Calling All Mass Emailers...

I don't think this is the right venue for you to ask us how to become an email spammer.

TomG.

You never asked what i was doing with the emails...

NO im not spamming! lol

Micah Rush

Hi Mikah, most warriors here will advise you not to manage the mailing list on your own server but to instead use a provider such as emailAces, getResponse or aWeber.

Their arguments would be that:
1. those services maintain agreements with the large email providers (yahoo, hotmail, etc) to keep the doors open to email received from the provider's specific IP addresses to increase and effectively guarantee deliverability rates.
2. its easier to have a provider do all the maintenance, coding and upkeep of the backend required to do mailings
3. it doesn't cost so much to have a mailing provider do the emailing for you (if you have a small list)

Most of those people are regurgitating what they have 'heard' and have never tried it for themselves.

However, if you decide to go it on your own you'll need to (at a minimum):
1. Use a host that does not place a daily outgoing limit on your emails sent (eg: hostgator has a daily limit of 500)
2. Switch on your sender policy framework (spf) email headers to prove the source IP is permitted to send email for the domain in question
3. Your IP address is not blacklisted anywhere which can be an ongoing battle.
4. Create the software that does the mailing using load-balancing if you have a large list that takes quite some time to send the messages out
5. Keep your hosting provider happy in the face of AOL users clicking their 'spam' button and complaints to your hosting provider from people that forgot they signed up in the first place.
6. Comply with anti-spam legislation (eg: can spam act) where you need to do certain things such a provide 1-click removal from lists (without login), always include an unsubscribe link, always comply with unsubscribe requests.

After that you then need to ensure that the 'big boys' don't mark you as a spammer due to the high levels of emails sent from your IP. In some cases this involves signing contracts with the parties involved.

The good news is that you have full control over your own list and it is not shared with any other party.

There are other factors involved but this is the foundation for what you need to have in place otherwise your messages may not get delivered.

Sean

One of my clients broadcasts 7000+ emails monthly to it's clients. I set up everything from scratch and I've done this many times in the past.

We basically purchased Campaign Enterprise and put it on a dedicated 2ghz/1gb DDR, WinXP Pro 'server' (it's really just a PC) with basic $49.95/mth business DSL. Believe it or not, that one tiny server and DSL line is working wonderfully. Great way to start out.

If you don't have the money, look into PHPList. I would have used this, but the client insisted on Windows.

If you do use PHPList or any other "mailing list software", make sure you set up a completely different host (and domain) for it. That is, don't put it on your main domain in a subdirectory. If you screw up, your entire account will go down the drain. And when you send emails, redirect them from the broadcasting domain to the main domain.

Finally, do not send bulk emails from your home. Your ISP will shut you down. Period. And you will never get an account with them again.

I am, ofcourse, making the natural assumption that you are using lists in a legally obtained manner (not scraping). I do not condone or agree with anyone sending out unsolicited email.

I have found that the best software to use is "Mail list controller" by arclab.

It's not the easiest software but definately the most reliable and stable. They offer full support also so you will get up and running easily enough.

I have my own SMTP server which I make efforts to get whitelisted and my delivery rate is very high. I don't use my ISP's SMTP as I get lower deliverable rate and they limit me to just 100 per hour which means it takes forever to send.