embed graphics into email message

[kat01]

HI,

I've been searching this site and others for ways to embed graphics into email. What I tried opens a jpg file into a separate window if the email recipient clicks on a link. ( I don't use Outlook Express, I'm on a Mac and use a Comcast email acct.)

I'm trying to just have the graphic (jpg file) open into the message area when recipient opens thier email.

I'm not programmer, but I know some html. Any help?

thanks

[DesignVHL]

Hi Kat,

First, as you know, you cannot send mass emails out w/ attachements, they become spam. What you need to do is create an HTML email. The way I normally do it is create an html doc. then copy the code and paste into html editor of an email. I have not messed around in my comcast account though so I am not sure if or how to do html emails through that. If you have a mailing list over 200, I suggest using a newsletter emailing service such as Constant Contact.

The main thing here, is that you need to upload the JPEG to a web host - you can setup a free website and image folder with comcast, and then use that. YOu would then need to link to that image using <img src="http://www.comcast.com/yourname/image.jpg>

this will allow the image to show up in your HTML email.

Hope that helps a little!

[Bob]

Technically, I know that you can embed the actual jpg files as Mime-encoded in the email itself, not as an attachment, and without a need to actually link to an external site. Only, my guess is that this is the kind of thing that spam filters look for, so I think you better check that out first.

[DesignVHL]

Yes you could, but it isn't the best option...often stripped out as an attachment, or as you said straight to spam. Its always good to have images put on an external server anyways...and also offer a way for people to view it online in case it doesn't display properly. everyone uses a different type of mail program, and uses different settings, so you need to think about accessiblitly. Kind of like what I did here for this little promo emailer....

http://expandyourelement.com/projects/ct/

This was an html emailer. At the bottom you can click a link to take you to view it online. The only thing I did was replace the header with a flash file for online, whereas the html email had an animated gif. I also did not send it out with the form fields.

[hewligan]

Take a look at the Mailchimp resources. They're a company that offers services for sending out marketing email, which I've never used, so I can't comment on the quality of that, but they do have a whole pile of articles with really good advice about how to produce marketing emails.