frogmonkey Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Hey, does anyone know how to send emails to large mailing lists? Is there some good, inexpensive software for this? I just took over the band's mailing list, around 1000 emails and growing fast, thinking it would just be a matter of copypasting the addresses from a CSV file to the Bcc field. Turns out it's not so easy-- gmail wont send that many! Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Golly Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 First, you're treading perilously close to spam-trapping numbers, so you'll want to be careful to not contradict your IPS's Terms of Service. That being said, there are a large number of packages available that allow users to manage their own subscriptions, opt-out, etc., but a lot depends on your own technical experience with web software. I personally have used a number of them, but I've had good success with PHPList. As always, YMMV, and a lot depends on your current web host, etc. If you're looking for a desktop-based solution, I have no suggestions, other than to avoid a huge headache and take care of it online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Jx Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 I would setup Thunderbird to access your gmail account via Pop, and use this Mass mail Add-On. I'm not a fan of the bulk-mail-using-BCC strategy. When the mail comes in to the recipient, the TO address is wrong (or missing), and you ultimately come up against the max-recipients-per-message limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Davis Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 I know this is not what you asked, so forgive me for going a little OT, but I'm a great believer in permission marketing. I try to be sure that every single person who gets my newsletter has asked to be on my list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven Golly Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 I know this is not what you asked, so forgive me for going a little OT, but I'm a great believer in permission marketing. I try to be sure that every single person who gets my newsletter has asked to be on my list. +1, which is one of the benefits of an online self-managed package like PHPList. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Muscara Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 If your band has its own web site, the package may actually have mailing list software like mailman already on there. Mailman ain't the easiest thing to configure (it's more a of a power user thing) but if your host is any good, they can help you out. Then you just import the addresses. You can also provide a link on your site so that people can sign themselves up. The trick with that is using confirmation so that people don't get subscribed unknowingly by someone else. Anyway, first step, check with your hosting company. "I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck "The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Dan Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Yeah, you will most likely have to send it out from your web hosting service. I found out when I took over our mailing list that my ISP places a daily limit on how many emails I can send out. I wrote my own php page to send out the emails, which I store in a mySQL database on the web server. It loops through the records and sends them out one at a time, avoiding the large BCC thing. The only problem with regards to spam filtering is that some mail services don't like that the return email address doesn't match the path the mail comes from (since it's spooled out of the mail server on the host, not my mail account). I also rand into a problem once where centurytel was blocking anything from that server. Since it is a shared server, I guess there was somebody else on there who had spammed their customers so they blacklisted it. I sent them an email and they asked for some information that I provided, they cleared it up. Besides only entering emails of those who have requested to be on it, I also make sure there is an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of every email. Dan Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coach Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 Some of my clients have had success with PHPList. Constant Contact is a newsletter format that offers templates and it is easy to use. It may be more than you are looking for but it offers you very user friendly statistics. It starts around $12 per month depending on the services you choose and the number of emails. We are in the $55 per month bracket. They offer a 60 day free trial period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Dan Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 BTW - this is maybe slightly OT, but if you have a facebook page for your band, you can upload your email list in CSV format and it'll search for those people in facebook. You can invite them all. I did that and within 2 weeks had something like 500 friends. I still send out the emails once a week, but I figure the more hits the better - some people are on facebook constantly. And I've gotten lots of friends on there that aren't on our email list. I do events for special shows that we're trying to drum up extra attendance for (like one next weekend where we have to sell tickets and don't have any crowd but what we bring. We get 80% of the door. We usually do flat rate, but playing a venue like this once in a while is OK). So I think we're up to 850 on the email list and 780 on facebook - a lot are the same, but not all. I'm guessing about 500 on both lists - so that's around 1100 or so total? Dan Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Jx Posted February 5, 2010 Share Posted February 5, 2010 The only problem with regards to spam filtering is that some mail services don't like that the return email address doesn't match the path the mail comes from (since it's spooled out of the mail server on the host, not my mail account). If this was happening, my guess is the SPF record for your domain was setup incorrectly. A SPF record tells anybody who care what hosts are authorized to send mail on behalf of your domain. Most of the time, it's setup so only the host referenced in the MX record is authorized. You should add a reference to your web server hostname to your SPF record as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogmonkey Posted February 5, 2010 Author Share Posted February 5, 2010 Hmm, this is more complicated than I thought! ... again. I'm hoping the Mass Mail Add-On is going to do the trick, once I figure it out. (Thanks, Eric). I haven't managed to import the csv in "personal mail" mode; I direct it to the file, but no addresses are imported and no emails are sent. Hmmm. Otherwise, it looks like I'll need a web-based solution. I'll have to decide if the additional geek-hours it will take me to learn are worth it, or if I should hire someone and reserve my geek time for music. Our website needs a redesign, and I was thinking I'd do it, though I don't really have the chops for it. Dan, I suspect that our former I.T. Guy/Webdesign/Photographer/Bassist/Chef/Genius has a similar PHP page on our server. (The fool quit the band to travel for a year with his gorgeous girlfriend in Thailand and India, while telecommuting to his well-paid computer job. What a sucker.) I feel bad hitting him up for tech support, but that might be the trick. urg, I'm feeling confused... I'll check out PHPList too! thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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