1) "The Truth About Emailing AOL, MSN, Yahoo!."

2) "Is the IronPort Whitelist Actually An Extortion Tactic Targeting Small, But Legitimate Email Marketers?"

3) "Classified Ads."

4) "Tell Us What You Think!"

My note last week generated quite a few questions from readers on deliver problems to specific ISPs. I thought today I would share these readers' questions and my answers as you too may encounter similar situations.

1) The first question was in regards to delivering email to AOL. The reader asked:

"As a firm in e-commerce which needs to send order confirmations and shipping confirmations to our customers, our real problem is AOL. Their subscriber base constitutes more than 45% of our customers and makes sending them email an overwhelming obstacle. What can we do to get our email delivered to AOL?"

My response:

Yes, you raise a good point about the difficulties in reaching AOL subscribers by email. Your email problems are the result of 2 potential issues. The first issue is proper configuration of your email server. AOL is very strict that the IP address of your mail server have a proper reverse DNS lookup. When your IP address is not properly configured, AOL will block your email.

You can check the reverse lookup of your sending IP address at the web site DNS Stuff - http://www.dnsstuff.com/

If your IP address does not have a reverse look-up contact your provider and request they put a reverse look-up in place. You can only set-up a reverse DNS look-up if you have a dedicated mail server. Desktop mail servers can not establish a reverse look-up and therefore you will be unable to send email to AOL.

AOL does have a resource site, you can use to make sure you're following their guidelines. See - http://postmaster.info.aol.com/ .

The second issue that can cause delivery problems with AOL is their spam reporting system. Every AOL user in their email reader has a button at the bottom of their mailbox which states: "Report Spam". They also have the "Report Spam" button displayed with the contents of every message.

When a user clicks the "Report Spam" button this information is stored by AOL. If you are sending an emailing to AOL members and a number of users click the "Report Spam" button in a short period of time, your email will be blocked.

After a certain time period, if no additional complaints are generated, AOL will then allow your email to come through again. If you continue to generate complaints, however, AOL's system will continue to block the email you are sending.

AOL's set-up, unfortunately is problematic for emailers. The difficulty is that the "Report Spam" button is directly next to the "Delete" this message button. As a result it is all too easy to click the wrong button. And I know it happens. I have had subscribers write to me apologizing that they accidentally hit the wrong button when they'd finished reading an issue and would I please keep them as subscribers.

In addition, the placement of the "Report Spam" button makes it very, very easy to complain - too easy some would say. As a result of being so easy, individuals rather than asking you directly to no longer be sent your email, instead click the "Report Spam" link to stop the email.

These individuals, in most cases probably mean no harm, they're just going with the easiest method to stop the email. And clicking the "Report Spam" button is easy.

As an emailer, you have no idea they're clicking the "Report Spam" button to stop your messages. The result is you keep sending these individuals email, the individuals report your email as spam and your email gets blocked.

What can you do?

Fortunately, AOL has set-up a system called a "Feedback Loop". As an emailer you can request to be notified when an AOL member clicks the "Report Spam" button. AOL will then send to you a copy of the message that was reported.

You can then review the message and manually remove that AOL member from your mailing list. By keeping your list clear of individuals who have clicked "Report Spam" about your emailings you'll dramatically improve your delivery to AOL.

You can request setting up a "Feedback Loop" at the AOL guidelines site - http://postmaster.info.aol.com/ .

I have found following these procedures does work to get our email delivered to our AOL subscribers. In those instances where I have had trouble I have been able to call their postmaster department (1.888.212.5537) and they have helped me to work out the issues.

2) The second question was in regards to delivering email to MSN/Hotmail. The reader asked:

"I heard that because Microsoft is going to use Ironport's Bonded Sender program, emailers will have to pay in order to send email to MSN and Hotmail users. Is this true?"

My response:

Before answering, let me give a quick recap of the Bonded Sender program, as it is a new development we're all still learning about. Essentially the Bonded Sender program offered by Ironport is an emailer reputation system.

Emailers apply to Ironport and pay a financial bond to be listed with them. The financial bond is debited if complaints are received about your email. ($20 a complaint.) In return for the bond, Ironport certifies you as a legitimate emailer and whitelists you. Once bonded your emails are able to bypass the spam filters of ISPs who use Ironport's whitelist. MSN and Hotmail now use Ironport.

Does this mean you have to be a Bonded Sender to email MSN and Hotmail users? No, not at all. You are still going to be able to email MSN and Hotmail addresses without paying anything. So do not panic.

Email sent from non-bonded senders will be delivered to MSN and Hotmail users, it will just have to pass through their spam filters. If your email message is free of spam triggers, it will go through to MSN and Hotmail.

If you decide to apply to Ironport and pay to become a Bonded Sender, then you do not have to worry about spam triggers in your messages. However, it is not a necessity to be a Bonded Sender to reach these users. Being a Bonded Sender will just save you the steps of checking your messages for triggers and then testing your emails deliverability to MSN, before distributing them to your list.

3) The third question was in regards to delivering email to Yahoo!. The reader asked:

"How do I prevent my email from being delivered to the Yahoo! "Bulk" folder?"

My response:

Yes, Yahoo! is definitely a difficult ISP to email. Yahoo! bases their "Bulk" criteria on a number of factors. Similarly to AOL, Yahoo! has a "Spam" button available in users' inboxes as well displayed with every message. Should your emails generate complaints, your email will be delegated to the "Bulk" folder.

In addition to the complaints, however, Yahoo! also keeps track of your email volume. Should you send too much email all at once, your email is likely going to either be blocked or dumped into the "Bulk" folder.

So how do your resolve the problem. First off I recommend following the guidelines Yahoo! has posted. See: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/spam/spam-17.html

Yahoo! notes the importance of sending to permission lists, promptly removing unsubscribes as well as addresses which bounce messages, maintaining an accurate reverse DNS listing and avoiding over mailing.

You can also contact Yahoo! and request they deliver your email to users inbox. See: http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/mail/cgi_bulkmail

In addition to these steps, here are some tips that will help.

When your subscribers sign-up for your list, instruct them to "whitelist" your "From" address by setting up a filter to deliver your email to their Yahoo! inbox. You can provide them with instructions or a link to Yahoo!'s help on filters. See: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/manage/manage-06.html

Further, send occasional requests to your Yahoo! subscribers, that if they're receiving your email in their "Bulk" folder, to please open the messages and click the "Not Spam" link. These reports are sent in to Yahoo! postmasters. As more users specify your email as "Not Spam" your delivery to all Yahoo! inboxes improves.

Lastly, send smaller amounts of email to Yahoo! addresses more slowly. By breaking your Yahoo! addresses into smaller list groups, under 500 a list and sending slowly you're less likely to trigger their volume filters. Keep in mind though, if your email is reported as "Spam" by users no matter how slowly you send it, your messages will end up in the "Bulk" folder.

Final Thoughts

I hope these answers have provided you with additional insight on getting your email delivered. One way to avoid some of these hassles is to use an email service provider. Your email service provider should be keeping tabs on delivery to AOL, MSN and Yahoo! addresses. They'll make sure email from their system gets through. You can then focus on keeping your email messages free of spam filter triggers and getting subscribers to "whitelist" you.

Of course, our SendFree autoresponder and list hosting service follows the steps I've outlined to ensure our email gets through. If you're looking for reliable delivery be sure to check us out. See - http://www.sendfree.com

It appears that Mr. Gates' prophetic prediction that charging marketers to send email across the Microsoft email networks (MSN and Hotmail) to cut down on Sp*m is about to come true. According to CIO Today, Microsoft is now employing "IronPort Anti-Spam Technology".

"IronPort" is a paid "white-list" for people who send "mass email" (including newsletter publishers, ezine publishers, affiliate managers, mini-course operators, and basically anyone who has a list of opt-in emails).

If you send any type of email where you do a broadcast to everyone on your list, this applies to you. If you want your email broadcasts to get through their filters, you must pay a hefty fee and post a "bond."

Here are some facts about this developing story:

    1. They charge by how much email you send a month, but the minimum charge is a:

• $375 Application Fee, plus
• $500 Annual License Fee, plus
• $500 "Bond" fee.

That's $1,375.00 just to get in the game! If you want to see the complete breakdown, go here https://www.bondedsender.com/fees.jsp

    2. If you go over the "complaint" threshold of 1 complaint per month, then they will debit $20 from your bond fee for each complaint to "fine" you for being naughty. Now that sounds good on the surface, but here's a scenario to try on for size:

Your competitor / enemy / Net "psycho" signs up for 50 free email accounts at HotMail and complains about you every month when you send your newsletter.

49 complaints (50 - 1 allowed complaint) times $20 a complaint comes out to $980 in fines. Now, can you dispute the fines? Sure, absolutely! But how much will you lose in time, energy and effort disputing the allegations? (My guess is, a whole lot more than that.)

You can check out all the "rules" here https://www.bondedsender.com/fees.jsp

Here are the details of the program straight from the horse's mouth... https://www.bondedsender.com

Here's my take on this whole thing (which dropped on me out of the blue today):

First, don't get me wrong... I hate spam with a passion! I spend at least an hour a day fighting it (down from 3 hours a day just a few weeks ago before I shut down about 2 dozen email addresses that got harvested by spambots over the last few years).

With that said, this whole "IronPort" thing sounds and smells to me like "white list" extortion. Why?

Here's the basic premise: "Pay to get your email through our filters, or else you run the very likely risk of not getting your email through at all". In fact, here's a *direct quote* from their website https://www.bondedsender.com/faqs/sender.jsp:

"What happens if I don't bond my email? You're rolling the dice and taking your chances with spam filters, black lists and bulk folders. Some days all of your email may be delivered; other days 30-50% could be blocked."

Kind of reminds you of a cheesy mafia movie on late night TV:

Me: "Hey Bugsy, what happens if I don't pay my 'protection' money this month? What if I stand up to you and refuse to pay?"

Bugsy: "Well, maybe nothin' will happen to you because the Boss ain't payin' attention when I tell him you decided not to pay. On the other hand, maybe I'll just smack you around a little bit... or maybe -- I'll BREAK YOUR LEG with this baseball bat! Go ahead and not pay us... then we'll see what happens!"

Now, back to my question: "Why should I have to pay a huge fee to send email to people who have opted in to my lists?"

The argument from Microsoft (and soon to be other ISP's) is that the uncontrolled spam on the web is costing them a lot of money to deliver email nobody wants to read.

Well, if that's the case, aren't email users shelling out cash or credit to pay their ISPs for email services (mine charges me $40 a month for cable), or paying for free services like HotMail or Yahoo Mail through viewing advertising on every page?

I was under the impression we were already paying to receive email... and last time I checked, there was no place to put a stamp!

Okay, even if we make it past that and we accept the argument that legitimate emailers should have to pay a fee in order to get on that big "whitelist in the sky" somewhere... there are still two very important considerations here:

    1. First, what about the little guy who starts doing really well? You know, the small newsletter publisher who puts out a great ezine or fr-e report or whatever, and gets a lot of subscribers and then wants to broadcast email to them on a regular basis?

Let's say they start making $20,000.00 a year from their ezine... are they now supposed to shell out 6-10% of their earnings in order to get their messages through? (And that's if they never get a fine!)

Do they have to be penalized for being successful? Apparently so if this system gains widespread acceptance by all the big ISP's and email service providers!

    2. Second, what about the high potential for abuse at the hands of unethical competitors and just plain jerks that populate the Internet! I know it might seem hard to believe, but there are psychos out there who will sign up for a bunch of free email accounts just so they can make trouble.

(This is not paranoia! I had a user who signed up, definitely opted-in from my website, had the emails routed through a SpamCop address so I got blacklisted by SpamCop until I could get it straightened out. Oh, and guess who owns SpamCop... IronPort, that's who!)

Now, some idiot making waves with 100 email accounts won't put a dent in the pockets of most big players in the email arena... for them it'll just be a business expense.

But for the case of the "little" guy, fighting that potential abuse and those fees could seriously cripple and even kill a fledgling enterprise... and that, in my opinion, is a serious problem. Also in my opinion, all this is going to do is cut out the little guy and make it easier for big companies to email the hell out of the rest of us.

A small newsletter publisher will find it cost-prohibitive to pay for the service, and some giant company will just keep pumping the email out because they have the staff and resources to fight the inevitable complaints.

And let's face it, if a big company is paying a $10,000.00 a year licensing fee plus posting a $4,000.00 bond, how aggressive do you think the IronTrust people will really be to get rid of them? In my opinion, not very.

In conclusion

Despite my ranting, I actually think this is a step in the right direction (albeit an inconvenient step). Something has to be done to fight spam. However, at this point, this whole system has (in my opinion) too many unanswered questions, especially for us little guys. Namely:

---> Do I really need to do this if I'm a little guy operating and growing a newsletter?

---> What happens if I get unfounded spam complaints?

---> At what level does it make financial sense for me to do this?

---> What if my newsletter isn't a big profit generator... am I supposed to give up the revenue I do create just to get my emails through?

To their apparent credit, Yahoo! is also trying to pioneer a solution, but this one doesn't appear (at this point) like it will cost publishers or subscribers any money (and I like the sound of that). http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys

But with so much at stake (on both sides), this issue is a far cry from any satisfactory resolution. Stay tuned for further updates as events warrant...

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4) "Tell Us What You Think!"

Dear friend, I would love to hear what you think of this issue of The Internet Marketing Profits^™ newsletter. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you'd like to share with me, please send those, too -- just email me right away! And don't forget to check out the previous issues at the Internet Marketing Profits Newsletter Archive.

Warmest Regards,

Valeriu S. Popescu, Editor and Publisher
The Internet Marketing Profits^™ Newsletter

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