Free Hosting Services

When it comes to hosting the images for your HTML email, you really need your own
server to do it. Don’t try hosting images on a free “image hosting service,” because
those websites often put scripts in place to prevent you from linking to them in emails
(they can’t handle all the traffic). And since you really do get what you pay for, free
image hosting services tend to be pretty unreliable under heavy traffic conditions. Also,
spammers use free image hosting services all the time, to “cover their tracks.” If you
don’t want to look like a spammer, use your own web server. If you use an email
marketing service (like MailChimp) they usually come with a newsletter builder tool with
image hosting capabilities built-in.

Image Files in HTML Email

Image Files in HTML Email
Embedding images and photos into messages is the number one reason people want to
send HTML email. The proper way to handle images in HTML email is to host them on a
web server, then “pull them in” to your HTML email, using “absolute paths” in your code.
Basically, you can’t send the graphics along with your message. You host the graphics
on a web server, and then the code in your HTML email downloads them whenever the
message is opened.
Incidentally, this is how “open tracking” works. You place a tiny, invisible graphic into
the email, and then track when it’s downloaded. This is why open tracking only works in HTML email, not plain-text, and why the new email applications that block images by
default (to protect your privacy) can screw up your open rate stats.



When coding Image Tags in HTML email...
Do this:

Instead of this:

Note: If you just use MailChimp’s built-in email designer, we host your
graphics on our server for you (free). No need to FTP files anywhere, or
code anything.

How HTML Email Works

How HTML Email Works
Before you can start designing, coding, and sending HTML emails, you should know how
it works and what tools you’ll need. Here’s some background information every email
designer and marketer should know…
The Multipart/Alternative MIME Format
The most important thing you need to know about HTML email is that you can’t just
attach an HTML file and a bunch of images to a message and hit “send.” Most of the
time, your recipients’ email applications will break all the paths to your image files
(because they’ll move your images into temporary folders on your hard drive). And you
can’t just paste all your code into your email application, either. Most email apps send
messages in “plain-text” format by default, so the HTML won’t render. Your recipients
would just see all that raw source code, instead of the pretty email it’s supposed to
render.
You need to send HTML email from your server in “Multipart-Alternative MIME format.”
Basically, that means your mail transfer agent bundles your HTML code, PLUS a plain-text
version of the message, together into one email. That way, if a recipient can’t view
your beautiful HTML email, the good-old-fashioned plain-text version of your message is
auto-magically displayed. It’s kind of a nerdy gobbledy-geek thing, which is why a lot of
people mess things up when they try to send HTML email themselves. You either need
to program a script to send email in multipart/alternative MIME format, or just use an
outside vendor (ahem, like MailChimp) to deliver things for you.