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Realize there a lot of bulk email services, but what I'm trying to do doesn't feel like bulk email; though maybe I'm just thinking about it the wrong way. Case in point, I attempted to create an account on MailChimp and it wants a subscriber list.

I'm send one, and only one email per address; for example, replying to job postings on Craigslist. I'm not sending follow-up emails, and basically the first email I send is the last to an address unless I get a reply.

Sometimes the email I send is based on a template, other times they've asked for something, and I customize the email. I've automated creating resumes and sending emails in the past, but currently the fastest way just seems to manually do it; meaning I can't imagine sending more than 500 emails in a single day.

As far as I'm able to tell if Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Lycos, AOL, etc. - do not offer the service of paying per email over the send limit, since I'd be willing to pay for the service and be done with this, as it's taking up a huge amount of time and overhead to deal with.

Currently, although I've seen sites giving higher numbers, most of the providers appear to limit emails sent to 20-40 a day; possible I'm doing something wrong, but if I am, I don't understand why these limits are not easy to see within an account, so I'm either able to stay within the limits, or see the service is not a good fit for my needs; currently I just get random error-messages, locked-out, etc.

(If needed, and the setup doesn't take more an a few hours, I'm more than willing to deal with configuring scripts, CSV files, templates, etc. on my computer - as long as they're well documented and the end result addresses the issue; meaning that if I have to send a one-off email, I just copy the template, make the changes, and point to the email. The system must also support attachments, since every email has at least one attachment; best solution would be if I'm able to load an attachment once to the system, then alias it in the local script.)

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This has nothing to do with your question, but if your are sending out a resume every three minutes (assuming you work 24h) you are definitely doing something wrong. – neo Dec 6 '11 at 18:13
@neo: It's easy to send out emails fast, and yes, I believe the speed I'm able to but new email, after together makes me look like a bot, but clearly I'm not. Honestly believe yesterday I got locked out because I used three browser in the same account in the span of less than one minute; which Google read as being three ppl, and it's against there rules to have shared email accounts. – blunders Dec 6 '11 at 21:45
No idea though, just known I created the account, drafted an email, hit send, and was locked out. Was using three browsers, because I had just started using chrome, noticed how different gmail was in chrome, figured I'd compare FF, IE, and chrome. Anyway, why is sending an email every 3-mins wrong? There's no way I'd send more than 100 emails from one provider right now anyway, since I hate getting locked out, but I'm not getting anywhere close. – blunders Dec 6 '11 at 21:46
For example, hotmail locked me out after 30 email, then refused to let me send more emails because I don't have a cell phone with a top 5 carrier; guessing they're lazy and send email SMS to the carrier. – blunders Dec 6 '11 at 21:46

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

If each email you send is unique (i.e. you aren't sending the same email to a large distribution list) have you considered getting your own "proper" mailbox.

Most web hosting companies offer this service, you buy a domain name and set up a mailbox and as long as you don't use it to spam people there wouldn't be a problem sending 500 emails a day. The limits on these mailboxes is normally a limit on the amount of email you can store in the mailbox - but bolt on something like Outlook or Thunderbird to download the emails to your desktop to keep the server clear and you'd be up and running.

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+1 Sohnee: Agree, seems to be the only option. Though thought of finding a domain that's short, professional seems like a massive headache. "Gmail business" requires you to have a domain to use it. Main super concern is that Google will link all of my account and lock me out; which would suck. No idea why all the service providers hide the limits from users, since I'm sure spammers just figure them out without caring if an account get locked. Anyway, agree with your answer, just seems like a huge pain. – blunders Dec 6 '11 at 18:05
@blunders Google Apps has limits ranging from 500 (free) to 2000 (paid) mails/day: google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=166852 – neo Dec 6 '11 at 18:14
@neo: Yes, I know those are the numbers they post, but that's not how Google works. They've got hidden controls, and randomly lock you out without notice or reason. lol, yesterday I created an account, walked away, came back, drafted an email by hand, hit send, and was locked-out of that account. No idea why, just know even me doing Google searches sometimes it'll lock me out saying I'm a bot, lol - which would be funny, expect I'm not a bot, and it's a pain deal with. – blunders Dec 6 '11 at 21:15

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