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 It’s hard to get your email
through to clients, friends and family with all the Spam
Filtering going on these days. If you are a Home Based
Business owner that sends out a newsletter regularly
you’ll want to keep the following tips in mind to make
certain your Work At Home Newsletter is getting through
all the Spam Filters.
Spam is defiantly a problem. At one time I was receiving
almost 300 per day, spending a good part an hour sifting
through the mass of junk was more than I could tolerate.
So I too enlisted the help of a Spam Filter – Spam
Arrest.
I do worry about losing out on emails that are important
and interesting, but this is the price we all have to pay
for those Spammers that have abused and are abusing the
Internet.
Most Spam Filters use a Blacklist – these are clusters
of email addresses and domain names that are known for
sending out a lot of Spam. Recipients of Spam generate
most Blacklists’. So your newsletter could fall victim
to a click happy Spam identifier that clicks your email
into the dreaded Blacklist vault.
Spam Assassin, Cloudmark’s SpamNet and Spam Arrest all
use different methods of blocking spam. Spam Assassin uses
a point system to conclude whether or not an email is
Spam. If your Newsletter scores high it will surely be
treated as spam and blocked. SpamNet blocks Spam two ways;
the first, filters email based on keywords like
“Free”, and the second allows users to mark email and
submit identified Spam to be blocked to other users of
SpamNet.
My personal favorite is Spam Arrest, because it offers you
total control over your inbox. You can decide who is
allowed to send you email by importing your personal
address book, or entering your known and approved contact
addresses directly into the system.
Emails from unknown senders will receive an auto-reply
message containing a "challenge" -- if or when
the sender completes the challenge (the response), their
email is forwarded to your inbox, and they are then added
to your authorized sender list.
The challenge is easy for people, but impossible for
automated systems (i.e. spambots) to complete.
The Spam Arrest challenge/response system effectively
blocks all the spam while still allowing friends, family
and trusted contacts to email you without the risk of
being filtered out by imprecise software systems.
So How Do You Keep Your Newsletter From Being Blocked?
Here are some tips to help your Newsletter reach your
subscribers:
DO NOT send your newsletter unsolicited. Be sure your
customers have requested to be on your subscriber
distribution list – using an auto responder, like Aweber,
that requires your subscribers to opt-in and confirm that
then have requested your Newsletter will help keep you off
the blacklists.
Use your Newsletter’s name in the subject line. Your
subscribers should recognize your Newsletters name. Using
subject lines that are full of hype and so called trigger
words may get your Newsletter blocked by the Spam filters.
NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. This will surely get the Spam
filter red flags raised and your email forwarded to the
dreaded blacklists.
Words like “Free”, “Limited Offer”, “Money”
even “home business” will engage most Spam filters.
The simplest words like “remove” should be avoided as
well. Use “unsubscribe” in your directions to
subscribers that want to stop receiving your Newsletter.
Spammers most often use free email addresses – so you
should avoid using them at all costs. Send your Newsletter
from a reputable domain name – one that matches your own
website would be best.
Never send attachments with your Newsletter. Attachments
put a fear in most email recipients and will tag your
email as Spam.
Your Newsletter will most likely have words within the
text that trigger Spam filters – these words like
“Free” and “Home Business” can be easily disguised
by adding a period or hyphen between two letters – do
not over do it though. It will not be long before this
tactic will be a trigger for the top Spam filters, so keep
up with all aspects of the best Spam filters so your
Newsletter will reach your subscribers.
Copyright 2005 – Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC
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