Apply for Whitelisting and Sender Authentication

Whitelisting and Sender Authentication have become crucial to high delivery rates because spam detection is replete with false positives. As an example, suppose that a content filter were to automatically reject any email with the term "free" in the subject line. The intention would be to reject email with subjects such as:

However, such a spam filter would also mistakenly block legitimate email from nonprofits to their members, with titles such as:

Fortunately, sophisticated content filters block email based not on a single word but rather a weighted or heuristic scoring system. Innocuous terms such as "bus," "whole wheat," and "senate" wouldn't trigger any spam alarms. But if an email included the terms "free," "diet pill," and "bonus" accompanied by 15 hyperlinks, that would probably trigger a filter. Since it's impossible for filter-programmers to anticipate every situation, plenty of legitimate email still gets mistakenly diverted to spam folders based on an unfortunate choice of words.

But spam-like content is just one of the many reasons that your email could get blocked. Another common reason is mailing too many too fast. Think of this way: Personal email is typically sent to only a handful of people at a time and is delivered inefficiently, opening no more than a few simultaneous connections between an outbound mail server and inbound mail servers, with gaps of minutes or hours between connections. On the other hand, spammers typically send out millions of emails at a time, grouped efficiently, opening several simultaneous connections between their outbound mail servers and the recipient domain's inbound mail servers - requiring huge capacity to handle the influx of mail. When a sender unnaturally taxes the inbound mail servers of an Internet Service provider, such as Yahoo or AOL, the Internet Service Providers often defend themselves and their customers by blocking or blackholing the email. The point is: As your email list grows, your email faces increased risk of rejection if your mailing techniques begin to resemble the techniques of a spammer.

The solution is to apply to whitelists and pro bono Sender Certification, and if necessary, pay for further certification. Start by applying to the whitelists of the Internet Service Providers that host at least 5% of the email addresses on your mailing list. Whitelisting information is available from each of their postmaster groups. For instance:

The next step is Sender Authentication or even Sender Certification.

Like postage for snail mail, Sender Certification shifts the cost of delivering email from the recipient to the sender. The benefit is that your legitimate email will get improved delivery to recipient inboxes.)

Goodmail CertifiedEmail, http://goodmail.com, charges 0.4 cents per email for its Sender Certification services and is distinguished by having inbox deliverability deals with both Yahoo and AOL.

However, good results for a flat fee are also possible via Sender Authentication services such as Habeas (http://habeas.com), SuretyMail (http://www.isipp.com/aol-suretymail.php) and Sender Score Certified (http://senderscorecertified.com).

The best deal is offered by AOL's Pro Bono Email Accreditation Service for Qualifying Non-Profits. In their own words:

"Through the pro bono email accreditation program, qualifying non-profit organizations - and qualifying non-profit advocacy organizations - receive the full functionality of AOL's email system, including having all images and web links enabled in emails, at no charge to either the sender or to the recipient. The program is in many ways modeled after AOL's CertifiedMail program, which is offered to commercial email senders for a fee.

The non-profit program is available through two of the Internet's leading email accreditation partners - Habeas and ISIPP SuretyMail. Senders who become accredited by Habeas or ISIPP SuretyMail and continue to adhere to AOL mailing policies on a continued basis, can expect reliable, efficient, and effective inbox delivery: