Are you blocked or blacklisted? What is the difference? What does it all mean? (Updated 12/15/07)

I don't have the space for a tutorial, but here are the basics...

Every person who has an email account has a server that delivers mail to that account.

Servers use rules to fight spam. They look at the email content, and the server that is sending the email.

Many 3rd party companies offer services to the owners of the mail servers, providing them lists of domains that are suspected of sending spam, or that have links in them to sites that are considered spam sites. That's why we use redirects, because Ameriplanusa.com, trueteam.com, mybenefitsplus.com, etc are all listed in these databases as likely spam destinations.

Eventually, YOUR domain will get listed. The only way to stop it, is to stop mailing. However, there are several things you can do to stay off the lists as long as possible.

1. Get several domain names. Don't use .biz names. Don't use my, 4u, team, etc in the name. These domain names need to be "aged". The highest spam score goes to domain names that are less than 90 days old. If you plan to continue E-Marketing, buy extra domain names and let them sit.
2. Don't mail a lot at once. Servers limit the number of emails that they take in at one time. If you send out 40K emails in 3 hours, 20K of them are discarded, and you will get on a spam list.
3. USE FRESH LEADS! Get rid of those old leads. By my AUP, you have to dump them before 45 days. I really recommend dumping them after 30 days.
4. Get an MBS tune-up. You would be surprised how many errors I find in settings, leads, campaigns, etc. when I go onto my customers' computers.
5. Upgrade to MBS 2.0. There are a lot of new features in MBS2.0 that help you keep off block lists, and quickly recover if you find yourself blocked.

Rules Emporium provides a tool to see if your domain name is listed as a probable spam destination. When you get the results for your name, your IP address is at the top and you can click it to get the results for your SENDING mail server.

Check to see if you are on a list by clicking the link below. DON'T PANIC if you are on one or both lists. It just means you are going to see a decrease in the delivery of your mails. It won't STOP ALL mail, and it definitely won't stop you from SENDING mail. These lists all work on the receiving end and DO NOT affect MBS at all.

If you are on a list, register TWO new domain names. If you are on both lists, order REDIRECT from my catalog and send me one of the domain names. (BE SURE to set the nameservers for the domain to NS1.MYEBIZ.NET and NS2.MYEBIZ.NET. You can usually do this when you order the name)

DO NOT send me your domain name until you order REDIRECT, and DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING in MBS until you get a confirmation from me to do it.

INSTRUCTIONS

Enter your domain name (no www.) ONLY, and change the selector to ALL RBL and click submit.
When the results show up, remember, red is bad. The more red you have, the worse it is.
Don't forget to also click the (rbl lookup) link at the top next to your IP address AFTER you hit submit.

www.rulesemporium.com/cgi-bin/uribl.cgi

Rules Emporium only deals with blocked DOMAIN NAMES.Another kind of block is an IP block, which blacklists your server's IP address. Many of the Big ISPs have private IP blacklists. Comcast is always blocking people, as do ATT and verizon. Here are some URLs to use to get off these blacklists:

http://www.comcastsupport.com/Forms/NET/blockedprovider.asp
http://worldnet.att.net/general-info/bls_info/block_admin.html
http://security.rr.com/cgi-bin/block-lookup?69.0.245.226
http://www.verizon.net/whitelist