Do-It-Yourself Ecommerce

Spam is the scourge of the Internet. It’s like cockroaches that you can’t seem to get rid of. Spam filters are the pesticide you use to try and get rid of Spam, but there are certain limitations if you are running an ecommerce business.

Before we go any further, don’t YOU end up being the cockroach. Your mail list has to be a “double opt-in” list. That means someone who signs up to receive your newsletter has to take a second action to confirm that they signed up. This prevents malicious people or pranksters from signing up others without their knowledge. It also means you can prove someone signed up if they later accuse you of spamming.

NOTE: It’s now required by law that you include a way to opt out, or unsubscribe, in every mailing.

The first problem with Spam filters is “false positives”. Spam filters make a guess in a variety of ways to determine if an email is Spam. If it is determined to be Spam it goes into a separate folder or is deleted.

But let’s say you have a prospective customer or active client sending you an email that for some reason is determined by the filter to be Spam. That’s a false positive; an email that you want but you don’t receive.

That means you don’t want Spam deleted automatically. Have it routed into a separate Spam or Junk folder, and then you have to go through that folder every so often to make sure there are no legitimate emails before you delete them.

The second problem is sending emails that are determined to be Spam. For example, a popular open source filter is called Spam Assassin. It’s installed on many mail servers and uses a point system to rate the possibility of Spam. Users can set the filter to be mild or aggressive.

If it kicks an email that you’ve sent back to you, it should say what in the email caused it to be considered Spam. You would have to change your email or newsletter to lower your point score.

It’s one of the reasons I use Aweber. Aweber allows you to test your outgoing email or newsletter against Spam filters so you can make changes before actually sending it.

Another method of filtering is to use blacklists and whitelists. Recipients of your newsletter may have to add you to their whitelist to allow your emails through. If you somehow get on a blacklist, which is normally a database of IP addresses or domains known for Spam, it’s almost impossible to correct the situation, so be warned.