Actually, I have a site of a completely different subject, but on the russian internet I managed to find an article that may be interesting to you. At the same time, you will learn what you can find in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet if you wish and how illegal e-mail mailings are conducted now. I tried to make the translation of the article as high quality as possible. Enjoy your reading.
The following are working ways to conduct cold email campaigns. Here you will learn how to send spam emails. The information is theoretical, I do not encourage anyone to spam. I recommend using the material on this page solely to elevate your mind, without trying anything described here. So let’s look at how this is done now and how to protect your email from spam.
There are a lot of ways to conduct illegal e-mailing. Only two of them are considered here. It will be about sending illegal e-mail using mailing services and using rented VPS.
Let me tell you right off the bat, I personally have never sent spam. Scout’s honour.
Sending spam using mailing services
Not every mailing service is suitable for cold mailing. The main reason is simple, spam mailings ruin the services’ reputation causing them losses. Reputation is made up of many factors and it affects the letters’ deliverability. There are other reasons as well.
Protection against spam in mailing services can be different. There are services with e-mail databases and mailings pre-moderation. Such services can be immediately rejected, they are not suitable for spamming. In other cases, it is usually enough to get moderator approval to remove certain restrictions, and then you can start sending letters.
There is also automatic blocking of sending letters possibility. For example, blocking occurs when a certain percentage of spam complaints and attempts to send emails to non-existent mailboxes are exceeded. Therefore, I recommend not to forget about database validation.
Normally the standards are as follows:
- Spam Complaint no more than 0.1% of sent emails number;
- Bounce rate no more than 10% of sent emails number.
However, hard bounces are more undesirable than soft bounces.
Needless to say that all mailing services require spf and dkim configuration. However, this is common practice nowadays and there is no difficulty in making such adjustments.
In fact, most mailing services are categorically unsuitable for sending spam. Let’s look at a few of these services as an example.
1. Mailing service postmarkapp.com. It is characterized by frequent blocking after the first 1000 emails sent. Bounce rate and spam complaint also calculated in a very peculiar way in this service. As a result, all other things being equal, bounce rate and spam complaint rates at postmarkapp.com will be significantly higher than at mailgun.com. After registering with this service you still need to skillfully lie to the administration to remove restrictions on sending emails. But even with the restrictions removed this service for spam mailings is probably not suitable. Don’t recommend trying to use it.
2. Mailing service dashamail.ru. Not suitable due to mailings pre-moderation.
3. Mailing services: unisender.com, unione.ru and sendpulse.com. Not suitable due to pre-moderation of databases, mailings and other difficulties.
Among the guaranteed suitable services, I can recommend mailgun.com. You can send millions of emails for free with this service. There used to be Amazon SES but now they have tightened the screws on it.
So, we have decided on the spam service. Now let’s look at the order of further actions.
Sending out emails through mailgun.com
1. You should start with registering first. Be sure to select «Flex Trial» in the «Select Another Plan» options. This gives you the possibility to send letters without prepayment. Payment for the selected method will be deducted once at the end of the month (about 30 days later). This is really important since there is no guarantee that all restrictions will be removed on the first try (one try — one account). Do not forget to prepare your phone that will receive sms code. Some people buy such sim cards on the street or use appropriate online services but I sincerely believe that you as an honest person use a phone number registered to your passport data. You also need a bank card. Some use their virtual cards with zero balance. Some people even use someone else’s cards (this is black joke, I do not recommend it, I’m serious) which allows you to use this service for free. But you better do not do it that way. Whether to give your address and real name is up to you.
2. After registration, do not forget to verify the email linked to your account.
3. Then you need to find a good site that sends out mailings through one of the other mailing services. For example, the site of some publisher or an online store. Such a site must have a subscription page and must have an unsubscribe link (after clicking on it you can unsubscribe in a couple of clicks). Find such a site, check how the site’s subscription and unsubscription works. Then add it as one of the mailing domains to mailgun.com. You do not need to confirm anything.
4. Now go to the appropriate section of your account and create a ticket. Below I have given the text in Russian, you will need to write in English (google translate to help). And do not try to copy the text from my site. Want to remove restrictions? Improvise.
Firstly, write something like the following letter:
Your newsletter service was recommended to me. I want to go to you in order to save money spent on the implementation of e-mail newsletters. Can you answer a few of my questions? What are the restrictions for new users? How many emails can I send?
After that, you will most likely receive information that there are certain restrictions on your account.
Then you need to tell a beautiful lie about what a white and fluffy cats you are. Specifically, talk about how you handle bounce rate and spam complaint, how do you unsubscribe recipients on demand, how to collect recipients solely through the subscription form on the site, etc.
The pitfalls here are different. At the beginning of the letter, be sure to tell them that you cannot start using the service without the restrictions removed because you need to do regular mailings. So you wait for them to be removed, then you set up dkim and spf and start using mailgun. Point out the fact that your country also has laws against spam and you comply with them. You will also need to specify the number of letters sent, I recommend to tell about 1 — 2 mailings per month, 12,000 to 14,000 recipients per mailing. Also indicate the need for transactional mailings (about 1,500 letters per month). Do not take the numbers from the site, but do not deviate much from them.
However, some people create a fake site with a functioning subscription form and immediately set up dkim, spf, etc. It’s actually not a bad option either.
If they ask any other questions, keep answering the same.
If everything goes well, they will write back to you about the removal of all limits. Then you can send hundreds of thousands and even millions of letters.
In the mailgun service, you can send mailings using the SMTP and API protocol. I recommend using the Epochta mailer for mailings. The program costs a little more than 3000 roubles. Don’t forget to request a 10% discount from tech support before purchasing.
For better email deliverability, I recommend spending a little time for warming up domains that cannot be added before the restrictions are removed. However, if your recipients are mostly e-mail addresses of domain owners like «mail@moysait.com», then a significant part of e-mails will reach the inbox without warming up. If your recipients have mainly addresses registered in postal services, warming up is extremely desirable.
Spamming with VPS
If you do not know how to send mailings on a rented server from your domain then look for the required information on the Internet. Here I also want to draw attention to a number of significant issues.
Firstly, not every hosting will work. Inquire in advance with the hoster about open ports and the possibility of conducting legal mailings. For example, ihc.ru и jino.ru are not suitable for this purpose.
Secondly, all other things being equal, the deliverability will still be worse than via mailgun.
Thirdly, you probably will not be able to find the right hoster at the first try. Get ready for it. And a suitable hoster for your purposes may cease at any time.
How to protect your email from spam
Sending spam is harder now than 15 years ago. However, it was not possible to defeat spam.
So there is only one good way to protect mail from spam. Do not post it on the Internet or give your e-mail address to strangers. Unfortunately, all other methods of protection are nothing more than secondary.