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  • From: Jason Tower <jason AT cerient.net>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Loose Change vs. Popular Mechanics
  • Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:25:08 -0500

here are just three things that come to mind:

1. what you send

basic rule of thumb - use plain text, not html. text is for email, html is for browsers. the fact that it is possible to send html via email doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea. html mail is far more likely to be tagged as spam by most spam detection schemes than plain text is. don't try ot be tricky, just include a url to whatever you want people to see, most mail clients will display it a "clickable" link even though it's simple text: http://cerient.net

2. where you send it from

lots of domains use blacklists in an attempt to weed out spam, unfortunately this has a high degree of collateral damage and there's not much you can do about it. ideally you should send mail from a smtp server using an IP address that is not in a dynamic block using as few relays as possible (multiple smtp relays tend to raise your spam score). create a spf record for the sending domain and make sure it matches the outgoing email - it's not uncommon for mail to go out as foo AT bar.example.com, in which case a example.com spf record does no good. make sure you're not on any blacklists, and if you are submit a removal request. check your server logs for information - sometimes the rejecting smtp server will tell you why.

none of this is guaranteed to make a huge difference but at least it eliminates potential red flags.

check your ip/domain here: http://www.completewhois.com/rbl_lookup.htm

3. who you send it to

some domain flat out suck and bounce, reject, or ignore email seemingly at random (earthlink.net and hotmail.com are two that come to mind). make it plain on your site or list that mail to these domains is unreliable and suggest that people use something else if possible. also remind people that if their email is behind a restrictive smtp server it is their responsibility to whitelist you. they probably won't but you might as well mention it. send test messages to people you know and can get feedback from, look at the headers and see what they say about spam scores.

jason


Tony Spencer wrote:
Micheal,
I'm recently experiencing the same troubles as you. Its horrible b/c you don't even get a bounce back to let you know there is a problem. As far as I can tell I'm on no blacklists. Ugg. I'm resorting to switching to a fresh IP to see if that helps.

Michael Czeiszperger wrote:
On Dec 12, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Cristobal Palmer wrote:

gmail tagged this as spam. I wouldn't have noticed the email if
somebody else hadn't mentioned it.

Take that however you like.
Speaking of having things you want to read tagged as spam, from a business perspective the spam problem is making it practically impossible for me to communicate with customers via email. Its hugely annoying to have to follow up every email with a phone call, but the stats I just looked at this morning show that just about 10% of the email I send out actually arrives, so then I'm forced to either write a letter or call on the phone. Wat the &@(#&# is holding up a solution to this?

________________________________________________________________________ _________
If you put up a large switch in a cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying "End-
of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH", the paint wouldn't even have time
to dry. -- Pratchett
-- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC


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