How to Email 2000 People?

It depends on how these leads were obtained. One complaint could be enough to shut down your ISP or provider. There are also some specific laws regarding this in the CAN SPAM act. I buy leads often in huge quantities, but these are generally those who have requested information related to my target market. Most providers require as a minimum the ISP and a current date stamp to be imported.

I wouldn't see this as a big deal either considering that the "real" spammers send out millions of emails per day, but others might disagree. Basically, spam is every commercial email that the recipient didn't opt in to receive, therefore it doesn't matter if you send 1 or 2000 emails, it's basically spam. It's arguable though if an ad for your affiliate program could be considered a commercial email.

If you want to be absolutely safe, you should look into getting bullet-proof offshore hosting because it just takes one person to complain to your host about spam and they'll zap your account. At least that has been my experience with hostgator, though I'm sure other hosts are pretty strict as well when it comes to topics like this. You could also sign up to services like aweber, import the list of 2k people and send out a confirmation email. Those who confirm agreed to receive emails from you so there are no worries anymore emailing them as long as they didn't opt out. However, the amount of people confirming such an email is really really low.

If I was you I wouldn't worry and import the list to constant contact or use something as interspire and email those people, since you don't have anything for sale for them (right?). My opinion though, your milage may vary.

Hey guys
I just wanted to email about 2000 people asking to join my affiliate program.

Only 1 time, 2000 people.

Could I buy a bunch of yahoo accounts?