Obviously there’s the user control panel that you’ll
see every time you log on but there is also all the work that happens
behind the scenes.
You may well wonder what work. It’s the work we put in to ensure the
highest possible delivery rates of every e-mail you send to your
subscriber’s inbox.
Sounds pretty easy? Not at all!
Let’s say one of your subscribers used A.O.L. (and
let’s be honest: A LOT of your users will use A.O.L!) And after
receiving a message from you, if they accidentally hit the spam button
when viewing your message. Did you know there’s a very good chance A O L
could block every email sent from the IP address of the sender!
Just imagine how many of your subscribers that could be?
And not just blocked to the user that reported the
spam, but EVERY A O L user. So if 30% of the your subscriber list used
A.O.L, all of them would stop receiving your messages!
To make it even worse, it could potentially block
every other domain sharing that IP address!
Imagine: A third of your list would stop
receiving or your emails just through the click of a single button! And
exactly the same could happen for users of any other large Internet
provider like Yahoo or Microsoft, (hotmail)
Obviously, if this was allowed to continue it
wouldn’t take long before none of your emails would be reaching ANY of
your subscribers. This is one of the main reasons people often dismiss
the idea of using Autoresponder software hosted on their own web space;
Indeed many hosting packages forbid it as it can lead to their
WHOLE SERVER becoming
banned by the major providers!
You can of cause take advantage of the white-list
page we supply to encourage your subscribers to add your email address
to their white list. Check it out at:
http://www.wizardresponder.com/confirm.html
This page offers advice on how your subscriber can
add you to their personal white-list, meaning that any emails sent by
you are guaranteed to be delivered to their inbox. Perfect!
But what about the subscribers who
don’t do this?
This is where we come in! – And the efforts we go to
to ensure the highest possible delivery rates.
Here at WizardResponder, we’ve spent a great deal of time, money, and
expertise to ensure your emails stand the best chance of being
delivered.
And how do we do this? – By establishing relationships with the major
ISP’s!
All of the large Internet providers have their own set of strict
guidelines that you have to follow in order to qualify being added to
their own IP white-list.
And what’s this white-list then?
It simply means emails sent from our IP address
receive special considerations. If one of your subscribers was to report
your emails as spam, rather than that particular Internet provider
adding WizardResponder's IP address to their blocked IP lists, they
would be able to see that we are members of their white list, and have
passed their strict requirements to prove we are ensuring
WizardResponder is NEVER responsible for spam emails, and can prove all
emails sent from our IP address are to legitimate subscribers.
So what are these standards, and what did we
have to do to qualify?
Firstly, each provider has different standards they
require from us, so just because we are successfully added to A O L’s
White-list doesn’t mean the same will be true for Yahoo. So that makes
the job even bigger before we begin!
(And is why it took us 3 months of preparation and relationship
building, before we considered launching our service!)
The first, and probably most important requirement is that you must be
able to prove you have full control over all emails sent from your IP
address. And the only way to really do this is to have your own
dedicated server. And that’s exactly what we’ve got at WizardResponder.
Located in Wisconsin, USA, our dedicated server is housed in a custom
built datacenter. As well as being monitored 24 hrs a day! Unlike many
other owners, we don’t sell hosting accounts to people. So no one but
ourselves has anything on the server. Besides – we want to focus on
providing the highest standard of Autoresponder service, not start
worrying about hosting clients too!
But that's' only the beginning....
Pretty much all providers require the
provision of an authenticated feedback loop to ensure they have a
dedicated contact method with us to deliver any reports or concerns they
may have.
Any IP address can only have a single FBL address, and offers further
proof to providers you have full control over your IP address. After
completing a number of verification process is in order to establish
that you have access to the FBL email address, it’s only then that the
Internet providers will allow you to go on to the next step.
Oh yes, that REALLY was only the beginning!
A O L for example require you to fill in a
questionnaire, detailing the nature of your business and all the
precautions you have in place to ensure that your service cannot be used
for spam emails. Ensuring all subscribers have verified their
subscription request, full adherence to the “Can Spam” act of 2003 and
opt-out links in every message sent are just a few of the requirements.
We have also set up the reverse DNS (Domain Name
Servers) to ensure they don’t have obscure name and reflect the nature
of our business. This is welcomed by all IP providers.
Do you need to know what
WizardResponder's
Reverse DNS is?
No, what you need to know is our Reverse DNS are
clear, concise and meet the standards required.
Oh and we don’t just meet requirements: We exceed them!
So when Microsoft told us they “preferred” people to become members of
their
Sender ID program, we said “No Problem!” and after creating our
SPF Record and reporting back to them, WizardResponder is now fully
certified by Microsoft (Hotmail, MSN)
So we’ve done everything, met every standard laid before us, gone the
extra mile to gain accreditation for things only preferred, not
required, EVERYTHING possible to ensure your messages reach your
subscribers. Now we can relax, Yes?
Well, apart from:
· Ensuring complaint
rates are kept under 0.1%, bounce rates under 8% and bounce acceptance
rates above 90% CONSISTANTLY.
· Keeping an open and active communication channel through the FBL
with all the providers, responding to any complaints, information
requests etc. promptly.
· Ensuring we can produce ALL confirmation emails sent by ANY one of
our members, to ANY number of their subscribers, PAST OR PRESENT,
proving any SPAM complaints unjustified.
As well as a lot more, then yes, we can relax!
If we don’t
CONSISTANTLY deliver
ALL the above, we could
be removed from any or all of the IP provider’s white-list immediately.
Without Notice.
I’m pretty sure I speak for
both Randy and myself when I say there’s more chance of seeing flying
pigs than this occurring. Why? Simple:
We’ve spent more time, effort, and cash than you’d believe, Lost more
blood, sweat and tears imaginable making sure WizardResponder was as
good as it is;
To ensure our Delivery Rates at as high as they can possibly be –
because that’s part of what you’re paying us for.