Whats the best software for bulk email?
Majordomo is all you need. The best thing about it is that it makes it easy to implement proper standards, i.e., ensuring that only people who genuinely opted in to your mailings will receive them. The only way to acquire a legitimate address list is for people to sign themselves up to your mailings; anyone who offers to sell you an email list is a spammer and thinks that you’re a spammer too, as only a spammer would buy such a list. And if you set up anything other than a genuine opt-in system for these mailings, yes, you’re a spammer and fully deserve to go to hell for it.
I can’t help you with obtaining lists, but for the process of sending email, you may want to consider Constant Contact, offered from Roving Software. They’ve got a good system together, they take care of managing opting in and out for you, and they’re careful about their reputation — I believe they really care about (and have staked their busines on) making sure they do email marketing right. They have some good templating technology, too… OK right now… it will get cooler this summer. Disclaimer: I work for one of their partners, but don’t really have any motivation to promote their product other than the fact I think it’s worth looking at. I don’t get paid more if you do too.
