Email Deliverability Audit

Now that the election is over we can finally get down to business.

We’ve already confirmed your sending domain is set up properly and how to monitor your domain and IP reputation, so it’s time to look into the dreaded blacklists.

Let’s get started with Step 3.

The Dreaded Blacklists

First, let me explain what a Blacklist is in case you don’t know.

Blacklists help email service providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and AOL flag domains and IP addresses known for sending spam.

I’m sure you’ve heard of spam traps!

These sneaky email addresses have a single purpose and that’s to catch spam email. The email addresses aren’t used for regular communication and are scattered around the interwebs to catch spammers.

Spam trap emails shouldn’t end up on your list if you are following ethical practices of subscriber acquisition.

But even if you follow the best practices, you can still end up with some of these unwanted critters on your list as emails can be submitted by bad actors trying to hurt your sending reputation or some bots running around filling out forms to rave havoc.

For this reason, I highly recommend you verify all email addresses that subscribe to your list using an email validation service like Email Oversight.

After that…

Make sure your monitoring your domains on all the major blacklists.

How to Monitor The Blacklists

The best way to monitor blacklists is to use a service like MX Toolbox.

You can manually go to the major blacklists and check one by one, but it would be very tedious and something you would need to do very frequently.

If you use a service like MX Toolbox you can setup a blacklist monitor that will check your domain daily to see if it shows up on any of the major blacklists.

If your domain shows up they will send you a notification so you can work on getting it removed.

A lot of times they will get removed automatically and you will be notified when that happens.

1) Setting up a monitor on MX Toolbox

Don’t worry… if you only have one email list or newsletter you can use MX Toolbox to monitor it for you for FREE.

If you have a ton of Newsletters and email lists like I do, you will have to pay for additional monitoring but it’s extremely affordable (something like $2/month per domain tracked).

2) The Top Blacklists

There are so many blacklists out there, but a majority of them aren’t used by the major ISPs. The major ones you should be worried about are:

• Spamhaus (SBL) - Contains IP addresses that have been identified as malicious. These IPs are being observed in adversarial activity, e.g. sending spam, snowshoe spamming, hosting malicious content, behaving like a bulletproof hosting company or hijacking IP space. Both individual IPs and IP ranges are provided in this dataset. - Request Removal

• SpamCop (SCBL) - Lists IP addresses which have transmitted reported email to SpamCop users. SpamCop, service providers and individual users then use the SCBL to block and filter unwanted email. The SCBL is a fast and automatic list of sites sending reported mail, fueled by a number of sources, including automated reports and SpamCop user submissions. The SCBL is time-based, resulting in quick and automatic delisting of these sites when reports stop.

• Barracuda - is a DNSBL (Domain Name System-based blackhole list) that works to block IP Addresses who send spam emails and IP Addresses who spread spam emails. - Request Removal

• Spamhaus (XBL) - contains individual IPv4 and IPv6 addresses exhibiting signs of compromise i.e. IPs that are legitimate but have been hijacked to use by third-party exploits. Spamhaus will automatically add an IP to the XBL where we have compelling evidence that suggests that a machine or device using the IP is insecure, compromised, or infected. - Request Removal

• Passive Spam Block List (PSBL) - is an easy-on, easy-off blacklist that does not rely on testing and should reduce false positives because any user can remove their ISP's mail server from the list. - Request Removal

• Invaluement (ivmURI) - domain names and IPs, which are found within the clickable links in the body of spam emails. - Request Removal

3) Requesting to be delisted from a Blacklist

Listed above are the links to request a removal from a specific blacklist.

When submitting your request, a lot of times they will ask you for a bunch of information as well as what you have done to protect your domain.

Just be straightforward and don’t mislead them.

Most blacklists will remove you without an issue especially if it’s your first occurrence.

Here is an example of my message which got a partner of ours delisted from Spamhaus within 24 hours.

If you have any questions about blacklists or removal requests please shoot me a reply.

Next week we’ll be getting down and dirty with sending segments.

Don’t get trapped without a way out,

Chris Miquel
Co-Founder of SoVi Digital

Follow me on Twitter: @miqchris

and on LinkedIn: chrismiquel