|
All about Black
Lists and White Listing -- Delivering your
email messages can be challenging.
High-volume spammers have made it difficult for
even the smallest marketer to reach their
customers. Every email marketer must
understand and overcome these challenges.
Each of the ISPs
utilize their own filtering algorithms, software
black lists and processes – so it is not
uncommon to have very different results across
ISPs. The first step is to actually
identify if you are having one time, sporadic or
on-going issues at specific ISPs and domains. If
you have on-going performance of filtering
problems it may be that your IP address or that
of you email service provider is on either an
internal ISP block list or a third-party black
list being used by the ISP. Alternatively, it is
likely that your messages contain improper HTML
coding or consistently used content that the ISP
is filtering.
Some ISPs have
white lists, so it is important to be a “good
emailer,” follow best practices and get your IP
address white listed.
But in general
it is not a matter of “getting past” these
filters, but rather determining what’s causing
your messages to be filtered and then correcting
the problem.
What are
black lists? A black list is a list of
domain names or IP addresses of known spammers.
There are numerous black lists maintained by
various companies and organizations. Most
companies end up on a black list if they are
sending spam and one or more of the recipients
forwards the spam message to the blacklisting
service. Unfortunately, a legitimate
subscriber/customer might not recognize your
email and incorrectly get you on the blacklist.
This is why it is vital that all your messages
prominently display who your are so there is not
doubt that you are sending legitimate email.
How do I get
removed from black lists? Most
public black lists will have their de-listing
criteria and process described on their Web
site. Typically it's simply a matter of
contacting the administrators of the list and
complying with their requirements. The easiest
way to stay off black lists is to never appear
on them in the first place. Through following
email subscription best practices, such as
confirmed opt-in methods and continuous bounce
and complaints management, your risk of being
black listed is greatly lessened.
What is
White Listing? Whitelisting is a
process whereby you prove to a specific
organization or ISP that you are sending
legitimate email messages. They in turn
add your domain and IP to their whitelist which
allows your messages to pass through all email
filters/blocking mechanisms.
The challenge
with whitelisting is that it is virtually
impossible to get whitelisted with every
ISP/company. On top of that they all have
different guidelines.
Understanding AOL. Because AOL is such
a large ISP, chances are you will have a large
number of messages going to AOL. It is
vital that you get whitelisted in order to
successfully send messages to AOL. AOL has
setup a Whitelist Guidelines page with more
information.
http://postmaster.aol.com/guidelines/sender.html
The important
things to consider with AOL are:
- Your list
must be clean. Attempting to send to bad
addresses will get you blocked. You
should immediately unsubscribe any addresses
that bounce.
- The IP
address of your sending server must have a
reverse DNS record pointing back to the Fully
Qualified Domain Name of the computer.
- Your server
must have a fixed IP address.
- Clearly
identify your company in all email messages,
provide an opt-out method, and immediately
remove people who opt-out.
Following AOL's
strict guidelines will also get your messages
through to many other ISP's.
|
