Hi,
Most large site spam blockers use (on top of their normal spam check
software) what are called "black lists" to augment their
effectiveness. So the first thing you want to do is to check to see if
your server's IP address has found its way on to one of these lists. I
once had a client, who was not sending out spam, but their Hosting
Provider was, and they wound up on a black list and were un-able to
send emails to clients from the server to customers using AOL, Yahoo,
or MSN. It was a real mess.
One place to check your Black List status is here:
Declude
http://www.declude.com/Articles.asp?ID=97
Most of these servers are run by groups who do understand the
difference between an opt-in email list, and a spammer. So writing the
maintaining group, and showing them ( such as linking back to the
sign-up page for your email group, and noting on emails opt-out
instructions) will generally result in good results. Getting on one of
these lists is actually fairly difficult. There have to be many
reports, from different sources, that your email is Spam, and not a
news letter.
The lists are by IP address however, so if you are not sending out
spam, and someone else, using the same server is sending out spam,
then ... you need to get them to stop.
Another thing to check is that your emails would get through if they
were coming from a different server source. A quick check like this
can be done by getting five Yahoo email accounts and using one of them
to send copies of your newsletter to the other four and see where they
wind up. If they still land in the Spam Box, then the Spam Software is
flagging the email and not some Black List.
Yahoo Provides a form you can fill out to request that your emails get
through to your mail list clients. Again, you will have to show that
you are using "best practices", such as using closed-loop confirmation
and not using servers that have open-relays (both of these are
described on their web page):
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/spam/spam-18.html
The link to the request form is at the bottom of the page.
MSN (Hotmail) has a similar system setup with this page, which
provides a questioner you need to answer, and then post to their
Postmaster group.
http://postmaster.msn.com/Troubleshooting.aspx
The questions are:
1. What are the IP addresses of your outbound mail servers (as seen by
the receiving server)?
2. Is your server a dedicated or shared server?
3. What ISP, operating system, mail transport software, and/or mailing
list management software are you using?
4. How are "bounce messages" (non-delivery notices) handled by your system?
5. How frequent are your mailings? What are the volumes of these mailings?
6. What are some of the accounts on Microsoft's systems that you are
attempting to send to?
7. Do your SMTP logs show any failed transactions when attempting to
send to addresses at MSN, MSN Hotmail or other MSN Services? If so,
please include them inline in your response.
8. Can you telnet to port 25 of mx1.hotmail.com from your mail server(s)?
9. Can you traceroute to 216.32.183.201 from your mail server(s)?
10. Please include samples of a few of the messages you are sending,
with complete headers (as seen by your recipients.)
11. In what manner(s) are recipients added to your mailing list(s)?
12. Provide the URL of your web site.
13. Provide the URL of your Privacy Policy.
14. Provide the URL at which users opt-in to receive your mailings.
15. Provide the URL at which users may choose to permanently
unsubscribe from your mailing list.
16. Are you currently a Return Path client? Are you Sender Score Certified?
17. Do you publish Sender Policy Framework (SPF)/Sender ID records for your IP?
18. Do you use separate IPs for your transactional vs.
promotional/subscription marketing communications?
19. Are you in the Junk Mail Reporting Partner Program?
20. Do you use Smart Network Data Services?
Normally a closed-loop confirmation system solves this problem,
because if the confirmation is sent to the Spam box, then your client
either fishes it out of there and marks you as "Not Spam" or, doesn't
get on your list. Closed-loop means that when the client signs up for
your newsletter, a confirmation email is sent to them, which generally
has a link back to your server, for them to "respond to" by clicking
on that link and verifying that 1) the email address is good, and 2)
they really did ask to be on the news-letter list. If you are using
this system, Spam blockers are rarely a problem.
Another article you might find interesting is this one, found on Yahoo's Website
How to Run a Successful, Legal E-Mail Marketing Campaign
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/r-article-a-2442-m-6-sc-39-how_to_run_a_successful_legal_email_marketing_campaign-i
Thanks for the question,
webadept-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
ganicolas-ga
on
27 Jun 2006 19:30 PDT
hi,webadept-ga
i am much appreciated for your answer and now express my sorry for
so late to submit my Clarification.
today i find the yahoo.com hasn't spam our email that are sent to our
client. i think maybe the
page(http://www.goodmailsystems.com/certifiedmail/) worked, that i
submitted sevarl days ago.
as to hotmail, i answered the question that you listed here ,and sent
it to them, and i am applying for the "Junk Mail Reporting Partner
Program" , i think it would be sovled very soon.
em... in fact , i have already having a closed-loop confirmation
system, and it is a dedicated server which has a dedicated ip. the
content of my email is not some ADs.
now i am waiting for the reply of the hotmail and rating your answer.
thank you.
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