How to Check If Your Email Been Blacklisted (and What to Do If You Are)

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When you’re on the email blacklist, you’ve got nothing. No deliverability, no credit, no opens. You’re stuck in whatever spam folder “they” decide to dump you in.

If you send broadcast emails to your clients you will probably end up in one or more email blacklists. This article will help you to find out if you’re on one or not and how you can fix it.

An email Blacklist is a real-time database that uses criteria to determine if an IP is sending email it considers to be SPAM. There are several blacklists… Each list has a unique way of accepting inbound mail and determining if the email is considered SPAM. They can all impact deliverability for your emails.

Read more
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Identifying Spam Emails

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Identifying and Dealing with Spam and Undeliverable Emails

You need to identify whether the Spam emails are coming from;
– Your contact form on your website
OR
– Just random spam emails not from your website form
From your Contact Form 
– If they are coming from your contact form then we or someone needs to look at upgrading your website with Google reCAPTCHA 3 – https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/v3.html
reCAPTCHA v3 image
Note: Do NOT mark these Contact Form emails submissions as Spam as you may miss an important Contact Form submission that is Not Spam.
Spam emails Not from Your Contact Form 
– If they are random Spammers then we need to see where the Spammers got your email address. If your email address is on your OR another website or business listings and the email address is not masked with a code. Then that is were it may have started. As Spammers harvest email address from easy targets like that. Then on sell your email address over and over ….
So if this is the case
–  Then the un-masked emails need removing or hidden on every web page they are on.. NOTE this won’t stop the Spammers that have your email address already. However it will stop the future harvesting process… Until they find away around that masking code.
Every time a spam email comes in (NOT from your Contact Form) it need to be moved to your Spam Folder.
You can also…
–  Log into your webmail at  your webmail address – domainname.com.au/webmail
– enter your email address and  the corresponding password.
– Go to Spam Filter and Enable the ‘Custom Spam Auto Delete Threshold’. However you need to remember that the lower the threshold the more the server will discard. … It’s not a human so… some good emails may not get though if this is set too low.
Webmail Log In
If it keeps happening from the same Spammer you need to;
–  Log into your webmail at your webmail address – domainname.com.au/webmail
NOTE – Type in the complete URL… go to the URL, web address Do NOT Search for it…
– enter your email address and  the corresponding password.
– Go to Box Trapper then ‘Black List’ and enter the email address with the formatting as explained.
You can edit the other settings in Box Trapper as required.
In Box Trapper…. You can also White List emails (that are wanted) that are not coming through. So they aren’t automatically treated as Spam by the mail server.
See other screen shots below…
Webmail White Listing
Now you probably also have Email Spam Software like Nortons, Trend Micro or one of the free programs. You need to log into those and check this settings.
If it all gets too hard get your IT Guy in and get them to help you
OR
Set Up a new email address and use it… NOTE Don’t Delete your original email address until all your accounts using this email are converted to the new email address.
Now if other people aren’t getting your email… 
They (your email or domain) have probably been deemed by the other persons email server or spam program as Spam. So you need get the other party to White list your email address in their spam filters so they receive your emails.
Test this by sending an email from a personal email address if it bounces you have there email address wrong.
Most importantly….
– Never use your normal business email with mail merge and send bulk emails.. that was OK 10 years ago now it is classed as Spam. Use a dedicated Email Program like MailChimp or Constant Contact etc.
– Make sure your email password is very very harder and if it’s not now Change it ASAP with numbers, upper and lower case and characters like @#$%^& etc
– Always have a subject in your email and try and personally it and anything to do with money. Free, profits, price, credit, and anything with a dollar sign etc. We see some people who send emails being very lazy without a Subject or a signature and so they look spammy.
If all else fails you can set up a dedicated email client like Office 365 which starts from $12 per user per month.
Still have questions contact us here
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Email Marketing Tips

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This is part E of the A to Z of Business & Website Tips

Email Marketing TipsImprove Your Email Marketing ROI with an effective Landing Page

Effective landing pages are;

  • By far the easiest and best way to Launch Your Product or Service
  • Remarking potential – Build your mailing list & having a database allows you to sell your other products and services.
  • Grow your customer base – From visitors, to subscribers, to customers, to raving customers who repurchase and recommend.

Visit an effective Landing Page Demo

effective landing pages

 

Sending bulk emails from your domain email accounts normally causes problems, including high email rejections & bounced emails, non delivery of emails & being listed with spam & anti virus programs. This can cause huge headaches as it can effect all your emails from your domain. It’s definitely a no-no to send unsolicited emails.

So for bulk emails it is highly recommended that you use a Mass Email Program.

5 Best Free Mass Email Software to Send Bulk Email

Looking for mass emailing software? Here is a list of best bulk email programs that can help you easily send bulk emails. These bulk email sending software will help you save thousands of dollars that is spent with email marketing services.

SendinBlue

SendinBlue is one of the best all-in-one marketing dashboard for businesses to manage their email marketing and SMS campaigns. Their tools make it easy to design mobile-friendly emails, manage large contact lists, track results, and optimize campaigns.
With a Free account you can send up to 9,000 emails per month & have unlimited email addresses

MailChimp

MailChimp is an email program that is around since 2001 and is used by more than 7 million people around the world. Forms can be easily added into your website with, double opt in, email marketing follow up, easy list management and many more features.
With a Free account you can send up to 12,000 emails per month & a database of up to 2,000 addresses.

SendBlaster

The latest version SendBlaster 3 is available both as a free email sender software download along with a professional edition. No subscription is needed and one needs to pay just once for a lifetime license.

Bulk Mailer

The Bulk Mailer accepts mailer lists that are generated in a variety of programs such as Access, Excel, DBF, Word, that are prepared in ASCII text files (.txt, .lst). It is also possible to enter an unlimited number of email addresses.

Free Bulk Email Software

32Bit provides a free email blast software that is one of the best on the Internet. It consists of a wide variety of features that help make life easier. Some of the features include private contact list, HTML editor, bounce processing, and synergy with Google Analytics.

3 Other Email Programs for Sending Mass Emails

Aweber

Used by 100,000+ email marketers. You can connecting your website forms with AWeber, making it easier to follow up after someone gives you their email address

Constant Contact

Helping small business do more business. With over 15 years of experience and more than 650,000 customers, Constant Contact is the trusted leader in small business marketing

OptinMonster

The Best WordPress Popup and Lead Generation Plugin– OptinMonster helps you grow your email list by converting visitors into subscribers and customers. Get more email subscribers now!

OptinMonster

Email Marketing Strategies to Grow Your List

Are you looking for easy ways to grow your email list?

Many people just install a sidebar opt-in form on their website and wait for users to subscribe. This results in slow growth.

There is so much more you can do to grow your email list and much faster, however it requires more time & commitment.

Here are some proven ways to grow your email list.

Use Multiple Sign up Forms on Your Website

If you want to grow your email list quickly, then you need to use multiple sign up forms to give users more opportunity to join your email list. You can combine a sidebar sign up form with a floating footer bar, slide in or scroll box or a lightbox popup to make your signup forms more noticeable. You should also have a call to action at the bottom of Blog / News Articles.

Don’t forget your website header slide show, have a Call to Action, or have a Sign Up Form in one of your image slides

header slide call to action

Offer a Promotion or Upgrade

Incorporate a call to action with a promotion or upgrade. Bribe your visitors with an offer.

Make the offer enticing, interesting or valuable. The call to action is the visitor gets an upgrade or a free service to optin into to your list. They sign up for the offer & you get their details to re market to.

Social Media Opt-In

Facebook has introduced call to action buttons for business pages. These buttons are prominently displayed on top of your cover image and are visible without scrolling.

Twitter Ads offers another social platform that you can use to boost your lead generation efforts.
In fact, Twitter even allows you to run lead generation directly from Twitter. This way users can sign up for your email list without leaving Twitter.

YouTube is one of the largest social media platforms, and the second most popular search engine in the world. If you are using YouTube videos as part of your marketing strategy, then you can utilize your YouTube channel to grow your email list. Here is how to add YouTube action cards to your videos.

Have a Landing Page

Improve Your Email Marketing ROI with an effective Landing Pageeffective landing pages

A landing page is a page that has Call to Action, a sign up form & sometimes videos and or testimonials.

Visit an effective Landing Page Demo

 

  • Remarking potential – Build your mailing list & having a database allows you to sell your other products and services.
  • Grow your customer base – From visitors, to subscribers, to customers, to raving customers who repurchase and recommend.

 

Here are a few things to think about

Make it easy to subscribe
If your opt-in form (page) is too hard to sign up, has too many field to complete or if the article is too wordy, you will loose possible good future clients. Keep it simple and brief.

Send a welcome email
Touch your new list member straight after they opt-in to the offer and make sure they got the link or offer again.

Send follow up emails

  • Send a thank you email, making sure they got the offer & give them the link again
  • Send a reminder email a day or two later, touch base again a suitable time. However don’t hound your list member as they will unsubscribe.
  • Make your follow up emails valuable to your list member

Think about mobile
A lot of people check their emails on their mobiles, so make sure it is easy to read on small screen devices.

Know your spam rules
A lot of innocent people send spam because they didn’t know any better. Read up on the CAN-SPAM act to avoid any trouble.

Need a hand?
Have a question?
Contact us for FREE help & support – Click Here

 

 

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Guide to Controlling Your Email Inbox

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A busy business owner’s guide to taming an out of control email inbox

Article by Monica Shepherd

Secretly, my ultimate goal is an empty inbox. I create folders and sub-folders and diligently file emails away as soon as possible, or delete anything I no longer need. The thought of my inbox growing massive in number kind of scares me – an irrational fear that if it grows beyond a certain amount, it’s too late to be saved, and I’d just have to give up and let it run wild. Some might call it OCD, I just like to call it ‘organised’.

Sorting through and dealing with emails can become a time-consuming and unproductive task. While ‘Inbox Zero’ may seem like an unattainable goal, a clean and manageable inbox is within everyone’s grasp. Here are my 10 tips for taming an out of control inbox:

  1. Filter
  2. Deal with emails immediately
  3. Dedicate email time
  4. Create folders
  5. Create templates
  6. Create rules

Read the full article…

We added this article to help our clients manage their emails better, reducing the load on their mail server, which helps keep their costs down (increased mail server size = increase in hosting costs)

 

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Reviews Affect Your Ranking

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Reviews of Your Business, Products & Services

The online review has become the most effective, trusted method for consumers to check out companies and products before purchase. Online reviews have such a powerful impact on purchasing behaviour, so let’s take a look at what this means for business owners.

How Do Online Reviews Affect Search Engine Rankingsonline reviews

Earning a steady stream of customer reviews is one of the most important pieces of a local business’s online marketing campaign. Experts believe customer reviews can improve a business’s rankings on Google—and plenty of consumer research suggests they are a key piece of the purchase-decision process .

So now that you, the local business owner, know how important reviews are, make sure your customers know, too.

Now is the time to develop a plan to reach out to them and ask them to leave public feedback for your business. This can be done with printed material to hand to customers as they purchase from you or electronically such as a personalised email or a status update on Facebook. If you combine this with a promotion or giveaway this normally increases the participation rate.

The most used Review Sites

  • Google My Business
    These are the reviews that show on the right hand side of Google’s search results. Google’s Pigeon algorithm update uses location and distance ranking criteria to improve local search results. As a business owner, you should ensure that your website is correctly optimized for search with verified accounts on local directories, most importantly Google My Business. A verified local Google+ page enables you to respond to reviews while reviews, comments, images, etc. boost your search rankings.
    By far Google+ & Google My Business pages are the most important place to focus with reviews and articles. After optimising your own website and adding recent and relevant articles.
  • Facebook
    RATINGS AND REVIEWS – You can find this on the left-hand sidebar on your Facebook Page. Any Facebook user can post a rating or review (making it visible to their friends), which the Page owner cannot remove or edit.
  • Yahoo Local Listing
    This is similar to Google My Business and enables users to post reviews of businesses using a five-star rating system.

Let’s start with some don’t and then move on to some dos.

Don’t Consider:

  • Using review stations in your place of business.
  • Writing fake reviews for your own business.
  • Paying a third party to post fake reviews, posing as a customer.
  • Paying a third party to post any review on behalf of anyone else. Customers must leave their own reviews using their own accounts.
  • Getting too many reviews at once. They may trip filters at the review sites that will cause the reviews to be deleted.

Do Consider:

  • Linking to your review profiles from your website.
  • Creating simple print materials, listing places customers can review you, to be given to the customer at the time of service.
  • Training staff with direct contact with customers to request a review from them upon completion of service.
  • After completion of service, following up with an email linking to places a customer can review your business (don’t include Yelp).
  • Requesting reviews during an after-service follow-up phone call.
  • Letting your customers review your business at their review site of choice. Review diversity is good for both customers and search engines.

Articles resourced from – How Do Online Reviews Affect Your Search Engine Rankings

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New Financial Years Resolution for Businesses

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Smart Suggestion – New Financial Years Resolution for Businesses

Find Net Solutions would like to wish you a glorious, rewarding and productive new financial year.new year resolution

A New Financial Year and a new beginning to take what we know & be more effective & improve on it to be more efficient.

Our tip for you to make as a News Financial Year Resolution in 2015/16 is;

  • Keep connected with your customers
    • Directly with a monthly or bi monthly personalised email newsletter. Keep the subject line so it is a quick reminder of your business, as many emails won’t be opened & read however having your business name in the subject line helps keep you in the minds of your customers.
    • Keep your email newsletters interesting & not too long
    • Don’t bombard your clients with emails just one a month should be plenty. Unless you have timely & valuable product or service to offer
    • Stay connected with Social Media with soft interesting short articles & definitely not a sales angle.
  • Be easy to find by future clients.

    • Regularly post fresh content on your website, have a news or specials page
    • Stay competitive on Google and the best way to do that is to make sure your FREE Google+ Business page (formally known as Google Local Listing page) is current and interesting.

Hope this helps you to focus on the key points to be compeditive online – If you need a hand or advice please contact us

 

 

 

 

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Email Best Practice 5 Tips

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5 Guideline to Good Email CommunicationEmail

Emails are the ultimate good news/bad news communication resource. When done correctly, they are fast and valuable communication tools. When done poorly, they can be “breeders” of miscommunication and often a waste of time.

Here are some proven techniques to effectively craft emails and make it easier for recipients to respond quickly and completely.

1/ Be Brief
Limit emails to one screen and a single subject whenever possible. Here’s a tip…try emailing like you text.

2/ Be Clear
Brief is good…but be sure to also make it clear, concise and action-oriented.

3/ Minimise Questions
Limit the number of questions you ask or action items you assign to four or fewer. The more questions in the email, the less likely you are to get a response. Likewise, the more action items you assign, the less likely you are to get results.

4/ Provide a Complete Response
When responding to an email, read it carefully and be sure you address all of the sender’s items or questions. It is more informative, and reduces time-wasting back-and-forth emails to say, “I don’t know about…” than to simply ignore an item or question.

5/ Proofread and Edit
Always proofread emails before sending…you can’t always rely on spell check. Clear up any potential ambiguities. Check for and remove excess commentary that doesn’t contribute to your desired result.

 

 

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Spam Assassin Reduces Junk Mail

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Are you sick of Junk Mail, it just keeps coming. Spam blocker software spam assassinWell now Spam Assassin is Available for you to Reduce Junk Mail. It will not totally stop spam emails however it will help drastically.

Your hosting account is available to have Spam Assassin inserted and enabled. The only thing you need to remember that as it is a program & not a real person you may have the occasional real email that looks spammy & won’t get through.

What is a spammy email ?
Well look at the repetitive junk emails you get now, the subject line, the wording in the content. So if it looks like that that email may get stopped, also if you get the exact same email repetitively then that can be considered junk.

So it’s your call, if you want a near perfect solution it’s here. Please note that it will be a near perfect solution allowing your emails getting through, however it will still allow some junk emails through the ones that the program can’t define totally if it is or is not spam.

 

 

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