Is my ISP blacklisted?
I'm a good person, I swear. I hate it when people don't like me. I hate being made to feel like I've been bad when I'm not.If I've been blacklisted... what did I do to deserve it? So first let me say that I'm not sure if I have been. I cannot send my own salemail to my own "info@redhatsbyyou.com". Is it possible that my web provider blacklisted it's own dedicated server? You wouldn't think it could be. And does my server do that blacklisting? I don't think so, and so I did some research...
I went to Habeas (http://www.habeas.com) and had a free reputation check report run, and we have not been blacklisted..good news! But from all that I've read, all over the web, if you do get the bad report card, it's virtually impossible to undo the mess. So the answer is prevention. We have a large list of email subscribers, and despite the fact that we are clear that we send out a weekly promo, we still get women who are get frustrated at our weekly email. They hit the spam button.. that spam button makes me furious!
Prevention, from what I can tell, involves having a simple opt out (ours could be better) in the email. It also seems important to have an email address confirmation. For instance, when you subscribe, you get an email asking you to confirm this subscription. I find these annoying, so I didn't turn it on. I guess I need to! I am actually doing more of what I shouldn't than I should! And yet somehow I'm ok.. so far anyway.
There's much more to it than just that! And I've made it no secret that I need to upgrade my mailing list management software. I will be upgrading my server this weekend, so it's time to make the changes. I need to pour through my own blog to see the recommendations by many readers over the past year. I have to admit that I really can't stand making changes like that. I find that stuff difficult to do since I maintain my own server and feel like I am vastly underutilizing it.
ok, it's time to go retrieve my kids from school. I've had Halloween candy staring me in the face all day. Halloween candy is haunting to a stay at home mom, .... "EAT, EAT!!! Before the kids come home...." I have to admit, I have been listening...
1 Comment
Aurea says:
Hello Michelle,
Most ISPs do not allow "generic" email addresses through, it's not blacklisting, just a way of keeping spam more controllable.
If you changed the "info" in the email address to an actual name, like Michelle@redhatsbyyou.com, and set up that email address for your account, you'd find that your emails will all go through.
As far as people hitting the spam button, they usually do this because they don't want weekly emails, it's like you're always in their face. Even if they like your company, getting an email every week feels pushy. So after just deleting it so many times, finally they just hit the spam button to make it stop.
You could offer an option to receive the newsletter weekly or monthly, or only when there are seasonal sales. Then customers feel they have a choice and will look forward to your news.
Opt in-opt out are important; if your service provider finds out you don't have that, then they can stop your emails because it is a protection of privacy issue and it is technically spamming. You have to be able to prove that each person on your list gave you permission to email them.
Just sayin'.
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