Privacy Policy For iContact Tutorials

This website (http://icontact-tutorials.blogspot.com/) collects some Personal Data from its Users.


Data Controller and Owner
iContact-Tutorials,
moronic.softwares@gmail.com


Rights
iContact-Tutorials is written and maintained by Erickson D. Contents may not be copied to another website without the permission of Erickson D. Information in this website may be used for reference purposes only. Further, all screenshots are owned by Erickson D unless otherwise indicated.


Association with iContact or Vocus
iContact-Tutorials is a third-party website and is not affiliated with iContact (http://www.icontact.com/) or Vocus (http://www.vocus.com/) in any way.


Types of Data collected
Among the types of Personal Data that this website collects, by itself or through third parties, there are: Cookie and Usage Data.
Other Personal Data collected may be described in other sections of this privacy policy or by dedicated explanation text contextually with the Data collection.
The Personal Data may be freely provided by the User, or collected automatically when using this website.
Any use of Cookies - or of other tracking tools - by this website or by the owners of third party services used by this website, unless stated otherwise, serves to identify Users and remember their preferences, for the sole purpose of providing the service required by the User.
Failure to provide certain Personal Data may make it impossible for this website to provide its services.
The User assumes responsibility for the Personal Data of third parties published or shared through this website and declares to have the right to communicate or broadcast them, thus relieving the Data Controller of all responsibility.


Mode and place of processing the Data

Method of processing
The Data Controller processes the Data of Users in proper manner and shall take appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, modification or unauthorized destruction of the Data.
The Data processing is carried out using computers and/or IT enabled tools, following organizational procedures and modes strictly related to the purposes indicated. In addition to the Data Controller, in some cases, the Data may be accessible to certain types of persons in charge, involved with the operation of the site (administration, sales, marketing, legal, system administration) or external parties (such as third party technical service providers, mail carriers, hosting providers, IT companies, communications agencies) appointed, if necessary, as Data Processors by the Owner. The updated list of these parties may be requested from the Data Controller at any time.

Place
The Data is processed at the Data Controller's operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved with the processing are located. For further information, please contact the Data Controller.

Conservation Time
The Data is kept for the time necessary to provide the service requested by the User, or stated by the purposes outlined in this document, and the User can always request the Data Controller for their suspension or removal.


The use of the collected Data
The Data concerning the User is collected to allow the website to provide its services, as well as for the following purposes: Analytics and Interaction with external social networks and platforms.
The Personal Data used for each purpose is outlined in the specific sections of this document.


Detailed information on the processing of Personal Data
Personal Data is collected for the following purposes and using the following services:

Analytics
The services contained in this section enable the Owner to monitor and analyze web traffic and can be used to keep track of User behavior.

Alexa Metrics (Alexa Internet, Inc.)
Alexa Metrics is an analytics service provided by Alexa Internet, Inc.
Personal Data collected: Cookie and Usage Data.
Place of processing: USA – Privacy Policy

Google Analytics (Google)
Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google utilizes the Data collected to track and examine the use of this website, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services.
Google may use the Data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
Personal Data collected: Cookie and Usage Data.
Place of processing: USA – Privacy Policy – Opt Out

Google Analytics with anonymized IP (Google)
Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google utilizes the Data collected to track and examine the use of this website, to prepare reports on its activities and share them with other Google services.
Google may use the Data collected to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
This integration of Google Analytics anonymizes your IP address. It works by shortening Users' IP addresses within Member States of the European Union or in other Contracting States to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the complete IP address be sent to a Google server and shortened within the USA.
Personal Data collected: Cookie and Usage Data.
Place of processing: USA – Privacy Policy – Opt Out

Interaction with external social networks and platforms
These services allow interaction with social networks or other external platforms directly from the pages of this website.
The interaction and information obtained by this website are always subject to the User’s privacy settings for each social network.
If a service enabling interaction with social networks is installed it may still collect traffic data for the pages where the service is installed, even when Users do not use it.

Google Friend Connect (Google)
Google Friend Connect is a social interaction service provided by Google Inc.
Personal Data collected: Cookie and Usage Data.
Place of processing: USA – Privacy Policy


The privacy of our visitors to http://icontact-tutorials.blogspot.com/ is important to us.

At http://icontact-tutorials.blogspot.com/, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit http://icontact-tutorials.blogspot.com/, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

DoubleClick DART cookies
We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (”interest based targeting”). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting Las Vegas, you may see Las Vegas hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about hockey). DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers. You can opt-out of this ad serving on all sites using this advertising by visiting http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.


Additional information about Data collection and processing

Legal Action
The User's Personal Data may be used for legal purposes by the Data Controller, in Court or in the stages leading to possible legal action arising from improper use of this website or the related services.

Additional Information about User's Personal Data
In addition to the information in this privacy policy, this website may provide the User with contextual information concerning particular services or the collection and processing of Personal Data.

System Logs and Maintenance
For operation and maintenance purposes, this website and any third party services may collect files that record interaction with this website (System Logs) or use for this purpose other Personal Data (such as IP Address).
Information not contained in this policy
More details concerning the collection or processing of Personal Data may be requested from the Data Controller at any time at its contact information.

The rights of Users
Users have the right, at any time, to know whether their Personal Data has been stored and can consult the Data Controller to learn about their contents and origin, to verify their accuracy or to ask for them to be supplemented, cancelled, updated or corrected, or for their transformation into anonymous format or to block any data held in violation of the law, as well as to oppose their treatment for any and all legitimate reasons. Requests should be sent to the Data Controller at the contact information set out above.
This website does not support “do not track” requests.
To understand if any of the third party services it uses honor the “do not track” requests, please read their privacy policies.

Changes to this privacy policy
The Data Controller reserves the right to make changes to this privacy policy at any time by giving notice to its Users on this page. It is strongly recommended to check this page often, referring to the date of the last modification listed at the bottom. If a User objects to any of the changes to the Policy, the User must cease using this website and can request the Data Controller to erase the Personal Data. Unless stated otherwise, the then-current privacy policy applies to all Personal Data the Data Controller has about Users.

Information about this privacy policy
The Data Controller is responsible for this privacy policy.


Definitions and legal references

Personal Data (or Data)
Any information regarding a natural person, a legal person, an institution or an association, which is, or can be, identified, even indirectly, by reference to any other information, including a personal identification number.

Usage Data
Information collected automatically from this website (or third party services employed in this website), which can include: the IP addresses or domain names of the computers utilized by the Users who use this website, the URI addresses (Uniform Resource Identifier), the time of the request, the method utilized to submit the request to the server, the size of the file received in response, the numerical code indicating the status of the server's answer (successful outcome, error, etc.), the country of origin, the features of the browser and the operating system utilized by the User, the various time details per visit (e.g., the time spent on each page within the website) and the details about the path followed within the website with special reference to the sequence of pages visited, and other parameters about the device operating system and/or the User's IT environment.

User
The individual using this website, which must coincide with or be authorized by the Data Subject, to whom the Personal Data refer.

Data Subject
The legal or natural person to whom the Personal Data refers to.

Data Processor
The natural person, legal person, public administration or any other body, association or organization authorized by the Data Controller to process the Personal Data in compliance with this privacy policy.

Data Controller (or website Owner, or Owner)
The natural person, legal person, public administration or any other body, association or organization with the right, also jointly with another Data Controller, to make decisions regarding the purposes, and the methods of processing of Personal Data and the means used, including the security measures concerning the operation and use of this website. The Data Controller, unless otherwise specified, is the Owner of this website.

This website
The hardware or software tool by which the User Personal Data is collected.

Cookie
Small piece of data stored in the User's device.

Legal information
Notice to European Users: this privacy statement has been prepared in fulfillment of the obligations under Art. 10 of EC Directive n. 95/46/EC, and under the provisions of Directive 2002/58/EC, as revised by Directive 2009/136/EC, on the subject of Cookies.

This privacy policy is solely about this website.



Latest update: March 26, 2014

Disclaimer

The information in and available from this website http://icontact-tutorials.blogspot.com/ ("iContact Tutorials") has been prepared and/or obtained for general information, education, and reference purposes only and is not intended to replace iContact's built-in Help and Knowledge Base systems. The iContact Tutorials website is not in any way affiliated with Vocus or iContact!

Transmission of any of the contents of "iContact Tutorials" to you, or your access and/or use of "iContact Tutorials" is not intended to, and does not replace Vocus or iContact's help database / knowledge base (the one that you access by clicking on the "Help" link on the upper part of your iContact account).

While every effort is made to ensure the correctness and completeness of the information contained herein, you acknowledge that "iContact Tutorials", its owners, administrators, contributors, and partners do not promise or guarantee that the information contained herein is correct, complete, or up-to-date. Vocus' iContact software is continually undergoing improvements and some particular issues may require the consideration of facts, policies and procedures that are not fully addressed in "iContact Tutorials". There is no guarantee that the information in "iContact Tutorials" is correct, complete, or up-to-date for any specific circumstance.

"iContact Tutorials" may link to other locations via the Internet, and there is no endorsement, guarantee or warranty made or implied with respect to the content and information available at another site, and "iContact Tutorials" does not monitor any linked sites or evaluate the propriety or correctness of any information available at a linked site.

If you need official iContact information, please use their official website which is http://www.icontact.com/, and the Knowledge Base within that site.

The Contacts Tab

A number of cool features can be tapped when you access the "Contacts" tab. Features such as lists creation, contact search, adding contact(s) to one or more lists, segments creation and more. The "Contacts" tab is the second mostly clicked tab in your iContact Email Marketing Software.


You may access the "Contacts" tab by clicking on the upper part of your iContact Email Marketing Software where it shows "Contacts". This should be in between the "Home" and "Email" tabs.


01. This is the link that you need to click to take advantage of the features the "Contacts" tab contain.
02. The "My Lists" portion takes you to a page that would allow you to view or create list(s).
03. The "Add Contacts" takes you to that part in your iContact Email Marketing software that will allow you to upload your contacts' email addresses or create a sign-up form for your Facebook or HTML-based websites.
04. This "Search My Contacts" category allows you to go to that part in your iContact Email Marketing software to search for a specific email address by typing it on a search box, or browse the email addresses contained in your list(s).
05. "My Segments" would then allow you to go to a page where you can create or edit your iContact Email Marketing software segments. Segments are a powerful tool for targeting specific subscribers.
06. The dark-blue bar that gives you the options under the "Contacts" tab. As of this writing, it shows "Lists", "Add Contacts", "Browse Contacts", "Search Contacts", "Segments", "Sign-up Forms".




To wrap things up, the "Contacts" tab is what you will most likely access if you are doing these tasks:

• Browse your list(s) and its respective contacts.
• Create / edit / delete your list(s).
• Create / edit / delete segments.
• Create sign-up forms that you can use with your Facebook or HTML-based websites. Other platforms like WordPress would need a third party widget / API.
• Edit your contacts' personal information such as first nasme, last names, and so on.
• Search a contact by typing in their email address.
• Upload the email addresses of your contacts to any list(s) of your preference.
• View your contacts' history.

Adding Contacts To Your Lists

Now that you have created your list(s), it's time to add / upload your contacts. Your iContact Email Marketing software allows you to upload contacts one at a time or by group. Further, you may add contacts by group through copy and paste or by uploading / importing a file. At the time of this writing, your iContact Email Marketing software only accepts three file formats; CSV, XLS (not XLSX), and VCF. Sample files are provided for download at the end of this article so you won't have to do a trial and error on what fields to use for your contacts' database.


To add / upload your contacts the your list(s) in your iContact Email Marketing software, please follow these steps:
01. Click on the "Contacts" tab.
02. Click on the "Lists" option on the dark blue bar just below the "Contacts" tab. This should take you to the "My Lists" page.
03. Click on the "Add" link on the right part of the list where you want to add your contact(s). This should take you to your "Add Contacts to My Lists" page (the third screenshot shown below).



Another step to adding / uploading your contact(s) to your list(s) can be accomplished by following these steps:
01. Click on the "Contacts" tab.
02. Click on the "Add Contacts" option on the dark blue bar just below the "Contacts" tab. This should take you to a page with four rectangular sections categorized as "My Lists", "Add Contacts", "Search My Contacts", "My Segments".
03. From the "Add Contacts" category, you should be able to choose among these options; "Upload From File", "One at a Time", "Copy & Paste". From here, each option you choose should take you to these options' respective pages shown on screenshots 4, 5, and 6 below.



If you follow the steps from the first screenshot, your iContact Email Marketing software should take you to your "Add Contacts to My Lists" page (shown below). This page should give you three options on how you may want to upload / import your contacts:
01. Upload Contacts From a File. Choosing this takes you to the "Upload Contacts" page. Should be the 6th screenshot on this article.
02. Add Contacts One by One. This option takes you to your iContact Email Marketing software's "Add One Contact" page, and that should be the 4th screenshot in this article.
03. Copy & Paste Contacts. Choose this option and you should see your "Copy & Paste Contacts" screen, which should be the 5th screenshot in this article.



This "Add One Contact" option allows you to upload / import one email address along some associated information such as the first name, last name, address, phone, and so on.
01. This is the field where you type in the email address you want to add. This field is required.
02. This is the part where you put check(s) on the checkbox(es) on the list where you want to associate the email address you are trying to add.
03. These are the optional fields where you can type in those information associated to the contact you are trying to add.
04. Check this checkbox if you would like iContact to send the contact you are trying to add a "Confirmation Message". More information about "Confirmation Message" is found in a separate article.
05. Once you are sure that every information you have typed in are all correct, you may now click on this "Add Contact" button to add your contact.



In iContact's "Copy & Paste Contacts" page, you can conveniently just copy or cut and paste email addresses from a text or excel spreadsheet file. This option was designed so that even if you have a text file that contain texts that looked like this: "Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company and his email address is henry.ford@ford.com. He was married to Clara Jane Bryant. Clara's email address is cjb@ford.com, and so on..."
If you copy or cut and paste such message construction above, the system should detect and upload / import the email addresses from the article which are henry.ford@ford.com and cjb@ford.com. The drawback of this feature is that it has no option for you to type in other information such as the first names, last names, or other necessary information regarding the contact(s).
01. This is the part where you put check(s) on the checkbox(es) on the list where you want to associate the email address you are trying to add.
02. This is area where you paste the above-mentioned texts. Your iContact Email Marketing software will detect the email addresses in a group of texts you have pasted.
03. Check this checkbox if you would like iContact to send the contact you are trying to add a "Confirmation Message". More information about "Confirmation Message" is found in a separate article.
04. Once you are sure that every information you have typed in are all correct, you may now click on this "Add Contact" button to add your contact.



Choosing the "Upload From File" option should bring you this screen. From here you should be able to import / upload your contacts as long as the format is one of the three accepted file formats mentioned earlier in this article.
01. This is the part where you put check(s) on the checkbox(es) on the list where you want to associate the email address you are trying to add.
02. Click on the "Choose File" button and you should be able to search the file you want to import / upload from your computer to your iContact Email Marketing software.
03. Check this checkbox if you would like iContact to send the contact you are trying to add a "Confirmation Message". More information about "Confirmation Message" is found in a separate article.
04. Click on the "Upload Contacts" button once you have finalized your choices from steps 01, 02, and 03.
05. This will be your "Upload History", which should show you the number of contacts you have uploaded when you first started using your iContact Email Marketing software. A "complete" would mean a successful upload, while a "noaction" would mean a failed upload.



The iContact Tutorials Admin team suggests that you use the XLS file format when uploading / importing contacts. Below are sample files that you can download so you would know how the headers are arranged.

XLS Format Sample File	CSV Format Sample File	VCF Format Sample File

If you are curious about VCF files you may want to check a website called: http://vcardmaker.com/. This website is not in any way associated with iContact Tutorials.

Creating A List

List is one of the most important aspects of email marketing as it is the easiest tool you can use to categorize your email contacts. The other tool being "Segment", is discussed on a different article. Let's say you have 500 contacts coming from different field of endeavors such as gaming, academics, government, and aerospace. 100 of them came from the academics sector, 50 from the government, 100 from the aerospace sector, and 250 from the gaming population for example. What one may want to is to create 4 different lists, and then associate all the 500 contacts with their respective list.


Creating lists using your iContact Email Marketing Software is very straightforward. To create a list on your iContact account, please follow these steps:
01. Click on the "Contacts" tab. This should display the "Contacts" tab's options on the dark blue bar below it.
02. Click on the "Lists" option from here, which should take you to your "My Lists" page.
03. Click on the "Create New List" button. This should take you to your "List Settings" page.



Another option would be:
01. Click on the "Contacts" tab. This should display the "Contacts" tab's options on the dark blue bar below it.
02. Click on the "Create a List" option that shows from the "My Lists" part. This should take you to your "List Settings" page.



The two above-mentioned set of instructions should take you to your "List Settings" page, where you can type in your preferred information for your list.


Once you are on your "List Settings" page:
01. The very first information you need to provide your iContact Email Marketing Software is your preferred name for the new list that you are creating. This field is required.
02. The next field is your "List Description". Although this field is not required, some extremely organized people finds it useful filling this field out. You may just want to type in some descriptions that will describe what type of contacts your lists will contain.
If you name your list "Gaming", then you may want to put in some texts on the description. Something like, "These contacts are hardcore video game players."
03. "Public List Label" is also optional. This will be a name for your list that will be seen by your contacts on their "Manage Your Subscription" pages.
04. Last but not list, you may click on the "Save" or "Cancel" buttons which should take you back to your iContact Email Marketing Software's "My Lists" page.



From this "My Lists" page you should be able to perform a number of tasks like:
1. Creating another list by clicking on the "Create New List" button.
2. Delete unwanted/unneeded list(s). This is true only if you have more than 1 list as the system will not let you delete if you only have 1 list in your "My Lists" page.
3. Add a "Welcome Message" to one or more of your "Lists". "Welcome Messages" are those sent to your contacts the moment they are added to your list(s) that has this option activated.
4. View the health of your list(s). List health would be composed of information such as your "Subscribed", "Unscubscribed", "Do Not Contact", "Pending", "Bounced", "Growth", "Total". This will be discussed in another article.
5. Go to the "Add Contacts to My Lists" page by clicking on the "Add" link that is found on the right part of each respective list name(s) you have.
6. Go back to the "List Settings" page of every list you have by clicking on the list name.



Now that you are done with creating your custom lists, it is time for you to add contacts to your iContact Email Marketing software. The "Adding Contacts To Your Lists" tutorial should guide you through.

The Home Tab

This is the first page that you will see the moment you login to your iContact account. The system will also take you to this page when you click on the "Home" tab.

00. This brings you to a registration page if you want to take advantage of the official webinars offered by iContact.
01. Notifications such as error messages, billing reminders, and so on are normally displayed on this part.
02. This portion shows you the summary of the last email message that you sent to your recipients.
03. This portion shows a summary of your lists.
04. This is the part where you will see the contents that you posted on your Facebook account or Facebook Fan Page.
05. Yet another portion that shows you what you just posted on your twitter.
06. If you just posted something on your LinkedIn using iContact, you should see a summary here.
07. From time to time, iContact may have some surprises for their subscribers. You should see what's new or some latest iContact news from here.
08. This is the "Account Health" portion, which should display the information about the number of your Messages Sent, the current available capacity of your "Image Library" and your "Subscriber Count". The "upgrade your account" button shown here is handy should you need to upgrade / downgrade your iContact subscription.
09. This is the part where you can access iContact's video tutorials, help system, a link to take you to iContact's Tools and Support page, and a downloadable guide (in PDF format) for starters.
10. Some promotions may be available on this portion from time to time.
11. This portion gives you a link to learn more information about iContact's "Refer-A-Friend Program".




iContact "Home" tab should show you the latest summary of what is going on with your iContact account. Nothing more, nothing less.

I Forgot My iContact Username And / Or Password

Nothing can be more frustrating other than forgetting a username and / or password that you may have been using for a number of years. Add the fact that you are quite excited and in extreme hurry to send out some email messages / newsletters to your contacts. Although resetting forgotten password in iContact is really straightforward, this is not an assurance that nothing can go wrong. Read along to find out how this works so you will know how to resolve scenarios such as this.


The perfect scenario that you should encounter when resetting your iContact account's password goes this way:
00. You typed in the web address / URL http://www.icontact.com/ on your internet browser's address bar, then your internet browser then takes you to iContact's main website.
01. Click on the "Log In" on the upper right corner of your iContact's website. This should take you to a page where you can type in your username and password.



Now this is how the actual login page of iContact look like at time of this writing.
01. You just need to click on the link that says "Forgot your password?" so you will be taken to the "Lost Password" screen.



Once you see iContact's "Lost Password" screen, everything should be just as simple as:
01. Typing your iContact username on the field that says "Username".
02. Then clicking on the "Send Reset Instructions" button.



If all goes fine, a "Success" page will be shown (like the one shown below).



Then it will just be a matter of checking the email address associated with your iContact account, and clicking on the password reset link sent by iContact.



The password reset link would then take you to a page that would most likely look like this screenshot below, and from here you can just:
01. Type in the new password of your choice.
02. Re-type this new password that you have selected to be sure everything was encoded correctly.
03. Click on the "Save Your New Password" button, and you should be able to login to your iContact account with ease.



Life is so simple in a perfect world scenario. Unfortunately, a perfect scenario doesn't always happen - not in email marketing. Here are the things that can go wrong if you are trying to reset your iContact password:

• You forgot your iContact username but you still know the email address associated with your account.
• You forgot your iContact username and the email address associated with your account.
• You forgot the email address associated with your account but you still know your username.
• You cannot locate where the password reset instructions was sent, not even in your spam or trash folders.
• You are unable to locate the password reset email sent by iContact.
• Other loading issues mainly caused by your internet browser or operating system.

These are the possible solutions / path that you may take depending on the above-mentioned issues:
You forgot your iContact username but you still know the email address associated with your account.
-This is the easiest to resolve among the issues mentioned above. You just need to contact the iContact Technical Support department (call them, chat with them or email them) and tell them that you forgot your username, and that you would like them to send this username to the email address associated with your iContact account. An iContact Technical Support Representative should be able to send your forgotten username (along with some instructions on how you can reset your password) to the email address associated with your account. Please take note that an iContact Technical Support Representative will NEVER (even if you shout or curse them over the phone) send your username to any other email address other than the one associated with your iContact account, this is to protect your account and iContact as a whole. Besides, they are legally bound to the email address associated with your account.

You forgot your iContact username and the email address associated with your account. or You forgot the email address associated with your account but you still know your username.
-This can be a dead end. If you don't have a way to gain access to the email address associated with your iContact account anymore, then you need to secure some sort of court order that will tell iContact to change the email address associated with your account. Without this court order, you may want to create a new iContact account and say goodbye to the old one.
On the other hand, if you can still recall the email address that is associated with your iContact account but cannot gain access to it. You may want to coordinate with the I.T./email personnel in charge of the email domain to see if they can reinstate the email address so you can your iContact account.

Please check "The Email Address Associated With Your iContact Account" if you don't know how / where to find the email address associated with your iContact account.

You are unable to locate the password reset email sent by iContact.
-So you have checked your inbox, and folders such as spam and junk and no password reset email is present. There can be three major possibilities for this to happen:
1. Your IP address is on a blacklist. Thus, may or may be unable to receive email messages coming from a number of senders. Please check our guide on how to check if your IP address is on a blacklist.
2. Your email address administrator has implemented some policies like blocking any email messages coming from an email marketing company such as iContact. For this, you need to coordinate with your email administrator and have them whitelist iContact's sending domain which is "icpbounce.com". This "icpbounce.com" is a group of IP addresses used by iContact to send your email messages / newsletters to your contacts / recipients.
3. The email client that you are using may have been set up to forward received messages to another email address. This can be weird but there are people who tends to forget that they have configured their email client to do this.

Other loading issues mainly caused by your internet browser or operating system.
-Depending on what is really going on, the solution for this would vary from just clearing your internet browser cache to even re-installing your operating system worse comes to worst.

Removing The Underline From Your Hyperlinks

In HTML, hyperlinks are normally underlined by default. There are times when you want to get rid of these underlines as they may not look good for the way your template is designed, or for any other reasons. People with experience in coding with HTML should not have difficulties doing this. Luckily, this tutorial is intended for those without HTML knowledge.


Before we proceed, please familiarize yourself with the tools on top of your "Message Builder" and "Message Coder".

Message Builder:
01. The "Message Builder" will have five options on top that goes: "TEXT", "IMAGE", "BLOCK", "SECTION", "MESSAGE".

Message Coder:
01. On the other hand, the "Message Coder" will only have: "TEXT", "IMAGE", "MESSAGE".

Look Ma, No Underlines:
Now that you are quite familiar with how the toolbar looked like on "Message Builder" or "Message Coder", it's time to get rid of some unwanted underlines.

Let's choose our preferred message editor first (Message Builder or Message Coder). Please follow these steps:
01. Click on the "Email" tab.
02. Click on the "Messages" option. This should take you the "Create an Email Message" page where you can choose between "Message Builder" or "Message Coder".


Removing Underline(s) When Using the Message Builder:
Let's say we choose the "Message Builder", and then used the pre-built "One-Section" template.
01. We just checked on the "Basic" checkbox from the pre-built templates selection screen.
02. We choose the "One-Section" temlate for this example.



01. For this example, let's just type in the word Google, and highlight the whole "Google" word.
02. Click on the small icon that looks like a chain on the upper part toolbar. This should show "Insert link" when you hover your mouse on it.
03. This link popup box should appear after clicking on the icon mentioned in 02.
04. Type in the URL that you want to open when someone clicked on the word Google.
05. Click on the "ok" button.



So this is what we'll get. Three words that has their hyperlinks set to http://www.google.com. Not to mention, all of them are underlined by default. As you will notice, only the "MESSAGE" option from the toolbar is usable, the rest are grayed out.



01. Move your mouse cursor anywhere within the block. The light blue block indicator should appear.



01. Click anywhere on the said block, and other options from the toolbar should now be usable.
02. Click on the "BLOCK" option from the toolbar. This menu option should expand to show "BACKGROUND", "BORDERS", "SPACING", "ADVANCED".
03. Click on the "HTML" button that shows below the "ADVANCED" option, and a popup box should appear.
04. This popup box appears when you clicked on the "HTML" option below the "ADVANCED" toolbar.
05. Click on the "continue" button.



From here look for the <a href='http://www.google.com/'>Google</a>. You should spot three in this example.



01. Insert the CSS {style='text-decoration: none;'} (opening and closing brace symbols are not included) after the {<a href='http://www.google.com/'}. The complete code should be {<a href='http://www.google.com/' style='text-decoration: none;' >Google</a>}. There will be times wherein you will see other characters not shown in this example but there shouldn't be any issue as long as you follow the pattern.
02. Once all links are replaced, you can click on the "check code and preview" button.



01. After clicking on the "check code and preview" button mentioned above, your iContact software will check if the codes you typed in are valid. Just click on the "apply code" button if no errors are found. There will be time when this checker would recommend other codes. For now, let's just focus on what we're trying to accomplish. Notice how those three underlines disappeared.



Removing Underline(s) When Using the Message Coder:
Doing this using the "Message Coder" is a bit straightforward. To get a same exact copy of our work from "Message Builder" to "Message Coder", what you can do:
01. Click on the "MESSAGE" option. This should expand and show "BACKGROUND", "BORDERS", "SPACING", "CHECKS", "ADVANCED".
02. Click on the "SOURCE" button just below the "ADVANCED" option. A popup box containing all the HTML codes that comprises the newsletter we are working on.
03. Click on the "export to messagecoder" button.



This is what we'll most likely get. The screenshot below shows the "Design" portion of our "Message Coder".



To see the HTML codes:
01. Click on the "HTML" button just below the "EDITOR STYLE" option.
02. All the HTML codes will be display on the "Message Coder" editor as shown below.



01. From here, the solution would be really simple. Look for the <html> and <body> tags. From here you can just insert the "<style type="text/css">a {text-decoration: none}</style>" between the <html> and <body> tags. The complete code should look like this: "<html><style type="text/css">a {text-decoration: none}</style><body>".



You will see the results when you go back to the "Design" mode of your "Message Coder". Furthermore, the solution we used for the "Message Builder" part should also work for this. You'll just have to look for the respective <a>...</a> tags.

Your iContact Image Library

Email messages / newsletters without pictures or images can be dull and boring. A good looking newsletter is the best way to spark the curiosity of your prospects or would be prospects. Since not all email clients / editors has the ability to embed images in their email messages, most email marketing software normally display images using the <img src="url of your image file"> HTML code.


Ways To Access Your iContact Image Library
1. From The Image Tab.
2. From The Message Builder Or Message Coder.


Accessing The Image Library From The Image Tab:
There are two ways to access the "Image Library" page from your "Email" tab. Please take a look on the instructions and images below.

Process 1:
01. Click on the "Email" tab on the upper part of your iContact.
02. Click on the link that says "My Image Library" on the lower left part. This should take you to your "Image Library" page.

Process 2:
01. Click on the "Email" tab on the upper part of your iContact.
02. Click on the "Image Library" on the right part of that menu bar that says "Messages", "Pending Messages", "RSS In Feeds", "Surveys", "Autoresponders", "Image Library".
03. You may upload an image file from your computer by clicking on the "Choose File" button, then a popup that will provide you the option to choose which file from your computer you want to upload to your "Image Library" should appear.
04. Click on the "Upload My Image" button after choosing the image file you want to upload.

Accessing The Image Library From The Message Builder Or Message Coder:
First you need to access your "Create an Email Message" page, please follow these steps:
01. Click on the "Email" tab.
02. Click on the "Messages" option.
03. Either you choose the "Message Builder" or the "Message Coder".

Access the "Image Library" from your "Message Builder":
From the screen shot above, if you choose to click on the "Message Builder" option, you will be taken to a screen that allow you to choose among some pre-built email / newsletter templates.

After choosing the email / newsletter template that suits your preference, the browser should show your "Create an Email Message" page similar to the page below.
00. Click on the part where you want your image to appear on the email / newsletter that you are working on.
01. Click on the "IMAGE" option on the upper part (where it says "TEXT", "IMAGE", "BLOCK", "SECTION", "MESSAGE").
02. Click on the "INSERT" option beside where it says "IMAGE". A popup box should appear, and will give you the option to choose between "Image Library" and "From Web".
03. Clicking on the "upload an image" button should show another popup that will allow you to choose the image you want to upload from your computer.
04. These are buttons that you click if you want to cancel or confirm your "Insert Image" task.

On the other hand, since the iContact "Image Library" only accept image files that are 200 kb (or below) in file size, some email marketer host their images in third party hosting such as Photobucket and Picasa Web. Then they use the "From Web" option of their iContact "Image Library".
00. Click on the part where you want your image to appear on the email / newsletter that you are working on.
01. Click on the "IMAGE" option on the upper part (where it says "TEXT", "IMAGE", "BLOCK", "SECTION", "MESSAGE").
02. Click on the "INSERT" option beside where it says "IMAGE". A popup box should appear, and will give you the option to choose between "Image Library" and "From Web".
03. Choose the "From Web" option.
04. Type in the URL of the image file that is hosted on your Photobucket or Picasa Web or whatever you hosting you use.
05. Click the "find" button and iContact where locate the image on the URL that you've typed in.
06. These are buttons that you click if you want to cancel or confirm your "Insert Image" task.

Access the "Image Library" from your "Message Coder":
With the "Message Coder", you should be in the
01. "Design" (view) under the "Editor Style" option to utilize the "INSERT" (image) option / popup shown above.



This is how your "Image Library" would look like if it has content(s) in it:
01. Shows your "Image Library's" storage capacity.
02. Thumbnail of your image file.
03. The trash bin icon is used for deleting image(s) you no longer need. The check box icon (beside the trash bin icon) is used for selecting / de-selecting image(s) for possible mass deletion in case you want to use the "delete selected" button.

Changing Your iContact Username

Your iContact username is the one you use for logging on to your iContact account. There may come a time when you may want to change your username. Unfortunately, you won't see any feature that will do this for you. This is possible, but you need to email iContact's Technical Support Desk (support@icontact.com at the time of this writing).


Take Note:
-You are only allowed for one username change for the entire life of your iContact account.
-This request can only be done using the email address associated with your account.


How To Request A Username Change:
01. Send an email to support@icontact.com. You must use the email address that is associated with your iContact account for this request. Use any other email address and your username change request will not be granted.
02. On your username change request email, you need to include these information:
A.) Your current username.
B.) Your top three choices of username in order of preference. You must have at least 3 choices in to be sure that iContact Technical Support Desk will have choices in the event that the first or second choices are taken by other subscribers. Please take note that username requests can include dashes, underscores, and/or numbers to create variety: e.g., icontact_tutorials, icontact-tutorials, and icontacttutorials2014.


In a few moments (after sending your request as mentioned above), a Technical Support Specialist will email you back to inform you about your request has being submitted, and may take up to three business days to process. Then another notification will be sent to you once the username request has been processed.


The final reply from Technical Support Desk if the username change was successful would be some sort of recommendation to reset your password.


To Reset Your Password:
01. Click on the upper right part of http://www.icontact.com/ where it says "Log In". This should take you to the login page where the system will ask for your username and password.
02. Click on the "Forgot your password?" link. This should take you to the "Lost Password" page.
03. From the "Lost Password" page, just type in your username / new username and then click on the "Send Reset Instructions" button. An email containing the reset instructions will be sent to the email address that is associated with your iContact account.

Check the tutorial for resetting your iContact password that can be found by checking "I Forgot My iContact Username and / or password" for some detailed screenshots.

iContact Email Marketing Software Tutorials

As the information superhighway evolves, different means of communication are discovered / invented / implemented. Be it for personal or business use, different solutions should be available for everyone. Today we will focus on email marketing. If you type in the word "Email Marketing" on your Google search field, you will see the word "iContact" on the first 2 or 3 results.


What Is Email Marketing:
Email marketing is the process of sending commercial messages or newsletter to your target recipients via electronic mail.


Let's just say you run a business, and you have loyal customers. You send them your upcoming / ongoing promotions through email. Now what if you have 100 loyal customers for example, and you have the artistic inclination in designing catchy newsletters / commercials - does this mean you will have to send your creation to 100 loyal customers using your Google Mail or with whatever you are using? Anyway, they are loyal customers so why not do them the extra effort?


You then add all their 100 email address on your Google Mail's "To:" field, and sent them two brochures of whatever your bestsellers are - only to find out in the end that your IP address is tagged as being owned by a spammer. Worst is that your Google Mail may be locked out because of this. Some of us may not know that typical email providers got some restrictions as to the number of email messages you can send. For Google Mail, an overview may be available here on https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22839?hl=en.


Even if you manage to escape from the frustrations having a blacklisted IP address, the above-mentioned idea alone would require a serious work. That's where email marketing software such as iContact kicks in.


What Is iContact:
iContact is a very straightforward email marketing software from Vocus, so easy to use it feels like you are just reciting your native alphabet. This software can only do so much for your business if used properly.


At the time of this writing iContact dashboard should show you 5 tabs - these are Home, Contacts, Email, Social, Reports.


The Home Tab:

This is the part of your iContact where you see a quick summary / quick link of some commonly used functions such as:

1. the last message you sent.
2. your "Contact Lists"
3. the last updates you posted on Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn while using iContact.
4. the "Account Health" which is comprised of the total number of your sent messages versus your total number of sending limit, total consumption of your Image Library, and total number of subscribers versus your subscriber count limit.
5. some updates from iContact, and links to free webinars.
6. you will also see the upgrade button here.


The Contacts Tab:

When you click this tab, you will see the link where you can create a list, add contacts, search contacts, and create segments. Furthermore, you will also see the link that will lead you to where you can create sign-up forms.


The Email Tab:

This tab will show you where you can create / access your:

1. email messages / newsletters or "should we call them" messages / newsletters
2. pending messages / newsletters
3. RSS In Feeds (may no longer be supported in the future)
4. surveys (creation)
5. autoresponders (creation)
6. "Image Library"


The Social Tab:

Nothing fancy for this tab. From here you can update your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn status. Saves you the time of having to open the above-mentioned social media platforms if you are logged in to your iContact.


The Reports Tab:

Last but not least, this tab brings you to a page where you can track:

1. the last message / newsletter you sent to your contacts.
2. all sent messages / newsletters you sent to your contacts.
3. the surveys you sent to your contacts.
4. how your Autoresponders are doing.


This is where you will see if your messages / newsletters are opened by your recipients and so on.


Furthermore, you can access the "Tracking Dashboard" from this tab, which will show you some graphical representations of your reports.


Now we proceed to the next page of this tutorial, where we will define some mostly used terminologies in email marketing.