Any useful link or guide in setting up bulk SMTP mass mailing server

Please any one with a useful guide in setting up a bulk email server or having your own cloud based SMTP server

Have you already considered using a service specifically for this, like Sendgrid, Mailchimp, Amazon SES, mailgun, etc?

In my experience setting up and maintaining an SMTP server is a lot of work, I would prefer any of the above services above over having to set up and run this manually, especially given the low rates most of these services have. You just can’t compete with that.

Thanks @rpkamp
Am considering Amazon SES, because of its pay as you go. But i have not used them before.

And don’t know if the support Different From: and Reply to: to be set dynamically?

And what are the challenges i can have if am to set up my own email server

You are mostly Right, but when you run an otp service i expect something free so my client only pay for maintance fee not per each email sent.
I have two phase or my service.

  1. An otp which suppose to be free.

  2. Bulk email and Sms which is optional and they can pay for each email or sms sent.
    So on this bulk email i will use Amazon ES, but can’t use it for the otp emails so i want something free for otp.

My host dreamhost has limits secondly the from: sender email is not dynamic which ensures you must use a domain name registered for the website where the php email script for otp is.
And if you try using other email address you end up with grararvar@…

Which is unprofessional. It has to come in my clients email address as listed on our record.

So i need an SMTP for that alone

It’s SMTP, you can do as you please. But keep in mind that if you’re saying you’re sending from some domain but have nothing to back that up (no SPF or DKIM etc) chances are great your mail will end up in spam folders.

The main issue is making sure you don’t end up on email blacklists and be prepared to invest quite a lot of time and stress to get off one once you’re on it. At a previous employer we had our own SMTP server and the day we got on a blacklist is the day we switched to Amazon SES to have them deal with that crap instead of us.

How you bill your client has nothing to do with how Amazon SES bills you. You can always opt to bill them flat fee that includes some number of emails you’ll assume they won’t hit on average.

Nothing is free. If you set up your own SMTP server and maintain it that costs you too. It costs time instead of money so it’s not as visible down the line, but every minute spent on keeping the SMTP server running is a minute you can’t spend in something that generates money.

See comment above, your best bet is to use some service and set up SPF and DKIM to make sure email won’t end up in spam folders. Oh yes, and DKIM is hard to set up if you want to do that yourself.

If I were you I’d take the hit of a few dollars a month to use amazon SES and not spend time on configuring and keeping your own SMTP server running.

If you’re not convinced you can of course timebox to try and get your own SMTP server running. If it takes you longer than a day then you take your hourly rate and then calculate how many emails you could have sent using a service for that amount.

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At the end of the day it’s up to you of course. I’m just saying I’ve been there, done that, and will never attempt to do it again.

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Thanks alot @rpkamp

But do i have to set up DKIM and SPF if am to use only Amazon ES and not go about setting my owner server?

Secondly, does using Amazon ES guarantees emails won’t enter spam?

By dynamic send from : i must only allow functional and verified emails to be used by client as send from

Do i need DIKM OR STF if clients is setting his sent from: with real company@yahoo.com or any known and exiting?

You don’t have to, but I would recommend you do.

Nobody can guarantee that. Anyone who says the can is lying. But the make a lot of effort to prevent it, and adding SPF + DKIM certainly helps prevent it too.

Well, you can’t. In order to configure DKIM and SPF you need to add DNS records and you certainly can’t add any to yahoo.com, since you don’t own that domain (I think? :wink:)

Anything you’ll send and proclaim it’s coming from yahoo.com has quite a high chance to be marked as spam, as there is nothing about the mail indicating it’s actually coming from yahoo.com (and in fact it’s not).

In those cases it would be better to get credentials to their account and then use Yahoo SMTP to send those emails. However, they should never give out those credentials, as you can then read all their email, which doesn’t sound like a great idea, even if they trust you.

Why not keep it simple and send from one domain, and if people want to send from their own domain (white label essentially) that’ll cost them extra?

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That’s just the point, no one would do that, and its even unprofessional.

I think if am using Amazon ES and the client is expected to have their own email@domain.com so i can only point them to a guide on how to setup SIF and DIKM

I think that’s my best bet.

But however am still nursing the wound of not making this OTP emails free.

I just wish there is something i can do to this effects.

Please can i have a guide for SIF and DIKM setting

Since i want the emails for otp to be free i can change my codes and allow the email to actually sent from the users website using php mail function. Since the plugin or part of the code will be from the users users server.
So i only work them through a guide in using the email with the domain name where the website or php script is hosted and also set up SIF for delivery sucess rate.
Since all hosting package have an email server.

Then i focus on the mass mailing which will be a paid service

Yes, letting the client handle their own problem with SMTP sounds like an awesome solution :smiley:

I wouldn’t spend too much time on explaining how to set up SPF and DKIM for them, since it highly depends on the provider they’re using, and it’s not your job to explain all different options to them.

Just point them in the right direction, tell them SPF and DKIM exist and that they should check with their email provider on how to set them up.

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Wow, huge burden lifted, am so grateful.
Thanks alot @rpkamp

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