screen appears. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm
that this link should be deleted.

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Deleting All Links

To delete all links:

1. Select Link Tracking from the menu bar to display the link list.
2. Click the Delete All link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm.

Resetting a Link

When you reset a link, it’s impressions and clicks counters are set to zero. To reset a link:

1. Click the Reset link in the link’s Actions column in the link list.
2. Click the Confirm Reset button to confirm.

Resetting All Links

To reset all “impressions” and “clicks” counters for all your links to zero:

1. Select Link Tracking from the menu bar to display the link list.
2. Click the Reset All link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Click the Confirm Reset button to confirm.

How Does a Link Appear in a Message?

When you use the {LINK x} tag to insert a link into one of your messages, AutoResponse Plus inserts a link to one of its
own scripts. This serves two functions:

• To count the number of clicks on that link.

• To redirect your subscriber to the URL in that link’s settings.

The link appears like this in your message:

http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=4

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Using Subscription Confirmation

What is Subscription Confirmation?

Subscription confirmation is a system that allows your subscriber to confirm that they did actually subscribe to your
autoresponder. This prevents people from subscribing others without their permission.

The process is:

1. Your subscriber completes the subscription form or sends an email to your autoresponder.
2. AutoResponse Plus replies with a message saying “Click Here” to confirm your subscription.
3. Your subscriber receives that message and clicks the link to confirm their subscription.
4. AutoResponse Plus notes their confirmation and adds them to the follow-up sequence.

Enabling Subscription Confirmation

Subscription confirmation is enabled for autoresponders individually. This means that you can have both autoresponders
that use subscription confirmation and those that don’t.

To enable subscription confirmation for an autoresponder:

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Properties link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to work with.
3. Check the Use Subscription Confirmation box in the Subscription Options section.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

When someone subscribes, they are sent the default confirmation message. This is defined in the Subscription
Confirmation Settings section of the System » Settings screen.

Customizing the Subscription Confirmation Message

You can create a custom message that your subscriber will receive, asking them to confirm their subscription. This is
entered in the Subscription Confirmation Email Text box in the Autoresponders » Properties screen of each autoresponder.

Your custom message must contain the {CONFIRMATION_LINK} tag, so that your subscriber has a link they can click to
confirm their subscription. The default confirmation message automatically has this link embedded in it.

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Customizing the Subscription Confirmation Page

When your subscriber clicks the link in the confirmation email, confirming that they want to subscribe, they will be shown
a default confirmation page. They will see a default error page if their confirmation fails (for example, if you have deleted
the autoresponder they subscribed to).

You can use custom pages instead of these default pages - enter their URLs in the Subscription Confirmation Page and
Subscription Confirmation Failure Page area of each autoresponder’s Properties page.

Removing Unconfirmed Subscribers

Periodically, you should delete subscribers who have not confirmed their subscription. This is done by setting a filter and
deleting the selected subscribers.

When setting the filter, you should choose a range of subscription dates so that people who are perhaps in the process of
confirming their subscription do not get deleted.

To remove unconfirmed subscribers:

1. Select Subscribers » Filter » Set Filter from the menu bar.

2. Select unconfirmed in the Subscription Confirmation Status box.
3. Select the dates (perhaps up to yesterday) in the Subscription Date From and To areas.
4. Click the Apply Filter button.
5. Select the Subscribers » Group Tasks » Delete option on the menu bar.
6. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm that you want to delete the selected subscribers.

Some Subscription Confirmation Default Settings

Some subscription confirmation settings can be set as defaults so that if you don’t change the same settings in a particular
autoresponder, the defaults will be used instead.

The defaults that can be set are:

• The URL of the subscription confirmation page.

• The URL of the subscription confirmation failure page.
• The message text of the subscription confirmation email.

These defaults are entered in the Subscription Confirmation Settings section of the System » Settings screen.

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Working With Autoresponders

This chapter explains many of the facilities available for managing your autoresponders. The procedures that will be
covered are:

• Copying an autoresponder.
• Editing an autoresponder’s messages.
• Changing an autoresponder’s properties.
• Deleting an autoresponder.
• Deleting all autoresponders.
• Testing an autoresponder.
• Setting autoresponder subscription methods.
• Completion management.
• Subscriber self-editing.
• Administrator notifications.
• Page layout settings.
• Importing messages from another autoresponder.

Copying an Autoresponder

When you copy an autoresponder, a new one is created with the same messages as the one you’ve copied. The messages in
the new autoresponder are independent from the original and can be edited without those edits affecting the original
autoresponder.

The new autoresponder has to have a different subscription address to the original. To create a copy of an autoresponder:

1. Select Autoresponders » Copy Existing from the menu bar.

2. Enter the subscription address of the new autoresponder.
3. Select the autoresponder being copied.
4. Click the Create Copy button to create the new autoresponder.

Note that no subscribers are copied by this operation. The new autoresponder starts with no subscribers.

Editing an Autoresponder’s Messages

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Messages link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to edit.
3. Make the changes to the autoresponder’s messages, properties or page layout as required.

For a detailed explanation of each setting, select Help from the menu bar.

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Changing an Autoresponder’s Properties

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Properties link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to edit.
3. Make the changes to the autoresponder’s properties as required.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

For a detailed explanation of each setting, select Help from the menu bar.

Deleting an Autoresponder

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Delete link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to delete.
3. Make the changes to the autoresponder’s properties as required.
4. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm.

Deleting an autoresponder deletes all its messages too. Any subscribers who are currently subscribed to this autoresponder
will have their autoresponder setting changed to “undefined”.

Deleting All Autoresponders

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Delete All link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm.

When you delete all autoresponders, all messages are also deleted. All subscribers will have their autoresponder setting
changed to “undefined”.

Testing an Autoresponder

This feature allows you to check the content and layout of all plain text and HTML messages in an autoresponder’s
message sequence. The test messages are sent to the email address you’ve entered in the Your Profile » Basic Profile
screen.

To test an autoresponder:

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Test link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to test.
3. Check the plain text and HTML boxes as required.
4. Click the Confirm Test button.

AutoResponse Plus will immediately send you all the messages in that autoresponder’s follow-up sequence.

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Setting Subscription Permissions

AutoResponse Plus allows you to control whether subscriptions will be accepted by email, through web forms, or both.

To set the subscription permissions:

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Properties link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to edit.
3. Check/uncheck the E-Mail and Form Control boxes in the Subscription Options section as required.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

Completion Management

AutoResponse Plus allows you to control what happens to a subscription when the end of an autoresponder’s follow-up
sequence is reached. This is called completion management.

There are three choices for what will happen when a sequence ends:

• Flag As Finished - the subscriber’s status is changed to “Finished”. Even if more follow-up messages are added to the
sequence at a later date, the subscriber will not receive them until their status is changed to “Active”.

• Retain Active Status - the subscriber’s status remains “Active”. If you ever add more follow-up messages to the
sequence, the subscriber will receive them.

• Loop - the subscriber is moved to another autoresponder or back to one of the messages in the same autoresponder. You
can choose which autoresponder they should loop to and how many days should elapse before the loop occurs.

To set the completion management settings:

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Properties link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to edit.
3. Change the settings in the What Happens On Completion? section
4. Click the Save Changes button.

For a detailed explanation of each setting, select Help from the menu bar.

Subscriber Self-Edit

You can give your subscribers the opportunity to edit some details of their subscription like email address, format
preference etc. If you include the {EDIT_LINK} tag in a message, your subscriber will see a clickable link. When they
click it, they will be taken to a screen where they can edit their settings.

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Admin Subscription and Unsubscription Notifications

You can choose to be notified by email when someone subscribes or unsubscribes from your autoresponders. There are
check boxes for setting this in the Properties screen of each autoresponder.

Headers and Footers

You can define plain text and HTML headers and footers that are used for all messages in an autoresponder’s follow-up
sequence.

To set the headers and footers for an autoresponder:

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Messages link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to edit.
3. Click the Page Layout link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Enter the header and footer text and/or HTML as required.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

For a detailed explanation of each setting, select Help from the menu bar.

Automatic Unsubscribe Link

AutoResponse Plus can be told to automatically add an unsubscriber link to each message in a follow-up sequence.

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Edit link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to edit.
3. Click the Page Layout link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Check or uncheck the Include Unsubscribe Link box as required.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

An unsubscribe link can also be inserted into messages using the {UNSUBSCRIBE_LINK} tag. See the chapter headed
“Dynamic Content” for more information.

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Importing Messages From One Autoresponder to Another

This feature allows you to copy all the follow-up messages from one autoresponder into another. The copy created is
independent from the original meaning that the new messages can be edited without affecting the originals.

To import messages into an autoresponder:

1. Select Autoresponders from the menu bar to display your autoresponder list.
2. Click the Messages link in the Actions column of the autoresponder you want to copy messages into.
3. Click the Import Messages link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Select the autoresponder to copy all follow-up messages from.
4. Click the Import button to complete the process.

What is Open-Rate Tracking?

AutoResponse Plus has facilities for tracking the number of subscribers who opened your follow-up messages. It can also
filter your list to select those subscribers who opened a message.

Note that open-rate tracking works only for HTML and multi-part (both HTML and plain text) messages, not plain text.

Setting Up Open-Rate Tracking

A script called arp3-hit.php is supplied with AutoResponse Plus. It must be uploaded to the public HTML area of your web
site. Its location must be entered into the AutoResponse Plus System » Settings screen.

The normal location for the arp3-hit.php script is in the arp3 directory of your server’s public HTML folder.

So, for example, if the arp3-hit.php script is in the arp3 directory of your server’s public HTML folder, the entry in the
System » Settings screen would be

http://www.yourdomain.com/arp3/arp3-hit.php

There is a Test link beside this option in the System » Settings screen that will tell you if AutoResponse Plus is able to find
and run the arp3-hit.php tracking script.

Enabling Open-Rate Tracking

When editing a follow-up message, check the Track Open Rate? box. When this box is checked, AutoResponse Plus will
could the number of times this message is opened, and take note of the subscribers who did so.

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WORKING WITH AUTORESPONDERS

Selecting Subscribers Who Opened a Message

While viewing the list of messages for your autoresponder, click the Filter link in the Actions column. The list of messages
will be replaced by the list of subscribers who have opened the selected message. These subscribers can then be managed
using the Subscribers » Group Tasks options.

When the subscriber list is filtered in this way, you can tailor the filter by going into Subscribers » Filter » Set Filter and
choosing more options for the filter as required.

Resetting Open-Rate Tracking

Open-rate tracking can be reset for an individual message, or for all messages in an autoresponder.

• Individual message: Click the Reset link in the Actions column of the message to be reset.

• All messages: Click the Reset All link on the sub-menubar.

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BROADCAST MESSAGES

Broadcast Messages
What is a Broadcast?

AutoResponse Plus has a powerful broadcast feature that allows you to send “one-off” email messages to your subscribers,
independently of any follow-up messages they might be receiving.

For example you might use the broadcast feature to send out a weekly offer to everyone in your sales letter sequence. Or
you might choose to send a monthly newsletter to all the subscribers in your AutoResponse Plus system.

Broadcast messages can be plain text, HTML or multi-part (both plain text and HTML). The version your subscriber
receives will depend on the Preferred Format setting in their subscriber record.

With so many options available, it would be a good idea to practise sending broadcast messages to a small number of
your own email addresses to familiarize yourself with the process!

Creating a New Broadcast

When you want to send a broadcast to your subscribers, the first thing you need to do is filter your subscriber list to extract
only those you wish to send your broadcast to. Read the chapter headed “Working With Subscribers” for more information
on filtering.

You also need to decide when your broadcast message will be sent to those subscribers. The choices are:

• Immediately
• Instant Test (to you only)
• Next run (of the AutoResponse Plus arp3-auto.pl cron task)
• On a specific date
• On a specific day of the week

This is called the broadcast message’s Schedule.

You also need to have prepared the text of your plain text and/or HTML messages so that they can be pasted into the
broadcast screen.

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BROADCAST MESSAGES

To create a new broadcast:

1. Select Subscribers » Group Tasks » Broadcast » Create New from the menu bar.

The box at the top of the screen shows you how many subscribers are about to receive this broadcast message.

2. Set all the preferences for the broadcast and paste in the message text.

Click the Help link for detailed information on every option available.

3. Choose the required Schedule option as just described.

4. Click the Start/Save button.

If you chose Immediately for the Schedule setting, the broadcast will begin immediately. Messages are send as a
background process so you can safely close your browser, log off the Internet and your broadcast will continue to be
sent.

The Broadcast Queue Manager

AutoResponse Plus maintains a list of current, future and past broadcasts. This is called the queue manager. To access the
broadcast queue manager, select Subscribers » Group Tasks » Broadcast » Queue Manager from the menu bar.

Refreshing the Queue Manager

The Queue Manager automatically refreshes every 30 seconds. This can be changed by altering the value of the
$_refresh_secs variable in the arp3-settings.pl file. You can manually refresh the queue at any time by clicking the Refresh
link on the sub-menu bar while viewing the queue.

Pausing a Broadcast

While a broadcast is in progress, its Actions column in the queue manager has a Pause link. If you click that link, the
broadcast will pause. Note that some messages may continue to be sent until AutoResponse Plus’s internal buffers have
been cleared.

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BROADCAST MESSAGES

Unpausing a Broadcast

When a broadcast is paused, no messages will be sent. The broadcast will remain in this paused state until you manually
unpause it by clicking the UnPause link in the broadcast’s Actions column in the queue manager. The broadcast
immediately resumes in the background. You can close your browser or move onto a different task (even outwith your
AutoResponse Plus system) and the broadcast will continue.

Suspended Broadcasts

You can set the maximum total number of follow-up and broadcast messages that AutoResponse Plus will send out during
any single session. This is the Message Limit setting on the System » Settings screen. Its default value is 999999 messages.

If AutoResponse Plus reaches this limit during any one send session, your broadcast may be suspended. This appears as
“Suspended” in the status column of the broadcast. The broadcast will resume the next time the arp3-auto.pl cron task
runs. You can also remove the suspension and continue the broadcast by clicking on the Continue link in the broadcast’s
Actions column while it is suspended. The broadcast will continue immediately in the background and may be suspended
again if the limit is reached.

Editing a Broadcast

A broadcast can only be changed before it has started to be sent out. While the broadcast is in the “waiting” state, its
Actions column in the queue manager has an Edit link. When you click it, you can change all the parameters of the
broadcast or the message text.

Deleting a Broadcast

A broadcast can be deleted from the queue manager:

• Before it has started to be sent out

• After the broadcast has been sent
• While the broadcast is paused
• While the broadcast is suspended

To delete a broadcast, click its Delete link in the Actions column of the queue manager.

To delete a broadcast that is currently being sent, pause the broadcast first (see above) then wait for the screen to refresh.
The Delete link will appear in the Actions column. Click it to delete the broadcast.

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BROADCAST MESSAGES

Deleting All Broadcasts

To delete all broadcasts, click the Delete All link in the sub-menu bar while viewing the queue manager.

Cloning a Broadcast

You can clone a broadcast - this creates a completely new and independent broadcast with exactly the same settings and
messages as the original.

The new broadcast created by this process can be edited and sent independently of the original.

All subscribers matching the current filter will receive the new broadcast.

To clone a broadcast:

1. Select Subscribers » Group Tasks » Broadcast » Queue Manager from the menu bar.
2. If available, click the Copy link in the Actions column of the broadcast to be cloned.

This brings up the edit screen for the original broadcast.

3. Check the Save as new broadcast box and change any settings as required (including schedule).
4. Click the Start/Save button.

What is Open-Rate Tracking?

AutoResponse Plus has facilities for tracking the number of subscribers who opened your broadcast messages. It can also
filter your list to select those subscribers who opened a message.

Note that open-rate tracking works only for HTML and multi-part (both HTML and plain text) messages, not plain text.

Setting Up Open-Rate Tracking

A script called arp3-hit.php is supplied with AutoResponse Plus. It must be uploaded to the public HTML area of your web
site. Its location must be entered into the AutoResponse Plus System » Settings screen.

The normal location for the arp3-hit.php script is in the arp3 directory of your server’s public HTML folder.

So, for example, if the arp3-hit.php script is in the arp3 directory of your server’s public HTML folder, the entry in the
System » Settings screen would be

http://www.yourdomain.com/arp3/arp3-hit.php

There is a Test link beside this option in the System » Settings screen that will tell you if AutoResponse Plus is able to find
and run the arp3-hit.php tracking script.
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BROADCAST MESSAGES

Enabling Open-Rate Tracking

When creating or editing a broadcast message, check the Track Open Rate? box. When this box is checked, AutoResponse
Plus will could the number of times this broadcast message is opened, and take note of the subscribers who did so.

Selecting Subscribers Who Opened a Broadcast Message

While viewing the broadcast queue manager, click the Filter link in the Sent column. The queue manager will be replaced
by the list of subscribers who have opened the selected broadcast message. These subscribers can then be managed using
the Subscribers » Group Tasks options.

When the subscriber list is filtered in this way, you can tailor the filter by going into Subscribers » Filter » Set Filter and
choosing more options for the filter as required.

Resetting Open-Rate Tracking

Open-rate tracking can be reset for an individual broadcast message. To do this, click the Reset link in the Actions column
of the selected broadcast.

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YOUR PROFILE

Your Profile
Basic Profile

The Your Profile » Basic Profile screen contains basic information for your AutoResponse Plus system:

• Your AutoResponse Plus login name.

• Your AutoResponse Plus login password.
• Your email address - AutoResponse Plus sends messages to this address.

To change your profile settings:

1. Select Your Profile » Basic Profile from the menu bar.

2. Change the settings as required.
3. Click the Save Changes button.

Click the Help link for detailed information on every option available.

My Record

The Your Profile » My Record screen contains many fields of information on you and your company.

To change your My Record information:

1. Select Your Profile » My Record from the menu bar.

2. Change the My Record information as required.
3. Click the Save Changes button.

Each My Record field has a tag, for example {MY_TITLE}, that can be used to insert that piece of information into your
follow-up and broadcast messages.

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CUSTOM TAGS

Custom Tags
What is a Custom Tag?

The best way to explain what a custom tag is used for is by showing an example.

Let’s say you are selling an e-book and you use AutoResponse Plus to promote it. You need to be able to quickly change the
price of your e-book because you occasionally run pricing offers that only last for one week.

Each time you change the price, it would be time-consuming to go through every message in your follow-up sequence and
change every occurrence of the price.

That’s where the AutoResponse Plus custom tags feature can be useful.

You could set up a custom tag called {TAG_price} with its value set to ‘$99.00’ or whatever price you were selling your
e-book for.

In your follow-up messages, you insert the tag {TAG_price} wherever you want the price to appear. When AutoResponse
Plus sends out your follow-up messages, it will automatically insert the price that you have currently defined in the
{TAG_price} tag.

Any time you want to change the price of your e-book, you simply edit the {TAG_price} tag, change its value to the new
price of your e-book and save. Any follow-up messages containing the {TAG_price} tag that are sent out from that point
on will contain your new price.

Creating a Custom Tag

To create a new custom tag:

1. Select System » Custom from the menu bar to display your custom tag list.
2. Click the Create Custom Tag link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Enter the name of the new tag (which must start TAG_) and its contents.
4. Click the Create button.

Click the Help link for detailed information on every option available.

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CUSTOM TAGS

Including a Custom Tag in Messages

The custom tag list shows the tag that you should use to insert that tag’s content value into your messages.

Editing a Custom Tag

1. Select System » Custom from the menu bar to display your custom tag list.
2. Click the Edit link in the Actions column of the custom tag to be edited.
3. Change the tag and contents as required.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

Deleting a Custom Tag

1. Select System » Custom from the menu bar to display your custom tag list.
2. Click the Delete link in the Actions column of the custom tag to be deleted.
3. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm.

Deleting All Custom Tags

1. Select System » Custom from the menu bar to display your custom tag list.
2. Click the Delete All link on the sub-menu bar.
3. Click the Confirm Delete button to confirm.

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BACKUP & RESTORE

Backing Up and Restoring Your Data

AutoResponse Plus has features for automatically and manually creating a single MySQL backup file of your entire
AutoResponse Plus data set.

Technical Sidenote - MySQL Requirements

The AutoResponse Plus backup routine uses MySQL’s own backup program called “MySQLDump”. In order to use the AutoResponse
Plus backup feature, you need the rights to run the MySQLDump utility, and you need to know its location on your server. As part of
the AutoResponse Plus installation procedure, you should have entered this in your arp3-config.pl file.

Similarly, the AutoResponse Plus restore routine uses MySQL’s own restore routine within the “MySQL” program. In order to use the
AutoResponse Plus restore feature, you need the rights to run the MySQL utility and you need to know its location on your server. As
part of the AutoResponse Plus installation procedure, you should have entered this in your arp3-config.pl file.

Your host can tell you the location of both of these utilities. Note that the entries in the arp3-config.pl are absolute paths to the
MySQLDump and MySQL programs, not just the directories they reside in.

For example: /usr/local/bin/mysqldump may be correct. /usr/local/bin is not correct.

Note: Be aware that if you create a backup file on a modern version of MySQL, you may not be able to use that backup file
on a server that has an older version of MySQL than the version used to create the backup.

Manually Creating a Backup

The AutoResponse Plus backup routine creates a single SQL file containing all your AutoResponse Plus data. SQL files are
ASCII text and so should be downloaded to your computer using ASCII transfer mode, not binary transfer mode.

Each time AutoResponse Plus creates a backup file, a new filename is used for the backup file. The filename contains the
date and time that the backup file was created. For example 2002-Nov-10-04-14-30.sql would be the name of the backup
file created at 04:14:30 (ie 4.14am) on November 10th, 2002.

By date and time stamping files in this way, it ensures that previous backup files are not overwritten.

All AutoResponse Plus backup files are created in your cgi-bin/arp3/backup directory.

To manually create a backup file:

1. Select System » Backup/Restore » Backup Data from the menu bar.

2. To start the backup procedure, click the Create Backup button.

The backup file will be created as a background task and a report will be emailed to the address you have entered in the
Your Profile » Basic Profile screen.

When the backup is complete, you can FTP to your cgi-bin/arp3/backup directory and download the file.

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BACKUP & RESTORE

Automatically Creating Backups

AutoResponse Plus can automatically create backups so that you don’t have to remember to do it manually. Using the
automatic backup procedure, you can choose the interval in days between backups.

To enable automatic backups:

1. Select System » Settings from the menu bar.

2. In the Scheduled and Background Tasks section, check the Automatic Data Backups box.

3. Enter the interval that you want between backups in the Backup Interval box.
4. Click the Save Changes button.

Restoring a Backup

The backup file creating using the backup routine can be used to recreate your entire AutoResponse Plus data set on the
same or another server.

As described previously, the backup files created by AutoResponse Plus have a filename that contains the date and time
that the file was created. Before the backup file can be restored, it must be renamed to simply backup.sql.

The backup.sql file must be stored in your cgi-bin/arp3/backup directory.

To restore your backup file:

1. Select System » Backup/Restore » Restore Data from the menu bar.

2. Click the Restore Data button to start the restore procedure.

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BAN & RESERVED LISTS

Ban and Reserved Address Lists

Banned Domains and E-Mail Addresses

AutoResponse Plus allows you to create a list of domains and email addresses from which subscriptions to your
autoresponders will not be permitted (and will simply be ignored).

To create or edit your ban list:

1. Select System » Settings from the menu bar.

2. In the Ban List box, enter the domains and addresses to be banned, one per line.
3. Click the Save Changes button.

Your ban list is now activated. To deactivate it, simply remove the entries in the list and save.

Reserved E-Mail Addresses

Each autoresponder’s subscription address must not have a mailbox or pop account in your domain. For example, if you
have an autoresponder called “info@yourdomain.com”, you cannot have a mailbox called “info”. The reason is that any
email addresses to “info@yourdomain.com” will go to the mailbox with that name, not to your AutoResponse Plus system.

The reserved email address list in AutoResponse Plus is a place where you can list all the mailboxes and other addresses
that you won’t be able to use for autoresponder subscription addresses.

Any attempt to create an autoresponder with subscription address the same as any on the reserved list will result in an
error, telling you to choose another subscription address.

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BAN & RESERVED LISTS

To create or edit your reserved address list:

1. Select System » Settings from the menu bar.

2. In the Reserved Email Addresses box, enter the reserved addresses, one per line.
3. Click the Save Changes button.

Your reserve list is now activated. To deactivate it, simply remove the entries in the list and save.

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ADS IN MESSAGES

Ads In Messages
AutoResponse Plus has a central area for managing up to ten advertisements. This feature allows you to centrally manage
the content of your ads, without having to edit individual follow-up or broadcast messages when your ads change.

Viewing, Creating and Editing Advertisements

To work with your advertisements, select System » Settings from the menu bar and scroll to the Advertisements section.
There are ten spaces for your ads called AD 1 to AD 10.

Enter the text of your ads in the boxes.

Inserting Advertisements In Your Messages

Your ads can be inserted into your messages using the tags {AD 1}, {AD 2} and {AD 3} etc.

Tracking Links In Your Advertisements

You can embed {LINK x} tags in your ads if you want to track the number impressions and click-throughs that your ads
are receiving. Check out the chapter headed “Link Tracking” for more details on creating ad tracking links.

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SIGNATURES

Signatures
AutoResponse Plus has an area where you can store up to three signatures to include in your follow-up and broadcast
messages.

Viewing, Creating and Editing Signatures

To work with your signatures, select System » Settings from the menu bar and scroll to the Signatures section. There are
three spaces for your signatures called SIGNATURE 1, SIGNATURE 2 and SIGNATURE 3.

Enter the text of your signatures in the boxes.

Inserting Signatures In Your Messages

Your signatures can be inserted into your messages using the tags {SIGNATURE 1}, {SIGNATURE 2} and
{SIGNATURE 3}.

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SYSTEM SETTINGS

System Settings
Changing the AutoResponse Plus System Settings

To change any of the AutoResponse Plus system settings:

1. Select System » Settings from the menu bar.

2. Make changes as required.
3. Click the Save Changes button.

What Can be Changed?

The sections available in the System » Settings screen are:

• Domain and web site settings

• Display settings
• Dynamic data and personalization
• Scheduled and background tasks
• Customization
• Notification
• Subscription confirmation settings
• System messages
• Your signatures
• Advertisements
• Banned and reserved domains and addresses

While viewing the System » Settings screen, click Help on the menu bar for detailed help on every setting.

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INTEGRATION

Integrating AutoResponse Plus With Other Software

The Remote Control Feature

AutoResponse Plus can be controlled from other software by “remote control”.

You can subscribe new contacts and unsubscribe existing contacts by getting the other software to send AutoResponse Plus
an email.

Note that for this to work, your AutoResponse Plus system needs to be set up to react to incoming email as described in the
installation instructions.

The “remote control” email must be sent to arplus@yourdomain.com and it must have a subject line in the format shown
below. Unknown entries can be omitted.

owner=p1+password=p2+action=p3+name=p4+email=p5+autoresponder=p6+p7+TRAp8+ip=p9+drop=p10

The parameters p1 to p10 are explained here

p1: Your owner name

p2: Your password
p3: subscribe or unsubscribe
p4: Your subscriber's name
p5: Your subscribers email address
p6: Your autoresponder's subscription address (without the domain)
p7: plain or html
p8: The tracking tag to be associated with the subscription
p9: The IP address to be associated with the subscriber’s record.
p10: Set to yes if you want the drop rules for the autoresponder to be actioned by this subscription.

For example, the following subject line would be valid:

owner=abc+password=12345+action=subscribe+name=John+email=john@johndoe.com+autoresponder=info+ip=10.10.0.3

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DYNAMIC CONTENT TAGS

APPENDIX A - Dynamic Content Tags

Here is a list of all the dynamic content tags you can use in your messages to personalize and otherwise tailor your
follow-up and broadcast messages.

Where <default> is shown, this means that you can enter some text that will be inserted if the required information does
not exist. For example, suppose you wanted to include a subscriber's first name. Your would use the {FIRSTNAME} tag.
But what if the subscriber hadn't given you their name?

So instead, you would use a tag like {FIRSTNAME Internet Marketer}. The subscriber's first name will inserted in
AutoResponse Plus has that information stored. If not, the text "Internet Marketer" will be used. So your subscriber will
see something like "Dear John" if AutoResponse Plus knows their name and "Dear Internet Marketer" if it doesn't.

This is called "default personalization" and can be used with tags that have default shown.

The date tags have a parameter called <offset>. For example, {SHORTDATE 7}. The offset is optional and is the number
of days that should be added to the current date before inserting the date in the message. The purpose of this is to allow
you to create an offer that expires a certain number of days after your subscriber has received it.

Subscriber Tags

{SUBSCRIBERID} ......................................... Your subscriber’s AutoResponse Plus ID number

{FULLNAME <default>} ............................... Your subscriber's full name
{TITLE <default>} ......................................... Your subscriber's title (Mr, Mrs etc)
{FIRSTNAME <default>} .............................. Your subscriber's first name
{MIDDLENAME <default>} ......................... Your subscriber's middle name
{LASTNAME <default>} ............................... Your subscriber's last name
{FULLNAME <default>} ............................... Your subscriber’s full name
{EMAIL <default>} ........................................ Your subscriber's email address
{TRACKINGTAG <default>} ........................ The tracking tag associated with your subscriber
{IPADDRESS <default>} ............................... Your subscriber's IP address
{CUSTOM_field <default>} ........................... Custom field information (eg {CUSTOM_fax})
{EUROPEANSUBSCRIBEDATE <default>} The date of subscription in European date format.
{USSUBSCRIBEDATE <default>} ................ The date of subscription in US date format

System Tags

{DOUBLE_SUBJECT} .................................. The default subscription confirmation subject from System » Settings
{DOUBLE_TEXT} ......................................... The default subscription confirmation text from System » Settings
{DOUBLE_LINK} .......................................... The clickable subscription confirmation link
{NEXT_LINK} ............................................... A clickable link that sends the next message in a series
{NEXT_LINK_TEXT} ................................... The default text for the next link from System » Settings
{MESSAGE_NUMBER} ................................ The message number of this message in its series
{EDIT_LINK}................................................. A clickable link for a subscriber to edit their subscription details
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DYNAMIC CONTENT TAGS

{EDIT_LINK_TEXT} .................................... The default text for the edit link from System » Settings
{UNSUBSCRIBE_LINK} ............................... A clickable unsubscribe link (unsubscribes from one autoresponder)
{UNSUBSCRIBE_LINK_TEXT} .................. The default text for the unsubscribe link from System » Settings
{UNSUBSCRIBEALL_LINK} ....................... A clickable unsubscribe like (unsubscribes from all autoresponders)
{SUPPORT_EMAIL} ..................................... Your support email address from System » Settings
{ANTISPAM_MESSAGE} ............................ Your anti-spam message from System » Settings
{PRIVACY_STATEMENT} ........................... Your privacy statement text from System » Settings
{CONFIRMATION_LINK} ............................ Same as {DOUBLE_LINK} - see above

Autoresponder Tags

{AUTORESPONDER <default>} .................. The subscription email address of the autoresponder

{SUBSCRIBER_COUNT} ............................. The number of subscribers to the autoresponder
{MESSAGE_COUNT} ................................... The number of follow-up messages in the autoresponder
{AR_DOUBLE_SUBJECT} ........................... The subscription confirmation email subject
{AR_DOUBLE_TEXT} ................................. The subscription confirmation email message

Date Tags

{SHORTDATE <offset>} ................................ Date in the format "15 Jul 2002" offset by the # of days
{LONGDATE <offset>} ................................. Date in the format "Monday, 15 July 2002" offset by the # of days
{USLONGDATE <offset>} ............................. Date in the format "Monday, July 15 2002" offset by the # of days
{USLONGDATENOYEAR <offset>} ............ Date in the format "Monday, July 15" offset by the # of days
{USDATE <offset>} ........................................ Date in the format "mm/dd/yyyy" offset by the # of days
{EUROPEANDATE <offset>} ....................... Date in the format "dd/mm/yyyy" offset by the # of days
{WEEKDAY <offset>} ................................... The day of the week (eg Monday) offset by the # of days

Link Tracking Tags

{LINK x} ......................................................... x is the link number as shown in the link tracking list

Custom Tags

{TAG_tagname} ............................................. tagname is the name of the tag as shown in the custom tag list

Signature Tags

{SIGNATURE 1} ............................................ Your first signature from System » Settings

{SIGNATURE 2} ............................................ Your second signature from System » Settings
{SIGNATURE 3} ............................................ Your third signature from System » Settings

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DYNAMIC CONTENT TAGS

Advertisement Tags

{AD x} ............................................................ Ad x from System » Settings

My Record Tags

{MY_TITLE} .................................................. Your own title from Your Profile » My Record

{MY_FIRSTNAME} ...................................... Your own first name from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_LASTNAME} ....................................... Your own last name from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_FULLNAME} ....................................... Your own full name from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_POSITION} ........................................... Your own position from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_COMPANY} ......................................... Your own company name from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_ADDRESS1} ......................................... Your own address line 1 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_ADDRESS2} ......................................... Your own address line 2 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_ADDRESS3} ......................................... Your own address line 3 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_ADDRESS4} ......................................... Your own address line 4 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_ADDRESS5} ......................................... Your own address line 5 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_PHONE1} .............................................. Your own phone number 1 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_PHONE2} .............................................. Your own phone number 2 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_FAX1} ................................................... Your own fax number 1 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_FAX2} ................................................... Your own fax number 2 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_EMAIL1} .............................................. Your own email address 1 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_EMAIL2} .............................................. Your own email address 2 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_EMAIL3} .............................................. Your own email address 3 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_EMAIL4} .............................................. Your own email address 4 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_EMAIL5} .............................................. Your own email address 5 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_WEB1} .................................................. Your own web site address 1 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_WEB2} .................................................. Your own web site address 2 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_WEB3} .................................................. Your own web site address 3 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_WEB4} .................................................. Your own web site address 4 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_WEB5} .................................................. Your own web site address 5 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_MISC1} ................................................. Miscellaneous field 1 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_MISC2} ................................................. Miscellaneous field 2 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_MISC3} ................................................. Miscellaneous field 3 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_MISC4} ................................................. Miscellaneous field 4 from Your Profile » My Record
{MY_MISC5} ................................................. Miscellaneous field 5 from Your Profile » My Record

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COMMAND SUMMARY

APPENDIX B - Command Summary

This appendix lists all the command available on the AutoResponse Plus menu bar and the action that each performs.

Autoresponders

Autoresponders .................................................................... Show list of autoresponders

Autoresponders » Show List ............................................... Show list of autoresponders
Autoresponders » Create New............................................. Create a new autoresponder
Autoresponders » Copy Existing ........................................ Clone an existing autoresponder and its messages

Subscribers

Subscribers .......................................................................... Show list of subscribers

Subscribers » Show List ...................................................... Show list of subscribers
Subscribers » Add Subscriber ............................................. Manually add a new subscriber
Subscribers » Quick Find .................................................... Find a subscriber by a partial name or email address
Subscribers » Filter ............................................................. No action
Subscribers » Filter » Set Filter .......................................... Apply a filter to the subscribers list
Subscribers » Filter » Clear Filter ....................................... Clear the current subscriber filter
Subscribers » Group Tasks .................................................. No action
Subscribers » Group Tasks » Broadcast .............................. No action
Subscribers » Group Tasks » Broadcast » Create New ....... Create a new immediate or scheduled broadcast
Subscribers » Group Tasks » Broadcast » Queue Manager Show list of past and present broadcasts
Subscribers » Group Tasks » Export ................................... Export filtered subscriber data as CSV file
Subscribers » Group Tasks » Edit ....................................... Mass edit of filtered subscriber data
Subscribers » Group Tasks » Delete ................................... Mass deletion of filtered subscribers
Subscribers » Group Tasks » Clear Send Logs ................... Mass clearing of send logs for filtered subscribers
Subscribers » Global Tasks » Quick Remove ..................... Quick removal of a list of email addresses
Subscribers » Global Tasks » Delete Unsubscribers ........... Quick removal of unsubscribers
Subscribers » Global Tasks » Delete Failures ..................... Quick removal of failed email addresses
Subscribers » Global Tasks » De-Duplicate ........................ Remove multiple subscriptions to each autoresponder
Subscribers » Import From File .......................................... Import subscribers from a local CSV file

Tracking Tags

Tracking Tags ...................................................................... Show list of tracking tags

Tracking Tags » Show List ................................................. Show list of tracking tags
Tracking Tags » Create New ............................................... Create a new tracking tag

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COMMAND SUMMARY

Link Tracking

Link Tracking ...................................................................... Show a list of trackable links

Link Tracking » Show List ................................................. Show a list of trackable links
Link Tracking » Create New ............................................... Create a new trackable link

Your Profile

Your Profile ......................................................................... Change your basic profile settings

Your Profile » Basic Profile ................................................ Change your basic profile settings
Your Profile » My Record ................................................... Change your My Record settings

System

System ................................................................................. Change your AutoResponse Plus settings

System » Settings ................................................................ Change your AutoResponse Plus settings
System » Backup/Restore .................................................... No action
System » Backup/Restore » Backup Data ........................... Create a backup file of all AutoResponse Plus data
System » Backup/Restore » Restore Data ........................... Restore AutoResponse Plus data from backup file
System » Custom Tags ........................................................ Manage user-defined dynamic data tags
System » Tests ..................................................................... No action
System » Tests » E-Mail Send Test ..................................... Test the AutoResponse Plus email sending system
System » Tests » E-Mail Capture Test ................................ Test that AutoResponse Plus reacts to incoming email
System » Tests » Blast Timer Test ...................................... Test the send speed of broadcast email

Help

Help ..................................................................................... Detailed help on the current screen

Help » Help Index ............................................................... Index for the online help system
Help » Support ................................................................... Support page from your software vendor

Log Out

Log Out ................................................................................ Log out of AutoResponse Plus

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NOTES

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Version 3.6

NOTES

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