Looking for a bulk Mail App

[ddrueding]

I have a list of people who have expresly requested to recieve our newsletter; but if I try to send the letter everyone via Outlook (putting everyone in the to, cc, or bcc fields), half the people don't recieve it as it is marked as spam.

What I need is an easy way to send it where it appears to be only going to them. Individually sending it to the 250+ people involved is too much work.

Help?

 

[sechs]

I'd say that it's your content that's at fault. If you BCC everyone, no recipient actually appears -- so, the number of people to whom you send the message isn't an issue.

 

[jtr1962]

If you BCC everyone, no recipient actually appears -- so, the number of people to whom you send the message isn't an issue.

That might be the problem-some spam blockers block any message where the recipient field is blank since a lot of spam is sent this way. I've personally never received a message I actually wanted where the recipient field was blank. It was all junk.

 

[i]

This is easy to do with Ruby (and I'm sure a large number of other languages) on UNIX. You just write an application that runs through a text file of names and addresses, sending an e-mail message to each one. From the perspective of the recipient, it looks exactly like a manually written e-mail message.

 

[ddrueding]

Perhaps I'm being a bit optimistic, but I'd love a windows-based app that could handle it. I just installed spamassasin on my exchange machine, so I can test my trials on myself. The message is massively formatted HTML.

 

[sechs]

I've personally never received a message I actually wanted where the recipient field was blank.

This is why you send it to yourself and BCC everyone to whom you actually want the message to go.

 

[i]

This is why you send it to yourself and BCC everyone to whom you actually want the message to go.

Just wanted to note that my ISP blocks mail messages sent to one's own account. It makes doing a basic test of mail clients a pain in the neck, but they claim it's because spammers do exactly this (send messages to themselves, with a BCC to a bazillion people).

But you're right sechs, there's presumably no reason you couldn't send the message to an alternate account not affiliated with your ISP, with additional copies going out via the BCC field.

I still like my idea better though. It'd probably take 30 lines of Ruby code at the most. I can write you something ddrueding, if you'd like to join the land of the living by including an OpenBSD system somewhere on your network. :mrgrn:

 

[ddrueding]

Land of the living....is that what you call it....

Although I really appreciate the offer, i, I'm a purely Windows shop (except for the smoothwall, of course).

I sent the latest one out yesterday from one account to another of my accounts in another domain, with 300 people in the BCC field. Spamassasin gave it a 5.8 (mostly due to HTML/graphic stuff). This is outside it's default threshold, but better than a lot of other actual mail I receieve.

 

[sechs]

As I originally said... it's your content.

The question is, what are you sending in the messages that makes it look like spam?

 

[ddrueding]

As I originally said... it's your content.

The question is, what are you sending in the messages that makes it look like spam?

HTML/large fonts....before it was scoring 50+, I can live with a score of <7, that will survive most filters.

 

[sechs]

HTML content alone shouldn't be enough.

 

[ddrueding]

Spamassasin analysis:

 pts rule name              description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
 1.6 BAYES_60               BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 60 to 70%
                            [score: 0.6621]
 1.2 MIME_HTML_MOSTLY       BODY: Multipart message mostly text/html MIME
 0.1 HTML_MESSAGE           BODY: HTML included in message
 1.2 HTML_90_100            BODY: Message is 90% to 100% HTML
 1.7 RCVD_IN_NJABL_DUL      RBL: NJABL: dialup sender did non-local SMTP
                            [64.170.13.85 listed in combined.njabl.org]

I'm fixing that last part, so we shouls get it down to a score of 4.1 soon.

 

[Handruin]

Instead of sending the newsletter in the e-mail, could you send a brief header of each topic and a link to a website with the actual newsletter?

 

[ddrueding]

Instead of sending the newsletter in the e-mail, could you send a brief header of each topic and a link to a website with the actual newsletter?

An e-mail full of hyperlinks gets flagged like you wouldn't believe.

 

[Handruin]

I was thinking just one link to your newsletter website...does it get flagged even for one link? Anyway, it was just an idea which you may have thought of already.

 

[ddrueding]

I was thinking just one link to your newsletter website...does it get flagged even for one link? Anyway, it was just an idea which you may have thought of already.

Worth a try...we'll see how it goes.

 

[Buck]

People won't click on links as often as they'll read the actual contents of an Email -- especially if it is brief and eye-catching.

 

[Handruin]

That's part of the reason why I suggested putting the header of the content with a link.

How about something like v-mailer, and then script it to send a single e-mail to everyone listed in a text file?

If you want, I could write you the script and all you would have to do is create a text file with all the e-mail addresses.

I know you would prefer a windows based tool. The company that makes v-mailer, also has a tool for mailing lists. I have not tried it, but they offer a free trial if you're interested.

They also have an advanced mailing tool, but I don't know any more about it other than what is printed on the website here:
http://virdi-software.com/vamp/desc.shtml

 

[ddrueding]

vmailer looks useful. I think I can handle the scripting; thanks Handruin.