Some White Listing Essentials

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If you have been white listed with a particular operator, it means that the email you send always gets through. No more getting caught in spam filters! But how do you accomplish this goal? Keep reading.

"Reputation is everything; guard it with your life."
-- Robert Greene

In a previous article I wrote about aligning yourself with block lists, specifically how to avoid being tagged a spammer. Since then I have discovered that most white lists have certain things they look for, and if you discover that most of your clients are with a small number of operators, then it is always better to be on their list of acceptable email senders. In the earlier article I talked about things to avoid so that you will not be considered a spammer; here I will talk about things to do so that if you apply to be on a white list (list of acceptable senders to a particular ESP/ISP) you will be accepted in an expedited fashion.

Email Techniques in Brief

Ideally, if you don’t out source your email creation and sending, you should have a single person responsible for your email campaign. Other individuals in your organization should act as members of your email team. But if you send a large number of emails you will have problems ranging from the technical (unsubscribe requests are not being obeyed) to the human (somebody blacklisting your IP address).

Not having a single person responsible for your email activities will cause conflict when difficult situations arise, and if a major mistake was made, there will be nobody accountable for correcting it and making sure it does not happen again. There are as many white lists as there are web mail providers, and in some cases some DNSBL also offer DNSWL services (WL for White list), for example MAPS (mail abuse prevention systems).

You want to be an accepted member of these various white lists. To do this you must be perceived in a certain way and pass certain requirements (some of them quite stringent). Let's take a look at some models I came across while researching this topic.