AIM

This is an anagram of AOL Instant Messenger. You do not actually have to use AOL as your Internet Service Provider in order to use AIM. The program is downloadable by any Internet user. AIM is available as a free download at www.aim.com.

Internet messenger services are a great way to keep in contact with your affiliates, wholesalers, partners, or assistants.

Why Is My Email Being Reported As Spam?!

A woman recently signed up for a mailing list my friend owns. She received the verification email and clicked the link inside which told my friend’s email system that it was OK to send mail.

Now, let’s stop for a minute.

By following the directions in the email, the subscriber opted into the mailing list twice: First by filling out the form with her name and email address on my friend’s site and then by clicking the link in the email. This is called confirmed or verified opt-in and it is the current industry standard for insuring that only people who ask for emails from your list receive them.

So, back to the story.

The woman received the first email from the list — and promptly reported it as spam, using the spam button inside her email account (this “feature” is available on Yahoo, Aol and Hotmail accounts, among others).

A few days later, the subscriber emailed my friend and asked her why she had not received any mail from the list. My friend chuckled to her self (I imagine!), explained to the woman what had happened and helped her fix the problem.

The next time the woman received an email from my friends, list, she reported it as spam too!

The morale of this story: Allowing users to determine what is spam sounds like a great idea. Most of us who have been online for awhile and involved in ecommerce know what spam looks like when we see it. The problem is that some people out there do not know what spam really is and mistakenly report legitimate emails. Some people hit the spam button when they really mean to hit the delete button. And then there are people who receive your email, decide they don’t like what they are reading, or are in a bad mood or don’t like the color of your website, so they hit the spam button.

Next thing you know, your emails are landing in all your customer’s spam boxes! And if the spam reporting service blocks the IP associated with your email, instead of the domain name, everyone on the server where your site is hosted will find their emails landing in spam boxes!

What does this mean? Incorrect usage of spam buttons by anyone with an email account may contribute to why you can’t send your legitimate non-spam email.

What does this mean for the average product seller, who just wants to keep in touch with her customers?

1. Do unto others… When you receive an email that you asked for, it is not spam. Please do not report it as spam. Just click the unsubscribe link at the bottom and remove yourself from the list. Only report email that you know for sure you did not ask to receive. Only unasked-for email is spam.
2. Please note that unwanted email is NOT spam. If you asked for it, it is a legitimate email, even if you decide you don’t want it now, or if you decide in five months you don’t want it. Unsubscribe or delete. False spam reports hurt everyone. (I know…I can’t say this enough!)
3. Teach your customers to add your email address to their contact list (also know as safe or whitelist) or address book, so that their email filter/spam blocker knows that they want to receive the email.
4. Report any spam notification messages you receive (messages stating that your email has been rejected) to your ISP or web host. If you are a Watersweb client and you are sending email from your domain account, report your issue to the Helpdesk, including the rejection message you received.

[tags]mailing list, confirmed opt-in, verified opt-in, spam, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail,safe list, whitelist[/tags]