Words to strike fear into the heart of any
Email Marketer
"You've been blacklisted."
What Does this Mean?
Basically your sending IP address has been listed by a
popular blacklist as likely to send Spam and therefore
they have listed your email address on their
"blacklist."
Once this occurs, mail administrators
and individuals that use this list as an IP block list will
not take receipt of your email, send it to a junk folder,
delete it etc.
Who Manages These Blacklists and why
do they think I send Spam when we are fully Can Spam
Compliant?
Spam like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If an
independent group thinks that your message has some
spammy characteristics they may or may not add you to
their list. A number of the blacklists select with an
algorithm that is independent of human selection.
Bottom line selection can be arbitrary and every
legitimate marketer should be aware of this potential
delivery rate pitfall.
What are the main Blacklists?
There are hundreds of blacklists out
there, however there are 10 or so that are used the
most by mail administrators;
1.Open Relay Database
2.Spam and Open Relay Blocking System
3.Spam Prevention Early Warning System
4.Vipul's Razor
5.Pyzor
6.Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse
7.Spamhaus
8.SpamCop Blocking List
9.MAPS
10.SpamFire
Each of these uses a slightly different
technology to identify spam; it's a very useful way for
diligent mail administrators to control incoming
email.
How do I check if I am Blacklisted?
We recommend testing an independent email delivery
service. One that offers a powerful free trial is
http://www.emailreach.com
Here you can test your mail server against the most
popular blacklists and ensure that currently you are not
listed as spam.
What Do I Do If I think I am
Blacklisted?
First of all check if you are or not. Use a service like
www.emailreach.com. Once confirmed that you have
been wrongly assigned as spam there are number of
things you can do. We strongly recommend you
working to understand what characteristic caused you
to be listed, and working to remove this trait from your
campaigns. Typical issues are incorrect mail
administrator settings, using a non-dedicated
deployment machine, sending large volumes of mail in
short periods. Once this is corrected reach out to the
blacklist and request to be whitelisted. This often is
easier if a third party request on your behalf.
Whitelisting takes time far better to avoid blacklists in
the first place.
How Often Should I check my email
reputation with the Blacklists?
We recommend you testing with the primary blacklists
at least twice a month.
What other types of delivery issues can
my email encounter?
Apart from being listed with Blacklists another key area
of issue are ISP level filters and mail administrator
software and hardware for email delivery. Consumers
also have a myriad of anti spam software installed on
their machines that blocks valid email.
For More on Blacklists read
http://www.sorbs.net/
http://razor.sourceforge.net/
http://www.ordb.org/
http://www.spamhaus.org/
http://www.emailreach.com/