Hey Guys,
Im looking for software / script + some tips on how to host my own email server.
Currently i am using a getresponse 360 option but imho its way to expencive and controlled.
I know there are a lot of large emailers on STM and i am hoping you guys are willing to give me some tips.
Port 25 PowerMTA 4 is best in class stand alone enterprise mail platform. It's a beast of software. You need to be sending some mail to justify the deployment. There are few systems that rival the cost and horsepower. On the other end of the spectrum there are hip startups like sendmail who run the server for you.
thanks for the tip on Port 25 PowerMTA 4 croncash
to give some more info: im currently managing around 300k adresses and i am looking to get away from the corps who run the server for me like sendmail / getresponse etc etc
So looking for a selfhosted only and preferably cheap as well
interspire email marketer is a popular entry-level choice
http://www.interspire.com/emailmarketer/
Thanks Jasper, just went trough there site, that is exactly what i was looking for, thanks alot!
I've been using Sendy+AmazonSES for a while now and am happy with it as a light-weight solution. I've made a few customizations and additions to the script to make it behave the way I wanted, but having that option is exactly what I was looking for.
I believe Amazon caps you at 50,000 emails per 24 hours before having to manually request a higher sending limit, so depending on what you're sending, this may or may not work with a list as large as yours.
http://sendy.co/ - $59
How much data do you have to mail? Are you planning on scaling hugely?
Mailing through an ESP (get response, contact, aweber, etc) and mailing through your own servers/ips are two totally different beasts.
If you have a lot of data, you're going to have a hard time delivering it all reliably yourself. If you get complaints, you're going to have problems mailing it again in the future.
Need a bit more info to give better suggestions, but generally if you can manage to not get kicked off an ESP, you're better off using them. If the costs get high on a hosted solution, you can use self hosted software that manages your list and sends, and delivers them through sendgrid or amazon ses for better deliverability. The CPM rates on relays are much cheaper than the fully hosted solutions.
What kind of mail are you sending, and how much?
Interspire + PMTA, when set up properly, will allow you to send up to 1M emails per hour. But none of that matter unless we know how dirty or clean your sending is, because you'll have to get plugins that will prevent your main server from getting banned.
Jasper Nailed it with interspire, it's a great starting point for a self hosted bulk email solution. Emailing on your own server has a somewhat substantial cost of entry, a steep learning curve and is a technically robust project. Interspire is easier than Port 25 but either route is involved.
Setting up the IP's DNS configuration with all the correct DKIM, YDK, A and MX records is just the first few steps in a marathon. Configuring the software to deliver and hit inbox in a feat to it's own. Building and keeping IP reputation is a moving target.
The profit comes from the data quality, quality data makes it easier to build a solid IP rep. There are really 2 parts to quality data, the impact it has on the way the ISP's see's your mail coming in and also the way the subscriber responds to your offer.
What's up with the list? I would think objectively about your data and analyze it carefully. There's a big difference between having a list of rabid self help info product buyers that will recognize your offer and buy it versus having a scrubbed 3rd party data feed that is being whored out to every bulk mailer in the game.
A self hosted email server won't necessarily be the answer If your having problems with the common ESP's due to list quality... actually, in some cases these types of systems can just muscle through any clean list with raw horsepower to get the messages delivered. It make take a few million attempts but your 300k will get delivered every day. In that case you need new data to feed the beast for tomorrow. Once it's up and running you need to think about ways to feed it to justify the hard costs, IP's. Box, domains, time, etc...
:O:O
One last thing I will mention here is that alot of hosts don't like mailers....and so if you plan to set this up and mail from your own box make sure you read the fine print with the host....they will kill your server....in a not so nice way
thing is here that no one has mentioned is the time its gonna take you to get ip's warmed up.....could take a few months to really build out your rep and get good solid inboxing.....by then that list could be ice cold...
if I was you I look at other options or just work with and esp like these guys https://hypermail.com/ I personally have never used them but they do allow list importing and they were recommend to me by another person who had success using them for aff type stuff....
as others have mentioned mailing is not easy to do right....and to really make money with it you need to do it right....
and if your gonna mass mail in the states you really need to be careful.....CAN SPAM is nothing to fuck with.....you will get reported...and they hand out serious fines like candy on Halloween these days....
oh and have you cleaned this list yet?
that would be the first thing i would do before I start any of this tbh....list could be tons of spam traps and bad email addresses....
and I know like 300k may sound like a lot of emails but it really isn't....esp when your talking partials .....if it was a buyer list then ya there could be some solid money in that...
Not trying to rain on your parade....I just believe in setting realistic expectations.....
Thanks for the wise words polar, you got me reconsiding keeping my getrosponse360 server..
The data is good though, i did a small test on 20k adresses and the results where amazing
Lets see what happens
Hey Peter, I may be able to help set you up on Interspire, let me know if you're interested.
any follow up to how this all went and what solution you picked
Also would love to get an update on this. We have about a 20k list but growing very fast. Nobody mentioned ARP Reach? Obviously must not be worth mentioning.
Guys, dont mix things up.
Interspire is an injeuctor. In order to actually send campaigns to your list with Interspire you need an underlying MTA (Mail Transfer Agent)
Good known enterprise level MTAs are PMTA, Robomail and there are more of course.
If you just install Interspire its going to use the default MTA installed which is more likely to be sendmail. For high volumes and good deliverability, you dont want to do that.
If you need any more advise, shoot me a PM.
The best solution for the vast majority of people is to use an ESP like SendGrid and plug that into Interspire. I use PMTA and I have 30+ mail transfer agents set up and many ESPs still get better deliverability than my IPs can because their stuff is whitelisted and their reputation is managed and because of their massive volume.
Unless you're extremely advanced, or trying to spam, you shouldn't need to mess with setting up MTAs.