How do i ask this without sounding like i want to spam....

What is the policy for sending large volumes of email? I need to get new software licenses to approx 7500 users of our program. Email is the most obvious way, but i don't want to run afoul of any mass-email or anti-spamming policies. These emails would be oh, 2-4K each, maybe.

Let me just clarify that this would be for new (updated) licenses to a program that my customers have already purchased. It wouldn't be an advertisement or anything like that; it would only be a way for the users to use the next version (for free) of a program they've already purchased.

If this is unacceptable, I totally understand.

You have to always be so careful with sending out a large volume of e-mail, as the whole Spam issue is very complex.

This is the primary reason why I am so hesitant to place a newsletter from my website into action.

The main problem is unsolicited e-mails, that being sending random e-mails to people who have no connection to you or your site.  However, you are looking at sending licenses for a product owned.

The big question is, to negate all potential problems, would it be better to simply place link on your website for owners to request the re-issued license, and manually e-mail out as requests come in?

Lunar Pages imposes a 600-800 e-mail per hour restriction on accounts.  If your uses are in an address book within your e-mail program, perhaps it would be a good idea to e-mail them a few at a time.  This would also mean that you could monitor bounce backs easily, and remove addresses from your address book.

You can send these mails, however, you must be sure not to send too much at once, I would consider sending no more than 200-400 messages an hour.  Remember also that because of Lunar Pages zero tollerance for Spam, if we receive a number of complaints regarding Spam against your account we will have to suspend it.

It is very difficult to have a clear cut answer, simply because there isn't one.  With 7500 users this must be a very popular product, however, I would advise perhaps finding a way to update license over the internet.  Perhaps a routine similar to those found in AV software, which date stamps the software and warns you to upgrade your license from just under a year later.  A system that could perhaps be adapted to suit your product.

Do you need to send a unique key to each person?

If not, you could always use mailman (see your Cpanel mail section) and let them all know,or at least point them to a page that contains their license info

-Ed

If you in a rush to get it out, and can already generate them on your side, why not just generate a big list of them, and use some kind of authentication to load the key?.. At least until you can create a server side key dynamically.

- Ed