Three Reasons Why Not To Send End-User Emails With A Free Email Provider

Sending emails to end-users with a free email account is very tempting. The email accounts can be setup within minutes and you can register as many of these accounts as you like. You can also configure the majority of these free email accounts with your favorite email client utilizing POP or IMAP.

Up until today I was using Gmail to send out emails to potential end-users, but the problems I have experienced with the free email provider outweighed the benefits.

Here are three reasons why you should not send end-user emails with a free email provider:

1. It doesn’t look professional. How do you expect for a person to take your email inquiry serious if you are sending emails from a free email provider? It might of worked a few years ago, but these days you need to separate yourself from the rest and choose a domain name that you feel best represents you as a domain investor. You will be taken more serious this way.

2. Sending limits can trigger your account to be locked for 24 hours or more. When you are sending emails to addresses that may or may not be correct you are going to experience a number of bounce backs. As a precaution to reduce spam, free email providers like gmail will lock your account to reduce abuse. I’ve experienced this first hand and it really stops you in your tracks when you are trying to email new leads or follow up with old ones.

3. Spam filters aren’t kind to free email accounts. Have you ever wondered why you are not receiving any replies? There is a chance that the end-user on the receiving end didn’t even have the chance to view your email. Since a great deal of abuse tends to occur with free email accounts some people have taken the extra step to automatically deem the majority of emails coming in from a free email provider as spam.

I was inspired to write this blog entry because I’ve used a few free email providers to send out end-user emails. Lately it has been more troublesome for me to continue down this route and I’ve decided to move forward with a paid solution. When I say paid solution, I am referring to sending emails from my hosting provider or a 3rd party service. I’ll discuss more about this later, but for now I just wanted to share my experience with you.

To sum it up, let’s just say I don’t want to ever see this sending limit box again:

9 Comments

AbdulBasit Makrani January 19, 2013 at 2:01 am

I use Google Apps on my domain for sending emails. Although there is limit of sending 500 emails per 24 hour which I think is reasonable. I have rarely reached the max limit while sending email to end-users. I have been using for several years without any issues or downtime

Reply
- Jason Thompson January 20, 2013 at 11:19 pm
  
  Hi Abdul,
  
  I haven’t had any downtime with my Google Apps account as well, but then again I only send a handful of emails out with this account to generate end-user leads. I was a little more risky in my approach with my gmail account for lead generation and since that is the case bounce backs are going to happen.
  
  I’d rather have an email account which I can take these risks without having an issue with my account being disabled for bounce backs. I’ve tested a few services in the past, where bounce backs were never an issue.
  
  Reply
Kay January 19, 2013 at 6:06 am

Your a fucking spammer, and you have been reported to go daddy, and spamhaus.

Govern yourself accordingly

Reply
- Jason Thompson January 20, 2013 at 10:56 pm
  
  Kay anyone who sends an unsolicited email can be considered a spammer. As far as being reported, feel free to provide me a link with this information. I tend to monitor this very closely. My problems stemmed from bouncebacks, it had nothing to do with being reported to SPAMHAUS. Thanks for your input.
  
  Reply
ADAM January 19, 2013 at 11:28 am

Total disagree with everything – even top guys use e.g. gmail`s
Other thing, if you send an email from free mail account to End User s/he will think you are not a company by that he will be hopping for a bargain.
Do you expect to buy a domain cheaper from a company of individual?.
Spam? if someone follows simple rules does not have to worry about spam filters.

Reply
- Jason Thompson January 20, 2013 at 11:09 pm
  
  I agree to disagree with your statement as well and here is why:
  
  http://arstechnica.com/security/2008/04/gmail-being-throttled-blocked-by-some-anti-spam-vendors/
  
  It’s a simple fact that certain anti-spam vendors will block emails originating from free email accounts. This is something that has been a problem in the past and is still a problem now.
  
  There are also custom email filters which some companies tend to use which pose a problem for free email accounts as well. Thanks for the comment.
  
  Reply
thethe January 20, 2013 at 6:03 am

Sorry Jason, but your free email address is the least of your. credibility problems. Get a .com

Reply
- Jason Thompson January 20, 2013 at 10:59 pm
  
  Not you again…lol! I’ll make a deal with you. If you acquire JasonThompson.com, I will buy it from you! Sound good? Great, now make it happen.
  
  Reply
AbdulBasit Makrani January 20, 2013 at 11:32 pm

Hi Jason,

You are right as well. But I have never faced any issue in last several years. If we send emails in limit everything seems to be working fine. I would not suggest any one to reach 500 emails limit daily on consistent basis.

Reply