Should I use a seperate but related domain to send reports from my new webapp?


4

In other webapps I've done I've always sent email from the same domain as the app. However for my next project I'm thinking of using a related domain. For example if my webapp domain was widgets.com the report emails would originate from widgets-reports.com

The app sends daily reports and I'm wary of getting blacklisted as a spammer. The emails are opt-in but in the past I've encountered users flagging automatic email they request as spam instead of disabling emails.

If I send from a related domain I should be able move to a new IP if necessary without disrupting the service's primary email. I really can't think of a downside other than user's expectations that mails would originate from the app domain.

Thoughts?

Email Deliverability

asked Jan 4 '10 at 05:42
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Doug Martin
123 points
  • If you go with another domain, you always have the option to forge the "From: [email protected]" header to make it look like the email comes from your main domain. – Olivier Lalonde 14 years ago

3 Answers


2

It's nice to use a separate domain, but not because of black-listing, but rather to give you flexibility in how and where the email service is done.

There are SMTP services you can use that will prevent you from being blacklisted; you may want to investigate e.g. smtp.com or MailChimps.

answered Jan 4 '10 at 12:26
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Jason
16,231 points

2

I like to use separate domains for outbound emails -- it's much more flexible.

The one downside to this is that there is some minimal "brand dilution" (because the domain doesn't exactly match), but I think the tradeoff is worth it.

answered Jan 4 '10 at 15:31
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Dharmesh Shah
2,865 points

0

No. Generally, ISPs blacklist IPs -- not domains. So there is a benefit to using a different IP address from the one you use for outgoing corp email. But the deliverability benefit for using a different domain is smaller than the downside (brand confusion as dharmesh said, maintaining 2 domains, etc).

answered Jan 5 '10 at 02:29
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Joe
831 points

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