In the side
conversations at the founders brunches, it seems that all people can talk about
is invite deliverable.   The most
important subset of invite deliverable is email deliverable.   Many B2C companies go viral by convincing
current users to upload their address books and email their friends.   You can do all the viral tuning you want,
but if your emails are going to someone's spam filter, they ain't gonna see
your genius.   And that's a shame.

 

So what to
do?

1. check if
you are on any blacklists.   Three sites
I like are:

– http://spamblock.outblaze.com/spamchk.html

– www.dnsstuff.com

– www.us.sorbs.net/lookup.shtml

 

2.  make sure you can be accepted by carriers by
setting up SPF, Sender ID, and DomainKeys/DKIM.   To get more information on these, check out:

–         
www.openspf.org

– Email Authentication

 

Then follow
these steps:

– check your current configuration: http://senderid.espcoalition.org/

– set up SPF/Sender ID: http://old.openspf.org/wizard.html

– set up DomainKeys/DKIM: http://domainkeys.sourceforge.net/

 

 

3. Monitor
your emails and make sure you unsubscribe anyone that hits the spam key.   Some good services to sign up for are:

– Abuse.net: www.abuse.net

– Spamcop: www.spamcop.net

 

 

4. Set up
feedback loop (FBL)

– MSN/Hotmail: http://postmaster.msn.com/Services.aspx

http://postmaster.msn.com/snds/

– AOL: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/fbl/index.html

 

 

5. Get
whitelisted/remove yourself from blacklists

– Yahoo: http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/mail/cgi_bulkmail

– Microsoft: set up FBL: http://postmaster.msn.com/Services.aspx
and http://postmaster.msn.com/snds/

– AOL: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/whitelist/index.html

– Gmail: none 
(dohhhh!)

– Earthlink: email open-relay@mindspring.com or noc@corp.earthlink.net

– Bellsouth: email dsl_help@bellsouth.net or postmaster@bellsouth.net.

– Bell.ca: email ispsupport@bell.ca

– Netzero: http://www.unitedonline.net/postmaster/whitelisted.html

– Excite: http://newfb.excite.com/feedback.jsp?key=exbnc

– Verizon: http://www2.verizon.net/micro/whitelist/

– AT&T: email rbl@abuse-att.net,
postmaster@att.net, or http://worldnet.att.net/general-info/mail_info/block_inquiry.html

– Mail.com: check http://spamblock.outblaze.com/spamchk.html
and email postmaster@outblaze.com

– Mac.com: email postmaster@mac.com

– USA.net:
email postmaster@usa.net

– Road Runner: http://security.rr.com/RRUnblockRequest.htm

– SORBS: http://www.us.sorbs.net/cgi-bin/support

 

6. Monitor
your email deliverability:

            – DeliveryMonitor: www.deliverymonitor.com

           

7. Pay for
professional whitelisting (not recommended for startups on a tight budget
unless email deliverability is truly your lifeblood):

            -Habeas: www.habeas.com

            -SenderScoreCertified:
www.senderscorecertified.com

 

8. Ask your
users to add your company’s email address to their address book and to
whitelist you

 

9.) Other

– Zone File: make sure this is accurate and doesn’t
have errors (check with your sys admin)

– Privacy policy:
There should be a link from all sites to a privacy policy

– Unsubscribe
links – web: Ensure
that unsubscribe links are placed on all the homepages of sites the domains of
which are used as senders for bulk email

– Unsubscribe links – email: Ensure unsubscribe links are
placed in all emails to make them CANSPAM compliant

– Civic Address: Ensure your business civic address
is placed at the bottom of all mailings to make them CANSPAM compliant.

– Unsubscribe Headers: see: http://lashback.typepad.com/main/2006/09/the_secrets_of_.html

– X-headers: Precedence list / Precedence bulk
– consider implementing these.

 

10. And
read one of the best blogs on this topic:

– http://blog.dogster.com/2006/11/29/sending-email-is-a-big-headache-for-popular-websites/

 

 

 

 

(Special
thanks to my office mate, Vivek Sodera, for his help on putting this together)