Autoresponder Experiment - WTF???

Hey Stefan

For the Yahoo issue, you could probably fix that by installing Domain Keys.

If you're on CPanel hosting, go into CPanel, click on "Email Authentication" and enable it. One click does the job.

Cheers,

Neil

While you're in there, you might also want to set up an SPF record because that's another system that ISPs use to check the source of email is authentic.

The SPF record we have used successfully is:

v=spf1 a mx ptr ip4:000.000.000.000 mx:yourdomain.com -all

It looks a wee bit complex but you don't need to know what it all means. Just copy and paste and replace 000.000.000.000 with your domain's IP address and "yourdomain.com" with your domain name.

Simple to do from the "Email Authentication" icon in CPanel.

Cheers,

Neil

Hi Stefan,

If you can just share that auto responders to warriorforum users, especially to newbies will be a big help for them to start with their niche.

And also, I congratulates you in finding this kind of auto responder, in some ways can reduce your expenses to buy your own auto responder.

But one question, is their any differences for a free auto responder with aweber and other costly auto responder?

@Neil
Thanks! I've enabled domainkeys. I have left the SPF record intact at this time as I am running several domains in one account (v=spf1 a mx include:websitewelcome.com ~all)

@dawnbreaker
There are many differences but my main point is that the majority of email messages ARE being delivered by many autoresponders, even if internet marketing parrots tell you differently. Like Neil stated, individual email settings may be the key factor here and not necessarily the software that sends them.

Indeed.

After all, email is sent in a standard format so the software used is not really relevant. It's mainly about the reputation of your domain and its IP address, proving the source is genuine and making sure your content does not trigger the spam filters.

It's not some kind of magic.

Cheers,

Neil

These results seem great now, but what happens after you get some spam complaints. It is inevitable that you will get some. I would be worrying about the possibility of having my domain or IP blacklisted by the mail services. Also, if you ever did decide to move to AWeber or something similar, there would be another opt-in process that your list would have to go through.

I'm not an expert on self-hosted autoresponders, but these are my initial thoughts on the topic.

it's more complicated than you are making it out to be.

Your test is only accurate if the email address you are testing with has never sent or recieved mail from the domain before. Once there is a successfull transaction in either direction it can white list the address for your account, and therfore future emails to/from that address/doamin will always hit the inbox, where a fresh account may still go to SPAM. If all 5 addresses are brand new, the test will be more accurate.

Even if everything is legitimatly inboxing, it is not reliable.

Your domain has no trust with the big email providers (yahoo is the worst) so as soon as Enough people hit the report SPAM button and you will start hitting the SPAM box accorss the board for that provider.

To keep yourself out of the spam area, you must get added to a whitelist with each provider and that can take months, and of course the provider has to deem you worthy of being on the whitelist.

Unless you have a dedicated server, your server's IP is shared by many users. If the server gets too many SPAM complains you will start hitting the SPAM box. So, essentially every user on your server has the ability to affect your inboxing ability

If you are a shared/reseller hosting plan, at least wtih most hosts, your email will route through a common email gateway that will rotate as you send messages. For example on Hostgator shared it will be gator###.hostgator.com (where ### are numbers that change), and reseller is somehting like websitewelcome.com

Your email headers will still show the message originating from your domain and server IP, but will actually dispatch from the email gateway. If any IP address/server on the entire route from point a to point b raises a flag, you will the spam box. Many of these gateways are already on the SPAMbox lists for these email providers.

So you could be sending just fine on gator123.hostgator.com, then a few hours later go to send another round and they send from gator987.hostgator.com and that one lands you in the spambox. Next time from gator345 and half land in the inbox and half in the spambox

Again, just like the server IP, you have to worry about other users messing thing up for you.

The only way to set up a good auto responder that is completely reliable is to get a dedicated server and then take the time to set up DomainKeys, DKIM, SPF records, get them whitelised at every ISP and email provider known to man, constantly test them to make sure they are up to par and fix when needed, make sure all security issues are up to date (unsecured servers get blacklisted), monitor the RBLs and get removed if your server ever apppears on a list, and other PITA stuff.


and there are other factors too, but these are enough to get the point accross. really it's not worth it, trust me.

@ aanderson
Thanks for your input. That was very helpful!
So what do you think about desktop applications like FollowUpExpert where one can send mail through a (if necessary different) gmail account? Of course there are some limitations here as well but there's no risk to have your domain blacklisted at all.

Very useful post, but no surprise.

Just getting the confirmation into the Inbox is Stage #1.

But, it's obvious that certain free email account providers are more trusting than others.

Of course, that's an oversimplification. People who pay for their own domain (and hence their own email account) are likely to be more keen and motivated than people who rely purely on free email. They're more likely to make sure that their emails are arriving successfully.

Stage #2 is to get value from each subscriber - either paid or free. That's the challenge.

Thom

Hey Alexa

Playing devil's advocate, isn't your entire list at risk if too many spam complaints are received by your 3rd party provider?

Contrary to popular belief, spam complaints to 3rd party providers have effects and consequences too.

Cheers,

Neil

How many emails were you sending out...10k 100k ?
because thats going to make a huge difference when the time comes...

What was the complaint % ?

If just 1 in a thousand emails click spam your domain is going to start getting blacklisted.

If your on shared hosting then you have to worry about the other people sending email and the reputation score they crank up for the ip range of the server

Lots to think about if your running email from your own domain