Email Blacklist: What is it and How to avoid it?

The internet can be a scary place and an email blacklist is one of the things that can make it seem even scarier. No one wants to be put on an email blacklist, but it’s a very real possibility if you’re not careful. Email blacklists can negatively affect your ability to reach your subscribers, which is why it’s important to know what they are and how to avoid them.

An email blacklist is something no one wants. It’s possible (though not likely) that you’ve been put on a spam blacklist if you’re having trouble reaching people with your emails. Your email will not land in your subscribers’ inboxes, which, as you can imagine, will negatively affect your ability to succeed with email marketing. But don’t worry, we can help you.

Email blacklists are a pain. If you’re having trouble reaching people with your emails, it’s possible (though not likely) that you’ve been put on a spam blacklist. This means your email will not land in your subscribers’ inboxes, which, as you can imagine, will negatively affect your ability to succeed with email marketing.

Spam blacklists are huge, and unfortunately, they also include the good guys sometimes. So how do you determine whether you’ve been blacklisted?

Our quick guide to the topic of blacklists for email marketers includes how to check whether your email address is blacklisted and what you should do if it is.

Blacklisting: What is it, and why is it bad?

Email blacklists let servers decide which emails to consider spam and which not to. The reason you aren’t constantly removing foreign princes’ promotional and financial offers in your inbox has to do with blacklists. You might also have difficulty reaching your audience because of them.

There are various ways to separate spam from other emails, with the blacklists acting as filters to help servers trap spam and keep it in the junk folder. That’s why blacklisting is sometimes called spam trapping. 

The majority of blacklists are effective at their intended purpose. Nevertheless, because of the factors that determine what’s spam and what’s not, well-intentioned email marketers can also end up (in)boxed out. There are three specific traps that marketers fall into when this occurs:

1. Typo traps– Your contact list may contain lots of typos (for example name@gmial.com instead of name@gmail.com), which may lead spam traps to think your intentions weren’t so great. There’s nothing wrong with a few contact errors, but if they continue to occur, it becomes a concern.
2. Pristine traps– A second way blacklists trap unsuspecting spammers is by spreading inactive domains and email addresses, assuming that if someone starts mailing from those addresses, it’s either because they bought or scraped them – both of which are common practices among spammers.
3. Recycled spam traps– When emailing dormant contacts, beware of bounced back addresses. These can be categorized as spam traps and cause you serious problems if you’re not careful.
4. Using spam trigger words– You should beware of spam-marking words when using them in your email marketing copy. They tend to be promotional or are associated with shady requests and promises. Use caution when putting together your emails. 

You can also get blacklisted if a lot of your contacts flag your email as spam. This isn’t important if you’re practicing proper list etiquette like maintaining an opt-in-only email list and providing an unsubscribe link.

Here’s How to Find out if you’ve Been Blacklisted

Have trouble figuring out if your email address has accidentally made it onto a blacklist? You can find out by using an aggregate service like MXToolBox. In addition to the Barracuda Reputation Block List, MultiRBL, and Sender Score, you may want to consider the Barracuda Reputation Block List.

You should not worry if you find yourself on a blacklist. You can submit a request to have your IP address removed. Whatever the reason you find yourself on the blacklist, don’t be too defensive about it. Operators may immediately remove you, but others may ask you to re-permit your contacts first.

You need to send a request to be removed from any ISP’s blacklist if your domain name or IP address is listed there.

To have your ISP whitelist or de-list you, you should follow these steps:

1. Use their online form to apply for whitelisting / delisting using the URL links. Alternately:
2. Email the address provided.

Here are a few common ISPs: 

Comcast

• Visit this URL: https://www.xfinity.com/support/?CMP=ILC_support_resi-help-and-support_re
• Complete the online form.

EarthLink

• You can reach blockedbyearthlink@abuse.earthlink.net
• In the subject line, write *Blocked insert your email server’s IP> (example: Blocked 255.255.255.255).

Verizon

• This URL can be accessed: https://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Blocked-IP-Address-Whitelist-Request/td-p/820064
• Fill out and submit the online form.

Yahoo

• Visit Yahoo Postmaster if you have been blacklisted
• . Click on “Problems Delivering Email”.

Mail.ru

• You can use the Google page translator at this URL: https://translate.google.com
• Make sure that “Translate from Russian” and “Translate to English” are checked.
• Then you need to enter this link into the form: mail.ru/notspam/.
• Refer to the newly translated page for instructions.

AOL.com

• You can check your blacklist on AOL Postmaster
• Click on “Problems Delivering Email.”

Blacklisting and How To Avoid It

Once your address is flagged, it is much harder to get it removed. Here are a few ways to avoid getting blacklisted besides not falling into spam traps:

Make sure you are on an opt-in list. Never email someone without their permission. An opt-in list may take longer to grow, but it is more reliable, and it is less likely to be flagged.

Bounced and/or undeliverable addresses need to be removed from your list. The more you send messages to these addresses, the more likely you are to be blacklisted.

You should check your contact list for typos. Spend some time reading through your list and making sure it’s entered correctly. It might take a while, but it’s worth it so you aren’t sending out dud messages.

Routinely maintain your email list by removing spam accounts, bounced emails, and incorrect emails. 

Always build your email list over buying it. When you build your list, you use tactics that are safe and yield quality results. The thing is, you don’t know what you’re paying for. Also, it violates the GDPR guidelines. 

Conclusion

The best way to avoid being put on an email blacklist is to be a good email sender. That means following best practices for email deliverability, including using a reputable email service provider, keeping your list clean and up-to-date, and making sure your emails are not perceived as spam by your subscribers.

We hope you enjoyed our blog post about email blacklisting. If you are reading this, then you are likely having trouble getting your email to land in people’s inboxes. We want to let you know that getting your website removed from a spam blacklist is not an impossible task but it does require a little bit of work. You will need to contact the provider who is blacklisting you (in this case Yahoo) and ask them to remove the blacklist. This is a great introduction to the process, so if you have any further questions, check out our blog post. We would love to hear from you!

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