Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Jason Tower <jason AT cerient.net>]

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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