Hello.

I am not running a webhosting business, but a company which is selling services and have recently run into the problem that my clientbase has become so big that I can´t do "massmailings" to them anymore because my provider has a limit of 450 emails / hour. So you can imagine what mess it is because alot of the mails bounce back with error messages and I can´t send anymore emails in that affected hour too.

For now I have just put all clients into BCC and sent the letter off, but I think this is also getting to unprofessional for this mass of people.

So my question is, does someone have an idea how I could send "professional" emails (preferable with the email of each client in the "to" field instead using the BCC) to my clients and how I can "avoid" this limit of the mailserver? I am seeking for a solution that does NOT need me to send everything per hand to each client nor to split the sending over 2 hours.

I am in a shared hosting enviroment and have CPanel access with Fantastice (if that helps anything).

Thank you for your help,
Lorenz

You could look into getting a VPS or something which then you would have to administer and you can send as many as you want per hour.

Or a Dedicated server, but a VPS would be a cheaper solution for you.

Excuse me, a VPS is ?

Virtual Private Server, check out www.vpscolo.com they offer them i know.

Ah. The thing is that I just switched to another hoster 2 days ago and are really happy with everything and would like to stay there. Isn´t there an alternative solution? Probally a "Mailinglist software" that does this splits on their own and I don´t have to care? Or a Fantastico Script or whatever?

Not sure, you would just have to search out all the mailing list software there is, i know fantastico has phplist, but not sure if it will "split" the emails.

Heres the problem - even with lists with are comprised of "opt-in" members only - spam reporting still exists - and if youre sending out 450+ emails at a time - your probability of getting reported is high....

Dedicated server may be your only route - if you get reported, youre the only one that is affected.. This may or may not be true on a VPS - depending how the host has them configured...

Hope this helps...

Well SPAM is for sure a problem, but I need to stay in touch with my clients often and there is no way around to do so of course.
Are there probally any "Email service" providers that only exactly provide this feature so you can send emails via their server?

Originally posted by Lorenz
Well SPAM is for sure a problem, but I need to stay in touch with my clients often and there is no way around to do so of course.
Are there probally any "Email service" providers that only exactly provide this feature so you can send emails via their server?

Isnt that what your website is for?
(sorry, not trying to be arguementative, but sending out more then 450 emails/hour is a dangerous request to have - most reputable hosts would shy way from this)

There are hosts that advetise "bullet proof" hosting - meaning you can do pretty much whatever you want - including sending out mass mails - however, they are not overly reputable or stable - also - you may be funding people that send out or host material you may be morally offended by...Also - they charge quite a premium for this service (usually)

Can I ask why you are not willing to 1) split these emails up into 2-4 sessions of 100-150 each? 2) use a mailing list system within your control panel (ie hsphere) which can be set up in such a way to minimize the probability os SPAM reporting 3) utilize a content management system and change the culture of your relationships with your customers, so that emails are required less frequently and increase the probability of them using your website as a resource for information - only emails need to be "important announcement" that you would like them to view immediately...

Thanks for your reply. I know about the trouble of SPAM and if there is a software or a thing in CPanel (what´s the name for it?) I would be glad to use this. The thing is that I do not really have the time to do split mailings because I am pretty busy most of the time.
What content management system would you recommend?

Sorry that I don´t have the time to go on your other tips, but I am searching for a solution, not a list of problems that can come up trough sending this amount of emails.

Thanks,
Lorenz

Originally posted by Gargoyle

There are hosts that advetise "bullet proof" hosting - meaning you can do pretty much whatever you want - including sending out mass mails - however, they are not overly reputable or stable - also - you may be funding people that send out or host material you may be morally offended by...Also - they charge quite a premium for this service (usually)


Hello,

I apologize, however, I was not trying to present problems - but rather trying to impress upon you the reality of the situation...

The quote above really may be your only "viable" solution....

Another solution is to check the offers forum and look for newer hosts that "may" be willing to take a chance and allow this functionality... Obviously theres risks with that as well - but - it may be a fix for your problem....

PS- I would recommend mambo cms - simply outstanding open source content management system.....

Ah, just installed PHPList. Seems to be exactly what I need! Thank you.

You may want to look at just using an Open relay server on your Local internet connection. There are plenty of SMTP servers to use.

To get around the SPAM problem you may want to look at the "Brown paper wrapper" sections in the new spam laws. Its a loophole to stop people complaining.

Gav