FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I begin?
I forgot my username/password. How can I get them back?
Wait a minute - I am not a spammer (or so you thought)...
How do I add new follow-up messages to my Hot-Responder?
How do I edit follow-up messages?
How do I delete follow-up messages?
How do I Re-arrange / insert messages?
How many follow-up messages can I send?
Can I send HTML messages?
How do I create an HTML Message?
Can I send attachments with my follow-up messages?
How do I personalize my messages?
How do I use the "Urgency Builder TM" for time-sensitive offers?
Can I upload / import email addresses and add prospects to my list?
Can I send a mailing to my list, independent of the follow-up sequence?
How can I track my marketing efforts using Hot-Response?
How Can I see my Stats?
Can I use an HTML Form on my own website to triggger my Hot-Responder?
Can I have more than one email address trigger my autoresponder?
How do I make my follow-up messages have a different "reply-to" or name field?
Can I change my "username"@hot-response.com?
Can I change my password?
Can I change the way my name appears on my follow up emails?
Can I change the email address that my forwarded mail comes to?
Can I delete email addresses from my list?
How do I see what my emails will actually look like, in a real email program?
How many follow-up messages are enough?
What is the "Invite Prospect" feature, and how does it work?
Will I receive notice when new prospects sign up?
How do I contact support?

Where Do I Begin?
Set up an account if you haven't already. We offer a FREE account and a PRO account.

Once you have signed up for an account, begin by logging in. Click "login" on the left side menu on the Hot-Response.com homepage. Enter the Username / Password combination that was mailed to you.

Once you are in, click around on the menu, and get a feel for the system. Click on the Message Manager Link and take a look at the Message Manager page - that is where you will add, edit or delete your Hot-Responder's follow up messages.

We have automatically set up your Immediate Reply message, but with generic text. We suggest editing this message first.

We have made the system as easy as possible. Usually you will fill in a text box and hit a button to submit the information. You can always go back and change things in case you make an error.

I Forgot My Password and/or Username? How do I get them back?
Go to the "forgot password" page and enter the email address you gave us at the time of signing up, and we will send all of your username / password information to that email address.

Click Here for the Forgot Password page

Wait a Minute - I am Not a Spammer! (Psst - You Might Be)
Listen up and learn. There are different ways to spam, and none are allowed here.

Sending Spam
Any (I repeat, ANY) sending of Unsolicited Email is considered SPAM.

Therefore, we only allow sending of mail to people who have opted in to your list, and do not allow uploads of addresses or have an Add Prospect Feature. There is no way we could check that the addresses that are uploaded would be legitimate.

Admit it - you wanted to advertise to them without giving them a chance to decide what your email was about first, right? That's SPAM. The government is cracking down, and fines to the tune of $500 per email have been given.

We do allow an "invitation" but only through our "Invite Prospect" feature. This is unsolicited, but it is freindly and un-commercial. If we get complaints, we may remove this feature.

Forging Emails / Headers
You may not do a mass mailing elsewhere and advertise anything having to do with your Hot-Responder or Hot-Response.com.

You may not forge emails or mail headers to make them appear as though they came from Hot-Response.com. Anything of this nature will get you booted from Hot-Response.com, no questions asked.

Usenet /FFA boards
You may not advertise your Hot-Responder on any Usenet site or on an FFA page. You will get the boot if you do, no questions asked.

If You Spam...
We will deactivate your account, charge you a $500 cleanup fee, contact your ISP, and take legal action if necessary.

How To Add New Messages
Login to your account.

Click on Message Manager Link at the top of the page.

On the next page, you will see "Edit Messages". Scroll past that section of the page, and you will see a link to "Add Message #(whatever) to cycle".

Click the "Add message" link, and you will be brought to a new screen where you will create your new message. When you are satisfied with your message, click "submit".

It will add a new message on to the end of the message cycle.

How To Edit Messages
Login to your account.

Click on Message Manager Link at the top of the page.

On the next page, you will see the "Edit Messages" section. Click the title of the message you would like to edit, and you will be taken to the edit screen.

Make your changes. When you are done, click "Submit".

How To Delete Messages
Login to your account.

Click on Message Manager Link at the top of the page.

On the next page, scroll down and you will see the "Delete Messages" section. Click the title of the message you would like to delete, and you will be taken to the delete screen. You can review the message contents and decide to delete it or keep it.

Note that you always must have at least one follow-up message in the system, so you will not be able to delete the Immediate Reply message. You may edit it to change it's contents.

When you are done, click "Delete Messages". Note that this cannot be undone!

How Many Follow-Up Messages May I Send?
We call it unlimited!

Well, it is virtually unlimited. We have a "cap" set for security so that our system can't get overloaded, but we still call it unlimited.

We doubt that you will ever use the amount that we have alotted for you.

If you are a pro customer and you hit the top and arrive at the point where the system is not accepting more messages, contact us. We'll make sure that your needs are covered.

Can I send HTML Messages?
Yes, of course. Messages may be plain text or HTML.

How Do I Set Up HTML Messages?
Login to your account.

Click on Message Manager Link at the top of the page.

On the next page, you will see the "Edit Messages" and the "Add Message" section. Either click the title of the message you would like to edit, or click Add Message.

On the next screen where you actuallly enter the message you will put all HTML code in the message textbox. IMPORTANT: You also must click the radio button to select HTML. If you don't, the user will get all your HTML code as a text email.

We reccomend using a WYSIWG HTML Editor such as Dreamweaver to compose your message, and save it first on your hard drive. Next, cut and paste the code. If you like, you may use our Preview HTML feature to see your HTML in a browser.

Remember, not all mail programs behave the same, so we reccomend testing your messages in several different mail programs before making your final decisions.

Can I Send Attachments With My Follow-Up Messages?
Not at this time. However, here are some options:

If you want to offer a free download you can upload the file to your owm web server or website and send your prospect a link to the file you want them to get. In most mail programs you can type a URL and it will automatically appear as link.

If you are using an HTML message you will need the <a href></a> tags to make your link apear as a link, just like on a web page.

If you want to include images in your email, we suggest the following: upload an image file to your web site / server. Then send an HTML mail with an <img src> tag that fetches the image off the web.

Example:

<img src = "http://www.yoursite.com/your_image.jpg">

In all instances, sending of text or HTML is much faster for you, us, and your prospects who are receiving the mail.

How Do I Personalize My Follow-Up Messages?
Persoanalization is easy.

If the users email program was set up with his/her name such as:
John Johnson <john@johnson.com>
or
John <john@johnson.com>

We will have the First Name, Last Name, and Email Address on file.

If only an email address was provided, we will use your Defualt Greeting for the first name field. We automatically provide the Default name "Friend" but you can change this very easily on the "Change Account Settings" page.

You can use all of the following "variables" in your messages. :

type $firstname: Message will show users First Name, or Default Greeting if no name was given.

type $lastname: Message will show users Last Name, or nothing if no name was given. Use this with caution!

You may also use the following:
$weekday prints current weekday
$month prints current month
$day prints current day of the month
$year prints current year

To print the current date easily in the following format
Friday January 13, 2010 Just type $date:0

How Do I use the Urgency Builder TM for time sensitive offers?
Oftentimes you will want to create urgency with your offers. Buyers are savvy, so when you say "Order within 24 hours" - let's face it, you could be saying that on any day of the year. You'll need something more convincing to create urgency.

Let's say a mail is sent on Wednesday, January 1, 2006.

If you want it to read "Order by Friday January 3, 2006 and you'll receive..."

You would simply type into your message:

"Order by $date:2 and you'll receive..."

The number following the colon will add as many days as you like to the date that the message is sent. You can Use this many times in a single message, with as many different dates as you wish.

Can I Upload / Import Email Addresses or Add Prospects to My Mailing List ?
No. No. No.

Any (I repeat, ANY) sending of Unsolicited Email is considered SPAM. Even if you tell us that they opted in, that's not enough!

Therefore, we only allow sending of mail to people who have opted in to your list, and do not allow uploads of addresses or have an Add Prospect Feature. There is no way we could check that the addresses that are uploaded would be legitimate.

People may send an email to your username@hot-response.com address or they may opt in using a web based form. This protects you, and us from getting our servers shut down.

Admit it - you wanted to advertise to them without giving them a chance to decide what your email was about first, right? That's SPAM. Gotcha!!! The government is cracking down, and fines to the tune of $500 per email have been given out to some spammers.

We do allow an "invitation" but only through our "Invite Prospect" feature. This is unsolicited, but it is freindly and un-commercial. If we get complaints, we may remove this feature.

Can I Send A Mailing To My List Independent Of The Follow-Up Sequence?
Yes, but for PRO Accounts Only. We call this "Broadcast Email".

Log in to your account.

Click on Broadcast Email Link at the top of the page. You may set up a "Broadcast Email" to be delivered on a later date. You must always set it up at least 24 hours in advance.

You are allowed to broadcast to a maximum of 1000 prospects per day, and for each "Broadcast Email" you can specify which prospects you would like to send to.

So, if you have 3000 prospects, you'll need to do 3 separate Brodcasts of 1000 each to each portion of the list.

How can I track my marketing efforts using Hot-Response?
Using Aliases:
First, understand what an "Alias" is. If you have a Hot-Response account, you have a main identity, your username:

username@hot-response.com

You may set up up to 10 "aliases" - additional identities that will appear as different email addresses, but all results will "funnel" into your main account.

For example you could set up the aliases "fisheggs" and "turkey"
which would allow you to give out the email addresses

fisheggs@hot-response.com
turkey@hot-response.com

as well.

These addresses, as well as your main address will trigger your autoresponder and sign prospects up to your list.

Now, if you were running print ads (lets say) in 3 different magazines you could give each ad a different email address.

When you log into your account you can click the link "Incoming Leads Stats" to view how each alias is performing. Then you'll know how effective the print ad is.

To Add or Delete an email alias, log in and click "Add / Delete Alais" on the link menu.


Using HTML Forms:
When you use the Cut & Paste HTML Forms we will automatically report the incoming leads from each form. That way you can use the same form on different web pages, and see which page is most effective.

When you log into your account you can click the link "Incoming Leads Stats" to view how each web page form is performing.

How Can I See My Stats?
Yes. Log in to your account.

Click on "Incoming Leads Stats" Link at the top of the page.

This page shows how many Opt-In Leads You have, how many follow-up messages your Hot-Responder has sent, and shows the performance of each Email Alias and HTML Form.

Can I use an HTML Form on my own website to triggger my Hot-Responder?
Yes. Log in to your account.

Click on "Cut and Paste Code" Link at the top of the page. Highlight the code in the text box and paste it directly into your web page.

WARNINGS:
You will need to replace "http://www.YOUR-THANK-YOU-URL-GOES-HERE.com" with a URL that you would like the user to be redirected to once they submit.

If you remove the address and leave only the double quotes "" the user will see our generic Thank You page.

Can I Delete Addresses From My List?
You may "deactivate" addresses - but be careful, this can't be undone except by a Hot-Response Staff member. We don't "delete" addresses in the sense that they get erased off the system.

Why do we do this? We keep all addresses on file so that if a user opts himself out, the address cannot be re-submitted.

If you wish us to re-activate an address there will be an additional fee, plus we'll need proof that the user wants to be reinstated on your active list.

Please use this feature if someone requests to be taken off your list.

Will I receive notice when new prospects sign up?
YES!

If a prospect sends email to trigger your autoresponder, we will simply forward the email to you. that will be notice of an email signup.

If a prospect signs up on a web page form, we will email you an automatically generated message containing the email address, the date and time of the signup, and the HTML page that the signup came from.

How do I see what my emails will actually look like, in a real email program?
Log in to your account.

Click on the "Test Messages" Link at the top of the page.

Enter the email address you would like to have the messages sent to. We reccomend testing your messages on the following platforms, especially if you are using HTML messages:

Test On Windows and Mac:

Outlook Express
Netscape Communicator
Web Based Mails such as Yahoo!, Hotmail and Excite

Take the time, be patient and TEST! You will be glad you did!!!

How To Change Your Username, Password, Name, Reply To, Email or Default Greeting...
Log in to your account.

Click on the "Change Account Settings" Link at the top of the page.

You can change all of your account info here: Username, Password, First Name, Last Name, Reply-To email, Main Email or Default Greeting.

Be sure to read the instructions on this page! Some of the fields have specific but easy instructions.

How Do I Contact Support?
Support is for pro users only! Send an email to

support@hot-response.com

Please provide the following:

In the Subject field put Your Username and your Order ID

In the body of the message put
Your First and Last Name, Your phone number, Your email address and describe the issue you cannot resolve.

We will reply to your email within 24 hours. If you are a FREE user you will receive no reply.