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
Strategy3 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.
Copywriting2 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 easy ask — and the 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 observation period for a low-volume mailbox and four to eight weeks for a new or high-volume domain. The real answer depends on target volume, engagement, authentication, and provider feedback.
Deliverability3 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.
Deliverability3 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.
Deliverability4 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.
Deliverability4 min
SPF records, explained with real examples (and the 10-lookup trap)
What an SPF record actually says, how to read every mechanism, copy-paste examples for common stacks — and the DNS lookup limit that silently voids it.