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View Full Version : Need help from being spam listed



jeeweb
29 Apr 2006, 05:15 AM
Hi
I have a web site that provides online services to members.

The web server sends out over 10000 emails every day to thousands of members who have opted in to receive email notifications and updates. Emails are sent only those members who have willingly selected in their control panel to receive email notifications. Each member who has opted in to receive notifications of updates to their accounts receives anywhere from 1-10 emails in a day. I believe this is not considered as spam as we only send emails to members who have asked us to.

I have lately observed and members have been complaining that any email from my web site ends up in the Bulk Mail / Junk Mail folder in Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Gmail and Outlook. I am not sure why this is happening, I believe so that may be my domain has been black listed or such owing to the volume of around 10000 emails sent out every day

Can someone advice on what should I do so that this does not happen.

Any help or advice on this matter is appreciated.

Thanks

Rincewind
29 Apr 2006, 10:35 AM
Jank mail filters don't just filter spam. They also filter all the unwanted mail that we get. When you join a site, you often have to agree to get their newsletter but you don't really want it. So you filter it as spam. So it's possible that your emails are being filtered the same way. Rather than unsubscribe, the readers just add it to their spam lists.

Also, such filters use content based filtering. If your email reads like a spam message (e.g. selling something) then the filters at gmail and yahoo will shift it to the spam folder. Some hosts might even just drop the email completly. It's wouldn't be your IP that is banned, but rather the content of the email.

Another option is your email system is not setup right. For example it is not supplying the right header information. Since much spam tries to fake the hearder info, if your setup is incorrect it may look like spam when it is not.

Lastly, maybe your are on a black list. Have you checked. The likes of spamcop and similar have lookup tables where you can check your IP against the small blacklists.

Try altering the wording of your emails to look less like spam and more like normal mail. Also try to clean up your list. If many of your emails are going to addresses that no longer exist or were fake to start with, then they will bounce. Many bounces might mark you as a spammer. So by cleaning the bouncing emails out of your list you can target only the real email addresses and have a more productive list.