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Oy. Do NOT self-host an email autoresponder. I wrote a great comment about this a few years ago on Brian Armstrong's blog--and he's now doing Coinbase after dec

Oy. Do NOT self-host an email autoresponder. I wrote a great comment about this a few years ago on Brian Armstrong's blog--and he's now doing Coinbase after deciding the email stuff wasn't worth it. Look in my profile to see who I am and why I'd say this, but as a quick summary, I have years of experience and have also helped companies set up autoresponders that do over 1M emails a day, and that's exactly why I say this. It is a clusterf*ck and a rabbit hole a mile deep and a mile wide. Pay the money (or in Mailchimp's case, don't pay any money until you get bigger.) It is worth EVERY penny. By the way, any good autoresponder (I use Mailchimp and Aweber and like them both for different purposes) will let you easily export/back up contacts, and none of the big companies are going anywhere.

WA 13y ago
Thanks, I'll check it out. Do you happen to know the blog post title? Since comments are loaded via Disqus, I can't search for them with Google :(
- ericabiz 13y ago
  Ah, finally found it! http://brianarmstrong.org/blog/my-next-project/ http://brianarmstrong.org/blog/my-next-project/ Ctrl-F 'Erica' and read the whole thread of him/me! :) (He did launch the biz, but shut it down not long after that. Coinbase is doing much better! ;)
  - WA 13y ago
    Thanks for taking the time to find the blog post. I definitely need to reconsider whether or not self-hosting is such a good idea or not.
    - 13rules 13y ago
      Do you want to become an expert in email deliverability, DNS, bounces, white listing, DKIM, SPF? Or do you want to sell your product? It boils down to that. Spend your time doing what you are GREAT at and what you WANT to do. Are you great at email deliverability? Do you want to spend your time becoming an expert on that? Probably not. I know how to change the oil in my car. I know how to mow my lawn. I know how to clean toilets. I don't do any of those things because they are a huge waste of my time that is better spent elsewhere. Same thing goes here.
hiddenfeatures 13y ago
Agree! (& listen to Erica, she knows what she's talking about) Deliverability is a nightmare (client of mine lost 5 figures, because his admins [at Germany's biggest hosting company] messed up the DNS setup). There's a reason why there are so many companies doing email delivery as a service (SendGrid, MailGun, Postmark - to name a few)

WA 13y ago

Thanks, I'll check it out. Do you happen to know the blog post title? Since comments are loaded via Disqus, I can't search for them with Google :(

ericabiz 13y ago
Ah, finally found it! http://brianarmstrong.org/blog/my-next-project/ http://brianarmstrong.org/blog/my-next-project/ Ctrl-F 'Erica' and read the whole thread of him/me! :) (He did launch the biz, but shut it down not long after that. Coinbase is doing much better! ;)
- WA 13y ago
  Thanks for taking the time to find the blog post. I definitely need to reconsider whether or not self-hosting is such a good idea or not.
  - 13rules 13y ago
    Do you want to become an expert in email deliverability, DNS, bounces, white listing, DKIM, SPF? Or do you want to sell your product? It boils down to that. Spend your time doing what you are GREAT at and what you WANT to do. Are you great at email deliverability? Do you want to spend your time becoming an expert on that? Probably not. I know how to change the oil in my car. I know how to mow my lawn. I know how to clean toilets. I don't do any of those things because they are a huge waste of my time that is better spent elsewhere. Same thing goes here.

hiddenfeatures 13y ago

Agree! (& listen to Erica, she knows what she's talking about) Deliverability is a nightmare (client of mine lost 5 figures, because his admins [at Germany's biggest hosting company] messed up the DNS setup). There's a reason why there are so many companies doing email delivery as a service (SendGrid, MailGun, Postmark - to name a few)