Thanks for asking!
There just ain't no gratitude. ;-)
As a past newsletter publisher myself, I can understand the
frustration of bounced newsletters. Hopefully, this information and
some of these suggestions will be helpful.
You're Not Alone
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AOL Blocking 95% of all Newsletters: "Been on a mailing list for
people that run newsletters. Of the 15 newsletters sent out over the
last week, only 1 out of the 14 made it through the aol filters.
Other tests concurred, that email from sites such as SlashDot,
WebmasterWorld, and most vbulletin based forums, were not making it
through the filters either."
The full thread discusses observations about AOL email newsletter blocking.
AOL Blocking 95% of all Newsletters
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/6827.htm
In my experience, Hotmail filtering is a bit less arbitrary, though
the highest Junk Mail settings are very strict. Additionally, free
Hotmail users have a small limit to the number of mails that can be
stored. When this storage limit is exceeded, all further mail bounces
back to the sender. This may account for quite a proportion of Hotmail
bounces. These over-the-limit bounces are the bane of nearly every
email publisher who allows Hotmail addresses in their list.
Reducing Bounces
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Institute a one-bounce rule. Remove any bounced addresses from your
list, first time email comes back. Save these addresses to a special
"bounced" list.
Some list owners restrict their list to paid addresses, simply
eliminating free email addresses automatically. I don't recommend this
tactic, however, it does remove the problem of bounced Yahoo and
Hotmail email. Disallowing AOL is usually impossible.
Make the list double opt-in. Not only opt-in on the website, also send
an initial membership email requiring response, to verify that the
email address is actually valid and its owner wants the newsletter. In
the initial email, include a reminder to whitelist the list's address.
Include a similar whitelist reminder on the list sign-up Thank You page.
Establish a new email address and email those on the bounce list
individually, with a new opt-in offer. Remind them to whitelist you at
the same time they opt back in to your list.
These steps will help reduce the number of bounces to each month's
newsletter mailings.
Sidestepping Bounces
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You might consider using a list mailing service to handle all the
mailing. Three possibilities:
Lyris ListHosting "newsletter packages have been designed for
organizations and individuals who require an easy, reliable, and
cost-effective service for their email newsletters and announcements."
As well as handling all the aspects of sending mail, Lyris provides
listowners with an excellent set of list (including bounce) management
tools. Cost would likely be in the $200/month range. $100 setup.
Lyris ListHosting Price Calculator
http://www.lyris.com/products/listhosting/price_calculator.html
Jango Mail is another business e-mailing service.
Q: Why do I need to use JangoMail to send e-mails out to my list when
I can just use my existing e-mail software and BCC everyone?
A: BCCing to a large number of e-mail addresses causes a big problem.
Users with e-mail accounts from AOL, Yahoo!, and Hotmail usually have
their spam filters turned on, and the way the spam filters work is
they look for e-mail messages where the recipients have been BCC'd.
Thus, if you are BCCing your entire list, there is a high probability
that some of your intended recipients will never even see your e-mail,
because it will have been automatically thrown into their spam box. In
addition, JangoMail provides many other conveniences and features. For
example, it handles all bounces, unsubscribes, and provides very
thorough tracking reports, so you can see who opened your e-mails, and
what links were clicked on, and who clicked on these links.
JangoMail Frequently Asked Question
http://www.jangomail.com/features_faq.asp
Newsletter Administrator
"NewsletterAdministrator.com is a "pay per send" multi mailinglist
newsletter manager, you do not have to pay any monthly fees. The
creation of newsletters, setting up an email database is all Free.
Only an amount is deducted from your balance when you send a
newsletter to your subscribers in your email database." Text or HTML
newsletters emailing are $0.004 each, or $32.00 for 8,000.
Online Newsletter Manager
http://www.newsletteradministrator.com/
Online Newsletter | Email Notification
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Another method of sidestepping spam filters is to post your Newsletter
and send out only notifications with a clickable link to the fresh
monthly content.
Various web services offer change notification to your subscribers.
Some can even handle the newsletter hosting as well.
One such service, ChangeDetect offers a discussion of newsletter
blacklisting by Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo spam filters: "Recent tests on
AOL report that AOL blocks 95% of all newsletters. If you do not
believe this statistic then create an free AOL email account and then
send yourself your newsletter. The results will surprise you.
The specific reasons for all of the email blocking are only known to
AOL. The problem for you, as newsletter publisher, is that if you can
not find a way around AOL spam filters, then you will have to contact
AOL every time you send out a newsletter and are blocked."
And "To avoid all of these delivery problems, many newsletter owners
now have chosen to simply publish their online newsletter to their
website and then use ChangeDetect to notify the opt-in subscription
base of the update. The subscribers are sent an email when your
newsletter's web page changes. Then with one click subscribers read
the newsletter on your website.
While ChangeDetect is not completely immune to the "spam" filtering of
free email service providers, the ChangeDetect notification has a much
better chance of making it past the filters."
ChangeDetect | Bypass Spam Filters for Newsletter Distribution
http://www.changedetect.com/changedetect/uses/newsletter-bypass-spam-filters.asp
ChangeDetection offers free notification service to you and your visitors.
"Every time your site changes, we'll e-mail your visitors and let them
know! Simply place a ChangeDetection.com link or panel on your site
today, and your visitors can ask for ChangeDetection without leaving
your site." Notification management tools are included.
Change Detection
http://www.changedetection.com/
While no one method offers a 100% solution, a combination of several
steps should cut the bounces down to a much more manageable level. Not
all solutions are cost free, however, for me, it came down to the
price of peace of mind and no-hassle mailings. I used Lyris for over
two years, and found it to be satisfactory for my own mailing list
management.
Additional Resources
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NotifyList
http://www.notifylist.com/faq.html
Listowners and Moderators FAQ
http://listownersfaq.emaillist-managers.com/
Ezine Tips
http://emailuniverse.com/
You may also find these earlier Google Answers useful:
Am I being blocked...?
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=345661
Best practices in email design to avoid being filtered as spam
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=145129
What can I do to be able to send several thousand emails to contacts?
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=369135
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I hope you find this information helpful. Should you have questions
about the materials or links provided, please, feel free to ask for
clarification.
---larre
Answer Strategy | Search Terms
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Personal experience and the following search terms:
webpage or "web page" update service
newsletter blocked aol email "spam filters"
. |
Clarification of Answer by
larre-ga
on
16 Sep 2004 21:32 PDT
It's a pleasure to be helpful!
Individual Whitelisting
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AOL recipients will need to add the sending domain to their personal
address books. From the AOL Postmaster's FAQ: "Since each member's
spam folder is controlled by their individual mail preferences, the
postmaster team can neither view nor change the settings that control
what mail is going to the spam folder. Also read about the Enhanced
Whitelist. AOL members can find out more about their mail settings at
KW: Mail Controls."
There are so many other mail programs and clients and versions of
both, a comprehensive "how to whitelist" would be pretty well
impossible. Generally adding an address to an Address Book counters
many spam filters.
Hotmail Users need to choose Mail Options, and identify your list
under the Mailing List option.
List Whitelisting
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I doubt that notifying AOL postmaster of mailings would have much
effect. The only thing I can suggest is repeatedly trying their
whitelist procedure, after removing all the bounces from your list.
Supposedly, the list is regenerated in 30 day cycles.
Helpful AOL Mailing Links:
Interpreting AOL Email Error Messages
http://postmaster.aol.com/trouble/mailer.html
Whitelist Request Form
http://postmaster.aol.com/tools/whitelist_guides.html
Whitelist Request Phrasing
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When writing to those whose mail has bounced, this might help:
Hello,
Our latest mailing of [List Name, and Description] was returned by
your mail provider as undeliverable. We're all so concerned with junk
mail these days that sometimes we find those spam filters are just a
bit too tight.
Please confirm your address for our list by replying to this message.
At the same time, please add our mailing list domain [yourdomain.com]
to your Address Book, to assure that our mail is able to reach your
Inbox.
Thank you,
[Your Name]
Of course, you can use your own phrasing, if that's more comfortable.
The request should sound both friendly, and professional. Be careful
about overusing the words spam or 'junk mail' because these words can
trigger new filters.
Fingers crossed that your List barriers begin to disappear!
---larre
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