Hi,

I run a legitimate movie web site (flixster.com) that lets friends
invite each other.  Recently all emails sent by us on behalf of our
users to friends that have hotmail accounts are being autofiltered to
the junk mail folder.

What things can i do to prevent this?  I'm looking for technical
settings on my mail server to change, contact numbers at hotmail to
call, whitelists to join or any other option.

The successful answer will be thorough and clear with the options
available and, ideally, link to sources to verify the information.

Thanks!

~joe

Hi Joe,

The following links detail MSNŽ Services' requirements for sending
email to hotmail accounts.

MSN Postmaster
"This site has been developed to give bulk e-mailers/senders, ISPs,
e-mail service providers (ESPs), postmasters, and domain
administrators a location to learn more about issues and solutions
related to sending communications to MSN Hotmail consumers."
http://postmaster.msn.com/cgi-bin/dasp/postmaster.asp

MSN Postmaster: Senders
"These filters can pose a challenge to high volume e-mailers. There
are a few things that e-mailers can do to improve the effectiveness
and delivery of e-mail sent to Hotmail accounts. Below are usage
guidelines which provide tips and techniques to improve delivery of
e-mail to Hotmail, and reduce the risk of messages being delivered to
the Junk E-Mail folder in Hotmail ("false positives"). Additionally,
Hotmail has adopted the Bonded Sender program. Being a Bonded Sender
participant helps improve delivery of e-mail through the Hotmail
filters. The sections below provide more details on our junk e-mail
efforts and solutions available for e-mailers."
http://postmaster.msn.com/cgi-bin/dasp/postmaster.asp?ContextNav=Senders

MSN Postmaster: Troubleshooting
The following information is for Postmasters, Domain Administrators,
or other technical representatives looking to address issues
including:
* Delivery problems when sending legitimate e-mail to Hotmail accounts.
  1. Technical standards for e-mail.
  2. Problems with e-mail delivered into Hotmail junk e-mail folders
(includes instructions for reporting problems to Hotmail).
* Recent Changes [remove "HTML forms from e-mail and instead provide a
link to a web page"].
* Technical Standards for E-Mail
All e-mail sent to the MSNŽ Services should comply with the following
acceptable use guidelines:...
* Junk E-Mail Filter "False Positives"
"'False positives' refers to e-mail that has legitimate content and
which adheres to the technical standards, but is incorrectly flagged
as junk e-mail by the junk e-mail filters. Such e-mail is delivered to
the recipient's Junk E-Mail folder.
Hotmail's solution for addressing this issue is the Bonded Sender program."
* Documentation for Bulk or Duplicative E-Mail for Contacting MSN Hotmail
http://postmaster.msn.com/cgi-bin/dasp/postmaster.asp?ContextNav=TShooting

Microsoft Anti-Spam Policy
http://privacy2.msn.com/anti-spam/en-us/default.aspx

The Internet Society
Anti-Spam Recommendations for SMTP MTAs
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2505.txt

The Internet Society
SMTP Service Extension for Command Pipelining
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2920.txt

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
"Remove Me" Responses and Responsibilities: 
Email Marketers Must Honor "Unsubscribe" Claims
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/remvalrt.htm

Application Note: Guidelines for proper mailing list management
http://www.mail-abuse.com/an_listmgntgdlines.html

Bonded Sender Program
http://www.bondedsender.com/

Additional Links of Interest:

How Hotmail Filters Junk Mail 
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/46532/46532.html

Microsoft Shares Hotmail's Antispam Data 
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/46526/46526.html?Ad=1

I was glad to find the MSN Postmaster website for you. If you have any
questions, please post a clarification request and wait for me to
respond before closing/rating my answer.

Thank you,
hummer

Google Search Terms Used: hotmail filters legitimate emails

---

Request for Answer Clarification by josephg-ga on 16 Jan 2006 01:42 PST

how do you know flixster is on hotmail's blacklist right now?  Where
can you look that up?

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 22 Jan 2006 13:43 PST

Hi Joe,

I assume your clarification question is addressed to menion-ga.  I'm
sorry my answer did not solve your problem.

Regards,
hummer

good answer, though it did not provide me anything i had not figured
out already nor did it solve my problem.

Hey Joe!

This is what I've found out so far...

"Hotmail is just about to release an upgraded version of their service
that will include whitelist functionality. The main page that Hotmail
users will see will be called the "Today" page. This page will display
only email message that are on the recipient?s contacts and safe list.
All other messages will only display on a separate page for unknown
senders."

Source: http://www.zeromillion.com/webmarketing/blacklist-whitelist.html

Your site (flixster.com) is on Hotmail's blacklist right now. It seems
they set a timelimit on how long a domain is blacklisted, and right
now it doesn't seem to be a way of shortening that timelimit. So, my
best tip is to wait for their whitelist-function and ride out the
blacklist-timer.

I guess this doesn't help you solve your problem, but there doesn't
seem to be a working solution yet.

By the way, while you're waiting; some links to resources that can
help you avoid blacklists in the future!

http://www.zeromillion.com/webmarketing/blacklist-whitelist.html

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/3276.asp

http://www.clickz.com/experts/em_mkt/em_mkt/article.php/3381621

Best regards,

Marcus

It?s worth slotting in the IP address assigned to see if you feature
on the spam-lists:

http://www.mail-abuse.com/lookup.html

Hotmail use to use RBLS which was a product of Kelkea Inc, I believe,
and then bought out by Trend Micro.

Have you setup SPF validation?  Sender Policy Framework is being used
by Hotmail and conforming to it should help you avoid having your
emails treated as spam.  It's very easy to setup IF you are only
sending email for YOUR domain.

more details here ... http://www.openspf.org/faq.html

also, you may want to look into bonded sender programs, but make sure
the legal team looks over the liabilities you assume under these
aggreements ... http://www.bondedsender.com/