HostGator Mailing List Rules... Ouch

My experience, hostgator only allow 500 mass email sent every hour

The content on that TOS page is referring to people who are using a self-hosted autoresponder on their HostGator hosting account. If you are using a service like Aweber, GetResponse, TrafficWave, etc, and you have Hostgator, then it's very unlikely you will ever have a problem.

In other words, if you have purchased your own AR software such as Arpreach and you have it installed on HostGator, then these rules apply to you. If you are just hosting your squeeze pages on HostGator but you are not using their hosting to send your emails, those rules do not apply to you at all.

Looking at your screen shot, it's pretty clear where you ask him:

I see that you also did ask him if you are just hosting a squeeze page with GetResponse he does also say that they will ban you, but I'm almost positive he is talking about using their servers to send your email because all he says is "Yes, you need double opt-in to remain on our servers." It's as if he is not understanding your question and is just re-enforcing the rules for using their server to send out email.

It's likely he thought you were talking about using a self-hosted AR software and not the HostGator AR. It may very well be that the tech thinks that Aweber & GetResponse are other hosting companies and doesn't realize that they are outside AR companies. That would explain why he would simply respond the way he did and just reinforce that you need double opt-in to remain on HG servers. It could also be that they are trained to never promise anyone that they won't have their account closed for any reason and he was just giving what I like to call a "politician's answer." In other words it doesn't answer the specific question but it's a general answer.

There are literally thousands of IMers using HostGator to host their websites. Personally, I know dozens of IMers using them to host squeeze pages and I have never heard of anyone getting their account shut down for using single opt-in, as long as they are using an outside AR company.

These rules they have in place are there to protect HG against high server loads and people using their hosting to spam.

Even if I am wrong about this, which I am pretty sure I'm not, he does also state that "We do warn before we ban."

So for those of you using an outside AR like Aweber, GetResponse, MailChimp, TrafficWave, etc, and you are just hosting your squeeze pages with HostGator, relax, you have nothing to worry about.

All that being said, it is most important that you take regular backups of your hosting account no matter what.

hostgator is a piece of shit

Does this happen when using list building script on Hostgator or when using Getresponse?

Everybody is doing single optin these days. What is the reason behind?

It would be silly to instal ArpReach (or any other self hosted option) and than continue to send through your hosts smtp servers. That pretty much negates the point of doing so, and you'll most likely see worse open rates than with a 3rd party.

I always figured it was obvious that you employ a separate smtp server when using a self hosted option. Most hosting companies block the usual ports anyways - 587, 465 ect.

I agree with nicheblogger75. The rules only apply to people who are using Host Gator's servers to send out bulk email.

Can I ask you what source you got this percentage?
All the IM guys I know still use double opt-in.

I'm with Hostgator and as far as I knew they always had double opt-in. It keeps people from just adding a list that didn't want your information to begin with.

I wouldn't recommend mailing single opt-ins on a shared hosting solution. It's just way to much risk to ban everyone else on the server.

Even if you do have permission to mail them, I would highly suggest a dedicated or cloud instance.