Complex Mail Questions

[php_hazard_01]

This pertains to Features that can be made for mail systems.
these are a list of questions i nid to know, im still a newb at this mail thing. Any information supplied will be helpful.

1. Bounces - How do you handle bounces? What Approach can one use? What does it use? and if there are any decent tutorials on handling bounces, please post a link. i searched google finding only irrelevant information.

2. HTML email - how do you make good HTML emails, Limitations and what to look out for? a link to a good article is appreciated.

3. Avoid being on the BULK/SPAM folder - i think i read something about BCC usually processed as spam, sending an email to 1000 BCCs would be considered spam?

4. Mail Sending - What is the best approach for sending out batch emails? any tutorials? can someone post a link? What's best? Sending out Mails individually or Sending it via CC or BCC, or another approach? what is their advantages and disadvantages


Im expecting NogDog & Bokeh to reply. Thanks in advance. :D
All your help will be much appreciated.

[jasonahoule]

I can answer the HTML question. You simply need to make sure you set the content type in the header. For example,

// To send HTML mail, the Content-type header must be set
$headers = 'MIME-Version: 1.0' . "\r\n";
$headers .= 'Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1' . "\r\n";

Another thing, which is quite obvious, is to make sure that all references to images are fully qualified.

[php_hazard_01]

thank you, but i was pertaining to some things to look out for on HTML email, like CSS capabalities. what to use or not. by the way, thank you again.

[\\.\]

Bounces as in the email address not existing, the email program you write with the email address you show as the originating address in most hosts MUST exist.

The host I use for example has a mail box option that I have set to expire emails receive instantly as I am not expecting emails on that account, the account being no-reply@ type for my domain.

HTML vs TEXT, IMHO always use TEXT over HTML as HTML has been abused in the past hiding scripting and other hack attempts. So if you want to send HTML atleast have the recipient make the choice between plain text or Rich text (HTML) mails.

Avoiding bulk SPAM is a case of don't flood any one domain with mailings, if your going to BULK send, ask the domain about using the method that big ISP's use which is FTP them as a batch of files.

Send individual emails, avoid CC and BCC to ensure that recipients do not see other peoples email addresses. Most hosts put a limit on how many emails you can sent in time periods, mine imposes a maximum of 10 emails every 30 seconds or 100 per hour depending on traffic. So you may want to double check with the hosting company and think of using a CRON JOB in the server to run at off peak times to do a mail send.

Allot of what you really need to know can be answered by your web hosting company.

[php_hazard_01]

oh, hmmm...i am currently with a project and i have to make a nwsletter system, with about 4000 addresses pending. my last question was how to optimize mail sending?..thanks for the helpful reply..i appreciate it \\.\