[mdubphilly]

Operating system: Vista
Microsoft 2007. I use Outlook - but my clients often use Lotus, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. - so this needs to work in as many as possible.

I have spent literrally the last three days trying one thing after another and i believe i have figured my problem out but i dont know how to do it. here is the exact situation:

I need to design HTML email newsletters for my potential client base. I need these to be HTML so that they open automatically in people's emails - we all know that no one opens attachments from unknown senders. I have templates at my disposal as you can find them both online as well as in Microsoft Publisher. However, i am unable to cutomize them with my own images. I understand that the reason for this is because i dont have those images posted online and therefore they are sent as attachments - not as HTML code when they are contained within the newsletter. I do have a website and i have figured that i need to somehow get the images i want to use in my emails - onto my server - so that they are hosted online with their own absolute URL's.

SOOOOOOOO that gets me to my questions - i dont know how to do that. I can upload images onto my server - but my server is protected so those images are not accessible unless actually being used on my web page right? but i dont want them all on the web page - just in the emails. So how do i host these images online, and then once i get them online, how do i find and use their URL's or HTML code so that i can put them in emails?

one last thing - i have tried using Photobucket - i have put images on there - and then tried copying and pasting the HTML code for those images that Photobucket gives you - and i have tried putting that code into the body of the email - its still not working. they simply get sent as code and arent turning into images.

what am i doing wrong. what am i missing. three days literrally trying to figure this out on my own please help.

[TerryNet]

Hmmm, "email newsletters for my potential client base" ... "from unknown senders" sounds like a long winded "polite" way to say SPAM! I don't expect you to appreciate my observation, but please don't get upset by it.

What application are you using to compose the newsletters? If I want to insert an image into an email message using Thunderbird I would simply use, from the Menu bar, Insert - Image... - and find the desired file and insert it. I suspect that Outlook has something similar--but understand that everything in Office 2007 and 2010 is well-hidden.

[mdubphilly]

I purchase leads that are people who have specifically requested information so i am certainly not spamming. I then keep their email addresses in a database. My newsletters all conform to the SPAM-ACT and have opt-in and opt-out links on every email.

thank you for taking a minute to reply. as for inserting images...i know how to do that. thats not the problem. When you insert an image into your email - it is only located on your computer - so when that email is sent to someone else - the image generally comes over as an attachment or seperated from the email - or a broken link. When the image is an HTML image - it is hosted on the web - and therefore accesible from any computer. The coding given to that image through HTML - allows it to appear within the body of the email itself. this is what i need and i can not figure how to accomplish.

[TerryNet]

I just tested sending an inserted image as described above using Thunderbird to send from my ISP email account to my Hotmail account. Accessing the message using Hotmail web mail in Firefox I see the inserted image and there is no attachment to the email. Full disclosure: my first attempt failed, as I set a confusing (to me) option incorrectly.

I repeat, "What application are you using to compose the newsletters?".

[mdubphilly]

(sorry for delay - stepped out to lunch)

Thank you again for taking the time to reply to my string here but TRUST me i have tried everything. The images HAVE to be HTML to work correctly in emails across a large spectrum of email servers and ISP providers. and HTML HAS to be web based to work correctly.

i am using a few different programs to create newsletter - some are templates from online that i have found - others i am creating from scratch in Publisher. BUT the program i am using is not the issue. its the images. I can take an already made HTML newsletter template and send it to anyone and it functions as it is suppose to - but i cant edit the images. when i do they are lost.

i have a gmail account, a yahoo account, an aol account, and a few other private email addresses from my own domains. When i test these newsletters i send them to all my accounts to see how they are interacting with these different servers. the ONLY times that the images work properly in all those emails is when i use an unedited HTML email template.

so this still beings me back to my original help question - how can i get images hosted online, then access their URL's, then get the proper coding and insert them into an email as an HTML image?

[integritysercom]

Hi,

Can you create a message and use Insert->Picture into the image . then save as .eml file. and please attach the .eml file so that we could see the what the issue is.

[VistaRookie]

Originally Posted by mdubphilly

I purchase leads that are people who have specifically requested information so i am certainly not spamming. I then keep their email addresses in a database. My newsletters all conform to the SPAM-ACT and have opt-in and opt-out links on every email.

thank you for taking a minute to reply. as for inserting images...i know how to do that. thats not the problem. When you insert an image into your email - it is only located on your computer - so when that email is sent to someone else - the image generally comes over as an attachment or seperated from the email - or a broken link. When the image is an HTML image - it is hosted on the web - and therefore accesible from any computer. The coding given to that image through HTML - allows it to appear within the body of the email itself. this is what i need and i can not figure how to accomplish.

Embedding an image into an HTML emails results in that image
being coded into the email and it should never arrive as an
attachment. Embed/Insert an image from your hard drive and
send it to yourself, then look at the code. If you don't see
something like this, then the image hasn't been properly embedded.


Content-Type: image/jpeg;
name="NewGlasses.jpg"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-ID: <0C9FB16DC74844BD979EF2D369E32B44@YourPCname*>

/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEASABIAAD/4QCMRXhpZgAATU0AKgAAAAg
ABgEGAAMAAAABAAIAAAESAAMAAAABAAEAAAEaAAUAAAAB
AAAAVgEbAAUAAAABAAAAXgEoAAMAAAABAAIAAIdpAAQAAAA
BAAAAZgAA

*it should reflect whatever your computer is called.

Possibly the problem is with MS Outlook 2007? I don't use Outlook
but Outlook does use different coding than "normal" email clients.

[TerryNet]

Very nicely described, VistaRookie.

But after pondering mdubphilly's responses to me I'm now thinking that, in spite of his words, he does not want to insert or embed images (as well as not attach them). Some of his "clients" may block the binary content and his messages may exceed the maximum size of some email services. Thus, I think that he really wants to only insert a link (to images).

[mdubphilly]

i certainly do not want a link - again people do not click on links nor open attachments from email addresses they dont neccessarily recognize. the size of the HTML email will not be too large either. I have tested these emails numerous times on multiple email accounts - plus i get these type of emails all the time from other vendors - adds and what not.

as for embedding an image properly...VistaRookie, i have no idea what you are telling me to do? when i take an image from my computer and send it to myself it comes as an image into Outlook (cause its my computer) and in yahoo, and gmail its comes as a white box with a red x. no where do i see any coding that you are speaking of - not do i have any idea how to find it. AND if you take an image from your computer - and send it to a web based email (gmail, yahoo, aol), that email server will pull the image from the email body, and thumbnail it at the bottom of the page - at which time a user has to manually allow viewing of that image. WHEREAS, if the image is HTML it appears as it should in the body of the email where it belongs - and actual size.

I really think that i need to simply have images hosted online - and then i need to use their abolute URL's in HTML coding - and then i should be able to use those images in HTML emails - but this is what i dont know how to do - nor has anyone addressed. PLEASE UNDERSTAND - i greatly appreciate all of you attempting to assist me - i really do. i just am lost and i feel like i know what i need to do - but i cant find anyone who can tell me how to do it

[TerryNet]

Sorry, my last sentence above was unclear. It should read:

Thus, I think that he really wants to only insert a link (to images) into the html code.

As you pointed out inserting a link into the email message will appear as just that--a link that would have to be clicked on.

I don't know what Outlook or you are doing incorrectly. As I said earlier, I tested by using Thunderbird to send my Hotmail account an inserted (embedded) image. The first time I tried I got a blank box, as you do. The 2nd time I changed an (insertion) option and got the embedded picture--encoded as VistaRookie showed.

I just tested successfully using Windows Live Mail to send an inserted image (small .jpg file) from my Hotmail account to my Yahoo! account. I then deleted the file from my computer, accessed my Yahoo! via web mail and there was the test message with inserted--no attachment, no link to click on--image.

Sorry that this is not really helping you, but there is a way, at least with Thunderbird and with Windows Live Mail, to send inserted or embedded images.

[VistaRookie]

@ mdubphilly

I was typing everything that follows before your last post
and was interrupted by a phone call. Between my
previous post and this one, are all your choices. Sadly,
this forum is not a college course on HTML programming.
If I haven't answered your questions, then you have some
studying to do. Either a library book, the Internet or a
college course.

And it would be helpful to you, if you knew more about
MS Outlook and emails.

Originally Posted by TerryNet

Very nicely described, VistaRookie.

But after pondering mdubphilly's responses to me I'm now thinking that, in spite of his words, he does not want to insert or embed images (as well as not attach them). Some of his "clients" may block the binary content and his messages may exceed the maximum size of some email services. Thus, I think that he really wants to only insert a link (to images).

Yes, his statements are very ambiguous and I don't think
there is truly a working solution other than a link to a
web page that recipients would click.

He refers to an "HTML image" - there really is no such thing.
An image can be used in an HTML document either local,
email or on the web. But the image stays in image format,
commonly .gif or .jpg. HTML is only a language not a
format.

His statement that they must be HTML suggests all his
(potential) clients are using HTML but they could be
using text only - that would cause attachments regardless
of having the images embedded or absolute addresses
within the emails he sends.

SOOOOOOOO that gets me to my questions - i dont know how to do that. I can upload images onto my server - but my server is protected so those images are not accessible unless actually being used on my web page right? but i dont want them all on the web page - just in the emails. So how do i host these images online, and then once i get them online, how do i find and use their URL's or HTML code so that i can put them in emails?

I am not sure what protected means? Everything is behind a
password?

How would the image be placed on the website without being
placed on a web page? They have to be placed on a web page
somewhere within the website. Of course, the way to find the
URLs is you make a note of where you put the images. Then
take that and create a link in the email, for example, like this:

<IMG SRC="http://www.mdubphilly.com/client.jpg>

[mdubphilly]

thank you both for your assistance. It has been very appreciated. I will figure this out. whether i take a tutorial or i get some step by step instructions online somwhere - or if i am able to put your suggestions to use.

thanks again