Blog
Notes from the
honest side of email
Deliverability, honest analytics and outreach craft — written in plain language, with no growth-hack snake oil.
Earlier articles
253 articles
Prospecting6 min
How to find (almost) anyone's business email — without paying for it
Most companies use one of 14 address patterns. The free permute-and-verify workflow, the catch-all trap that fakes success, and the line you shouldn't cross.
Deliverability6 min
Half of your email opens are robots. Here's how to find the real number.
Apple Mail auto-opens every email, Gmail caches images, and security scanners click every link. What's left once you filter the noise — and how to decide on it.
Deliverability6 min
Email blacklists: how to check if you're listed — and actually get off
Which DNS blocklists matter in 2026, how to check your domain and IPs in one sweep, and the delisting process that works (it's free, despite what some sites imply).
Deliverability6 min
The Gmail & Outlook sender rules, explained like you're busy
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, one-click unsubscribe and the 0.3% spam threshold — what mailbox providers actually require from senders now, in plain language.
Strategy6 min
Cold email math: what 1,000 sends honestly turns into
Work the funnel backwards — sends, deliveries, real opens, replies, meetings — with honest numbers at every stage, and see why list quality beats raw volume.
Deliverability6 min
Why your emails go to spam (it's rarely the words)
Spam placement in 2026 is mostly reputation, authentication and engagement — not trigger words. A diagnostic order that finds your real problem in 20 minutes.
Strategy6 min
How many cold emails per day per mailbox? Fewer than you want.
The honest per-mailbox ceiling in 2026, why the 5,000-a-day bulk-sender line is a tripwire and not a target, and how to scale volume without burning domains.
Copywriting6 min
How to write a cold email that gets replies (not just opens)
The anatomy of a reply-worthy cold email: a first line that proves homework, one problem, one proof point, one ask, and follow-up rules that don't burn goodwill.
Deliverability7 min
How long does it take to warm up a new email domain?
Use two weeks as a minimum for a low-volume mailbox and four to eight weeks for a new or high-volume domain. The real answer depends on volume and engagement.
Deliverability6 min
How to read a DMARC report (no XML degree required)
Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo send you gzipped XML about every email claiming to be your domain. Here are the four fields that matter and how to spot a spoofer.
Deliverability6 min
p=none vs p=quarantine vs p=reject: when to move (and when not to)
More than half of domains with DMARC never leave p=none. Here's the honest ladder from monitoring to enforcement, with the checks to pass before each step.
Deliverability6 min
DKIM, explained: selectors, key sizes and the failures nobody notices
How DKIM signing actually works, what a selector is, why 1024-bit keys are on borrowed time, and how to check the key your domain is really using.