Question : HMTL Email inconsistencies between email apps

I am ready to email out my client's promo page www.robertharlow.com/promo to our email list.
However, on trying a few addresses viewers report varying results.

Some see the pictures like the web page,
 some see the picture boxes with broken link icons,
 some see the pics in a row at the bottom of the email  
   like attachments.

Viewers are using Eudora 5+, Outlook Express, web email
on Win 98 , XP & Mac OS9 & X

Any ideas on how to fix?
Or who to consult?  or what EE forum?


Thank you,
Peter Judd

Answer : HMTL Email inconsistencies between email apps

First and foremost you should tell us what system you are using to send these emails.  I'm assuming you've used Outlook or Outlook Express.  Granted, they do an okay job of sending out the html messages and I'm sure all the test messages you've sent yourself and read through outlook or OE client were all received okay...it can't and doesn't distinguish from those clients that actually read HTML mail or require Rich text emails (such as AOL). It sends everything HTML whether they can read it or not.

You ran off a list of email clients your recipients are using.  You mean to tell me NO ONE is using AOL...or is that what web email means?  

I've looked at your code and it looks like everything is pretty straightforward (no layers, etc) html.  However, one thing i've noticed in your code is your use of relative links.  In places where you have things like "img src='pnolansm.gif'"...you need to replace with absolute links such as: http://robertharlow.com/promo/pnolansm.gif.  This is most likely the reason for many of your broken links in several of your recipients clients.

For those clients that are receiving images as attachments, that means their client isn't capable of receiving HTML email (such as AOL) and you should use a mailer that allows RICH TEXT emails as opposed to HTML emails for AOL (and other) clients.

If you are hosting this off a shared server, I would recommend you use a service called listbuilder.com by microsoft (www.bcentral.com)  Or, if you have your own server, I have a custom solution that you can use exactly like listbuilder that will allow you to store all your emails addresses and create groups, sub-groups that you can use to send to specific people, etc.  I would be able to help you set up a mail server and get this thing going out to people no matter what type of email client they have.  

HTH,
Rod.