Starting e-mail marketing!

[dpserkan]

Hi,

I am starting e-mail marketing campaign soon (which is 100% SPAMfree). I have a list with 20.000 subscribers or less. I consider to use PHP based tool for sending, tracking, unsubscribing ...

I wonder if my campaign creates high traffic on servers or any trouble for Andrew and so for me. Is it doable on Dathorn? if not what alternatives may I have?

I find out 1-2-ALL having best features list with reasonable price ($97).

http://www.activecampaign.com/12all/index.php

What would be your advice on e-mail marketing software?

Thanks in advance.
Serkan
DijitalPazar.com

[-Oz-]

The official line is that you cannot run scripts that will take up too many resources.

That means you have to either break up the amount sent out, but with 20,000 subscribers I doubt even that will work. You'll probably have to go with an outside service.

Wait for Andrew's opinion though.

[dpserkan]

Actually, I don't plan to send 20k emails at once. I really can schedule all postings. I'm getting sublists of the main subscription list. However I plan to be posted the whole list at least once a month.

[www]

This sounds like an application for a dedicated or VPS solution. That is a LOT of email to be sent out on a shared environment. You could use a very cheep dedicated server just for sending THOSE emails and host the site, email and everything else here.

[Frank Hagan]

I would also be wary of the idea that it is not "spam". If any of those 20,000 people report it as spam, you will get the server added to the spam tracking blacklists. I'll bet there's at least 1% who have forgotten they signed up. If they signed up.

Review the definitions of spam at http://www.spamhaus.org/mailinglists.html. There are several types of "opt-in" techniques that don't pass muster as qualifying the bulk email as spam-free. Specifically, the "double opt-in" and "triple opt-in" tricks are not supported. You'll still get the server listed on the blacklists.

The only method that Spamhaus recognizes is "Closed Loop Opt-In":

Closed-Loop Opt-In Also known as "Confirmed Opt-in" or "Verified Opt-in". The Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed from a working address and with the address owner's consent.

In case of dispute
The Bulk Email Sender is fully and legally protected because the reply to the Subscription Confirmation Request received back from the recipient proves that the recipient did in fact opt-in and grant verifiable consent for the mailings.

If you bought a list, and don't have those 20,000 emails on file, you would be considered a spammer.

[Skky]

I would highly suggest using your own SMTP server if you are planning and sending out that kind of volume. You could use your own personal computer connection and issue them out in batches if your ISP doesn't block SMTP. It is a good idea to be running apache on your local machine anyways as a web developer, so you would just need to add a perl/php list software and smtp server.

I've never done this before, but it doesn't seem to me like something you need a "real" webserver for.

[dpserkan]

Setting up SMTP on my side seems a good idea. I just tried with simple php mail(); script and it worked. So I can send emails from my computer but how can I track reads/clicks? That part is mysterious for me.

Is there anyone tried that before?

[sdjl]

Bear in mind that a lot of ISPs may well block your email based on certain rules they follow.
I'm basing this post on AOL mainly, so here's the URL: http://postmaster.aol.com/guidelines/standards.html

I'm sure many other ISP's also do similar things.

[samsam]

Pls pump out your mass emails from somewhere else, other than your Dathorn account, esp if you are talking big volumes like 20k.

I am another who would hate for the Dathorn cpanel server I am on to be blacklisted as a spam source. These things sure can happen, and it is a real nuisance.

Furthermore, I notice that the exim mail agent is a real server resource hog on my dathorn server. The Dathorn cpanel servers are general purpose machines not optimised for bulk email handling/ hard-core SMTP work.

[dpserkan]

Thanks much and much for all spam warnings. I will consider all. I don't wanna be in spam block list since I am not a spammer. I am a good boy

I feel I will stay away the idea of sending emails on dathorn.

Is there anyone who can help me for sending emails from my computer and ALSO tracking opens/clicks?

[ChrisTech]

Thanks much and much for all spam warnings. I will consider all. I don't wanna be in spam block list since I am not a spammer. I am a good boy

I feel I will stay away the idea of sending emails on dathorn.

Is there anyone who can help me for sending emails from my computer and ALSO tracking opens/clicks?

Why are you needing to track the opens/clicks ??

Also, what are you selling (hosting?) ??
And how did you get that 20k list of people??

[dpserkan]

http://www.clickz.com/experts/em_mkt/em_mkt/

Regards

[halyfax]

If you send mass emails from your own smtp server or isp smtp (not at dathorn) how do you avoid bounced emails coming back to your dathorn account?

is there somehting you should do for the replyto email? IF you want the emails to appear to be coming from your domain for professional reasons and not your isp email how do you achieve this. if you put the replyto as noreply@domain.com would this still cause high server loads??

p.

[brett]

Excellent question! Dathorn removed service to one of my accounts because of this. Unfortunately with the price of hosting here, there was no help in fixing the problem. This particular domain is of course happy paying more for the service elsewhere now. This altnerate provider helped me after having a little chat on the phone as to what was happening. It just made sense with a couple minutes of us thinking it out.

I could send the emails out from my local machine or another, but with the from address still being hosted here, each bounceback was going back to the 'from address' mail server and being resent again and again.

To fix this, just have that email that is in the from address configured to forward to another POP account elsewhere and then the bounces won't coninue trying to send.

I hope this helps others! I only wish I'd known about this before my domain was suspended hurting mine and my client's reputation.

[halyfax]

I understand this fix but if you have some other pop email in the from address it looks unprofessional not coming from the domain owner.

I am wondering how you can send mass emails from another smtp other than dathorns and the emails appear to be coming from the domain owner.

In the email newletter software I use it has a from field and a reply to field.

What I am wondering is if you put the domain at dathorn as the from field but the reply to as another pop email outside dathorn.

Will the bounce's go to the replyto: or the from:???