Email newsletters

[PFOnline]

I have an email newsletter with about 2000 subscribers, it's entirely opt-in and you can unsubscribe at any time, so it's not like a spam thing... And the last time I sent the newsletter out, my site got suspended by my webhost and went down, because of the amount of emails I sent... I'd like to send out the newsletter again right now, but how can I do this without my site going down?

Just to clarify, so there's no confusion... The site didn't "crash" because of the amount of emails, like it was a technical problem... But rather I believe my host allows up to like 500 emails being sent out.... but after that, they suspend the site. Some sort of mass email or spam protection.

Any suggestions for a way around it?

Or any suggestions for email newsletter services that allow you to send your newsletter out that doesn't add lots of ad's to the emails?

Thanks. :)

[CalArch90]

Microsoft bcentral has an email campaign program that allows you to send up to 10,000 emails for less than $20. You might want to give it a try. The first month is free.

[PFOnline]

Thanks Cal. :)

[visca]

Early on, I faced the same issue as you with the hosting provider suspending my account because my newsletter subscriber list got a bit big for their liking. The best way around this is to get a seperate SMTP service through a company that specializes in it, or alternatively use the SMTP services that accompany an inexpensive web site hosting plan, as they are usually not as strict on the volumes of emails sent as ISP's.

As for the program to send the email... I use a brilliant groupmailer program called (fairly enough) Infacta Groupmail Pro. It is inexpensive, ad-free, and does absolutely anything you could possibly want.

[tedster]

In these days of indiscriminate spam squashing, anyone who can get their legitimate opt-in email through to a list of several thousand or more has my respect. I recommend to all my clients that they outsource this function to a dedicated business who makes it their full time affair to stay on top of all the crazy levels of filtering that are going on today.

There are other issues like timing the frequency of emails to the major email providers (Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL etc) - I just don't think emailing is the business that most people should be in. Outsourcing lets you apply your resources to your core business competency.

Additionally, outsourcing helps protect your server from getting on a blacklist -- and you probably don't want to deal with that! How many man hours can you afford to spend on the phone with AOL, while your mission critical emails are getting blocked?

Everyone who has followed my advice gets better results than they ever generated in DIY mode.

[bumpaw]

tedster, At what number of emails would you begin to consider outsourcing?

[258cib]

I'm doing a couple of hundred of emails right now and haven't had a problem. My bulk mailing software allows me to send it out in waves if I need to do that.

On the larger ones, bCentral's mail program rocks. The stats alone are a great value.