I was reading on the Aweber blog today that they just released a new feature for their autoresponder service. It has to do with the broadcast archive that’s available. I haven’t really used this feature very much mainly because it looked terrible and unless I put a link back to my site in the email it doesn’t link back to my site. here are a couple of screen shoots that I took from the Aweber blog to show you how this visually makes a difference.

Before

After

Now the old look vs the new look is 1000 times better. Here are a couple things that I really like

• Branding Elements added
• Reader Engagement in the Sidebar

These are great additions to the once very boring RSS feed of your emails. But as  marketer I look at things a little different. The biggest glaring thing that I see is inserted into the footer.

Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with them branding their own product. I do that all the time. After the excitement wore off of this new feature the problem I have is that I’m an affiliate of Aweber. And if someone reads my RSS feed and clicks on that link will I get credit?

NO…

There is no way of inserting my affiliate link in there **Hint: This would be a great new feature Aweber**

I’ve sent out promotional emails for them in the past. Put banners out on several sites that I have but this would undermine everything that I’ve worked so hard to do.

Can I just get a little help here!

[stepping off my soapbox now]

The other issue that I have is just a small one.

I love the branding elements so I can keep my messages consistent but how about a link back to my own website in the sidebar or header image?

Internet users have been conditioned to look for them there and the only thing that happen is they will remain in the archive. Since this RSS feed is actually hosted on Aweber’s site I can understand them not wanting to link back to my site….

Wait….

No I can’t. I am a paying customer and they are using my content to promote (very quietly) their email autoresponder service.

WOW! This is Genius. It’s like integration marketing in reverse. I wish I would have thought about doing that with my customers.

Wait… I do. But I actually ask them first.

Even though this is a great new feature these two glaring things make it a big turn off for me and I probably won’t be using it.

Anyway… Here’s a great video about the new feature from Aweber.