Ever got in trouble for sending mails to non-opted?

Hi and be honest, did you guys ever got in trouble for sending mails to non-opted peoples?

I've never done it. But it's not a good way to build a brand. They are going to get very annoyed and hate you for it.

virtualman89 said:

I've never done it. But it's not a good way to build a brand. They are going to get very annoyed and hate you for it.

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I am talking about getting in legal troubles or not...like fines and fees gdpr bla bla?

UCE is not illegal (AFAIK USA), just follow the CAN-SPAM act.

timothywcrane said:

UCE is not illegal (AFAIK USA), just follow the CAN-SPAM act.

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Yeah so sending emails to non opted people is okay but not spamming correct?

EternalFun said:

Yeah so sending emails to non opted people is okay but not spamming correct?

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Aside from legal issues, you need how to do bulk email without pissing off your host or the recipients... I'd rather spend the weekend in jail than have rewarm up an email IP score after losing a hot account (no coorelation between jail time and email offenses). Check out some "cold email" tech tuts on youtube.

timothywcrane said:

Aside from legal issues, you need how to do bulk email without pissing off your host or the recipients... I'd rather spend the weekend in jail than have rewarm up an email IP score after losing a hot account (no coorelation between jail time and email offenses). Check out some "cold email" tech tuts on youtube.

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Which email marketing services do you use or recommend for sending such mails? Aweber, getresponse dont allow non-opted mails.

I had a classified ads website and added my users to a Mailchimp list. No problems thus far. So it might be okay in that scenario because it doesn't seem like spamming (they signed up for an account using their emails).

EternalFun said:

Which email marketing services do you use or recommend for sending such mails? Aweber, getresponse dont allow non-opted mails.

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Your own server.

No problems so far. I used to bulk mail people users from LinkedIn and the test went out pretty well. Except most of them won't take their time to reply to these mails

timothywcrane said:

Your own server.

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I didnt get you exactly. can this be done for free or expense required?

I have never done it so..

EternalFun said:

I didnt get you exactly. can this be done for free or expense required?

I have never done it so..

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The almost free method...

A dedicated Linux VPS. $5-$50/mth +domain $1-$n,

A "perfect server" tutorial,

Wordpress/Drupal/Jekyll etc. if a website is needed, and a lot of creativity.

Start to install. Fuck it up... start over. 1 day to months to learn, up to a year of testing and retesting to perfect.

Or.. pay an offshore/BH mailer (if someone does that here). I say offshore/BH most major mailers as they are more worried about their IP rating over a wide array of users. It's about terms of service, not legality...

The problem with the majors is that they must somehow delineate the good from the bad (so that not "everyone... meaning them) takes a hit in reputation. To avoid this loss and its costs (there are technical and admin overhead increases), they can sometimes be unreasonably conservative in evaluating these risks on an account level basis, in turn letting your server carry a burden of scrutiny that goes far beyond legality and binds you under the TOS.

The post office never fucked with the technical or administrative process of my business mail in the way that e-mailers have been known to do.

[I know, the USPS or EU/etc counterpart is regulated... but they don't take 10000 parcels from you, get an uneasy feeling about you based on secondary correlations over lunch, and dump your parcels off at the landfill without telling you because of it... denying you service forever thereafter]

whether you run a VPS or pay a bh vendor, that does not mean that you are then free to ignore reputation or the knowledge of managing it...

The burden is in fact now all on you (with a good provider VPS/mailer) to keep your own rep up without extra-legal admin and tech burdens added on BY THEM.

If you do not want to spend hours learning the ins and outs of free SSL certs, IP trust scoring, semantic inbox algorithms, bounce elimination etc... then you might pay someone else to manage it if you can... but I never tell people it is better to pay than learn.

Even if you pay you should learn anyway, or eventually you will be paying someone to learn it for you too... You can't manage opportunity/risk/business growth by forward-push financial scale alone. Email is not the money machine it used to be... but in many ways it is now much better... it is 100% manageable and scalable.

Sending the mail is the easiest, and least expensive (time/labor) part of email marketing, if done right, especially if starting cold. but it is also the least important if you truly know email IMHO. It's what you send It does not have to be a quality/quantity debate, or a bh/wh argument, but rather the order of the two.

Email is still one of the easiest of Internet protocols, once set up correctly and appropriately (even inappropriately I guess ) to connect to damn near anything you want... and inboxing plus connectivity are just the beginning.. legally and under your own TOS (or as close as you can get to it).

I am not a lawyer, an EU citizen or deal in EU lead correspondence. The GDPR may view unsolicited commercial email differently than US law, or when mailing to US recipients. You should first consult an attorney before acting on any of my advice as I am an American prone to disobey...

Good luck.