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SPAM
Why
Is Everyone Picking On My Mail Server?
By: Trina L.C.
Schiller
Why can't I subscribe using my
e-mail address? That is a complaint I hear every single day. People write
all of the time wondering why their big name mail servers, AOL, Yahoo,
Hotmail, etc. are not being allowed by the businesses they wish to sign up
with or subscriber to. You'd think that these big shot mail clients would
be accepted everywhere, like VISA. Well,
these guys may be winning the war on SPAM, or so they think, but the end
result is that you can't sign up to much other than lotteries and
sweepstakes sites with them anymore. Why? Because their over zealous SPAM
filters usually reject the e-mail that you do want as well as the junk you
don't. But
how can that be, you ask? To understand the answer to that, you must
understand how these fancy filters work. They don't just look at the
domains that mail comes from, they quickly scan the subject line and
content for key words or phrases that could be considered Unsolicited
Commercial E-mail, (UCE or SPAM). Remember
all of those HOT headlines that you were told to use to get your reader's
attention? Well, those are the very words these filters look for nowadays.
The best words are now the worst words you can use. Have you noticed
recently that people are playing with the word FREE, so that it looks like
FR^E, or some other variation? Well, that is to try to fool the filter.
FREE happens to be the number one word that most mail filters look for,
not just in the subject line, but throughout the whole document. Another
thing that filters look at is file size. If you subscribe to an e-zine or
newsletter, particularly one that is mailed in HTML format, it is more
than likely to get caught in the filter. HTML files are much larger than
plain text files, and filters discriminate against larger files. More and
more, advertisements are being sent in HTML format; therefore, filters are
weeding them out along with the HTML mail that you have opted to receive.
(Funny thing though... the filters never seem to catch the blank e-mails
that are over 100KB and loaded with health hazards. Go figure...) Ok, so
now you know a little more about what filters look for, but how does this
effect you and the publisher that mails to you? Quite simply put, when
your mail client rejects an e-mail sent by a publisher, it is logged in
the server's brain someplace. If a certain e-mail address is logged too
many times, a SPAM complaint is filed, and the person with the offending
e-mail address is black listed, or worse; their e-mail account is taken
away. Since publishers can not afford to lose their mailing client, they
are forced to impose restrictions on what domains they can allow to
subscribe. E-mail clients that have a severe history of bouncing fall to
this as well, because excessive bouncing can have the same effect on the
publisher as the SPAM filters do. This is due to the simple fact that if
publisher is sending a lot of mail that is bouncing, the mail client (this
time the publisher's own) assumes that they are SPAMMING. Publishers
and safe list owners do not impose these restrictions to be a pain in the
you-know-where. It is self-preservation. Certain companies, such as Aweber,
have a one-bounce rule, which their users have no control over. If an
e-mail bounces more than once, the address is removed from the system
automatically. There is no discrimination here, it doesn't matter why the
mail bounces, just that it does. (That is the reason you are always
reminded to keep your mailbox clean, and DO NOT USE AN AUTORESPONSE with
the e-mail address you use for subscriptions, not even to notify your
publishers that you're on vacation. (You may think it is a courtesy to
send a thank you response automatically, but I know, for myself anyway,
that I don't have time to go through my mailbox and see all of the,
"Thank you for your e-mail. I will read it later," letters.) If
it's (mailbox) full, mail bounces. If mail bounces, the address is
deleted. It's as simple as that.) So don't be hard on the list owners that
require you to not subscribe with certain domains, they are just playing
by your e-mail client's rules. I can
forgive a full mailbox from time to time, but if an address bounces
repeatedly, or I get autoresponses, the name is dropped from the list for
my own protection. Now you know why. One
question I keep asking is this: Why do people sign up to newsletters with
an autoresponder anyway? No one is going to read the ads sent to the
responder, and the offending autoresponder address is going to fill up
with confirmation e-mails and whatnot. It's like playing telephone tag
with an answering machine
that is never checked for messages. Now there is a big waste of time! Incidentally,
AOL and Yahoo are the worst I have ever experienced when it comes to
filtering. That is why new subscribers are not allowed to use those
domains, and I have asked others to re-subscribe with a different address.
Trina L.C. Schiller is the proprietor and publisher of TLC Promotions and The Trii-Zine Ezine, a Team Leader for Honeyfrog.com and the Owner of SugarAnt.com. Her online presence began in the year 2000, with the creation of TLC Promotions, and the first issue of The Trii-Zine followed in September of 2001. Her specialties include network marketing, team building and of course, writing and publishing.
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