This has to be right up there with one of the most ridiculous moves by a company I’ve seen in a long time.
Aweber have basically screwed over their customer base.
Even people who have been with Aweber for years have been savagely screwed over.
I know a guy who signed up with them in 2005 and has recommended 100’s of people to their brand over the years …screwed over too.
Nice!
Here’s what happened...
So a few weeks back, without ANY warning whatsoever… I mean bloody NONE…
Aweber decided to send this email out:
===================
======================
As you can see Aweber decided to not only crank up their pricing structure but simultaneously thought it would be a good idea to restrict everyone’s sending ability too.
Now to be clear…
I DON’T care about the cost increase.
I can make $135 bucks in one morning.
But I DO care that they’ve limited sending.
And they’ve done this to every customer subscribed to their service.
I know a marketer who has held an account with Aweber since about 2003 who has been hit with this.
My lists in aweber are roughly around 10K (including around 2,000 affiliates), so 120,000 emails to 10K contacts is just emails 12 per month.
And that applies even if you have a smaller list.
You can now only mail your list 12X month.
Unless you upgrade to their so called “unlimited” plan for $899/month and for that you get a whopping additional 3 emails added to your quota to bump it up to 15.
So much for an “unlimited” plan which clearly ISN’t an “unlimited” plan.
So for most of us, it’s just the 12 emails per month.
And that INCLUDES any automations you have running too.
So any welcome email sequences will ALSO count towards that 12 email/month quota.
Why they thought it would be a good idea to do it is beyond me.
I reckon they’ve already lost 100’s customers due to this already.
If you want to email more often than that, you absolutely CAN but it’ll cost you.
Chances are if you send more than the 12 they’re allowing, they’re going to keep bumping you up the levels, but WITHOUT automatically dropping you down if you send less the next month.
I can see it getting seriously expensive really FAST.
It’s just plain silly to screw over your customers in this way.
I’ve seen some marketers with sizeable lists billing increase 4X – 5X times overnight.
The last time this happened was when ActiveCampaign pulled the same stunt.
Rumour has it they didn’t lose too many customers but that’s mainly because ActiveCampaign have a FAR, FAR superior product.
So most people stayed.
Some left of course, but in the main most stayed.
So what does this mean for you?
It means if you’re currently on Aweber, I would strongly suggest looking at alternatives.
The 2 alternatives that are Affiliate Marketing friendly that I recommend is GetResponse Email Marketing and Mailvio by Neil Napier which I’ve heard good things about.
Bottom line is this…
If you send 1 or 2 emails a month, you’re likely fine with Aweber.
But if you have a few lists and a few sequences now would be a good time to consider your options.
Don’t get me wrong, Aweber have served me incredibly well and I’ve recommended probably 50+ referalls to them but they’ve now made it completely impossible to stay as their service is now useless to me.
So I’m moving and no longer recommend it.
I’ve now gone back to GetResponse.
==> Here’s why.
