I know it's typical boring newbie post that this forum is probably already flooded with but for the love of God bare with me for a second.

I've been stuck for a long time where I basically had no money to make money. Thankfully, I got a paypal account up and battled to get a $20 on it from nothing. (coded a little php script and sold it)

I was out looking for a VPS host so I could start mass mailing a product and decided to check on BHW forums.

There was a post somewhere about how newbies wanting to mass mail would go out looking for cheap hosts with lists they downloaded or got from a torrent and then getting banned. And I match this description perfectly, I have no idea what I'm doing.

I've already tried two cheap hosts who both turned out to have their SMTP server ip blacklisted and were a complete waste of time.
Also, thank god I've used the coupon on hostgator where I basically get the first month for free because the moment I completed the payment, they suspended my hosting wanting a verification.

Could anyone point me to a good host? or a good private mass mailing tutorial (i'll pay for it and maybe try to squeeze the money for hosting later) ? Or even better, and tell me a better way to invest those $20 ?

Please help a newbie out

Since you have experience in PHP, I would say continue to do small jobs with PHP until you get a little more capital to work with.
Combine your PHP skills with Web Design and you can make a lot more money with jobs. You could probably do offline marketing and get clients that way.

How much is an ok capital to start with?

I am not looking forward to spamming a couple of hundred thousands emails a month as a start.

How much PHP experience do you have. I would be interested in paying you for some work.