Hi,

I am setting up a service where people can send their own mailing list/ezine. This will be 100% opt-in mailings, and of course NO spam.

I know there is a blacklist for hosting companies who have allowed to have send spam from their servers. I think this blacklist is used by system administrators so they can setup filters using this list to avoid spam again from that servers. The IP's of the spam servers are logged and blocked. For excample RackSpace.com seems to be spam friendly and have while IP ranges on the blacklist.

Is it important to choose for a datacenter/hosting company which has never been on such blacklist, so that I can be sure that my IP will never be blocked because of the blacklist? Or doesn't it matter, since I get my own IP? My worry is that my IP will be in a range that has been on a blacklist, and that the whole range is blocked so people won't get the mails. Is this possible?

Thank you in advance,

Jacco

Originally posted by Blikje
Is it important to choose for a datacenter/hosting company which has never been on such blacklist, so that I can be sure that my IP will never be blocked because of the blacklist? Or doesn't it matter, since I get my own IP? My worry is that my IP will be in a range that has been on a blacklist, and that the whole range is blocked so people won't get the mails. Is this possible?
You want to make a wise choice when picking a datacenter to host your business servers. That datacenter needs to have a zero tolerance for spam, else your IP addresses are more likely to become listed. Just because a datacenter issues you IP addresses doesn't mean they are "yours." They are still the datacenter's addresses and blacklists lose no sleep over listing full class Cs and greater belonging to datacenters who are spam-friendly.

You will get listed anyway - sif people remember opting-in to receive spam, or are forced to do so, or are tricked into doing so.

I think you will have to go to a spam-friendly provider, because you will still get spam complaints about your service.....trust me

Originally posted by Blikje
Is it important to choose for a datacenter/hosting company which has never been on such blacklist, so that I can be sure that my IP will never be blocked because of the blacklist?

I would say that choosing a provider that doesn't have an extensive and ongoing history of blacklistings is an important criteria. If, for instance, you're a rackspace customer and one of your clients spams, you can expect to be cut exactly zero slack by anyone, solely because of who your provider is. I use Rackspace as an example, but there are others whos reputations are just as bad wrt spam issues, and will reflect directly on you.

OTOH, there are many providers who have found themselves on the various spam databases at one time or other, but who generally run a clean network. Going with one of these should not provide you with any problems in the least.

One of the most important things you need to do though, is be sure that the lists your clients are sending to are really 100% opt-in. By this, I mean they need to be running a confirmed opt-in list (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "double opt-in" list), and they need to be able to prove to you that the addresses on their list did in fact sign up to be on their list. This is usually accomplished via the confirmation email that the listee had to respond to as the final part of the opt-in process. If any of your potential clients can't or won't produce such proof, or if they start talking about "affiliates" or "marketing partners" in place of producing the required proof, you need to drop them like a soggy bag of sh*t and move on, because these are the clients that will cause you trouble and ultimately take your business down.

Finally - and this probably goes without saying - unless it is your express intent to spam, please ignore the utterly ridiculous and irresponsible advice to go with a spam-friendly provider.

best of luck.

.

If you want to stay off the lists, everything needs to be DOUBLE-OPT IN..

How hard is that for everyone to understand? What opt in for an "enlarge your penis" email? Sweet, I'll sign up my teachers for that one!

Now, if it's double opt-in, they could decline it, and all would be just fine.

You're going to get listed sooner or later if you have opt-out or opt-in only... you need double-opt in and opt out.... IMO

Originally posted by seg fault
You will get listed anyway - sif people remember opting-in to receive spam, or are forced to do so, or are tricked into doing so.

I think you will have to go to a spam-friendly provider, because you will still get spam complaints about your service.....trust me

Yes, but in that case my service will be blocked by a lot of providers from the beginning on, giving me a false start.

It can always happen someone (accidentally or not) puts my IP on a blacklist, and than I have the proof (using the confirmation mail) they agreed to receive the mailing. Maybe I can put a legal agreement in the confirmation mail to make sure.

But starting with a spam friendly doesn't only mean the provider already got a record of spamming in most cases, it also means that I aren't taking my own service serious, because choosing for such a provider means that I know and expect to be list as spam in the future, instead of building the system to avoid spamming. The fact is that I am going to promote my service as anti-spam, and I would like for providers to know this. Choosing for a spam friendly host is just stupid than...