Bulk email: How to?

[UrBaN]

Hey guys,

How do you go about sending bulk mail?

I need to send newsletters etc, so I need some form of bulk mail solution.

I'm using a gmail account, so it would need to work with that.

Any ideas on what works?

[Anthro]

Morning Bruce, have you considered signing up with a web host ? I don't know if it is for Business use, but the general rule is that any business who uses gmail as their primary provider.. well...
I dont know how to put this without being booed off stage..
I have an account with serv.co.za for a website that I barely use - but the features in the emailing system includes bulk 'newsletter' type forwarding are quite nifty..and its like R30 /month
That said, what do you need to email ? Is it business or personal ?

[Stuart]

Selling all that Viagra you bought before the wedding?

Define "bulk"

[UrBaN]

Morning Bruce, have you considered signing up with a web host ? I don't know if it is for Business use, but the general rule is that any business who uses gmail as their primary provider.. well...
I dont know how to put this without being booed off stage..
I have an account with serv.co.za for a website that I barely use - but the features in the emailing system includes bulk 'newsletter' type forwarding are quite nifty..and its like R30 /month
That said, what do you need to email ? Is it business or personal ?

Morning Anthro.

I hadn't - haven't ever done this before hence the thread.
I wouldn't call it business use, it's for the Church. If I need to sign up I can do that, though I'd prefer not to of course.

If I did sign up, could I get the server to show the "from" address as my gmail address? So that people could reply if they wanted to, and I would get it?

Selling all that Viagra you bought before the wedding?
Define "bulk"

As a fellow married man, I know that you understand my pain here.
Bulk would be...up to 5 000 email addresses at any one time I suppose.
Of course the mails could go in groups of 100 or whatever if need be.

[Stuart]

Okay, was just thinking that Gmail can do up to 500 recipients by itself, but if it's that large then Anthro's idea is probably best. Actually, it's probably best either way.

[Anthro]

Well, I presume then Gmail would be sufficient, kudos on the leg work to get the email addresses into the database as well bro.. wow
Does the Church not have a webhost already ? One would think so, even Stuart has a website

[UrBaN]

I'm sure it does. Hmm, bit complicated to explain, but I work in a different division within the church, so sending from the usual domain would seem odd. It would be like receiving an email from Audi, advertising the latest Golf. Same corporation in effect, but different division.

That's a really bad analogy but I think it will communicate the idea. The newsletter I want to send is on one specific thing, which is seperate to the usual Church stuff.

I tried using Gmail with about 50 addresses per email - it failed, got blocked as spam.

I put all the addresses in the BCC field, could that be why? I don't really want to advertise the email addresses of course.

[Monty]

Maybe just tie another domain to your churches current hosting and use that domain for the emails? And it's pretty easy to set up auto forwarding from one email address to another, or you could just add the address to gmail so that gmail manages it.

[Stuart]

I tried using Gmail with about 50 addresses per email - it failed, got blocked as spam.

I put all the addresses in the BCC field, could that be why? I don't really want to advertise the email addresses of course.

No. I send 200 emails every Friday from within Gmail using the BCC field and they always go through. It only fails as spam if the same five or more email addresses bounce back a few weeks in a row.

[UrBaN]

Well then that's curious.

It's an embedded JPEG with the mandatory "click here to unsubscribe" link.

Surely that should be acceptable? I don't really know what trips it as a spam email, but it's really annoying me.

[Stuart]

Weird. I'd investigate the web server option if I were you.

[UrBaN]

Indeed.

YAY!

[Richard_]

Sticking all your email addresses only in the BCC field breaks RFC standards, and there are tons of mail servers / relays out there that won't accept mail which only has BCC addresses specified. The best would be to go for a proper bulk mailing solution (Mailman would do the trick) or pay for a cheap bulk mail solution from a company which offers it as a product.

[UrBaN]

Thans Richard, that helps. I'll check it out.