Who's behind ohmysend, what this site is for, and what I believe about how email trust actually works.
I spent years inside a large company running email deliverability for the brands it served — a few hundred of them. The work was unglamorous: DNS records, Postmaster curves, complaint rates, warm-up calendars. The results were not: Gmail open rates from single digits to 40–50%, repeatedly.
Now I work independently, as a one-person practice. I chose this niche because its mechanics are honest. Authentication is either right or wrong. Reputation is earned slowly and lost fast. The data doesn't flatter anyone.
I write under the name ohmysend — the work is the identity. Every guide on this site is the same material I use in paid audits, and every case note is a real engagement with the client domain anonymized.
The short version is on the homepage. This is the long version — the thread that runs through every guide here.
SMTP assumed good faith. SPF, DKIM and DMARC each exist because someone found a way to abuse what came before. That history isn't trivia — it's how you predict what Gmail will check next.
Passing SPF/DKIM/DMARC gets you identified — DMARC is what ties that identity to the domain your recipients actually see. What happens after identification is decided by your track record. Domain reputation is the only score that follows you everywhere.
Gmail doesn't want to block real brands — it wants to block abuse. Most deliverability work is proving, measurably and over weeks, which side you're on.
Authentication, consent, working unsubscribe, complaint thresholds — each rule protects recipients, and protects the brands that follow it. The ecosystem stays healthy only while both hold up their end. That's the deal. It's a good deal.
A numbered series that starts with DMARC reports and works outward: why each authentication protocol exists, how ISPs actually score you, and what the rules are really for.
Real recovery work, anonymized. Every chart is Google Postmaster data from an actual engagement — including the weeks that didn't go to plan.
Send me your domain and I'll personally check its authentication setup — SPF/DKIM/DMARC alignment included — and tell you what's broken. Free, by email, within 48 hours.
I read everything and reply to most. The comments under every article are open, and disagreement is welcome — that's how this field gets sharper.