The first thing you need to be aware of are what things cause ISP spam filters to trip. Because all spam filter algorithms behave differently, it is impossible to suggest a "catch all" procedure that will guarantee your email will be delivered. However, these basic tips should greatly increase the chances of your email getting through.

The biggest offender of spam filters, believe it or not, is more the email address that the email is coming from than the content of the message. Most spam filters check the email address part before the domain name to see if there are any numbers in the address. The reason for this is that back in the old days, spammers would use email addresses like mybox12345@domain.com to send their emails from. So because of this, today's algorithms still use this function. So make sure you send from an email address that has no numbers in the name before the domain portion of the address.

Another thing you want to do is avoid certain words in your email and avoid the mention of making money. Now, there is a way around the make money part that requires a little creativity. For example, let's say you want to include proof of income in your email. You can't say something like "I made $12,575 last month" as this will trip the spam flag at a score of about 1.2. A score of 5 or more is considered spam. What you should say is something like "I brought in $12,575 last month" or "I earned to the tune of $12,575" last month. The spam filters get confused when they see the word "tune" between "earned" and the dollar amount.

As for the words to stay away from, this varies from filter to filter. The most common ones are "money", "guarantee" and "free". Some odd ones that you wouldn't expect to trigger the spam filters are the words "now" and "nothing". The word now is associated with "Get this offer NOW!" and the word nothing is associated with "Nothing down". There are other words as well but again, they vary from ISP to ISP.

The best thing to do is simply go to an online spam checker. There are plenty of free ones. A very good one can be found at http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/. I used to use it regularly, but after 4 years of email marketing, I know all the words to avoid and all my emails now go out with a spam score of 0.

Email marketing can still be very effective. You just have to know how to craft your message so you don't get killed by those dreaded spam filters.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim