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Ask HN: Best way to handle Email as a startup?

6 points by Frocer ↗ HN
Hi all,

Email has been a big headache for us. Our service doesn't send spam, or in large quantity, nor newsletters. We are only sending confirmation Emails and/or notifications.

On our server, we implemented reverse DNS, SPF record, and DomainKeys to get through all the Email filters (or attempt to...). Gmail hasn't really give us any issue. We were able to get through Yahoo Mail thanks to HN. However, we are starting to notice all the registration Emails being send to Hotmails are getting bounced, and as far as I can tell... they aren't fake Email addresses.

As a startup, do you recommend us to keep handling our emails ourselves? Or would you rather license out your emails to 3rd party handlers? I am already considering the 2nd option because this has been a persistent headache, and I would love to spend more time on actually coding...

Any tip or recommendation would be greatly appreciated

10 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 32.2 ms ] thread
eyao
I'm with this start up as well, and I want to resonate that this has been a huge problem for us. We have been getting a ton of bounced emails so if anyone has recommendations on what to do with those (the ones that actually look legit) then please let us know!
oldgregg
i feel your pain-- we've made do using google apps for domain, configuring SMTP is... quirky, but at low volume you should be fine.
Frocer
So are you using gmail to handle your outgoing mails?
greatreorx
When an email bounces, do you flag it in your system so that you don't continue to send emails to it? Not speaking from personal experience, but I've read that certain major webmail companies will penalize your server if you keep trying to deliver mail to an invalid account within a certain time frame.

You seem to have everything else covered, that's the only thing that comes to mind.

Frocer
Hum, we haven't done so explicitly yet... but since we just launched, and our email traffic isn't that high, I don't think the chances of 2 random people typing in the same bogus email address. I have the list of all bounces Emails and I will take a look at them.

Will also take the recommendation to implement this check soon. Besides that, any other recommendations? Is this just a Hotmail issue?

brk
What "service" are you using? I've always just done a linux/sendmail server in a datacenter somewhere and manage all sending/receiving/lists/etc from that.
shafqat
Sounds like a real problem which could be solved with a startup?! Anyone have ideas?