I've recently had to go through the whole AOL white listing process. Our mail server was experiencing a temporary block at AOL's mail servers. I phoned AOL and they explained that this temporary block was due to the fact that a certain percentage of the mail we were sending was being reported as spam. They weren't sure of the exact threshold to trigger this block, and were cagey as to the reporting spam process.
I went through the white list application, which was relatively painless. Your emails must conform to their standards, which basically means putting contact details on them, and clear instructions on how to be remove from the list. There also needs to be a reverse DNS entry for the mail server. To be sure of acceptance we made our newsletter conform to all of the requirements exactly and we were added to the white list. Part of this process is being added to a list which returns emails that have been reported as spam. Even with the white list status, I get around 5-10% reported as spam. We've even had end users complain that they've signed up for the email and haven't received it. I'm not sure how exactly the default spam setup on AOL works as these bounced emails seem to be random, as opposed to the same user bouncing the email back. We've got a list of around 50,000 subscribers to our newsletter, and the only trouble we have is with AOL. Our newsletter is written exactly as AOL requires, yet still some are being bounced back as spam from users, and they complain about not receiving them. You would think conforming to their standards meant that their default spam settings wouldn't reject your emails! Gavin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Purchase from House of Fusion, a Macromedia Authorized Affiliate and support the CF community. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=37 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:182479 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
