Ultimate Guide to Social Network bulk email delivery

Getting your mass email delivered to Hotmail Gmail and Yahoo.

This is the challenge facing every Social Networking site builder, if you cannot deliver your email to members, you cannot exist as a social networking site.

Email notifications are the bread and butter of the Social Networking World, among the most important messages that keep visitors coming back to your site are:

"You have a new message"
"Someone has responded to your post"
"Someone wants to be your friend"

and so on.

These messages are the honey to the bee, the irresistible lure to keep your sites busy day in day out.

Many webmasters are stuck, their sites languishing in the netherworld, the purgatory of the internet for two simple reasons:

1. The mail is not being delivered at all
2. The mail is in the Junk / Spam folder

Both of these situations are terminal for the social networking webmaster. In the first instance Hotmail can deem that your email is not even worthy to be called Junk. Your site members have no idea that there is activity going on, their mail is simply not being delivered, your site quickly becomes forgotten.

At the most simple level, just as it is a Serious Offence to interfere with 'Her Majesty's Royal Mail' in the UK, it should also be an offence for Webmail companies to make this serious interference. They should in fact ALWAYS deliver the mail nomatter what.

The reality is that they don't or can't, it's a spam thing that we're all aware of, and at the mercy of.

Hotmail had been playing playing a dangerous game, it appeared for a while to be promoting a Sender Pays plan, by forcing the sender to pay affiliated companies who would verify the sender, and delivery would be guaranteed...at a price of course, the equivalent of a Postage Stamp. That resulted in people migrating to Gmail, so they now have a softer approach and that's what we will be working on.

In the second instance your email is going directly into the Junk Mail folder, chances are your members are not going to see it, or if they do, you will not make a good impression.

The order of difficulty of delivery (ODD) from 0-10 for the most popular online email services is approximately:

Hotmail 9/10
Gmail 7/10
Yahoo 6/10
Others 5/10
Any server running SpamAssassin at <4 points 7/10

So let's start getting your email delivered.

First acquaint yourself with these terms

SENDERID
SPF

You can search for these terms and find reams of information, but we'll cut to the chase, time is money.

SENDER IDentification
Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

They are both the same thing, SENDERID was a Microsoft standard that they have now made Open Source, and SPF is an Open-Source framework, both attempt to verify the sender and successfully deliver the mail.

What the information you find online will NOT tell you is the sequence that you need to employ to make this all work, and how to let the Webmail companies know you've done it.

To begin you MUST have access to your DNS ZONE files, if you do not, you must be with a WEBHOST that will make DNS Zone changes for you without complaint. For example we at Celtic Productions are clearly a perfect hosting company, because we allow DNS zone access, but we can also recommend others just as good :-)

Take a second to check out our Hosting (PHPfox hosting is a speciality) at http://www.celticprohosting.com

There are good reasons to closely examine your hosting package:

(a) You should have your own IP to complete this process fully
(b) You need to control and protect your server and IP fully
(c) You need to ensure that you do not share an IP with 'bad neighbourhood sites'

Now we must test your current Email server setup:

1. Go to

http://senderid.returnpath.net/how.php

2. Copy the generated email address given

3. Send an email to it from the address you are testing, wait a few secs......

4. Click 'View Sample' to see the results

Usually this is the result:

MAIL FROM:
anonymous@myhosting.com
PRA: admin@mydomain.com
SPF-Record-Classic: none found
SPF-Record-MFROM Scope: FAIL none found
SPF-Record-PRA Scope: FAIL none found
SPF-Method Result: FAIL none
mydomain.com does not designate permitted sender hosts)
SenderID-MFROM-Method Result: FAILnone
mydomain.com does not designate permitted sender hosts)
SenderID-PRA-Method Result: fail
DomainKey-Status: bad format: FAIL No DomainKey signature found
DKIM-Status: failed (no signature found)
Return-Path: anonymous@mydomain.com
Received: from 00.00.00.00
by 00.00.00.000
for <6fVxC@senderid.returnpath.net>; Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:17:38 -0500
Received: (qmail 14137 invoked by uid 48); 16 Apr 2007 15:17:02 +0200
Date: 16 Apr 2007 15:17:02 +0200

This email will be treated as follows:

Hotmail: Discarded
Gmail: Junk Mail
Yahoo: SPAM
Private protected servers: Discarded/Bounced

Imagine that that's your mass mailing to 5,000 members? Disaster!!

Let's start fixing it.....

1. In your DNS Zone File you must add a new record
(Note:These might vary slightly depending on what server software is in use, but the functions will be the same)

2. Click 'ADD A NEW RECORD'

3. Leave the sub domain field _______.mydomain.com blank

4. Choose TXT as the record form

5. Enter in the text input box v=spf1 mx ip4:00.00.00.00 -all Note: Replace the 00.00.00.00 with YOUR IP ADDRESS

6. If you are being hosted, say by Celtic Productions, use the following record:

v=spf1 mx ip4:00.00.00.00 include:celticservers.com -all

Replace the 00.00.00.00 with YOUR IP ADDRESS

You can check if your host has a valid SPF record by taking a trip to Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/

Enter the domain of your host and see what's returned. If you cannot see an SPF record for your hosting provider, DO NOT use the INCLUDE key.

If you are not sure about your own syntax, don't bother with all the syntax checking tools available online, they are invariably wrong.

Instead learn from the masters, just pop in other sites just like yours that are very successful in the Microsoft Wizard page and copy the SPF record, obviously not the giants ok? Unless you're a giant too and have a range of IP's.

A good default is

v=spf1 mx ip4:00.00.00.00 -all

But you really need to include your host.

7. Get into your files or your script (e.g. phpfox, phpBB, postNUKE etc.) and change all the relevant headers to match your sending address. The relevant headers are the following: 'From', 'Reply-To' and 'Return-Path'.

To make this really clear, do not send an email that's says it's from admin@mydomain.com if the headers say you're lying and it's actually from your localhost and anonymous@yourwebhost.com

OK we are really getting there.

8. Test that configuration by returning to

http://senderid.returnpath.net/how.php Make sure it's a new refreshed page.

Repeat the process above, cut n paste the email address, send it a mail and click on 'View Sample'

Now we hope that you will get this result:

MAIL FROM: admin@mydomain.com
PRA: admin@mydomain.com
SPF-Record-Classic: v=spf1 mx ip4:00.00.000.00 include:celticservers.com -all
SPF-Record-MFROM Scope: v=spf1 mx ip4:00.00.000.00 include:celticservers.com -all
SPF-Record-PRA Scope: v=spf1 mx ip4:00.00.000.00 include:celticservers.com -all
SPF-Method Result: pass(mydomain.com: domain of
mydomain.com designates 64.13.231.59 as permitted sender)
SenderID-MFROM-Method Result: pass(mydomain.com: domain of
mydomain.com designates 64.13.231.59 as permitted sender)
SenderID-PRA-Method Result: pass(mydomain.com: domain of
mydomain.com designates 64.13.231.59 as permitted sender)
DomainKey-Status: bad format: No DomainKey signature found <-Doesn't matter at this time
DKIM-Status: failed (no signature found) <-Doesn't matter at this time
Return-Path: admin@mydomain.com
Received: from 00.00.000.00
by 00.00.15.194
for ; Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:57:43 -0500
Received: (qmail 23647 invoked by uid 48); 16 Apr 2007 19:57:06 +0200
Date: 16 Apr 2007 19:57:06 +0200

If you get this far you are DONE, but only with the easy bit.

Your mail will now be turning up in the inboxes of Yahoo and Gmail, and all Spam filtered private servers, but not Hotmail.

Congratulations are in order though, you've made it into Hotmail JUNK folders, hey, any improvement is welcome.

Let's move the email into the INBOX and out of Junk forever, this is the bit that they don't tell you.

Compose an email to

senderid@hotmail.com

Do not include a subject, and only write mydomain.com in the body, preferably send it in text only format.

MAKE SURE YOUR SPF IS PERFECT FIRST!!

Some time soon you will get this reply from rmail32@microsoft.com

<---BEGINS
Thank you for submitting your domains to be included in the MSN Hotmail Sender ID / SPF record cache. These domains will be entered within the next 24-48 hours. As a reminder - please submit any additional updates in a txt file. To insure your records are up-to-date - we suggest you review them monthly and test them using the verification tools on our site. For additional information please visit www.microsoft.com/senderid or www.emailauthentication.org.
Thank you
<----ENDS


Nearly done............

Now your mail will be delivered to the INBOX of Hotmail, provided your users are not marking your mail as SPAM.

The next step is to join

The Junk Mail Reporting Program.

This is where you join the Microsoft Anti-Spam team, therefore ensuring your own future success.

What happens here is that MS, Hotmail and MSN and LIVE allow you to SEE what happens to your emails. You can see how and why it was treated in a specific way.

So imagine the following scenario:

1. You send out a mailshot to 10,000 members

2. 150 recipients identify it as JUNK MAIL and tell Hotmail not to show it again

3. Hotmail is unsure if you are a spammer or not, but gives you the benefit of the doubt

4. It happens again

5 And Again

So now Hotmail have had 600 clear votes that your mail is JUNK, the remainder is your accepted NOT JUNK margin.

To see all this activity, and learn to control it let's join the SNDS.

Smart Network Data Services

Go to:

https://postmaster.live.com/snds/addnetwork.aspx

Enter your IP in the form and follow the instructions, you will be made to login using your Hotmail account (no doubt you have 10 for testing purposes by this time)

They will ask you to verify an address that THEY think you should have postmaster@mydomain.com, abuse@mydomain.com , from the give IP range 00.00.00.00

You probably don't already have these email addresses (or you wouldn't be here) so create one or all of them (Abuse is best, but you MUST have postmaster too) before continuing.

They also ask for a representative name, give YOUR REAL NAME.

You will get the following email in 20 minutes

<-------BEGIN
John Doe (mydomain@hotmail.com) has signed up to view Hotmail
and Windows Live Mail traffic data for your network, 00.00.000.00 , and
has requested authorization to access that data.

John Doe has provided the following comments to help explain why this
message is being sent:


If you are John Doe, click here to confirm that you can receive
messages at the selected address: ://postmaster.live.com/URLOBSCURED

If the above network is not managed by your organization, or you believe John Doe should not have access to the data, please click on this link: ps://postmaster.live.com/snds/auth.aspxURLOBSCURED

You are receiving this because you have signed up to be a user of Smart Network Data Services, or a Smart Network Data Services user has requested that this email be sent to this address. Smart Network Data Services is a revolutionary Windows Live Mail initiative, designed to allow everyone who
owns IP space to contribute to the fight against spam and protect e-mail as a valued communications, productivity and commerce tool. If you have questions about our privacy policy, please read our privacy statement available at http://privacy.live.com.

If you do not wish to receive further mails from Smart Network Data Services, you can remove yourself from the system by going to https://postmaster.live.com/snds/pref.aspx, or sending an email to
nocmail@microsoft.com.
<---------ENDS

OK click on the verify link and you get this:

John Doe (mydomain@hotmail.com) has been granted access to view data for 00.00.000.00 -
00.00.000.00 and can now access it via the View Data page.

Then the magic begins, but you cannot see data for a few days.

IMPORTANT

Now you will be able to see what's happening your mail, and YOU take steps to reduce your members marking it as SPAM, and reduce the machine reading it as spam.

You do this by using the Smart Network Data Services to see what's happening to your mail, then taking the following actions:

(i) Forcefully Un-Subscribing (deleting) members who junk you (because now you can see who they are)

(ii) Offering clear unsubscribe links in all email

(iii) Using absolutely ZERO spam words in mails (particularly subject lines, even innocent ones like Join today, buy, or any aggressive call to action phrases. Write your mails as though they're to a close friend.

(iv) Use simple benign language in your mails.

(v)Do not use ALL CAPS, Many scripts have their default emails written in CAPS.

"LOGIN HERE TO CHECK IT OUT" = disaster.

You can test your language by seeing what triggers what in Smart Network Data Services.

(v) Write about something simple using very few words or write about many things using lots of diverse words. Think like the Google Algo and look for spammy keyword densities (4%+) in your mails.

(vi) Lastly you take positive action by asking your members to whitelist you at their email provider, this adds up and dramatically increases your Trust ratings.


CONGRATULATIONS! You are now no longer at the mercy of the machine, you ARE the machine.

Normally we would list the links here, but in this instance we are not doing so because the ORDER is very important.

Start this process now by moving your site to our servers or a similiarly well-equipped, well-informed caring host.

http://www.celticprohosting.com

As with all articles on Celtic Productions, this article is
protected by international copyright laws. It may be linked to (we are of course most grateful of links to our articles),
however, it may never be reproduced without the prior express permission of its owners, Celtic Productions.