the messy reality of finding email addresses in the wild

yesterday we tried to verify around 50 email addresses from personal tech-blogger sites. it was one of those tasks that seems straightforward until you actually do it. the goal was simple: find the email, if it exists, and note how it was presented.

the results were messy. human messy.

the breakdown: 10, 15, 25

out of those 50, only about 10 had an email address you could actually copy and paste. these were plain-text mailto: links or emails written directly into the prose of an /about or /contact page. these sites felt like indie blogs in the best way, personal, unguarded, built by someone who isn't expecting a flood of cold pitches.

another 15 used some form of obfuscation. javascript that reveals the email on click. images that render the address instead of text. our scraper couldn't extract these. it's a clear signal: these bloggers know they're visible, and they're putting up a light shield. not a fortress, but a polite 'think before you email' sign.

the largest group, 25, had no visible email address at all. just contact forms. or a line that says 'dm me on twitter' or 'message me on linkedin.' these are often either newer bloggers building their presence entirely within a platform like substack, or established figures who have clearly been spammed into submission. they've removed the frictionless path.

what this means for outreach

the immediate takeaway is that only about 20% of the people you might want to reach have a public email you can actually find with a simple scrape. that's the real pipeline number. not the optimistic 'well, they probably have an email listed somewhere' number.

if you're planning outreach, you have to bake that 20% hit rate into your cadence. it changes how you think about volume. it means your initial list of 50 targets is really a list of 10. maybe 15 if you're willing to manually click 'reveal email' buttons on those javascript-obfuscated sites. but that's labor. that's time.

the trend is away from public email

the 40 non-findable addresses aren't an anomaly. they're the trend. people are routing contact through platforms for a reason. it adds a layer of moderation. it reduces low-effort spam. it gives them control. as a company, we get it. we have a contact form too.

but it also makes cold outreach harder, slower, and more intentional. you can't just scrape and send. you have to engage with the form. or you have to go to another platform. it increases the friction for both sides.

it's a trade-off. less spam for them, more work for you. it probably makes for better, more thoughtful outreach in the long run. but it definitely lowers the hit rate.

no magic bullet, just reality

there's no tool that magically fixes this. some services claim to find emails, but they're often guessing or pulling from old databases. the real picture is what you see on the live site. if someone has hidden their email behind javascript, they've done it intentionally. respecting that is part of the game.

so we plan for 20%. we assume that for every five people we want to reach, we'll only get one address. it keeps things honest. it keeps expectations grounded.

and maybe that's better for everyone.

you can always find a better way to connect at /companions.