Are you a Spammer?

Spam uses up bandwidth. It clogs mail boxes. And people don't want to receive it. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have become aggressive in filtering emails.

As a professional business person marketing online, it's a given that you don't Spam your customers. But, are you wondering why your emails get filtered out, since you are sending them to a legitimate opt-in list? You may have even ended up on a blacklist through no fault of your own, even though you were attempting to follow the rules for responsible email marketing.

The problem could be Spam filters. With the increase in Spam has come ever more powerful spam filters that try to guard against unsolicited emails. These email "watch dogs" are used by most ISP's as well as their customers. While this software does block out Spam, it can also block legitimate emails as well.

Understanding how Spam filters work can help prevent non-delivery problems and keep you from being labeled a 'spammer' unfairly.

Increasingly Sophisticated Filters Mean Less Emails Get Through

Many ISPs can automatically block emails that come from certain addresses (those on a "blacklist" of known spammers), and they will also filter out emails that contain certain trigger zwords in the subject line that have been frequently linked to Spam messages.

Even if your email gets past your customer's ISP, it may also have to get past the spam filter on your customer's email box. With increasingly sophisticated email programs, people can tell their mailboxes to automatically delete messages that have trigger words in the subject lines, or that come from the "wrong addresses".

How Spam filters work

Normally, email filters examine the words in the email "subject line". This is the header that you see when an email shows up in your email box. A good subject line can encourage people to actually click on and open an email (more on this in lesson seven), but you need to exercise care when creating your subject headings to prevent filtering.

More sophisticated anti-spam methods used by ISPs use a "point system" that identifies trigger phrases commonly used by Spam. If an email goes over the "points" it is filtered out and is never delivered to a customer.

Some of the more commonly used phrases that ISPs and mail clients filter out include:

Free!

50% off!

Click Here

Call now!

Subscribe

Earn $

Discount!

Eliminate Debt

Double your income

You're a Winner!

Reverses Aging

"Hidden"

Information you requested

"Stop" or "Stops"

Lose Weight

Multi level Marketing

Million Dollars

Opportunity

Compare

Removes

Collect

Amazing

Cash Bonus

Promise You

Credit

Loans

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Serious Cash

Search Engine Listings

The following problematic phrases can trigger some spam filters, or start adding "Spam points" to emails sent out, and should be avoided. These include:

Act Now!

All New

All Natural

Avoid Bankruptcy

As Seen On…

Buy Direct

Casino

Cash

Consolidate Your Debt

Special Promotion

Easy Terms

Get Paid

Guarantee, Guaranteed

Great offer

Give it away, Giving it away

Join millions

Meet Singles

MLM

No cost, No fees

Offer

One time

Online pharmacy

Online marketing

Order Now

Please Read

Don't Delete

Save up to

Time limited

Unsecured debt or credit

Vacation

Viagra

Visit our web site

While Supplies last

Why pay more?

Winner

Work at home

You've been selected

Using quotation marks, dollar signs and exclamation points in subject lines will frequently trigger mail filters, as well as using all capital letters (shouting). You should also never put a toll-free number in the subject line, since that will also cause your email to be labeled Spam. And never use a large font size.

The above lists aren't meant to be comprehensive, and only identify some of the more common words and phrases that trigger Spam filters. How to check? Send an email to yourself and some select friends with Spam filters first, before sending it out to your customers, and see if it makes it through. Or, go out and buy one of the better software programs that will highlight words that could be identified as Spam. If you depend on email marketing to bring traffic to your web site, it is well worth the investment.

Getting off of Blacklists

Even the most legitimate mailings may cause some customers to cry "Spam". They may forget signing up for your newsletter, or have selective memory about signing up to receive email
promotions in return for downloading that great free software at your web site.

In these cases, it can help to keep careful records of your opt-ins. If you get blacklisted by an ISP (or even yours, if you are accused of spamming!), show them your records: “on January 15, 2002, a customer using the email address memyselfandI@anyISP.com signed up for my newsletter from the IP address (give IP address)”. This lets the ISP know that you are responsible, and that someone from that ISP DID sign up to receive emails from you. In most cases, the "blacklisting" will be dropped.

By paying careful attention to subject lines and avoiding typical spam words and phrases that trigger email spam filters, your emails have a better chance of reaching your customers.

Again, having your own autoresponder on your own domain is the best way to stay clean of spam problems and blacklisted ISPs. See Parabots for our recommendation. These guys will even set it up on your domain for you in short order. See webhost for our recommended webhost. Most for less and super responsive and reliable!

Fred Raley
Fred@ABC-Success.Biz
Woodbridge, VA
(703) 730 1079