Why Image tag is not reliable to send follow up messages?
I get emails asking that our autoresponder(s) send follow up messages based on an image tag, because their host don’t allow cron jobs on their web sites.
My answer is ‘No’. Simply image tag activation and sending follow ups is not a reliable method.
How Image tag activation works?
Usually script creates a activation path for an image. This image can be a 1×1 pixel image. You have to keep this image path on your web page(s). If a visitor comes to that web page(s), the image tag activates the script to send follow ups.
But this is not always the case. If no visitor comes to the page where you kept the tag, follow ups won’t be sent.
Why this is not reliable?
* As I said above the image tag activation depends on visitor traffic. If no visitors, script not activated to send follow ups.
* Even though your list is small like 500 or more, image tag activation can’t send follow ups efficiently because the script timed out.
Best alternatives?
* Change to a host that supports cron. Seriously … Hosts like yahoo don’t allow you to run cron. Even they allow it, they restrict them to run once a day or every hour etc.
* If your list is big, get a VPS for yourself. VPSes are easy to manage and host deals with all techie stuff for you.
* Use web based cron service. This will work only if your autoresponder script allows it. Try searching on Google for ‘cron service’ or ‘web based cron’. You will get list of services that host your cron job.
In any case, server side cron jobs are needed for efficient follow ups from you autoresponder.
One Comment on “Why Image tag is not reliable to send follow up messages?”
Thanks. Image pixel still works with small list like 500 subscribers?