How to get emails from my site to not be considered spam

Hi,

I'm seeking for assistance in preventing emails we send from our
servers to our members from being considered spam or junk.

For instance, we have activation emails that get sent out to new
members where they have to click on a url to activate their account.
Many times, users don't get these emails or they finally find them in
their junk/spam folders. Some people don't get them at all because
their ISP (for instance AOL) refuses to deliver the message and just
deletes it.

This is very frustrating because we get a lot of people complaining
about not getting their emails. I've run our email messages through
online content checkers and they come back as 100% clean.

Thanks.

Re: How to get emails from my site to not be considered spam

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PhxVyper writes:

> Hi,
>
> I'm seeking for assistance in preventing emails we send from our
> servers to our members from being considered spam or junk.
>
> For instance, we have activation emails that get sent out to new
> members where they have to click on a url to activate their account.
> Many times, users don't get these emails or they finally find them in
> their junk/spam folders. Some people don't get them at all because
> their ISP (for instance AOL) refuses to deliver the message and just
> deletes it.
>
> This is very frustrating because we get a lot of people complaining
> about not getting their emails. I've run our email messages through
> online content checkers and they come back as 100% clean.

1. Do not stuff your acknowledgement messages full of obnoxious HTML goo.
Plain text please.

2. Put the recipient's address in the To: header, and put a real return
address in the From: header

3. Audit your E-mail headers. Make sure your E-mail messages are properly
formatted in accordance to all the relevant MIME standards.

4. Verify that your mail server's IP address has properly-delegated
reverse/forward DNS. Use an SPF record for your domain.


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Re: How to get emails from my site to not be considered spam

PhxVyper wrote:

>I'm seeking for assistance in preventing emails we send from our
>servers to our members from being considered spam or junk.

It is difficult to offer constructive advice when we are only talking
about anonymous generalisations.

What is your actual domain and the name/IP address of the mail server
you use to send the mails? If you supplied that then people will be
able to see whether your mail server has a history of spamming or
abuse associated with it and whether or not that is a contributory
factor in blocking.

Many spam filters attach a diagnostic to the mails they block as spam
indicating reasons why it was blocked. Have you tried to obtain any of
those and find out what it is that the receiving mail systems are
objecting to?

Re: How to get emails from my site to not be considered spam

On Tue, 1 May 2007, PhxVyper wrote:

P>
P> This is very frustrating because we get a lot of people complaining
P> about not getting their emails. I've run our email messages through
P> online content checkers and they come back as 100% clean.
P>

Advise your recipients to change their spam blocking rules so that your
emails are not blocked. If they want to receive your emails, why are they
blocking them; it doesn't make sense?


--
Alan

( If replying by mail, please note that all "sardines" are canned.
However, unless this a very old message, a "tuna" will swim right
through. )

Re: How to get emails from my site to not be considered spam

> I'm seeking for assistance in preventing emails we send from our
> servers to our members from being considered spam or junk.

Make sure the original email sent out is as streamlined as possible. Plain
text and short. Include minimum information that appears to be marketing or
business related, other than a clear pointer which site this originated
from. I would also avoid including URLs.

The other suggestions are good, use an spf record, send To: the appropriate
person (even better, use their real name as you asked at signup time).

--
Jem Berkes
www.sysdesign.ca

SPF (was Re: How to get emails from my site to not be considered spam)

Jem Berkes wrote:

> The other suggestions are good, use an spf record,

I'm not sure an SPF record does much good for helping to get mail
through. Our site policy is to treat an SPF "pass" neutrally in most
cases. (We do give specific domains bonus-points for an SPF pass, but
not in the general case---spammers are publishing SPF records too.)

We penalize mail that has an SPF "fail", and I find that to be quite
useful.

Regards,

David.

Re: SPF (was Re: How to get emails from my site to not be considered spam)

On May 3, 2:02 pm, "David F. Skoll" wrote:
> Jem Berkes wrote:
> > The other suggestions are good, use an spf record,
>
> I'm not sure an SPF record does much good for helping to get mail
> through. Our site policy is to treat an SPF "pass" neutrally in most
> cases. (We do give specific domains bonus-points for an SPF pass, but
> not in the general case---spammers are publishing SPF records too.)
>
> We penalize mail that has an SPF "fail", and I find that to be quite
> useful.
>
> Regards,
>
> David.

Thanks everyone. I'll look into these suggestions. One thing I did
test is I sent one of these emails through spamassassin. It came back
as a score of 0. I checked our domain and IP address and neither are
listed in any of the lists as being suspicious or blacklists.

I'll check out SPF as well.