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
103 articles
Developer7 min
Building an internal ops dashboard on the Norbelys API with an AI agent
A grounded walkthrough of scaffolding a small send-volume and bounce-rate dashboard against the Norbelys API, with an AI coding agent doing the build.
AI6 min
How to prompt AI for cold email that doesn't sound like AI
A practical guide to prompting AI for cold email that reads as researched, not generic — specificity, constraints, real detail, and the stock phrases to ban.
Deliverability7 min
DMARC forensic reports (ruf): what they are, and why almost nobody sends them
The ruf tag asks for a copy of every failing message. What forensic reports contain, why most mailbox providers stopped sending them, and when to bother.
Deliverability7 min
DMARC setup for a new domain before you send your first cold email
SPF, then DKIM, then DMARC at p=none, then watch, then climb: the practical setup sequence for a new domain before its first cold email.
Deliverability8 min
MTA-STS and TLS-RPT explained: the DMARC of the transport layer
DMARC protects who a message claims to be from. MTA-STS and TLS-RPT protect the connection it travels over — the two DNS records and policy file explained.
Strategy8 min
Sending from Apollo? Here's what changes if you route sends through Norbelys
Apollo is a data platform, not a delivery one. A practical guide to keeping Apollo for sourcing while routing the actual sending through Norbelys instead.
Strategy8 min
Switching from Lemlist to Norbelys: a practical migration guide
Leaving Lemlist because email is your real bottleneck? What to export, what maps to what, and what changes — including an honest look at where Lemlist still wins.
StrategyBuild note6 min
Why we count opens differently
Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, Gmail's image proxy, and security scanners all fire the same tracking pixel a human does. Why we decided not to count them the same way.
AIAnalysis8 min
When an AI reads your email for them: what 'open rate' even means now
AI summarizers are becoming a real first reader in Gmail and Outlook. A grounded look at what's documented about zero-click, AI-mediated inboxes, what it might mean for open and reply metrics, and where the analysis turns speculative.
Developer7 min
How to authenticate an AI coding agent against the Norbelys API safely
Never hand a coding agent your production API key. A guide to scoped dev keys, auth.md, and why credential discipline matters more with an agent in the loop.
Developer7 min
Building on the Norbelys API with Claude Code: a practical guide
How to use Claude Code to build a real tool against the Norbelys API — grounding it with the agent kit first, then walking a realistic task end to end.
Compliance7 min
Cold email under Australia's Spam Act: consent, identification, and inferred consent for B2B
The Spam Act 2003 requires consent before you send. Here's how inferred consent works for B2B outreach, what a designated commercial electronic message actually is, and the ID rules.