Safely sending mass email

R

Red Squirrel

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I run a tech site and whenever I write an article I will send out a mass mailing to lot of other tech sites (usually news@ addresses specific for this type of stuff) and I use my ISP but they have a limit of 50 emails per hour, due to lot of customers that get viruses and stuff.

So I'm thinking of just hosting my mailing list system on my server (which would also allow users to subscribe/unsubscribe) and using my own SMTP. How do I do this without risking someone from reporting me for spam? The nature of the emails are not spam, and there is unsubscribe info, but if by error it lands into a non tech site mailbox and the person wants to be a jerk, they can just report me then I'll be RBLed everywhere. Is there some kind of way to protect myself against this? Is there like, some kind of "license" to send mass email where you cannot be RBL listed? How do big companies do it? For example I get Tigerdirect emails and such, those are going to millions of customers.

As long as I have a way to unsubscribe, and that it's solicitated, I'm good?
 
Most likely you won't be able to do this anyway. Most ISPs filter port 25 (SMTP).
 
Nah my server is hosted in a data center. Right now my dedicated server IP is on a couple RBLs, but I'm sorting that out with my host. It was most likely from the previous owner as this is a fairly new deployment.
 
Make sure you have all of the normal mail server stuff set up correctly - forward and reverse DNS records, SPF records, matching SMTP headers, no open relays, etc. It is also better to send everything as individually addressed messages instead of a mass BCC (I use a Word template and Mail Merge a SQL database). I send to a list of about 1000 every week and don't have any problems.

If you don't want to mess with any of this, there are plenty of other marketing services that will take care of it for you.
 
Not getting on an RBL is actually more about consistency of mail volume rather than what you send. A number of RBLs look at the volume of email coming from a specific IP address. If an IP goes from 0 to 1000 all of a sudden then there is a good chance it's a spambot and it will get blacklisted. We've had some of our clients get listed on RBLs because their email volume jumped 1000% over a few days.

I know you probably want this to be low-cost, but look at something like Constant Contact. It gives you a lot of additional stuff like message open rates, unsubscribe rates, who, what, where, etc.

Riley
 
Agreed...something like constant contact. Doing mass e-mailings reliably require using a legit service like that.
 
I used ConstandContact.com for my work, and have over 7,000 subscribers. It is dirt cheap, they have list management built in (You are required by law to have a way for them to Opt-Out), reports, templates to make them look pretty, hosting for your images, etc.. For what it costs vs doing it yourself just use an outside company. I'm not saying ConstantContact.com is the best, I just like them. I think you get a free 60 day trial when you sign up. If you use them, use my referral link to get us both a free $30. :)

http://www.constantcontact.com/feat...u=1102643167015&fc=f&cc=RAF-REFLINK&pn=ROVING



 
joblo37pam said:
Make sure you have all of the normal mail server stuff set up correctly - forward and reverse DNS records, SPF records, matching SMTP headers, no open relays, etc. It is also better to send everything as individually addressed messages instead of a mass BCC (I use a Word template and Mail Merge a SQL database). I send to a list of about 1000 every week and don't have any problems.

If you don't want to mess with any of this, there are plenty of other marketing services that will take care of it for you.
Click to expand...

This, and also use a mailing list software like MailMan, or Majordomo (I prefer Mailman). The mailing list software will follow the rules, will allow for people to unsubscribe, to manage their subscription, etc.

Someone could still report you, but most RBLs will let you off if you explain it well enough.

I've been running legitimate mailing lists for close to a decade, and haven't been RBLed.
 
What happens exactly when you get listed, will the RBL master [of that RBL] try to contact you first or do they just block you? I've noticed that once your IP is blocked, good luck getting off. I used to work helpdesk for an ISP and we'd go through hell trying to get IPs unblocked. Customers would get viruses and get the IP listed then another customer down the line who is a business gets this IP and suddenly they can't even send emails out anymore.

I wrote my own mailing list software and I plan to improve it quite a bit or even rewrite it. It will have an online interface to unsubscribe and all. The app does not do a BCC but individually sends emails to each recipient. The email has unsubscribe info and all.

Also is there a special address I can send a test email to and it tells me if there are any issues with my setup? Kinda like how you would use the W3C validator to validate a site. This could be great in testing mail servers to ensure they are setup properly. (proper MX, etc)
 
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First off, there is no "RBL Master". There are a great many RBL services (Spamhaus, Spamcop, SORBS, Barracuda, etc.) and they all maintain their own blacklists. As far as I know none of them communicate with one another either. How you get listed on a RBL depends on the criteria the RBL maintainer wants to use.

For example, on some (the one Cisco uses, I can't remember the name) they generally go by mail volume. If you all of a sudden jump up 100% then there is a good chance you will get listed. The other lists use a combination of mail volume, IP reputation (is this a "home user" line, what kind of mail is being sent?, etc.), honeypots, fake email addresses, etc.

If you get listed on a specific RBL you have to contact that RBL to get delisted. They won't notify you before you get listed. One day you'll be able to send mail, the next you won't.

You can send all the legitimate email you want, but if you send a message to a honeypot, or too many of your users mark your emails as spam there is a chance you will end up on a RBL. Also take into consideration the ISPs you send to. If 75% of your clients all are on the same ISP then you're essentially sending 75% of your email to one or two mail servers. They could see your sudden influx of email as a flood of spam and block you.

Riley
 
compslckr said:
Amazon SES might be what you need.

http://aws.amazon.com/ses/
Click to expand...

I already have my own setup, just wanting to ensure I do the right things to avoid being listed.

So I guess it really depends on the RBL then, so is my best bet to just delay send the email to avoid creating a sudden influx? All the emails I send are going to addresses that are expecting it, so the odds of the receiver listing me is very slim, I'm more worried about servers in between.

The more I look at it, I think my whole email server setup is fubar. I normally don't send out email from it, but all the tests I'm doing are ending up in the spam folder. I tried sending to a gmail and my work email. It's currently not listed in RBL, but it must be triggering some other type of rules. I'm using Postfix, anything specific I need to do so emails sent from it don't get marked as spam?
 
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Do you have a proper rDNS entry for your server? That helps big time as GMail and others check for rDNS. If none is found (or if it is generic), then they may mark the e-mail as possible spam, and continue with the spam checks. Also make sure you have Domainkeys and SPF records set up. That helps a lot with the reputation factor of your e-mails.

http://urbanmarketingnetwork.com/bl...mprove-mass-email-deliverablity-the-long-way/
http://www.openspf.org/
http://www.howtoforge.com/postfix_dkfilter_domain_keys_implementation
 
I believe so. The MX is mail.iceteks.net and the IP it points to resolves to mail.iceteks.net. That's how it should be right?

I'll check out that link as well, looks like good info.
 
Aight, I see rDNS is set up and working. I don't see SPF records for your domain, so I'd recommend setting that up and domainkeys as well. That should help get your e-mails to the intended inboxes and not be marked as spam.
 
Cool I'll read up on SPF records, been wanting to do that actually, and first I hear of domainkeys, but I'll check it out.

Gmail and my ISP may be looking for the SPF so maybe that's why it's getting marked as spam.

Also I was thinking, my newsletter is mostly going to people who run their own mail servers so I probably don't have to worry too much about ISP receive limits. I will still delay send though, just to be on the safe side.
 
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