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Is it worth using paid SMTP service to decrease probability being detected as spam? What paid smtp services (except smtp.com) you know?

PS: Of course, I'm not going to send spam.

PPS: Probably this question is not for sysadmins & developers, but I think they know much more about it than webmasters.

ewwhite
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Kirzilla
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  • Why do you think paid SMTP would decrease the probabilibity of being detected as spam ? – Antoine Benkemoun Dec 24 '10 at 12:59
  • @Antoine Benkemoun, I think that paid STMP provides have trusted ip's which are whitelisted at general mail providers like aol,gmail etc. (or something like that). You can also read about it at smtp.com, but frankly speaking I don't really know believe this facts or not. – Kirzilla Dec 24 '10 at 13:16

3 Answers3

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paid smtp relay probably will not solve all your problems. i suggest alternative approach:

  • make sure your recipients do want to receive your messages [they opted in for getting them, not got them because 'send me news updates' was on by default]
  • make sure recipients have easy way to unsubscribe
  • make sure your message is well formatted, with valid headers
  • include plain-text and html version
  • check - eg using spam assassin what rules are triggered by your mails and try to fix it [image only message? fuzzy ocr detects spammy keywords in your pictures?]
  • make sure server you send messages from is not on rbl blacklist
  • make sure server you send messages from has valid rev-dns that resolves nicely to that ip
  • make sure messages come from valid mail domain, preferably advertise your outgoing smtp server in the SPF record
  • start using DKIM as well
  • if really needed rent a server/vps and send mails from there rather then hire smtp-relay
  • if needed outsource whole mailing business to a 3rd party company that will take care of all points above and focus just on the content.
pQd
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  • Thank you for your answer. `if needed outsource whole mailing business to 3rd party company that will take care of all points above and focus just on the content.` Do you know any? I can't really find any service providing send mails on fly. Only mass newsletter send services and SPAM services. – Kirzilla Dec 24 '10 at 14:03
  • ook - if you are generating messages dynamically [eg transaction confirmation etc] - then i dont know service that could help you. seriously - install spam assassin-based vm appliance for yourself and check reasons for which your messages get classified as junk - this might be more beneficial than just changing ip from which your mails are sent. – pQd Dec 24 '10 at 14:22
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This might come a bit late, but I'm surprised you haven't heard about services that send transactional emails for you. Their track record spamwise is usually quite good, but usually does require some configuration on your part( get DNS records right, etc...)

I think the services take the guesswork out of sending email reliably, but the fact remains that the one of the most important factors is how you created your list, just before having an easy unsubscribe link , something that these services sometimes take care of (for email lists, newsletters) or sometimes don't (transactional emails, sent to say one of your users when registering on your site).

Some of the best known companies that provide this service are sendgrid, postmarkapp and mailjet

Here is a comparison of most email-as-a-service providers

Disclaimer: I am consulting for mailjet as a developer

jfoucher
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For outsourcing, MailChimp is a good choice (also has API). There are actually quite a few similar services.

But it is for sending to lists, not single emails.

Jerry33
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