Untitled-1Its not until you get a number of bounce back messages mentioning spam lists that you realise that your mail server had been blacklisted . It’s a nightmare because it prevents emails from reaching the intended recipient. As a result, your business could lose income and valuable time while your emails are offline.

In 2013, 69.6% of all emails transmitted were spam. This is annoying for anyone targeted with these emails. For this reason blacklists are here to combat these spam emails. A blacklist is a generic name for a list of IP addresses known to send spam emails. These blacklists filter the IP’s in question preventing them from sending malicious emails to the intended recipient.

Blacklists prove to be an extremely useful tool for keeping your inbox free from unwanted mail. However it is possible for your server to find its way onto a blacklist. If your IP is added to a blacklist your ISP will block any emails sent from the IP in question.

Your mail server may be blacklisted for numerous reasons. Ranging from a large volume of mail sent from your account at one time, to messages containing the characteristics of spam in the subject or main body of the message. Should this happen, any email send from your account will not reach the intended recipient. The message will then bounce back with an error message.

To resolve this issue, you need to begin an internal investigation as to why the IP address was blacklisted in the first place. This can include a number of processes, for example scanning your networks for viruses, configuring the routers so they are more secure and enforce stronger passwords.

When the issue has been resolved, contact the blacklist company and follow their removal process. They should then remove you from the list. This process can vary with different companies.

The following are a few examples of how to avoid being blacklisted in the first place:

  • Avoid using UPPERCASE in either the subject line or the body of the email. This can be flagged up as spam.
  • Ask your subscribers to add your email address to their contact list. This is commonly known as whitelisting.
  • Scale back the amount of emails you send per week. If you send an abnormally large amount of emails per week this may flag up as spam.
  • Regularly scan your emails for embedded viruses. This may result in blacklisting also.
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