If you do it it's 'cold mailing'. If someone else does it it's 'spamming'.

Nearly lol'ed on that. I would add that if you're actually doing what the OP claims:

> I’ve personally typed and carefully went through every single email I sent.

Then I would definitely consider that cold mail, and not spam. A targeted, personal, concise email is worth 1,000 spammy emails (and perhaps approaches infinity if you factor in negative strikes against "good faith"). The difference is more qualitative than quantitative.

Cold email is unsolicited, but not necessarily spam. Here's the FTC CAN-SPAM Compliance Guide For Business:

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can...

Source and another informative read: https://www.leadfuze.com/what-is-cold-email-and-is-it-spam/

I firmly believe that the recipient, not the sender, defines what SPAM is. "Cold emails" are marketing emails that the recipient is unlikely to define as SPAM.