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Amazon Web Services or AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments on a metered pay-as-you-go basis. These cloud computing web services provide distributed computing processing capacity and software tools via AWS server farms.  It is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. It also provides scalable and cost-effective cloud computing solutions. AWS is a broadly adopted cloud platform that offers several on-demand operations like compute power, database storage, content delivery, etc., to help corporates scale and grow from time to time.

To know more about AWS, please visit https://aws.amazon.com.

Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) is a cost-effective, flexible, and scalable email service that enables developers to send mail from within any application. You can configure Amazon SES quickly to support several email use cases, including transactional, marketing, or mass email communications.

Though Amazon SES is a cost-effective email service, it is built on the reliable and scalable infrastructure that Amazon.com developed to serve its own customer base as well as other APIs. With Amazon SES, you can send transactional email, marketing messages, or any other type of high-quality content to any customers.

To know more about Amazon SES, please visit https://aws.amazon.com/ses.

To send emails using MailBluster, you will need an AWS account. If you don’t already have an account, visit the AWS website and Create an AWS Account. You’ll need to provide credit card details, even if you only intend to make use of the free tier provided by Amazon SES.

The Free tier of Amazon SES will let you send 62,000 emails per month without any charge. But after you cross their free quota, they will charge you $0.10 for every 1000 emails sent through Amazon SES. To know about the pricing of Amazon SES please visit: https://aws.amazon.com/ses/pricing.

MailBluster doesn’t offer any kind of SMTP server or service. It uses the customer’s AWS account to send email marketing campaigns and newsletters. That’s why Amazon SES is a must. Without connecting your AWS account with MailBluster, you will not be able to send any emails from MailBluster.

MailBluster is an email marketing tool that uses Amazon SES for sending bulk emails. Since MailBluster doesn’t offer any kind of SMTP servers or services, it uses the customer’s AWS account to send all the marketing campaigns and newsletters.

If your AWS account’s ability to send email is paused all of a sudden, then you can’t use Amazon SES to send emails until you resolve the problem with the AWS account. Your AWS Account uses a set of IP addresses that are shared with other users around the globe (if you don’t send email using dedicated IP address). Because of this, Amazon SES might pause your account’s ability to send additional emails to protect the reputation of the shared IP addresses. Here are few reasons that might lead to a sending pause which includes:

• Your AWS Account was already placed under review and the issue wasn’t corrected before the end of the review period.
• A bounce rate of 10% or greater has been exceeded.
• A complaint rate is 0.5% or greater has been exceeded.
• Your account was placed under review several times for the same issue.
• Emails sent from your account violated AWS Service Terms.

To resolve AWS Account paused issue, you must:

• Identify the problem.
• Request a new review and respond to follow-up questions from the Amazon SES team.

Identify the problem:
You need to read the email send by the Amazon SES team which summarizes the problems that led to the review or pause on your sending emails of your AWS Account. This issues that can lead to a pause on your account include bounces, complaints, and spam traps.

Request a new review and respond to follow-up questions from the Amazon SES team:
After you identify the problems with your sending emails and take steps to fix them, request a new review from the Amazon SES team.

To request a new review on your sending account, open the AWS Support Center. Then, reply to the case that Amazon SES opened on your behalf. In your reply, include your responses to these reports:

• A list of changes that you made to fix the problem.
• An explanation of how these changes will prevent the problem from happening again.

After Amazon SES team receives your request for a new review, they will decide whether to uphold or remove the review or further pause on your sending emails of your AWS Account. If your new review is unsuccessful, then Amazon SES team contacts you with follow-up questions. Be sure to respond to Amazon SES team with the requested follow-up questions carefully.

It would require you to have a verified and approved AWS SES to use MailBluster for sending emails. We don’t offer an SMTP server/service ourselves. We use your AWS SES to send your email campaigns. For help with setting up a new AWS SES account, you can follow the instructions here: https://docs.bitnami.com/aws/how-to/use-ses/

You do not require SNS in order to send emails. However, MailBluster requires an Amazon SNS to track metrics such as opens, click rates, and unique opens in order to provide you with a detailed report on the MailBluster campaign you sent, such as the following:

MailBluster uses Amazon SES to send email campaigns. A verified and approved AWS Account of the client is required to connect with MailBluster. Since MailBluster doesn’t offer any SMTP server or service by itself, it will use your AWS Account to send all your email campaigns.
Please note that your AWS Account must be out of Sandbox (Restrictions set by Amazon when you first create an AWS Account) otherwise you won’t be able to send any emails from MailBluster.

You need to select the region that best suits you and your subscribers’ location for SES Region. And remember to choose this exact same region when you apply to Amazon for a sending limit increase.
If your AWS account is already out of the Sandbox (in a specific AWS region), use that region for MailBluster.
For example, We have our sending limit increased for the region “Oregon”. In MailBluster, we will select “Oregon” as region when setting up AWS credentials.

In your Amazon account,

In MailBluster,

To connect your AWS Account with MailBluster please refer to the following step by step guide: https://app.mailbluster.com/pages/aws-setup-guide. Please make sure you are signed in to MailBluster first.

Also, we have a video tutorial that will help you connect MailBluster with Amazon SES in no time:

To connect your AWS Account to MailBluster, your IAM user should have the following policies attached:

• AmazonSESFullAccess
• AmazonSNSFullAccess

When you created the IAM user, you didn’t attach the AmazonSESFullAccess policy to the user. You need to resolve this issue by following this guide carefully: app.mailbluster.com/pages/aws-setup-guide.

Notice Step 2, where you need to give permission for AmazonSESFullAccess. Check out this video tutorial for further clarification: https://youtu.be/EcBazdjkQ1Y.

To connect your AWS Account to MailBluster, your IAM user should have the following policies attached:

• AmazonSESFullAccess
• AmazonSNSFullAccess

When you created the IAM user, you didn’t attach the AmazonSNSFullAccess policy to the user. You need to resolve this issue by following this guide carefully: app.mailbluster.com/pages/aws-setup-guide.

Notice Step 3, where you need to give permission for AmazonSNSFullAccess. Check out this video tutorial for further clarification: https://youtu.be/EcBazdjkQ1Y.

If your AWS account is new, AWS takes some time to verify and activate your account. Make sure you have verified your email, phone, and credit card information on AWS correctly. If you have done everything, please try after some time. AWS Account activation can sometimes be delayed. Have patience and wait for 24 hours.

See the AWS free tier details here.

If your AWS account is new, Amazon will place your account in the Amazon SES sandbox. While your account is in the Sandbox, you can use all of the features of Amazon SES. However, when your account is in the Sandbox, Amazon applies the following restrictions to your account:

1. You can only send mail to verified email addresses and domains, or the Amazon SES mailbox simulator.

2. You can only send mail from verified email addresses and domains.

3. You can send a maximum of 200 messages per 24-hour period.

4. You can send a maximum of 1 message per second.

To move your account out of Sandbox and to increase the sending limits, you have to make an application to Amazon. Please follow this step by step guide to make a successful application:
https://mailbluster.com/blog/how-to-increase-aws-sending-limits/

If you have already moved out of sandbox from Amazon SES, but MailBluster is still giving a warning message to move out of Sandbox, then please refresh the Amazon SES usage box. To do so, first, go to the Settings (1) > AWS (2) > and then click the Amazon SES usage refresh button (3). The following screenshot with numbers should be easy to follow:

You should know the following things before verifying a domain in AWS: 

• You must own the domain and have access to the DNS records
  
  
• When you verify your entire domain, you are actually verifying all email addresses from that domain
  
  
• Amazon has multiple AWS Regions, and domain verification applies to individual AWS Regions. Please make sure to perform the entire domain verification procedure properly for your desired region
  

You can manage your verified domains using the Amazon SES console or the Amazon SES API.

Please follow the following process on how to verify a domain using the AWS Management console:

Step 1 Login to AWS Management Console

Step 2 In the search bar type – SES then Select Amazon Simple Email Service

Step 3 This is the Account Dashboard where you will see the region of your Amazon SES account. Click on Verified identities link from the left side menu

Step 4 Click Create identity

Step 5 Select Domain in Identity type under Identity details

Step 6 Enter the name of your domain that you own

Step 7 Scroll down to Advanced DKIM settings and Click on it

Step 8 Select Easy DKIM under Identity type

Step 9 Then Select RSA_2048_BIT under DKIM signing key length

Step 10 If your DNS records are managed by Amazon Route 53, Keep it checked. Otherwise uncheck it

Step 11 Click the Create identity button

Step 12 Click on the Verified identities link from the left side menu to check the domain status. Once verified, it will show you in Identity status as “Verified” in Summary for your domain name section

Extra Steps if your domain is managed by services like Cloudflare DNS.
After Step No. 11, follow these steps accordingly,

Step 12. Under View DNS Records, Copy all 3 DNS records

Step 13 Go to Cloudflare DNS Management for the domain name and paste CNAME in Name and Value in Target. Be sure to Disable the Proxy status. Click Save and then Add record

Step 14 Then go back to Amazon SES, Click Verified identities to the domain status. Once verified, it will show in Identity status as “Verified” in Summary for your domain name section and DKIM configuration as “Successful”

Email address verification in AWS is really simple. Just follow these steps accordingly:

1. Login to AWS Management Console

2. Select Verified Identities

3. Under Verified Identities, Click Create Identity

4. In Create Identity, Select Email Address and enter your Email Address you want to verify

5. Now Click Create Identity

After this Amazon will send an email to this address with a link, all you need to do is click on the link and your email ID will be verified.

The addition of DKIM should remove the ‘via’ link. If you still face the issue, You must do the following:

1. Verify the domain on AWS SES (digitalstrike.online)

2. Set DKIM for this domain on your DNS configuration and enable the DKIM in AWS SES.

3.Verify the from the email address on AWS SES ([email protected])

4. Set DKIM for this email address on your DNS configuration and enable the DKIM in AWS SES.

(Step 3 and 4 are needed for all the from email addresses)

Note:

1. DNS propagation might take some time to take effect. Kindly give it some time before testing.

2. After all, DKIM is set and enabled, kindly verify them from https://www.mail-tester.com/.