emaillusions - a warrior's journey to the inbox

Increase Your Optin by 100%!

2011-10-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

I came across an awsome product recently. It allows you to increase your optin percentages by more than 100%.

Sure, another scam I said… and went to check it out.

What do you know it works!!!

How does it work?

You send your subscribers an email and once they click on the link, they automatically get opted into the list. Genius.

The program currently works with Aweber, GetResponse, iContact, MailChimp, and Responder. If you want it to work with more – contact me – I know the owner J.

Now imagine how easy it is to do joint ventures, swap lists and organize our stuff.

Want to see this product and use it for free?

Signup for my newsletter.

Interview with Russell Rockefeller

2011-08-01T04:26:00.000-07:00

Emaillusions - Tell us a little bit about your history in the industry, where you came from and what you’re doing now.

Russell Rockefeller – Okay, well I started in Internet Marketing in late 1994. Back in those days the only
Internet access that was widely available was through University servers. They were running Irix I think
which was a Unix variant. The web was non graphical (at least for me) it looked like a giant BBS where
you could Telnet from one University to another. I used PINE to get my mail and I posted to USENET
through Dejanews a decade before they were bought out by Google. I remember Yahoo having an ANSI
logo.

Actually everything was like this green wall of text. I’ve always been into collectibles and
memorabilia. I had an opportunity to buy out all the inventory from a failed chain of comic book stores.
I didn’t have the money for it, but I took a lot on consignment and I used what cash I had to make
purchases from the stock. I was making about $500 to $1000 a week from home as a nineteen year old.
I did that for about a year before I got smart and realized that if I had a higher ticket product I could make a lot more money.

I put an ad in this local computer enthusiast newspaper which I can’t recall the name
of, but I specified that I was looking for expensive products that could be marketed abroad. I naturally
wanted to build a list of email addresses and did that by harvesting them with a program called
NetContact that I found out about from my research. I think I bought a copy of Stealth or Mach10 from
the same vendor at around the same time.

The software was from a company called Earthonline and over the years I got to know the owner of that company really well, but at the start I was really scraping it together and he of course had little idea who I was back then.
I remember sending my first broadcast through a local ISP and having the company owner call me.
He was freaking out because he got like twenty complaints or something.
After doing some research I found out that this was actually common and that there were a lot of people wanting to do email marketing who kept getting shut off by their
ISP’s. I saw that as an opportunity.

I took out a small loan from my bank and did a contract with a backbone here in Canada that specified I was permitted to send unsolicited commercial email.

Rather than keep it to myself, I hired a programmer to write a script that would authenticate SMTP by IP.
If you were on the white list it would allow you to relay mail through my servers.
If you were NOT on the white list it would give you an error and not allow you to relay.
This was cutting edge for the time.

I mean it’s a joke now, but back then everything was all very primitive and hard to do in a Windows NT environment.
I went three months in a row with zero revenue and I was using the money from the loan to make
payments on the loan.
Then the word got out and I took my first customers. I did $30k that month net
but it was a mess from a support standpoint and the service was really unreliable at first. It took me a
long time to figure out how to work out all the issues and keep clients happy. Anyway, the upstream
provider got bought out by PSINet who shut me and my clients off the minute the ink was dry.
I heard about this network Agis where a lot of emailers were being hosted and I ordered a server on the same rack as Sanford Wallace.
A few weeks later he was on TV getting hammered by the press etc. I was just in the right place at the right time basically and helped to pioneer the email marketing industry.
Although things have changed dramatically from how we used to do things, I’m basically doing a lot of
the same types of things sixteen years later. I have my own email platform and I teach people how to
mail and so on.
See: http://www.optinplus.com/broadcast

Emaillusions - What’s this Super Affiliates group all about?

Russell Rockefeller – I started Super Affiliates in 2007 I think. It’s a Facebook group with about 2500
of the most influential people in affiliate marketing communicating on there. It’s an open group and
basically anybody can say anything as long it’s on topic and they aren’t intentionally trying to piss
off other members. Self promotion is okay and that’s part of why the group is so good! There are a
lot of people making contacts and putting together deals through the wall of the group. I also use it
sometimes to just vent about certain things that are going on in business or in life.

Emaillusions – You’re also active on Mailerforum.com

Russell Rockefeller – Yeah, I’m a moderator there. I post tips and code for various tools and stuff in the
Penthouse area of the forums. I’m really only a novice programmer. I have software engineers that I’ve
employed and that I’m partnered with who do the big stuff, but I like writing little applications and tools
as well.

Emaillusions – Over the years how many people do you think you’ve interacted with in the industry?

Russell Rockefeller – Thousands, but people come and go and come back again etc.

Emaillusions – How come you never come to the trade shows like Affiliate Summit and adTech?

Russell Rockefeller – Well, for starters my health isn’t really that hot. Traveling really wears me down
and it takes a lot of planning to go because of my health condition etc. Also, I used to go to many of the
shows but it’s a rat race and I’m very laid back. I don’t like busy atmospheres. I’m more of a one on one
person. I was thinking about going to one of the events but getting a really nice hotel suite. Not actually
showing up to the actual event but having people come visit me at the hotel. I might do that sometime.
If I were to it would probably be in NYC and I’d probably stay at the Hilton. I’m kind of partial to that
place even though adTech isn’t hosted there anymore. Affiliate Summit is though I think.

Emaillusions – So what is going on between you and Shoemoney, Pace, and Getads?

Russell Rockefeller – Oh geez. I’ve already kind of beat this topic to death on Super Affiliates so if any of
your readers are on there; they are probably groaning right now. I’ll give you the abbreviated version. I
was a member of a Facebook group called Internet Marketers People Who Don’t Pay. I got banned from
that group when I pointed out that the group should accept posts about networks that don’t payout to
their publishers. This got a lot of heavy resistance on there and that suggestion eventually lead to my
being banned from the group. I got irked by that because I found it obnoxiously hypocritical that the
group’s members will single advertisers out but those same members will leave the affiliate holding the
bag either through excuses like “Oops, our advertiser’s tracking link went down” or “We’re sorry this is
not backing out for the advertiser, try harder” to more covert ways of doing it like scrubbing traffic or
taking the offer offline then bringing it back later with a lower payout or some other modification.

Publishers have it difficult enough. Getting traffic these days, especially with email is much more
competitive and networks are basically folding over backwards for advertiser. The affiliate is last in line
in the food chain and ends up picking up the cost of this.

I minced words with Lou Difulvio from GetAds about this since he was the one that banned me from
the group. Shoemoney was fibbing when he said that he was the one that kicked me out. Anyway once
that happened the next thing, I hear about is that Shoemoney is posting a bunch of crap about me on his
blog. I sent him a couple of messages about how he should remove the post since the Deadbeats area
is about people who don’t pay, not people who get banned from the group for making an unpopular
comment. This got no response.

I Googled myself and found that his links were showing up top in search. That’s when I started to get
pissed off and started looking into it more. I complained about this on Facebook and then I started
getting a lot of messages from people on there about how many (not all, but many) of the posts are
fake. I gave Jeremy the benefit of the doubt, so I submitted a comment about all this on the post about
me at his blog. The comments required approval but never got approved. I realized at this point he was
totally aware of what was going on, but didn’t care whether or not people’s reputations were getting
smeared. I was contacted by a lot of individuals who don’t think very highly of him. This gave me several
reasons to hate his guts and I basically went ballistic and started flaming the crap out of him on my
Facebook group.

Getads called me and said they were going to get the situation handled, that Jeremy wouldn’t be posting
any more fake posts up and that they were going to take action to moderate. Satisfied, I cooled off and
sent Shoemoney a message saying so. I didn’t hear back. Fast forward a month. Pace comes along and
stirs up some shit on my Facebook group. I delete his posts and magically a few minutes later there are
a number of silly comments showing up on Shoemoney’s site. I know that Shoemoney moderates every
comment, so he must have posted that stuff maliciously. That kind of re-ignited a smoldering disgust I
had for him but I promised myself this time, rather than get all pissed off at him or whatever I was just
going to poke fun at it and troll him. The guy takes himself too seriously.

He responded by writing an article about me that showed up on his front page where he gave me the
nickname Affiliate Stalker. I LOL’d at that and went and registered the domain affiliatestalker.net and
pointed it at the Super Affiliates group on Facebook where I ripped him and Getads a new one. I just
love how in his rant on me Shoemoney doesn’t mention any of the criticism I’ve given him. He just
makes a bunch of childish claims about how I am star struck by his celebrity or something. I was over it.
I was not stalking him or fixated on him or anything. Get over yourself. You flipped out.

Emaillusions - What’s your problem with Getads?

Russell Rockefeller – I really don’t have a problem with those guys except that their group causes a lot
of shit for people and basically there is zero moderation. What is up with the industry people in Denver
though? They all look like they take tens of thousands of dollars worth of steroids each week. Maybe
this is part of the problem, I don’t know. At first I was completely annoyed by Lou but then George
called me and he seems like a nice guy but the critical problem remains.

Anyone can attack anyone by posting something fictional on there and it will go on Shoemoney’s site
without ever having any hope of it being taken down. The guy just does not care. He does not respond
to any kind of requests to have the content taken down even if the content is 100% fiction. Getads is the
catalyst here. They are as guilty as Shoemoney in my opinion it’s just totally irresponsible. In my opinion
the guy is not a nice person and he’s yesterdays news. He’s some guy that had a ringtone offer in 2005
that blogs now. Post something technical if you want people in this industry to respect you.

Emaillusions - What about the fat comment you made and deleted?

Russell Rockefeller – That I regret deeply actually because I am not a shallow person. I believe that I
outsmarted Shoemoney intellectually and won the pissing contest that way. I didn’t need to throw low
blows. That was a really shallow comment that I made and in reality it goes against the moral fabric of
who I am. I don’t care about how people look and am far more concerned about how a person thinks,
communicates and behaves.

Emaillusions - So are you really a Rockefeller?

Russell Rockefeller – Well yeah, that’s what it says on my birth certificate. I’m related to the famous
Rockefeller family, but it’s distant. I grew up in a pretty tough little town here in Canada and I have
to make it on my own. I’ve corresponded with David Rockefeller on a couple of occasions and he
autographed his biography for me. My brother and I got a private tour of Rockefeller Center back in
2007 and that’s when the photograph of me was taken in front of the G.E. building that I use on my
Facebook profile. I’m not very photogenic really but I like how that photo was composed. It reminds me
of an old Soviet style propaganda poster. For the record I’m a Conservative Libertarian. I figured I should
point that out in case anyone gets crazy ideas about turning the Soviet comment into a meme.

Thanks for the interview!

Spamcop

2011-02-18T04:44:00.001-08:00

If you are not watching for complaints from Spamcop.net you are not doing your job to keep the traps and complainers out of your list. It is a known fact that if you hit Spamcop.net traps your email is forwarded to a Spamhaus investigator. Once you hit the traps 10, you now have the attention of every spam-hate group in the world and soon your IP space is blocked, and you are not getting into any inbox.

Be responsible and take 10 minutes and setup your own Spamcop.net monitoring tonight. Watch it carefully. You may not see the individual complaint but you will quickly see trends that will show you why you are having problems with IP space reputation, domain name issues or other problems.You can get reports on a daily, or hourly basis on your reassigned IP space quickly if you signup for Spamcop.net reporting.

Step 1:

Go to this URL and setup a free account: spamcop signup

Step 2:

After you receive an email from Spamcop.net and have a login, then login.

Step 3:

Click on "Request Reports" and add your specific IP space.

Step 4:

Click on "Preferences" and select how often you want these reports. Hourly or Daily.

Step 5:

Watch for emails from summaries@admin.spamcop.net

setting up an smtp server

2011-02-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody,
I wanted to write a small guide for those who like to start with a first VPS to send mass emails at lower costs. Here I will try to explain how to configure an SMTP server. I am not super experienced in email marketing but recently I needed a fast and efficient system to send thousands of emails per day. I can't tell you precisely how many emails you can send with this VPS, but after first tests you can thousands per day without problems...

In my case I chose a budget VPS by Virpus (.com) for only $ 7 USD per month (via PayPal), this configuration was enough for me.

For this price you have :

HD 50 Gb
Bandwidth 1000 GB
Guarnateed RAM 512 Mb
Burstable RAM 2048 Mb
2 IP addresses
No control-panel

For this guide, I used a free control-panel named Virtualmin & Webmin (.com).
This control-panel is a real shit, very headlock when we don't find guides to help to setup a SMTP server...

Step one : Order

Go to Virpus website, click on Budget VPS, choose Basic offer and click on "Order now!".
Below, "mydomain.com" is your domain name (registered anywhere).

Fill the form as shown, like this :

Hostname : mydomain. com (not "server1.mydomain.com")
NS1 Prefix : ns1.mydomain.com
NS2 Prefix : ns2.mydomain.com
Root password : (ex : mypassword123)
OS : CentOS 5.4 32 bit
No add IP
No control-panel

After submitting the form and paid, I received an email with my main IP, my additional IP, and logins to connect to the VPS control panel.

For me, my domain was registred from the french OVH.
I had to connect into the OVH manager, go in settings and change the domain's Zone DNS Type A with one of two IP provided by Virpus.

Zone DNS Type A, like this (X.X is your Virpus IP) :

.mydomain.com | A | XXX.X.XX.XX
www.mydomain.com | A | XXX.X.XX.XX

Step two : Console

We will install our free control panel Webmin & Virtualmin.
Now, connect you to the Virpus control panel with login that you received in email. Click "Manage" at right on the table, then click the icon "Console". Another login will be requested, it's in the Virpus email.

Enter the first line below and click "Enter", then the second line... :

Code:

wget http://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh
sh install.sh

Then, follow instructions on screen. Here's easy, not need my help...
The process takes less than ten minutes.

When this is completed, it will be indicated in the console something like "Complete!" and "[root@mydomain]".

Step three : Virtualmin & Webmin nightmare

To connect to your Virtualmin control panel, go to https://mydomain.com:10000 (with you login and password).
If asked, check your installation and update packages (by clicking the appropriates buttons on the homepage).

At the top, in the left column you have two tabs : Webmin & Virtualmin. Chose Virtualmin.
Click on "Create Virtual Server" on the left. This will allow us to configure an SMTP and FTP account.

Fill the right form like this :

Domain name : server1.mydomain.com
For "Admin password" put the same password as in Step One (ex : mypassword123).
In "Enabled features" check all and uncheck only :
Setup SSL website too?
Setup IP-based virtual FTP?

Then, click on "Create Server".
So far so good ?

Step four : Some tweaks

Still in the left column, click on "Edit Mail and FTP Users".
Normally you should have a registered user (possibly named "server1").
If yes, great !

Now, click on "Edit Virtual Server" in the left column one more time, and expand the tab "Quotas and limits".
Check the two radiobuttons "Unlimited", then click on "Save Virtual Server".

Okay, right now your server should be ready !

Step five : End

Your SMTP settings are :

Server : mydomain.com
Login : server1
Password : mypassword123
Auth. type : ESMTP

Well, I don't think I forgot something...
Oh yes ! Do not forget to start the Postfix service : in Virtualmin on the left column, click on "System Information" at bottom and expand "Status" tab. If Postfix or Dovecot are stopped, start them.

You can also customize settings for Postfix to effectively your shipments. To do this, click Virtualmin on the top of the left column and then extand "Servers" tab, and finally click on "Postfix Mail Server".
You will find many guides for this, no doubt !

Done !

White Listing and ISP Feedback Loops Tools

2011-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

Using this Guide

High recipient complaint rate – as measured by recipients clicking a “spam” button – is the top reason why email is blocked or filtered. Several ISPs offer ‘feedback loops’ to report to senders the subscribers who have complained, allowing suppression by the sender. In order to maximize your use of the service and understand the data being provided, always read the terms of service and information provided by the ISP.

Currently the following ISPs offer a feedback loop or whitelist:

Feedback Loops:

AOL
Excite
Yahoo!
Microsoft
United Online
Road Runner
USA.Net

Whitelisting:

AOL
Excite Yahoo!

What is a whitelist?

Some ISPs use a whitelist to assist in determining which mail to deliver to subscribers in their network. Senders on a whitelist must meet the ISP’s standards in order to be added to the whitelist. These standards may include factors about the sender’s sending infrastructure (like having Reverse DNS) and/or factors about the sender’s performance (like complaint rates). While whitelisting exempts sender mail from certain filters or filtering processes, whitelisting does not guarantee 100% delivery to the Inbox.

What is a feedback loop?

Some ISPs offer a feedback loop service for senders. When a subscriber reports email as spam (either through an interface option or sending the email to the ISP Postmaster), the ISP forward the email reported as spam back to the sender. Generally, ISPs expect that these transactions are processed as unsubscribe requests and that the sender researches the nature of the request to reduce the incidence of complaints.

Functional Requirements

Infrastructure Verification - There are certain infrastructure standards that ISPs require to be admitted into their programs. Before submitting your requests to the ISPs you must verify that:

All IP addresses you plan to submit have rDNS set up properly. You can access www.dnsstuff.com to confirm this.
Your email is compliant with the authentication standard, SPF. For more information about SPF set up and a wizard to check your emails go to: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/ http://www.openspf.org/
Your email is compliant with Domains Keys if you are seeking whitelisting at Yahoo!
All IP addresses you plan to submit have a mailing history of at least two weeks.

Data Processing Requirements and Verification

Please verify that you are able process the feedback loop data properly.
Established an email address where your company is able to receive recipient complaint transactions from your email recipients.
Ensured that the above email address has been tested to receive incoming mail. ISPs will instantly reject a request if the address you set up bounces.
Instituted a method to process complaints upon receipt and suppress those email addresses moving forward.
Inserted a client ID in the body of the message or added an X- header in the header of the message. This is for ISPs that redact the email address. An example of this would be X-clientid: xxxxxxxxxx.
Ensured that your system is able to process RFC 822 format (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc822.html) from Microsoft and that your system is also able to process ARF format (http://arf.wordtothewise.com/). This is important because some ISP’s are now giving feedback loop data in the ARF format only.

Your ability to process recipient complaint data is crucial to improving your delivery rates. Failing to suppress complaints is grounds for being permanently banned from most feedback loop programs.

Confirmation

You are almost done! At this point, some ISPs send a confirmation message to either your abuse@.com or postmaster@.com email address. When you get these messages you need to click on the link in the email to confirm that you’re willing to receive the data and you understand the terms and conditions of receiving this data. Each request that is submitted will get a separate confirmation message.

White Listing and Feedback Loop Detailed Instructions

Section 1: AOL Feedback Loop

How to set up a Feedback Loop with AOL

Go to http://postmaster.aol.com/ and click on “ Would you like to set up a feedback loop?”and complete the web-based submission form.
AOL will send a confirmation message to either the postmaster or abuse address for your domain (whichever you selected) within a few hours. Make sure that you are able to accept and respond to this message in a timely manner. The email includes a link to confirm that you are ready to receive transactions and to begin processing spam complaints. The link must be activated before the process begins.

Questions about AOL spam

Questions about AOL spamcomplaints, what they are, what they mean, what they do, etc. AOL's mail system is set up in such a way that members who use the AOL software, webmail, and certain 3rd party mail clients such as Outlook with IMAP can report unwanted mail to AOL by selecting the undesirable mail, and either clicking on the "spam" button, or dragging it to the spam folder. AOL spam complaints are generated by AOL members through explicit user action, and they can only report spam on mail in their inboxes. These reports are never automatically generated by the system without user action.

When a member performs this action, it creates a "spam complaint",which sends a copy of the header and body to AOL. If the sending network has IP ownership rights and has set up a feedback loop, a copy will also be sent to them, in a standardized format called "ARF".

The sending network can then do different things with the complaint, depending on the circumstances.

Bulk senders can:

remove complainants from their mailing lists in order to help manage their IP reputation.
use complaints to identify clients who generate the highest volume, and work with them on their acquisition and retention practices.
work on better branding, better subject lines, different content, and then test and see if people respond better.
monitor incoming complaints live, spot a problem mailing as it is happening, and stop it before it causes more damage.

Hosting companies and mailbox providers can:

use their FBL to identify spamming/compromised accounts.
monitor their incoming complaint feed to pinpoint virus outbreaks, botnets, etc.
locate customers that are using their IPs as mail servers against the network TOS.
ignore complaints about mail from Grandma as false positives.

Corporate mail server admins can use their FBL to spot compromised machines behind their NAT, or unintentional loops created by employee "out of the office" auto-acks.

Small mailing list/listserv/groups owners should ensure their recipients have an easy way to opt out of the list included on every email sent, to reduce the number of complaints generated, and can also use their complaints feed to curb abuse of the group.

AOL does not have any policy requirements that specify actions to be taken in response to a spam complaint. High amounts of spam complaints could result in action against your IP, so it is in your best interest to ensure you keep your spam complaints to a minimum.

That being said, as a sending network, receiving a single spam complaint does not mean that any value judgments have been made about your IP, domain, or brand. It does not mean that your IP(s) will be blocked. It does not mean your mail has been targeted by AOL. It simply means that the person who received the mail reported it to AOL using the "spam" button. It could have been because they truly believe it to be spam. They could be having a bad day and reported all of their inbox as spam out of frustration. They could have done it by accident. We are aware that there will be false positives, and have taken that fact into account, so there is no reason to assume your IP will be blocked for a handful of complaints.

However, if you are seeing delivery issues on your whitelisted IP, you should start by taking some action to reduce your spam complaints, and by contacting AOL to let them know what kind of mail your IP sends.

Section 2: AOL Whitelist

Whitelist status exempts an IP address from certain blocking filters, but does not guarantee delivery of mail originating from such addresses. If you are interested in setting up both whitelisting and feedback loops with AOL, you only need to submit this request.

How to request whitelist status at AOL:

Go to http://postmaster.aol.com/ and click on “ Would you like to apply for the AOL whitelist?”
Select “Whitelist Request Form and Guidelines” from the webpage
Review the Terms and Conditions and if you are able to comply, accept the terms at the bottom of the page.
Complete the request form, and click “Submit”.
AOL will send a confirmation message for your whitelisting request to either the postmaster or abuse address for your domain (whichever you selected). Make sure that you are able to accept and respond to this message in a timely manner. The confirmation message is sent once the request has been processed and either approved or rejected.
AOL will send a confirmation message for your feedback loop request to either the postmaster or abuse address for your domain within a few hours. Make sure that you are able to accept and respond to this message in a timely manner. The email includes a link to confirm that you are ready to receive transactions and to begin processing spam complaints. The link must be activated before the process begins.

Section 3: Hotmail SNDS

Hotmail Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) allows senders who own an IP space to view by IP address their sending volume, accepted message volume, complaints generated, spam trap hits, and Smart Score rating.

The SNDS Tool requires a Passport Email Account. We advise that you set up a generic account for access to the SNDS tool by going to www.hotmail.com.

Requesting Access to the SNDS Tool:

Go to https://postmaster.live.com/snds/FAQ.aspx#filterResult
You will need to specify which of the email addresses you have access to confirm the setup by clicking on the activation link within the message at the address you select

Accessing the SNDS Tool:

Once you have received your confirmation message and activated your service, you can view your performance data by logging in and clicking “View Data.”

Section 4: Hotmail Feedback Loop

How to set-up a Hotmail Junk Mail Report (JMR) Feedback Loop:

Go to http://postmaster.live.com/Services.aspx#JMRPP and follow the instructions for submission.

Section 5: Yahoo! Whitelist

Yahoo! provides a whitelist for senders who meet the criteria. The Yahoo! whitelisting process entails requesting and application, completing and submitting the application, and allowing a minimum number of 10 days for Yahoo! to monitor you performance and determine if you are accepted into the program.

Go to http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/mail/cgi_bulkmail and complete the request form by entering your name and contact information, your sending domains, and select “I send permission based emails – yet they are delivered to the bilk folder” from the drop-down menu.
Submit the request and wait for an application form which Yahoo! sends to the contact email address that you provided in the request form.
Complete the application, submit via email to the address indicated in the application, and wait the full 10 business days for a response from Yahoo!
Yahoo! Mail Bulk Sender Form HERE

bellsouth.net
worldnet.att.net
portal.att.net
ameritech.net
att.net
flash.net
nvbell.net
pacbell.net
prodigy.net
sbcglobal.net
snet.net
swbell.net
wans.net

If you are ONLY mailing to YAHOO - remove all deferral words. Configure -> Deferral Words. The only error messages current given back to yahoo are:

status: 420 Deferral
status: 421 Deferral
status: 451 Deferral
status: 554 Failure
status: connect (Lost Connection)
status: read (Yahoo timeout)
status: remote (Yahoo timeout)

Section 6: United Online

United Online (Netzero and Juno) Trusted List / Feedback Loop offers a service that they term a "Trusted List". By requesting to be added to United Online's Trusted List, a sender agrees to receive a feedback loop of transactions where recipients have clicked "Report Spam", and to unsubscribe those recipients from the sender database.

How to request to be on the Trusted List at United Online:

Go to http://www.unitedonline.net/postmaster/whitelisted.html to complete their web-based submission form.

Section 7: USA.net Feedback Loop

How to set up a Feedback Loop with USA.net:

Go to http://fbl.usa.net/ , complete the request form, and click “Submit”.
Once you have submitted the request form, a confirmation message to either the postmaster or abuse address for your domain (whichever you selected) within a few hours (if not immediately). This message includes a link to confirm that you would like your request to be submitted to the USA.net Postmaster for review.

Section 8: Earthlink Feedback Loop

How to set up a Feedback Loop with Earthlink

The admin or owner of the domain needs to email fblrequest@abuse.earthlink.net and request that they be added.

include the IP range
your company’s contact information including name, email address, and phone number
the mailing domains for which you would like to set-up a feedback loop
the email address to which the feedback transactions are to be sent - this must be an active address that receives email

The Postmaster will review your request and reply to the submitting address indicating if you have been accepted or rejected for a feedback loop.

Section 9: Excite Feedback Loop

How to set up a Feedback Loop with Excite

The admin or owner of the domain needs to email emailadmin@cs.excite.com and request that they be added.

include the IP range
your company’s contact information including name, email address, and phone number
the mailing domains for which you would like to set-up a feedback loop
the email address to which the feedback transactions are to be sent - this must be an active address that receives email

Section 10: Road Runner Feedback Loop

How to set up a Feedback Loop with Road Runner

Go to http://security.rr.com/feedbackFAQ.htm and follow the instructions for submission.

Section 11: Comcast Feedback Loop

Comcast Feedback loop now in production. Comcast let us know that the Comcast Feedback Loop powered by ReturnPath is now out of beta and has been moved into production. They know many have already signed up and for you there is nothing you need to do for your “subscription” to continue.

For those that haven’t signed up feel free to do so now at http://feedback.comcast.net

Please be patient as they do have limited resources to review each application, so pardon them if they are slow at first, but they will get to each application for vetting and hopefully approval.

Section 12: Gmail

gmail bulk mailing guidlines

gmail bulk sender contact form

Bulk Senders Guidelines

We've received inquiries from bulk senders who'd like more information on best practices to ensure that their mail is delivered to Gmail users. The way Gmail classifies spam depends heavily on reports from our users. Gmail users can mark and unmark any message as spam, at any time. To increase the inbox delivery rate of your messages, make sure that all recipients on your distribution lists actually want to receive the mail. Visit the following sections for some tips on how to make sure your messages are welcomed by Gmail users.

Authentication & Identification

To ensure that Gmail can identify you:

Use a consistent IP address to send bulk mail.

Keep valid reverse DNS records for the IP address(es) from which you send mail, pointing to your domain.

Use the same address in the 'From:' header on every bulk mail you send.

We also recommend publishing an SPF record and signing with DKIM or DomainKeys.

Subscription

Each user on your distribution list should opt to receive messages from you in one of the following ways (opt-in):

Through an email asking to subscribe to your list.

By manually checking a box on a web form, or within a piece of software.

We also recommend that you verify each email address before subscribing them to your list.

The following methods of address collection are not considered 'opt-in' and are not recommended:

Using an email address list purchased from a third-party.

Setting a checkbox on a web form or within a piece of software to subscribe all users by default (requiring users to explicitly opt-out of mailings).

Unsubscribing

A user must be able to unsubscribe from your mailing list through one of the following means:

A prominent link in the body of an email leading users to a page confirming his or her unsubscription (no input from the user, other than confirmation, should be required).

By replying to your email with an unsubscribe request.

To help ensure that your messages aren't flagged as spam, we also recommend that you:

Automatically unsubscribe users whose addresses bounce multiple pieces of mail.

Periodically send confirmation messages to users.

Include each mailing list they are signed up for, and offer the opportunity to unsubscribe from those in which they are no longer interested.

Provide a 'List-Unsubscribe' header which points to a web form or email address where the user can unsubscribe easily from future mailings (Note: This is not a substitute method for unsubscribing).

It's possible that your users forward mail from other accounts, so we recommend that you:

Explicitly indicate the email address subscribed to your list.

Support a URL method of unsubscribing from your mailing list (this is beneficial if your mailing list manager can't tell who is unsubscribing based on the 'Reply-to:' address).

Format

All bulk messages you send must be formatted according to RFC 2822 SMTP standards and, if using HTML, w3.org standards.

Messages should indicate that they are bulk mail, using the 'Precedence: bulk' header field.

Attempts to hide the true sender of the message or the true landing page for any web links in the message may result in non-delivery.

The subject of each message should be relevant to the body's content and not be misleading.

Delivery

While Gmail works hard to deliver all legitimate mail to a user's inbox, it's possible that some legitimate messages may be marked as spam. Gmail does not accept 'whitelisting' requests from bulk senders, and we can't guarantee that all of your messages will bypass our spam filters. To make sure our users receive all the mail they'd like to, we've provided them with a method for sending us feedback about messages flagged as spam -- users have the option of clicking a 'Not spam' button for each message flagged by our spam filters. We listen to users' reports, and correct problems in order to provide them with the best user experience. As long as our users don't consider your mail as spam, you shouldn't have inbox delivery problems.

There are two important factors that, under normal circumstances, help messages arrive in Gmail users' inboxes:

The 'From:' address is listed in the user's Contacts list.
A user clicks 'Not Spam' to alert Gmail that messages sent from that address are solicited.

If you send both promotional mail and transactional mail relating to your organization, we recommend separating mail by purpose as much as possible. You can do this by:

Using separate email addresses for each function.

Sending mail from different domains and/or IP addresses for each function.

Some senders include blank tracking pixels in their messages so they can tell when recipients have opened them. We strongly discourage the inclusion of such pixels for two reasons. First, Gmail does not display images by default, so tracking pixels will not accurately reflect whether users are reading your mail. Second, tracking pixels are often used by spammers, and using them can affect the spam classification of your messages.

By using these tips, it's more likely that the important transactional mail will be delivered to a user's inbox. Our guidelines are meant to help you build a good reputation within the Gmail system, resulting in continual delivery to Gmail inboxes.

Third-Party Senders

If others use your service to send mail (for example: ISPs), you are responsible for monitoring your users and/or clients' behavior.

You must have an email address available for users and/or clients to report abuse (abuse@yourdomain.com).

You must maintain up-to-date contact information in your WHOIS record, and on abuse.net.

You must terminate, in a timely fashion, all users and/or clients who use your service to send spam mail.

Affiliate Marketing Programs

Affiliate marketing programs reward third-parties for bringing visitors to your site. Unfortunately, these programs are attractive to hard-core spammers and can potentially do more harm than good. Please note the following:

If your brand becomes associated with affiliate marketing spam, it can affect the mail sent by you and your other affiliates.

It is your responsibility to monitor your affiliates and remove them if they send spam.

If you are sending mail in accordance with our guidelines and Gmail continues to mark your messages as spam, troubleshoot further.

Older Stuff

MICROSOFT

As of 1/16/07 this link is active: Whitelisting URL for Hotmail/MSN

MICROSOFT SPF RECORDS WIZARD

Microsoft's Junk Mail Reporting Partner Program is working!

Don't ignore 300,000+ million hotmail.com email accounts!

First join Microsoft Smart Network Data Services (SNDS). It is a free service that provides senders and ISPs with data about e-mail activity from their IP space that is sent to Windows Live Hotmail. At this link

Second apply for Microsoft's Junk Mail Reporting Partner Program. The program is much more liberal that it was just a few months ago. Go to and click on the section "If you are interested in participating, please complete the questionnaire and send your responses ....." It will take answering some questions and you need to be patient, it will take about a week.

AOL

As of 03/03/08 this link is active Aol White list info they set the standard for white listing

YAHOO

As of 1/16/07 this link is active:

YAHOO WHITE LISTING

yahoo.com
pacbell.net
nvbell.net
swbell.net
sbcglobal.net
snet.net
ameritech.net
prodigy.net
flash.net
wans.net

United Online, Inc.

United Online, Inc. Whitelist URL

On April 24, 2008, at 15:20 PM, JPC wrote: Comcast has recently (04/18/08) offered a feedback loop here http://feedback.comcast.net/

On Feb 28, 2008, at 12:03 PM, Walltore wrote:

Yesterday I had SMTP message "ip blocked". Today I am 100% successful. :)

Are you Black Listed?

Are you black listed? Here are some free and helpful public utilities to check your IP space for Black Listings.

SORBS

Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:36:33 +0100
From: Michelle Sullivan

The robot has code to query whois, but we choose not to activate it (due to the possibility of abuse of the whois servers.) Mailing the ISP-support queue and identifying yourself as the RIR PoC will not result in the robot processing your message (unless supervised by a staff member aka me - sometimes I use it to do the ground work for me, not forgetting that clearly named dynamic rDNS will result in the complete refusal of the delisting request regardless of who it comes from.)

ISP-Support queue maybe mailed directly or by using the webform: http://www.sorbs.net/cgi-bin/mail (or if you have a login to the Support website already you can log a ticket directly via the web).

Note: blocks of smaller than /29 will not be delisted without appropriate rDNS being set.

We do use information in local rwhois servers for authority, but there must be a referral to an authoritative rwhois server at the RIR (otherwise it could be some spammer's or home user's attempt to fool us.)

Michelle

symantec.com IP Reputation Investigation

http://ipremoval.sms.symantec.com/lookup/

HOTMAIL microsoft.com

You should also visit http://www.senderbase.org because your IP was listed on their third party block lists.

We reviewed your domains and DNS zone file and could not find the presence of your SPF record(s). If you would like to receive the benefits of email authentication and validation, you need to create and add an SPF record for each domain. You can easily create your SPF record via our Sender-ID wizard located at http://www.microsoft.com/senderid/wizard Note this wizard provides flexibility to customize your records. To maximize compatibility and deliverability among receiving networks we strongly encourage NOT to include a "PTR" record (as also discouraged by the IETF in RFC 4408), and to create a record optimized for BOTH the "Mail From" and the Purported Responsible Address, (PRA).

However, we have added your domain/domains to the Sender ID program. This may take up to two business days to be fully replicated in the DNS and our systems. If you have any questions regarding this, please let us know.

Once you update your domains with valid SPF records you will not need to notify us when you make this or any revision to your SPF record since we will automatically pull the current record from the DNS daily. Thank you again for your support in improving online trust and confidence and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact us directly.

I hope that the information that I have provided to you has been helpful. You may also be able to find additional information on common delivery questions at the Hotmail Postmaster Site found at http://postmaster.msn.com/. I would like to highlight some key areas that I believe are appropriate to your company.

Hotmail has created the Smart Network Data Services program. This is a service that helps legitimate email senders work with their customers and partners to reduce spam originating from their IP. To register, please go to http://postmaster.msn.com/snds/. This program allows a sender to monitor the 'health' of their IPs.

Please ensure that you have published SPF records for your sending domains and register with Sender ID. You can find additional information and submit your domain for inclusion into the Sender ID program at http://www.microsoft.com/senderID . Please note that technical standards (RFC 4408) discourage use of "ptr" for performance and reliability reasons.

Monitor user complaints. Hotmail also has a sender complaint feedback loop program called the Junk Email Reporting Program (JMRP). Enrollment in this free program will benefit you as a sender as it will keep your email lists updated and populated with interested Windows Live Hotmail Customers. This program will help you to remove those Windows Live Hotmail Customers who do not want to receive emails from your company. If you are interested in joining this program, please visit http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productKey=edfsjmrpp&page=support_home_options_form_byemail&ct=eformts.

While using the SNDS tool, enrollment in the JMRP or having your IPs registered with Sender ID will not allow emails from your mail servers to bypass our filters, these are in place to help legitimate companies deliver their emails to Hotmail Customers.

SenderScore Certified Mail Program. Many legitimate mailers and marketers have qualified and joined this "white listing" program to improve mail deliverability and decrease email from being filtered to the Junk E-mail Folder. Sender Score is a third party program administered by Return Path. Sender Score (www.senderscorecertified.com) is the only white listing service to which we subscribe.

The troubleshooting steps in this email are recommendations only. Microsoft makes no guarantees that following these steps will guarantee deliverability to MSN, Windows Live Hotmail, or Live.com customers.

Thank you for contacting Windows Live Hotmail Domain Support. Have a great day.

Sincerely,

Joel

Windows Live Hotmail Domain Support

DNS OVERRIDE GOODMAIL SYSTEMS

Live SEED Accounts: You can test by sending to live seed accounts:

gms_test007@yahoo.com
gmstest777@aol.com
bigdean@verizon.net
lwjoe@verizon.net
patcus@verizon.net


aol.com 72.5.68.89
aim.com 72.5.68.89
cs.com 72.5.68.89
wmconnect.com 72.5.68.89
aol.co.uk 72.5.68.89
aol.in 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com 72.5.68.89
yahoo.co.uk 72.5.68.89
aol.de 72.5.68.89
aol.fr 72.5.68.89
aol.nl 72.5.68.89
aol.pl 72.5.68.89
aol.jp 72.5.68.89
aol.es 72.5.68.89
aol.it 72.5.68.89
jp.aol.com 72.5.68.89
yahoo.de 72.5.68.89
yahoo.fr 72.5.68.89
yahoo.es 72.5.68.89
yahoo.it 72.5.68.89
yahoo.ca 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.cn 72.5.68.89
yahoo.co.in 72.5.68.89
yahoo.co.kr 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.tw 72.5.68.89
btinternet.com 72.5.68.89
btopenworld.com 72.5.68.89
rocketmail.com 72.5.68.89
ymail.com 72.5.68.89
aol.com.ar 72.5.68.89
aol.fi 72.5.68.89
aol.cl 72.5.68.89
aol.com.co 72.5.68.89
aol.co.ve 72.5.68.89
aol.com.ve 72.5.68.89
aol.com.au 72.5.68.89
aol.net.au 72.5.68.89
aolnz.co.nz 72.5.68.89
aol.at 72.5.68.89
aol.co.at 72.5.68.89
aol.or.at 72.5.68.89
aol.be 72.5.68.89
aol.com.br 72.5.68.89
aol.ca 72.5.68.89
aolqc.ca 72.5.68.89
aol.cz 72.5.68.89
aol.dk 72.5.68.89
aol.co.jp 72.5.68.89
myaol.jp 72.5.68.89
aolnorge.no 72.5.68.89
aol.ph 72.5.68.89
aol.com.ph 72.5.68.89
aol.com.pl 72.5.68.89
aolpolska.pl 72.5.68.89
aolpolcka.pl 72.5.68.89
aolpoland.pl 72.5.68.89
aol.ru 72.5.68.89
aol.com.ru 72.5.68.89
aol.net.ru 72.5.68.89
aol.org.ru 72.5.68.89
aol.pp.ru 72.5.68.89
aol.kr 72.5.68.89
aol.com.es 72.5.68.89
aol.se 72.5.68.89
aol.ch 72.5.68.89
aol.org.ch 72.5.68.89
aol.com.tr 72.5.68.89
aol.co.nz 72.5.68.89
aolchina.com 72.5.68.89
aol.hk 72.5.68.89
aol.tw 72.5.68.89
aol.com.cn 72.5.68.89
cn.aol.com 72.5.68.89
aol.com.gr 72.5.68.89
aol.com.hk 72.5.68.89
aol.co.hu 72.5.68.89
aol.ie 72.5.68.89
luckymail.com 72.5.68.89
cox.net@gms.cox.net
yahoo.com.sg 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.ar 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.ph 72.5.68.89
yahoo.cn 72.5.68.89
yahoo.co.id 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.vn 72.5.68.89
yahoo.in 72.5.68.89
telus.net 72.5.68.89
telusplanet.net 72.5.68.89
comcast.net 72.5.68.89
myspace.com 72.5.68.89
email.asylum.co.uk 72.5.68.89
email.de.asylum.com 72.5.68.89
email.fr.asylum.com 72.5.68.89
yahoo.pl 72.5.68.89
yahoo.se 72.5.68.89
yahoo.ie 72.5.68.89
yahoo.gr 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.tr 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.my 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.mx 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.br 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.au 72.5.68.89
yahoo.co.th 72.5.68.89
yahoo.co.nz 72.5.68.89
yahoo.cl 72.5.68.89
yahoo.no 72.5.68.89
yahoo.dk 72.5.68.89
y7mail.com 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.co 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.ve 72.5.68.89
yahoo.com.pe 72.5.68.89
mail.com 72.5.68.89

Your DATA tells a lot about WHO YOU ARE

2011-02-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Carefully screen any acquisition partners. If you have third parties helping sign up people to your email program, make sure they are following the rules and promising the right things. If they don't, the leads you get will likely be junk, and when you send email to them you'll get a higher rate of complaints than normal. Bad lead generation partners make your program suffer greatly.

If you are sending a new list? Your first message to this new list should start off with the sending of a VERY SOFT WELCOME message.

Spam trap addresses and other reputation factors can also be reasons that your IP addresses get put on one of the hundreds of blacklists out there. Blacklists are used by email receivers to automatically block email from certain senders. By employing a list cleaning service (trying to be a good mailer) and watching your reputation, you can avoid blacklist inclusion.

Get your email through blocks and filters with these important tips. One of the simplest ways to improve your email deliverability is to make sure you have a clean email file. With upward of 40 percent of your list degrading each year with email changes and data entry errors, your list can be one of the more detrimental elements of your campaign when viewed with ISP eyes. When you have high unknown user rates -- meaning, a high percentage of your file that comes back as non-deliverable because the accounts are non-existent at the ISP -- you look like a spammer.

DELIVERY ISSUE CHECK LIST

2011-02-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

Get your email through blocks and filters with these important tips.

With complaints driving the majority of deliverability issues, it is critical to know whether you have complaint problems-- and how to fix them if you do. There are some simple ways to find out whether complaints are hurting your email reputation and response rates. One way is to focus your efforts to find "pockets" of complaints inside your program by performing a complaint analysis. Here are some FEEDBACK SIGNUP LINKS to aid that research:

DNS WhiteListing - The free and open-standard for certified emails.

Yahoo!- You must have implemented dkim (robomail supports!) to take part.

AOL - IP based

Hotmail/MSN/Live - IP Based

Cox Communications ALSO SEE See Error Codes

Bluetie

Comcast

USA.net

ATT Error Codes and also How to check

ABUSE.NET add yourself to the contact information DATABASE AT abuse.net

whitelisting

2011-02-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

Domain(s)	Subscribe through	More info
AOL	Form
Bluetie (iwon.com)	Form
Comcast	Form	Returnpath operated
Cox	Form	Returnpath operated
Mailtrust	Form	Returnpath operated
MSN/Hotmail	Form	LINK SENDER ID Signup
NetZero/Juno	Form
RoadRunner	Form	Returnpath operated
United Online	Form
USA.net	Form	Returnpath operated
Yahoo	Form	Returnpath operated
Abuse.net	Mail	Send contact information for your domains
Earthlink	Mail
Excite	Mail
Outblaze (mail.com)	Mail	Double Optin needed
Barracuda	LINK	Whitelist

is email reputation corellated to SEO?

2011-01-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

When organizations look at incoming email, they use a set of criteria to decide what to do with it.

For many such organizations, particularly the big webmail services, the reputation of the sender is a very important criterion determining whether that email should go to the inbox.

This sender reputation claimed to be built out of various factors, such as how many spam complaints the sender gets or how many defunct addresses they are trying to email.

sounds like a pretty good way of regulating email, but problems arise through the definition of the “sender” part of sender reputation.

To date, this reputation has largely been tied not to the sender in the traditional sense of the word, but to the sending IP address: the original “connection” to the net that initiated the email transfer.

In this article we suggest an new way that the big webmails are calculating reputatation. we called in "ESEO" which stand for email seo.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a website web presence.

google for example for years used the PageRank algorithem. PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page, used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is referred to as the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).

Yahoo and Hotmail are using other algorithems to calculate a domain/webiste Rank.

we suggest here that when the big webamils are calculation they are using thier search engins score in order to give the domain its email reputation.

so sites that are ranked high in search engines also will have good deleverabilty. we have tested this theory with couple of domains and its seems that the higher your pagerank is the higher deleverabitly you have.

and this is contredcting to the claims by return path and iron port and similar email reputation companies.

hope this information helps you.

10 Steps to Higher Inboxing (For Dummies)

2011-01-16T03:46:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pointers which many people overlook when sending bulk emails. I'm sure you would have heard at least one or two of them before. The more of these you follow and implement in your own campaigns, the higher you should expect your inbox rate to be.

- Send to clean, permission based lists.
- Send consistent volumes (don't have major spikes in the amount of emails you send)
- Use a clear subject line. Stay away from jamming keywords into your subjects.
- Send with the same "From Address"
- Maintain a low complaint rate
- Maintain a low bounce rate.
- Do not send to spam traps.
- Send targeted content.
- Send in bursts/intervals.
- Don't use a keyword spammed domain when sending.
- Correctly format your HTML emails.
- If you are using a VPS or email service, try to get yourself whitelisted in their books.
- If you are sending directly from your computer, talk to your ISP about getting port 25 unblocked.
- Get a dedicated IP, and switch this IP periodically.

The 'Technical' Side of Mailing Explained

2011-01-16T03:42:00.000-08:00

If you're just getting into mailing or are still unsure about how the technical side of mailing works, hopefully the information I provide below will help you. Some of this information has been quoted directly from the email providers and other parts I have found out over the years. So firstly... (feel free to ask questions afterwards)

Sending limits:

Gmail: 100 emails per account, per message (this is why you need to use tokens), per 24 hours. More than this gets you a temporary block. Note: This is only when using external applications to send (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird, Mail Mascot etc).

When using the web client, the email limit is increased to 500.

Hotmail: 100 emails per account, per 24 hours. Important: The limit of sending with Hotmail accounts is strictly influenced by age of account. New accounts will almost always bring up captchas if you are using other applications to send through. However, once your account passes the 3-4 month mark, you will stop receiving captchas and should be able to send in excess of 100.

One of my oldest Hotmail accounts (7 years) is able to send upwards of 1500 emails at once without getting hit by blockages (keep this in mind when buying accounts). On the other hand a new account, may only let you send 5 emails at a time before bringing up a captcha.

Yahoo: No more than 100 emails or recipients per hour. It is also not uncommon for accounts to experience blockages pretty quickly.

Comcast 1000 emails per day.

It is also important to comment on how your IP influences sending. Typically if you are located somewhere in the indoasia and pacific areas, your IP may be shared between a number of people and may have been flagged by email providers. This particularly only matters when you send through an email client and even then you can use proxies.

That's right proxies. From what I found if you double the sending limits, those become the 'max messages allowed to be sent from IP'. After this, your IP may get added to a blacklist, which will send most of your mail to junk. This is why it is important to either operate a VPN (Virtual Private Network) or use legitimate Socks mailing supported proxies. Apart from your encrypting your network usage, they will also allow you to bypass the set sending limits. However, it's crucial that the proxies you use are reliable otherwise you will encounter two things.

1. Slow speeds and lots of failed messages.
2. Your emails hitting junk.

Using a VPS or (Dedicated Server)

A virtual private server ('VPS') has now become a nice way to send through, although it does have its pros and cons which I will discuss below.

Pros

No sending limits
Full control over your sending
Faster sending (depending on the quality of your server)

Cons

May fall into a spam trap once too many emails start originating from the IP
A lower inbox percentage
A little more timely to set up and configure correctly with a VPN.

I know many people want to buy bullet proof servers, located god knows where for anonymity, but if you're just going to be sending your typical CPA offers and what not, then a regular server will be alright, as long as you keep it legal.

Hostgator provide pretty decent servers (VPS servers). They will set everything up for me and are cheaper than the industry average. And, if you buy cPanel with your server, getting it ready for mailing is super simple.

cPanel account home > email accounts > (add your account) > more info > configure email client (to find smtp details).

This is the simple run down. Ultimately, it would be good to have a different IP for each domain you have under your server.

SMTP Details

Gmail

Hostname: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 465
Authentication: SSL

Hotmail

Hostname: smtp.live.com
Port: 587 or 25
Authentication: TLS

Yahoo

Hostname: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
Port: 465
Authentication: SSL

Headers

Email headers are the 'behind the scenes' information that come attached to an email. Some of them you may recognize, some you might not. Here are a few. At times using the right headers may help you bypass spam filters.

Name
To
Subject
From
Date
CC (Carbon Copy)
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)
Reply-To
Priority - This can be used to influence speed and delivery and also to draw attention to the email in your recipient's email client
X-Mailer - What email client created the email (e.g. Mail Mascot, Outlook, Gmail etc)
DomainKey Signature - Getting registered with DomainKeys is great for your inboxing. It tells your recipient's email client, what email provider has sent out the email. Typically, email providers that are given a DomainKeys Signature are considered reliable.
X-MS-Has-Attach - Identifies whether or not the email has an attachment present.
X-Accept-Language - Tells the server which language to use in a reply
Content-Type - Explains how to view the email, and which format it is (e.g. text, HTML, audio etc)
X-Originating-IP - The IP address of the computer that sent the email
X-Spam Score - How likely is it that this email is spam. The higher the number, the more likely it is spam and the more likely it will be placed in the junk folder.

That's all for now, I know I haven't covered everything but this should give you a start into understanding the technicalities of email marketing.

New form builder by get response

2011-01-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

Superbious

2010-06-29T22:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I check on google and the number 1 search term was superbious, it's strange since there is no such word in the dictionary, so I guess there is a chance that for some reason many people heard someone using this word in the tv. Any how let's use it in a scentence , my email deleverability to GI is superbiuos. Meaning I am doing good with my gi deleverability.

Yahoo mail inbox

2010-06-29T22:15:00.001-07:00

Today I opened my email account in yahoo and found that that my inbox suddenly dissapeared, strange, anyhow if you encounter the same problem, comment here on this post.

yahoo, aol, hotmail ip reputation research

2010-04-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

A reasearch was conducted on the deleverabilty of ip clusters, per esp.
basically what is shown in the charts are the deliverability of ips in different classes.
the ips after the 400 point in the chart are of a new class that just got into usage.
you can see that all the ips in the new class have the same deliverability .
the older ip's before 400 point are older classes that been in use for some time.
what we can obviuosly see is that yahoo hotmail and aol are segmetating the deliverabilty per a group of ip's (32 to 100 ips) and also we can see that there is a correlation between the different esp's meaning the esp are relying on some external reputation authorities.

the conclusion:
1) the ips neighborhood is very important! - get your ip's next to authorities email ip's!
2) there is external reputation authrities in usage!
3) email reputation is per ip cluster not single ip!

Yahoo experience low connectivity

2010-02-04T01:13:00.000-08:00

Starting yesterday 1/26/2010 Yahoo started to experience low connectivity with their MTA's which resulted in senders seeing a "420 Resources unavailable temporarily. Please try later "
- http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ymailadmin/message/17

1/27/2010
Return Path confirmed with the Yahoo Postmaster this morning that all Yahoo MTA's are back to normal and accepting mail.

However Yahoo just reported that their MTA's are continuing to experience delays.
Postmaster page has been updated - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ymailadmin/message/19

2/1/2010

UPDATE on Yahoo Postmaster page

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ymailadmin/message/21

Good news this Monday morning: The connectivity levels across our MTAs are looking good (through the weekend and so far today), and we expect it to stay that way. If you still have queues to Yahoo! Mail, you should see improved delivery going forward.

Ipad stocks and steve jobs

2010-01-28T00:10:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I was watching the presentation of steve jobs and the revolution of apple ipad. I was exited to see the new device since it's really looks amazing and it seems that apple have done that again. Changing the face of computer technology.
I decided to do and experiment and to see the recation of the world in real time to the announcment. So I opened Twitter and yahoo stocks. The minute the presentation started yahoo stock have dropped alot. I was shocked since I didn't unerstand why but it seems that with time the stock went up an up moving up from 200 to 208. So here is my conclusion. Wait for the stock to fall when a major occasion is starting and then buy the stock. This is how to make money with daytading. Search for $APPL In Twitter and get the realtime results on the public opinion.this is how you can win an ipad.(;

Thanks for the traffic and yahoo

2010-01-28T00:01:00.001-08:00

I was checking today my analytics and in the last couple of days google is starting to bring here some natural search traffic, so thanks you google for it. And to a diffreny matter. I was experimenting yahoo smtp connectivity. You can see the graphs in a previous post. Anyhow I was checking the connectivity again to find a patteren and it seems that the algorithm is pretty easy. You need to just keep on trying until the connection will open and seems that it's pretty random just keep trying to connect until the smtp handshake will happen. This I suppose what is called yahoo greylisting. So basically I think now I undersand hotmail and yahoo.

ESEO

2010-01-15T01:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I thought on defining and bringing the world a new term ESeo the meaning of that is email seo, ranking yourself in the Search engines is the same as ranking yourself in search engines email folder. There are some diffrances. But basically there are ways to optimize your template and improve your domain reputation. So isn't it the same?

Remote side unexpectedly closed the connection

2010-01-10T10:19:00.001-08:00

It's funny and also a bit interesting, when looking at my analytical logs of this blog I see that many people Are reffered to my blog from the keywords "remote side unexpectedly closed the connection" so let's help you guys, if the relation is to email marketing and unsynchronous messages then you have came to the right place it seems that your server response time is too slow. His might be becouse your Server is located very far from the ESP so. Maybe you need to move your server to a good datacenter in Europe or us or maybe it's becouse you need to optimize your database. Anyhow comment on this post and I might give you a hand. Don't be shy. And don't worry tracing spammers is not my thing.

Servers request time

2010-01-02T09:47:00.001-08:00

We have tested our serve response time from diffrent location around the globe, seem that it is very important where tour server is locate. If you are plan to target eurpe best that the servers will sit on the backbone in Amsterdam or in irland. Anyhow checking the responses time I came to a theft about blacklisting. When an email is being sent to an ESP like gmail for example it will be mug more benefcial for gmail o handle thier own blacklists since if not they need to query the genegal blacklists and that will make google people rely on companies ouside google. Google should relay only on blacklists that have fast response time to thier servers. There is an other option that google will query the general blacklists once a day but that should mean that they acctuly need to write a code and mentioning general blacklist..if I was google I wouldent do it.
What I would do is maintain my oun blackist an sender reputation. Army they already doing that with page rank?

yahoo.fr experiment with clean ip's

2009-12-27T06:22:00.000-08:00

yahoo.fr experiment with clean ip's, the ip's are not listed in any blacklist also the domain is clean,

here is a test to a list of almost 1000 yahoo.fr address
the test orginated from 5 ip's x.x.x.243 - x.x.x.247
the test was condacted from 24:40.1 to 27:09.7 meaning 2.5 minutes.
you can see the results in the following graphs:

also here are the results per originating ip

you can download the full results in xls format here

http://rapidshare.com/files/326587905/yahoo.fr_data2.xls.html

here are some explanation on yahoo codes, you can also see them in my first post
code 250 = success
code 554 = failure (mailbox not exists)
code 4** = temporary defferal
code remote = remote side unexpectedly closed the connection

and here are the speed server configuration
Threads = 500
1 Email per Connection
30 second connection timeout
send/recv 30 sec time out
DNS 30 seconds time out

basically I am looking for a pattern to understand why the hell yahoo is rejecting the messages
do you see any pattern? can you find an answer? the rumers in the forum are saying that yahoo is greylisting and you need to send yahoo twice in order to get inside yahoo server, I am not sure this is true.

Emaillussions

2009-12-25T23:04:00.001-08:00

A warrior journy to the inbox

These are the fact people tell you:
You have to whitelist youself
You have to register to feedback loops
You have to have good ip reputation
Never use spammy keywords
You need to put domain keys

Is it true ? Or is it all illusions?
We are used to hear many advises since we are born :from our parents our teacher our doctors and our priests.
Especially in the field of email markeing there are tones of blogs with advices. But is it all true? Read my blog dig youselves some knoledge about the field. There will be a time when I will close the blog as an ebook buy while this information is free ..use it wisely.

Hotmail speed rates

2009-12-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

Today we done slot of testing and hit 100% into hotmail.
Always remmber that hotmail servers are totaly seperated and that with the right tool you can get to the rate. I give you guys a hint it's 8 times more then yahoo (: don't let them fool you there is no daily limit it seems.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

blacklists

2009-12-22T08:33:00.000-08:00

here are some good sites that can help with getting to know where are you blacklisted

http://spamlinks.net/

this is a very good site, seems the guys made a big effort categorizing all the blacklists available
here is a good

another good tool for that is Myiptest.com they have a great firefox plugin

Tip of the day

2009-12-21T11:28:00.000-08:00

When planning your sendings always keep an eye on your senderscore you can look it up at senderscore.com site basically seems that it's better to use an ip with high senderscore then to use a clean ip.

Email vs google adword

2009-12-18T02:17:00.001-08:00

For the new guys in the field that are trying to get into the email
field and are tiered of paying the big brothers big sums..let me
explain you about diffrences between ppc and email marketing , let's
start with some analogies
1)both in email and in ppc you dealing with google yahoo and msn
2)subject line in email and adwords ad copyrighting is exactly he same
3)an HTML emil body and ppc landin page is exactly the same,there just
no need to cpture the lead again, you can immidtly made the sale.
4)keywords do have analogy in mailing, you can put special links
inside your body creative and when people click the links you can add
to your db some tags about the lead and by that learn more and more
about the user and target him better.

Next post I will talk about the charectaristics of subject line and
what you can do with it

email sending diagram by dotmailer

2009-12-03T02:25:00.001-08:00

Email DB imaging

2009-12-03T01:15:00.000-08:00

Few days ago I thought about a concept, and I think it's a kind of a start for the academic research on email and trafficking. basically we can describe the email marketing field in a visual matrix and by that i mean 2 dimensional plane or an image.
I have a long history of researching bioinformatics so here is a good for you to follow my thoughts.

this is a affymetrics gene chip and its a reasearch tool in bioinformatics and molecular biology.
what is the connection to email ? soon you will find out.

anyhow so lets get back to the theory, so you have your email DB
matrix that represet the email boxes in the cyber space. the cold and hot area represent a user activity.
blue will represnt cold activity, and by that I mean mailboxes that we see no activity in them when sending them mail. and warm spots represent maiboxes where we sample large amount of activity (open,clicks etc)
basically our goal as an email marketers is to warm up our DB and make it come to a certain color. or temprature.
in physics temprature is representing the molecular vibration of a material.
and in email its the same thing temperature of an email is the amount of activity in a mailbox.
do we have a way to visualizes our DB to see it as a matrix of color? sure we have .
a BMP image represt 3 colors we can represent our data the same:
red=successfull handshake
green = open
blue= clicks
our goal is to get our database to appear in a blueish color. when we hit that we know we reached our goal.
after starting to visualize my email DB in there was an image that came to my mind:

this is a representation of files on a harddisk. and the process which is arraging the files to help the disk work better called defragmentation or defrag. anyow if we can represent or email DB in a visual way what will be the meaning of defraging our data? will we want to defrag it according domains? do we want to keep our hot activity emails in the beginning of our DB? seems that there is a room for a special email DBA in the world.. anyhow its just some thoughts... if one of you will implement this, give me a shout.

some tips on writing html emails

2009-11-24T05:16:00.001-08:00

this is a great resource check it out

http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/html-css-techniques/20-email-design-best-practices-and-resources-for-beginners/

some email aggregators

2009-11-03T04:00:00.001-08:00

http://www.mailbeans.com/

Mailbeans is a web-based service of email aggregation and management which allows users to keep all their email accounts on the web in a same place. It differs form usual webmail services both in the technological approach to email management as well as in the UI paradigm.

https://fuser.com
Fuser develops tools that improve Internet user's digital lifestyles. Fuser tools make it easier to communicate online, whether that means one web-based inbox for email and social networks or some other method the community has yet to dream up.

here are some more designs from mailersoft

2009-10-29T02:03:00.000-07:00

this is what they mailersoft claims:
"We create custom design templates that make your newsletters good looking and user friendly.
For each client we create a custom design template which matches client style, branding and marketing goals.
Moreover we run design and spam tests on every template."

http://www.mailersoft.com/custom-newsletter-design/

Animated Email

2009-10-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

here are some examples of animated email with an animated gif

Call-to-Action Examples: Banana Republic, Lexus, Piperlime
Product Showcase Examples: Land’s End, Art.com
Simulated Video Examples: Twilight
Misc. Usage Examples: Norm Thompson, Aeropostale

amazing!

Handy tools

2009-10-20T01:38:00.000-07:00

here is a list of tools for email marketers check them out and add your comments if you like more

Handy tools

Email Marketing Planner & Checklist
Find out what the sender's IP address is
Newsletterarchive.org : archive with thousands of emails

Spam Checkers:

ContentChecker
SpamCheck
MailingCheck (spam check your emails before sending)

Email Testing Tools & Services

Testing

Identify problems and stay on top of the way your design renders with these tools.

Inbox Inspector : Use this tool from Mail Chimp to seek out problems in any email you’ve sent.
EmailAdvisor : Get a snapshot of what your email looks like in a number of different email clients.
Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008 : This independent metrics report covers heatmaps, deliverability, and more.
Campaign Monitor : With this service, you can test your email against different displays and spam filters.
EmailStatCenter : Check out the metrics at EmailStatCenter to get the lowdown on frequency, conversions, and more.
eDesign Optimizer : Test our your email in different programs and validate your HTML with eDesign Optimizer.
Post Campaign Checklist : Reflect on your email campaign and learn for next time using this checklist.
Internet Retailer Survey: A Missed Message : Find out why email marketing these days isn’t hitting home and what you can do to improve it.
How to Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaigns Through Testing : This tutorial walks you through testing for optimization.
Habeas : Habeas uses a rendering tool to make sure your email design holds up against services and readers.
Litmus : With Litmus, you can take a look at how your email will look in a number of different mail services.
Return Path : Test your design with services and readers using Return Path.

Analytics & Evaluation

With these resources, you’ll learn how to perfect your methods for measuring email marketing success.

Email Open Rates Guide : Learn how to evaluate your email open rates with this guide.
Integrating Email Marketing and Web Analytics : Take a look at what can be achieved when you combine website metrics with email campaigns.
Misinterpreting Email Marketing Statistics : Don’t let your statistics fool you-get set straight with this article.
Email Marketing: What to Measure : This tutorial runs down some of the numbers you should be looking into.
Email Chickens and Eggs : Heed this warning to be careful about comparing subscribers and non-subscribers.
Looking Beyond Open Rates : Look past just open rates to measure your success, and find out what else you should be concerned with in this article.
Grow Your Own Case Study : This tutorial runs down methods for creating your own benchmarks, testing, and more.
Ideas for Measuring Email Newsletter Success : Check out this post for great ideas on measuring reach and open rates.
Email Marketing Formulas : Take a look at the indicators for email success and learn how to calculate them with this guide.
Beyond the Open Rate: Metrics That Matter : Make sure you’re covering these key metrics.

Deliverability & Reputation

Use these services to stay on top of the various reasons why your emails aren’t going through.

Accucast Deliverability Services : Predict and correct problems with design, filtering, and blocking with this service.
Blacklisted IP : Stay on top of your IP addresses and find out when your IP lands on a blacklist or blocklist.
MX Toolbox Blacklist Check : Use this check to test your mail server IP address against 147 email blacklists.
Your E-Mail Is Blacklisted. Now What? : This tutorial runs down the steps you should take to get off of blacklists.
Between “Bounced” and “Delivered” : Learn why you should expand the definition of your delivery rates in this article.
How to Deliver Mail to AOL : Take these steps to make sure your email to AOL customers goes through.
RepCheck : This email blacklist monitoring service stays on top of the reputation of your email server and site domain.
Blacklist.ie : This search offers an easy way to check if your IP address is on any Irish blacklists.
Designing B2B Email for Deliverability : Get tips on coding, design, and testing in this article.
Delivery Monitor : Find out if your email is getting delivered, and keep an eye on blacklists with Delivery Monitor.

Design

Check out these tools and best practices to optimize the design of your email campaigns.

Image Links Versus Text Links : Consider whether you should use text, image, or HTML links.
Great Tips on Email Creative : Learn about best practices in email design, including results from eye tracking studies, in this blog post.
Email Design Insights From David Grenier : Get tips, mistakes, and easy ways to amp up your design in this interview.
Sometimes Less Can Be More Effective : This article takes a look at design guidelines and simplification.
Outlook 2007 and HTML Design : Get the lowdown on HTML emails in the new Outlook from this blog post.
But How Will It Look On My BlackBerry? : Learn how to design for handhelds with this article.
Seven Steps to a Better Template : Use these tips to redesign your template and avoid getting blocked, blacklisted, and bounced.
Designing Text Emails : Follow these basic rules to make sure your text emails display properly.
Email Creative Critical Analysis : Learn how to critically analyze email design with this advice.
Who Cares About Plain Text? : Read this article to find out why it’s important not to skimp on a plain text version of your email.
URL Design : Take a look at the details of your URLs to get better email responses.
Don’t Design-or Redesign-Your Email Without Reading This : This guide offers a quick and effective checklist for email campaign design.
Email Marketing Program : a free bulk emailer for mass email delivers
Browser Shots Submit a URL and see screen shots of your HTML page on more than fifty browsers in less than 3 minutes (very similar to Return Path and Pivotal Veracity).
Browser Cam Cross Browser Compatibility Testing Tools
Cross Browser Testing Pick an OS, Pick a Browser, Pick a Website

Spam

Avoid being branded as a spammer and learn how to work with spam filters with these resources.

Don’t Be An Accidental Spammer : Read this guide to learn what steps you should take to avoid becoming an accidental spammer.
How Spam Filters Work (and how to avoid them) : Learn how to get around spam filters with this guide.
Avoid the Spam Filter : Follow these tips to make sure your legitimate email isn’t stopped by a spam filter.
Consumer Attitudes to Spam : Read this report to find out what people think of spam and understand how it affects their perception of your messages.
Prevent False Spam Complaints : Follow these tips for avoiding false spam complaints.
ContentChecker : This anti-spam utility alerts you to spam red flags before you send your message.

Mailing Lists

Get advice for building and perfecting your communication base here.

Mailing Lists: Why Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better : Read this blog post to consider the benefits of pruning your email list.
Dos and Don’ts of Opt-in List Building : Read this article to learn about 5 things you should do and 5 things you should avoid.
28 Ways to Build Permission-Based Email Lists : Use these strategies to boost up your email lists.
To Double Opt-In Or Not : Consider the advantages and disadvantages of offering double opt-in on your lists.
9 Things to Go in a List Welcome Message : Take a look at this article to understand what needs to be in your list welcome message.
Email or Name Squeeze Pages-Conversion Rate Analysis : Find out whether or not a “name squeeze” strategy works for email list building.
Customer Email List Segmentation : In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to send campaigns to targeted subgroups of your email list.
Building a Quality Email List : Follow these steps to build your own high-quality email list.

Subject Line

Learn how to create a subject line readers will pay attention to, and thoughtfully consider the impact this important piece of communication has on your campaign.

Subject Lines: What’s The Story? : In this article, you’ll get an introduction to subject lines and understand the reactions they create.
Study: Best and Worst Subject Lines by Open Rate : This study compares over 40 million email subject lines and ranks 20 of the best and 20 of the worst.
Is There a Best Email Subject Line or Send Time? : This article recommends lots of testing to get subjects and timing right.
How Do You Build Urgency? : In this article, you’ll learn how to build urgency through your email’s subject line.
Email Subject Lines: 15 Rules to Write Them Right : For advice on the best fifty characters for your campaign, check out this resource.
Best Practices in Writing Email Subject Lines : Learn about three words to avoid in your subject line, and more great tips in this advice article.
6 Questions to Ask Yourself When Writing Subject Lines For Your Emails : Get a checklist and tips for writing a good subject line in this report.
How Spammy Subject Lines Hurt Delivery : This article considers the consequences of a spammy subject line.
Email Subject Lines That Work : This article runs down a number of factors and considers whether they scream spam or not.
Targeted Email Marketing: Put a Colon in Your Subject : Use this strategy to put the most important keywords in the front of your subject line.
7 Tips for Writing Better Email Subject Lines : Improve your subject lines with this helpful resource.

Timing & Frequency

Find the sweet spot for timing your emails with the advice and tools here.<

Frequency Caps Are Critical : Avoid customer email fatigue by limiting the amount of emails they receive from different sectors of your organization.
Nearly 1/3 of Opens Occur in First Hour : Learn all about best practices in timing with this guide.
How Much Email is Too Much? : Go beyond simple timing and consider the frequency of your emails with this resource.
ListMailPRO : Managed timed emails and responses with this list management tool.
Individual Recipient Send Timing : Take a look at the advantage of sending messages on individual timers in this post.
Wondering Which Day to Send Your Emails On? : This article discusses a few thoughts on the subject of timing.
The Quick and the Dead : Learn why it’s important to avoid delaying emails after a subscriber’s initial signup.
Three Strategies to Find the Right Frequency : Read this article to get guidance on building a good frequency strategy.
Insights on the Worst-Day-to-Send : Find out what one email marketer learned by sending out an email on New Year’s Day.
The Right Time to Send Email Marketing : This article highlights the factors you should look for in timing your messages.

Conversion

Get advice for increasing the effectiveness of your email campaign here.

Improving Your Email Open Rate : Make your email campaign more effective by using these tips and tricks for getting people to open your email.
Use Email to Close the Conversion Loop : Learn how to use email as a way to seal the deal with potential customers.
Five Ways to Use Email to Close the Sale : Use this article for a step-by-step guide to closing the sale with email marketing.
Increase Email Conversion Rates : Follow these 3 tips to get better conversion rates from your email campaigns.
Sending Surveys in HTML Emails : This tutorial covers the best way to get customers active and engaged in email surveys.
Net-a-Porter Ups Conversion Rate After Cutting Email Activity : Read this article to understand why sometimes less is more when it comes to getting conversions.
A/B Split Testing : In this article, you’ll learn how to use A/B split testing to increase conversion rates.

Tips & Advice

Get marketing advice and learn what not to do with the advice from these resources.

Email Marketing Etiquette : Avoid making an email marketing faux pas with this advice.
50 Email Marketing Tips : These tips apply to a wide variety of email marketers.
Stupid HTML Email Mistakes : In this post, you’ll learn about important things to avoid when designing HTML emails.
Some Things to Think About Before You Launch Your Next Email Campaign : Avoid brand speak and get down to person-to-person communication with this advice.
The Eight Deadly Sins of Email Marketing : Take a look at email mistakes and learn what not to do.
Effective Use of Personalization in Email Marketing : Use these techniques to use personalization effectively.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Trick of the Day : Find out how you can get around the 255-character limit with this trick.

CANSPAM

2009-10-11T00:35:00.000-07:00

So, you want to make sure that you actually comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and not just say that you do. This post isn’t for you. You might learn something here and if you do, that’s great. But, instead, this post is really for the Delivery Professional. You know who you are. You are the one who wants a little checklist to slap your clients around with when they cry that their email isn’t getting delivered like they think it should and that it, of course, complies with CAN-SPAM.

What email is covered.

Some email is not covered by what most people think of when they think of CAN-SPAM. Email that is not covered by CAN-SPAM includes:

Political email
Relationship email
Transactional email
Personal email

Relationship and Transactional email are special cases. They are defined by the statute. You can see post on that here. In short, the relationship/transactional email has to be directly related to something that has happened in the past and the primary purpose of the client’s piece has to directly touch that event. If your client thinks that if they try really hard that they can shoehorn their email into that exception, slap them around. The pain that causes is never worth it.

Also, one section of CAN-SPAM still applies to even relationship and transactional email. Section 5(a)(1), codified at 15 USC 7704(a)(1), provides: “It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission, to a protected computer, of a commercial electronic mail message, or a transactional or relationship message, that contains, or is accompanied by, header information that is materially false or materially misleading” (emphasis added).

If your client is wanting to create false headers, well…. First of all, that’s what spammers do. Second of all, it’s illegal. Tell them: “Don’t. Just don’t.”

Politicians have always exempted themselves from laws such as this one (for a variety of reasons, not all of which are self-serving), but even so, CAN-SPAM may provide them with some best practice guidelines, even though it’s not binding. And, of course, your email to your best friend from high school doesn’t have to comply with CAN-SPAM either.

All other email must comply with CAN-SPAM.

Labeling requirements.

Email that has to comply with CAN-SPAM has to be properly labeled. So, what is “properly labeled?”

Properly labeled email is email that contains a:

clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation,
clear and conspicuous identification of a way to opt-out, and
proper postal address for the sender.

We’ll talk about senders here in a bit under “edge cases” as there are some arcane rules over who is a sender and in what circumstances. But, remember that properly labeled, CAN-SPAM complaint email has a “clear and conspicuous identification” that the email is an advertisement, a “clear and conspicuous” means of opting out of further communication, and a proper postal address. Putting that information in 2pt type colored light grey on a white background separated from the body by 20 blank lines isn’t going to cut it.

Don’t lie.

Now, you might think that this one is a no-brainer, but it’s not. We quoted the relevant bits above, but we’ll do so again so you don’t have to scroll around the page:

Section 5(a)(1), codified at 15 USC 7704(a)(1), provides: “It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission, to a protected computer, of a commercial electronic mail message, or a transactional or relationship message, that contains, or is accompanied by, header information that is materially false or materially misleading” (emphasis added).

First of all, this provision (as we already mentioned) applies not only to commercial email, but also to transactional and relationship messages as well.

Second, I have to admit ignorance as to the legal difference between “contains” and “is accompanied by” as it touches on email messages.

Finally, since the sender of the message is going to be found in the headers, who is the sender? We’ll cover that in “edge cases” below.

Now that we’ve gotten that bit out of the way, the rest of it is, in fact, a no-brainer. Clients can’t falsify what they put in their email. With apologies to Ray Gilbert and James Baskett, what you find in the email must fit into “It’s the truth, it’s actual” for everything to be “satisfactual”.

Legal cases touching on this requirement include " FTC v. Sili Neutraceuticals, Inc., et al., ">United States of America v. Ralsky, et al., and Comcast’s countersuit in ">e360Insight, LLC v. Comcast Corporation. None of them are quite definitive on what actually constitutes a materially misleading header as Sili Neutraceuticals was a default judgment and the other two are still being litigated.

Make it easy to leave.

With its 2008 FTC rule revision, CAN-SPAM now requires simple opt-out procedures. Requiring someone to edit settings or pay money to be removed from a list is now out. The DMA had argued to the FTC that “tracking by account information also makes it easier to honor opt-out requests for customers regardless of what they change their email address to.” The Commission did not find this argument persuasive, because, as the Commission stated in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM): “according to CAN-SPAM, opt-out requests are specific to a recipient’s email address, not his or her name,” and, in this case, certainly not to his or her account information. The rule is simply stated, in full legalese:

Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that any recipient pay any fee, provide any information other than the recipient’s electronic mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page, in order to:

(a) Use a return electronic mail address or other Internet-based mechanism, required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3), to submit a request not to receive future commercial electronic mail messages from a sender; or

(b) Have such a request honored as required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3)(B) and (a)(4).
(emphasis added)

As a best practice, clients should not link to a subscription center for the purpose of collecting unsubscriptions. That said, I have seen at least one non-profit who provides a four-step process for opting out of communications via a subscription center as the “best way” and also provides a link to a page which fulfills the “single Internet Web page” requirement. I can’t say that what they are doing is a violation, but I also cannot say that it’s a best practice.

Edge cases

The only real edge cases come from having to define who a sender is. In most cases it is obvious who the sender is, which is why we didn’t discuss senders in the previous sections. There are two edge cases, though. Both of those edge cases were clarified in last year’s FTC rule updates.

Multiple marketers advertising in a single message

CAN-SPAM now provides that multiple “senders” of a commercial email (such as newsletters with multiple content and advertising providers), under certain conditions, may identify one among them as the “sender” who will be deemed the sole “sender” of the message. This designated sender

must include its non-deceptive name, trade name, product, or service in the “from” line of the email,
is the only one that is charged with honoring opt-out requests made by recipients, and
is the only one who must include their contact information.

By requiring the designated sender to comply with these provisions of law, the other marketers using a single email message must ensure that the entity that is the designated “sender” complies with the Act and the Commission’s rules. Otherwise, the other marketers using the email risk losing the protections provided by the proviso and each will be a “sender” of the message.

Forward to a Friend

In order to avoid liability for “Forward to a friend” or “Send to a friend,” there cannot be a linkage between sending the mail and any sort of enticement or offer for having done so. If the linkage does not exist, then the “sender” will be the person filling out the form. If the linkage does exist, then the “sender” will be the company. The rule here is a “bright line rule. The FTC says that any form of enticement at all will be enough to change the “sender” from the person filling out the form to the company:

CAN-SPAM defines “procure” to mean “intentionally to pay or provide other consideration to, or induce another person to initiate [a commercial email] on one’s behalf.” As explained in the NPRM, if a seller offers to “pay or provide other consideration” to a visitor to its website in exchange for forwarding a commercial message, the seller will have “procured” any such messages forwarded by the visitor. As noted in the NPRM, the term “consideration” is not defined in the Act, but is generally understood to mean ’something of value (such as an act, a forbearance, or a return promise) received by a promisor from a promisee.’ This includes things of minimal value. Accordingly, a message has been ‘procured’ if the seller offers money, coupons, discounts, awards, additional entries in a sweepstakes, or the like in exchange for forwarding a message. Even the offer to provide de minimis consideration takes the seller beyond the mere ‘routine conveyance’ of the forwarded message and into the ‘procurement’ of the forwarded message….Likewise, if the seller ‘induces’ the forwarding of the message — such as by offering payment in exchange for generating traffic to a website — it will be an ‘initiator,’ and thus also the ’sender,’ of the forwarded message.

So, who should the sender be? To be safest, clients should assume that they are the sender and send accordingly. Sending with the client’s name, with perhaps “on behalf of” the friend tacked on for recognition, is probably the best way to go here.

So, that’s our CAN-SPAM checklist. Any questions?

dont let them fool you.

2009-10-11T00:16:00.000-07:00

You know, many companies claim to have the best email solution which you can buy for couple of thousands of dollars. the only problem is that they are usually hide from you guys something. they are hiding the amount of deferrals they have in the level of smtp connection. so you create your slick html msg with their nice tools and you press send, did you know that there is a change 50% of the msgs don't get inside the target server even? no one will give you a solution which is perfect, if you find a company that claims for have 100% deleverabilty , you need to be very careful there is a good chance they are tricking you here.

Mobile test

2009-10-11T00:09:00.001-07:00

I am trying to write an article from my phone, let's see if its working
--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9. Please excuse my brevity.

speed, rates, threads, number of connections

2009-10-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

so lets say that you are ok with the SMTP and you are able to handle all communication, sending a large amount of emails involves in a very fast DB, since you need to handle this large amount of responses. and that is not all... when having the conversation with the bug guys you need to talk in the right speed, you need to give them time to accept you connection. what are the speeds? its crazy but i am not so sure , maybe someone will like to put a post here if he knows the speed, 500 mails per hour? per ip? you see, when studying the email field , you don't have universities, you don't have teacher , its a war, since its involves money and controlling the communication. no one will teach you that in school, so in a matter of fact you need to open you own private home laboratory to study this field. and you need to be your own professor.

i have found in couple of forums where people talk about the rates and speeds,

google : powerMTA port25 forum and you see them talking about it.

lets start from the end - some SMTP error codes

2009-10-10T23:33:00.000-07:00

there is somthing called as the Language of email - SMTP - google it and you will understand the meaning , if you are in the status that you want to send email and you understand what is SMTP,
then you are in the right direction , you cannot play the game if you dont speak the language, so here are the error codes that you get when trying to send email to the big esp's.

Yahoo

status: 250 ok dirdel
status: 420 Resources unavailable temporarily. Please try later (mta1000.mail.sp2.yahoo.com)
status: 421 4.7.0 [TS01] Messages from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX temporarily deferred due to user complaints - xx.xx.xx.xx; see http://postmaster.yahoo.com/421-ts01.html
status: 421 4.7.1 [TS03] All messages from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX will be permanently deferred; Retrying will NOT succeed. See http://postmaster.yahoo.com/421-ts03.html
status: 421 Message from (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX) temporarily deferred - 4.16.50. Please refer to http://help.yahoo.co.jp/help/jp/mail/in_trouble/in_trouble-28.html
status: 421 mta122.mail.ukl.yahoo.com Resources temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.
status: 421 mta125.mail.kr3.yahoo.com:Message transmission too slow. Please try again later.
status: 451 Message temporarily deferred - [140]
status: 451 mta1034.mail.sp2.yahoo.com Resources temporarily unavailable. Please try again later [#4.16.1].
status: 453 Mail from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX allowed - [90]
status: 554 delivery error: dd Sorry your message to alizien_2003@yahoo.com cannot be delivered. This account has been disabled or discontinued [#102]. - mta431.mail.re4.yahoo.com
status: connect timeout
status: remote side unexpectedly closed the connection with no status
-------------summery ------------------------
the logic is basically in the status number
250 ok dirdel
420,421,451 are temporary defferal
453 ip not good maybe?
554 - falire remove email from DB

Aol
---------
status: 250 OK
status: 554
status: connect timeout
status: remote side unexpectedly closed the connection with no status
status: 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
status: 421-: (DYN:T1) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html 421 SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE
status: 550 5.1.1 <becky@aol.net>... User unknown
status: 550 MAILBOX NOT FOUND
status: connect timeout
status: domain does not exist - dns resolution problem 1
status: read helo error:
status: read mail from error
status: remote side unexpectedly closed the connection with no status

Hotmail

status: 250 ----------------> GOOD!(:
status: 421 PR(ct1) The mail server IP connecting to Windows Live Hotmail server has exceeded the connection limit allowed. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. For e-mail delivery information, please go to http://postmaster.live.com
status: 421 RP-001 The mail server IP connecting to Windows Live Hotmail server has exceeded the rate limit allowed. Reason for rate limitation is related to IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery
status: 501 Invalid Address
status: 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable
status: connect timeout
status: domain does not exist - dns resolution problem 1
status: read data error
status: read helo error:
status: read mail from error
status: read rcpt to error
status: remote side unexpectedly closed the connection with no status

emaillusions

2009-10-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

So I have created a blog - YA!

I want to start with an apology , I am not a Native English speaker so I am sure i will have some English mistakes with my grammer and stuff, I an hour there i am going to have a english lesson from a private teacher, and I am not sure its really helping, since I am not willing to change much, it kinda give me a unique character which I like.

anyhow the first thing that i needed for starting this blog is choosing a template.

like always on the internet the first two choices when using a template is the black template and the white one. I was tempted to choose the black one, since then I will look as a blackhat dude, or a spammer, but then it is not true, so I thought about the white for a split second, but then white sometimes gives the wrong impression, of a white cooperative company. which I believe in our internet age, is more black then the black world since being whitehat involved in black politics and big guys games...so i chose the a kinda grey template. with a green above.. I love nature and nature preservation so , grey and green. what ever...let the adventure starts.