Still using Gmail for your Blog? Read this post now!
As of June 1, Gmail made some changes which could affect you! Read on to find out what the changes are and what you can do about it!
Sorry for the worrisome headline, but I feel the need to let you know about some changes that are going on with Gmail and how it can affect your blog, your email newsletter & your traffic! YIKES!
If you are currently sending emails through an email service provider like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, ConverKit or MadMimi and using a GMAIL as your primary email address, you are going to need to change that ASAP!
So what’s the big deal with Google’s Changes?
Google recently made changes to the way it handles incoming emails. (The fancy name for it is Domain-based Messaging Authorization, Reporting & Conformance Policy (DMARC). It basically means that emails coming from a @gmail account can ONLY be sent from their original servers. If you are using a 3rd party email software and using your Gmail as your sending address, your emails will be bounced..which means your audience will NOT receive your email! BAD NEWS!
Wait back up, explain this to me again!
If you are using a mail service like Mail Chimp to send out a weekly newsletter and using your GMAIL email address as your primary sending address, Gmail will no longer allow those emails to go through because they are not being sent through the original Gmail servers…they are being sent through MailChimp servers. The reason they are cracking down is because of spam. Lots of spammers use Gmail addresses to send out thousands of spam emails through 3rd party services and these changes aim to reduce the amount of spam sent.
Got it? Great! Now here’s what you can do about it
You’ll want to create an email account using your domain name, for example, I created a new email: chrystie@livingfornaptime.com and now use this for my 3rd party mail services instead of my Gmail account like I was using before. There are a couple ways that you can get an email address for your domain name:
Go through your domain name host: You can usually get an email address through your hosting account. For example, my website is hosted on GoDaddy, so I was able to go in and add an email address to the domain name for FREE (I’m not sure if it was a promo or not!) But it was free and pretty simple to do.
Google Apps for Business: For $5.00 a month you can use Google Apps to get an email address associated with your domain name.
Once you’ve secured your new email address, log into your 3rd party newsletter providers and update your primary email to ensure that your emails will not be bounced by Google!
One more thing!
You’ll also want to be sure to update the email address that sends out your blog’s notifications to ensure that they are also being delivered. You can easily do this in WordPress by logging into your dashboard, clicking on Settings–> General and changing the email address in your account!
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Phew! Glad to see an easy swap to Google apps will fix this. Woo hoo.
Done and pinned! Thank you!
Awesome, Thank you Stacey!
I ise my domain name as my email address but I don’t like it’s interface (bluehost) but they allow email forwarding. So, I put in my domain emial but have it forwarded to my gmail. I hope that isn’t a problem! My mailchimp comes out from my domain email, hopefully I don’t experience any kickback!!
You should be all set
Woah, that’s interesting! I’ve always just used my domain name and love using G-mail to forward it through but that’s a great point for newbie bloggers, too, who are trying to grow an e-mail list!!
Rebecca | Life as a Dare
Thank you for sharing this. This is value for all email marketers and bloggers!
Yes! It’s always good to know what’s going on with Google
You did a really great job of explaining this, thank you! I kind of saw this mentioned here and there but this article grabbed my attention and now I know exactly what to do! My blog isn’t up and running yet (almost!) but when is I will be sure to follow this instruction for my email! Thanks
Thanks for the update, I personally use my hosting to use email forwarding so that all email goes straight to Gmail. Works really well for myself at the moment, but I can see why it is very important to act as your full brand so not to make the outside world think your skimping on your own email hosted server.
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