My Emails Are Not Being Delivered Black Lists And White Lists
Explained

My Emails Are Not Being Delivered Black Lists and White Lists
Explained
by Karen Fegarty
Over 40% of all emails within your marketing campaign are not
being delivered You may not even be aware of this, as many ISPs
will not send back a bounce message In fact if you are sending
messages to AOL customers, AOL is now blocking over 80% of the
messages that come into their servers
One of the main reasons that this is occurring is that your IP
or Domain may be Black Listed All major ISP’s and many
corporate email systems now check against Black Lists and will
refuse to deliver any emails that come from an IP that is Black
Listed
But what exactly is a Black List?
DNS black lists are lists of domains and IP’s that are known to
originate Spam Many anti-spam software programs used by
corporations and ISP’s use these lists to control Spam by
refusing any email that originates from one of these domains or
IPs
Unfortunately there are many instances of false positives as
there are few checks and often little objectivity when listing a
particular IP In order for a black list to know that a domain
is sending Spam, the offence must be reported It may take only
one report via a web form for you to be listed
You may be listed maliciously through one complaint of a client,
or that of a competitor Many Black Lists, as well, will list
not only the IP that is suspected as spamming, but willlist any
IPs in that range of addresses If someone using the same
Internet provider as you is accused of spamming and is placed on
a Black List, you may be listed as well
DNS blacklists are usually maintained by anti-spam organizations
or by individuals
What are some of the most popular Black Lists that ISPs are
using?
Some of these include:
MAPS – http://wwwmail-abusecom/ Spam Cop -
http://wwwspamcopnet/ SpamHaus – http://wwwspamhausorg/
SPEWSorg – http://wwwspewsorg/ ORDBorg – Open Relay Database
- http://wwwordborg/
How do I know if I am on a Black List?
Unfortunately, you really can’t be 100% sure if you have been
black listed You may be on someone’s black list and not even
know it There are, however, ways to check most of the lists
One way is to check your server log when sending your campaigns
You will often see an email bounce notice indicating that the
message has bounced because you are on a particular black list
Many of the major black lists also allow you to enter your IP
into a form on their site These checks will tell you whether
you appear, or not, on their list
A useful tool, is the Black List Monitor
http://wwwblacklistmonitorcom – It automatically checks your
IP against most of the major Black Lists and tells you which
ones you are listed on It also gives you help in getting
removed All your IPs are constantly monitored for any changes,
listings, or delistings
But what is a White List and how can this help?
Many corporations and ISPs will create a white list This is a
list of trusted IP addresses that they feel confident will not
send spam to their customers If your IP is listed on a
particular white list then your email messages will be delivered
to the destination email address It is important for reputable
marketers to work with the major ISP’s such as AOL to ensure
that you are on their white list For most, it can be a lengthy
process, but well worth your efforts
Other third-party email certification programs now exist Bonded
sender wwwbondedsendercom is one such agency By joining
Bonded Sender, senders improve deliverability rates and
differentiate their brand Senders go through a formal
application process, adhere to email standards and post a bond
against potential complaints Major ISPs such as MSN/Hotmail now
check against Bond Sender’s white list and allow these email to
pass
Knowing if you are on a black list, getting removed if you are
and getting established on white lists is critical if you are
email marketing The more messages delivered equals more sales!

Tags | bounce, database, instances, internet, lists, marketing, message, messages, offence, positives, programs, relay, result, sending, systems