Avoid being blocked by web mail companies for mass/bulk emailing? [closed]

You want to look at the following:

• add a bulk-header to your outgoing email (Precedence: bulk)
• look into SPF
• look into SenderID
• look into DomainKeys or DKIM
• look into CAN-SPAM act
• setup and handle email to abuse@
• build relationships with the important providers
• monitor the usual spam lists, work with them when you are on them

Also, most providers have pages setup where they explain how they want "bulk" email to look like when you are sending it to their customers. That general includes requirements for double opt-in, etc..

If you want to do this you're getting into some of the same techniques spammers use. Spreading email mailouts over a day or night could be a way to do it. I don't think anyone knows the 'right' rate to do this because varies per mail-provider and they probably adjust this over time. You could try spreading the emails sent to a single provider. If you've got a lot of mail for hotmail.com for example then don't send it all at the same time.

Maybe it would be a good idea to look at pull media instead of push media for your application. You could put the content of the mass mailings up on a website and notify interested readers with an rss feed for example. This has a lower risk of irritating potential customer. And your company has a lower risk of being sued for spamming.

You're right, rss is not really accessible for all users. But as you'll probably need to create a webpage-alternative to the mailings anyway for people who can't read html-mail. You might as well provide an rss feed to those pages as an alternative for the users who do want to use it. This might reduce the volumes for the mailings enough to make your job a bit easier.