Using free open SMTP relay for sending bulk emails

Creating your own SMTP server to send mail can be a time-intensive and complicated affair. Not just is there security issues to contend with, but email deliverability can be quite a major challenge. That's because most email providers have quite high spam detection barriers set up, and any email sent from a custom SMTP server features a high likelihood of getting snagged by one of those filters.

Enter SMTP relay. A mail relay is a straightforward and effective way to resolve for spam and security issues inherent with outgoing mail servers. You merely route your outgoing email to a professionally managed SMTP server, and that third-party sends those outgoing emails on your own behalf. Open relay means the SMTP server is routing both messages from external sources and internal server mail, while closed relay only routes messages generated on the internal network or server. By its nature, open mail relay is more expansive, however it can be more susceptible to spam abuse.

With SMTP relay, your personal email address like your gmail account is irrelevant. Whether you're using Google's Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, or a custom domain for the current email address, you can route your messages by way of a third-party mail server and dramatically increase the odds of one's email marketing actually reaching customers without hitting daily rate limits and other barriers. In short, mail relay lets you use whatever email you need with no hassles of building or managing your own SMTP server.

Setting up SMTP relay

One of the best reasons for having a SMTP relay service is how easy it is to setup, whether you're working together with a WordPress site or perhaps a custom domain. With Mailgun, you just add and verify your domain name, select from a dedicated or shared IP address, and then setup your SMTP relay server. Add your username, password, SMTP server host name, and SMTP port into your application's configuration settings, and you're ready to begin sending. If you would like another layer of security to your email, you can even add a typical or SSL connection, depending on which port you use.

Email marketing can be quite a complicated endeavor—and making sure your messages clear your outgoing server and land in your visitors'Gmail, AOL, or Yahoo inboxes shouldn't be considered a daily concern. Benefiting from a free of charge SMTP relay with a Mailgun email account can spare you the worry—while helping you save time and money.