Five years ago, getting a feedback loop probably meant that your uncle’s wife’s cousin’s daughter’s housekeeper was married to the brother of the guy who ran the mailservers.  Or maybe you just found out who to send the big box of meat to.  But things aren’t like that anymore.

Now, a feedback loop isn’t just a backhanded way of saying “you should unsubscribe these people if you want to send mail to us,” it’s supposed to be something that helps you to figure out what is going wrong and why.

When it comes to feedback loops, Whizardries can help you qualify for them, apply for them, and put policies and procedures in place to get the most of them.  We know what the pitfalls in the qualifying process are and can help you avoid them, speeding up the time it takes to get it in place and working for you.

Whitelisting usually comes hand-in-glove with feedback loops.  Feedback loops are the hand, and whitelisting is the glove.  That’s because whitelisting is a privilege extended to you by the ISP.  It helps them by allowing them to let known good mail to get through with minimal processor and server time spent filtering messages, and it helps you by, well, delivering your mail expeditiously.

But, no one likes to be taken advantage of, and that includes the ISPs.  In order to qualify for whitelisting you will need to already have a feedback loop in place, or be applying for it at the same time as your whitelist request.

We can help with that. We know the qualifications that ISPs have when it comes to whitelisting your servers. We can help you to avoid the pitfalls here, too.

If you think that we might be able to help you with setting up feedback loops and whitelisting with the major B2C ISPs, contact us today.

Your mail is being blocked by all of the big ISPs.  There is no revenue until you can figure out what happened, why it happened, and how to get things fixed.

That’s where Whizardries fits in.  We can help examine the error messages your mailings are receiving, look at your practices, policies and procedures, and figure out what went wrong and why.

Five years ago, we might have bragged about all of the industry contacts that we have and how well and closely we work with all of the big ISPs and mailbox providers. But, anyone who tells you that their industry contacts are the key to getting mail to go through again is just trying to steal your money.

Seriously. Even though we really do have extensive contacts with ISPs, they don’t care who we are (or even who you are) nearly as much as they care about what you are sending and if their clients (your recipients) want it.

But, by helping you figure out what happened, why it happened, and how to fix the issues that caused it to happen, Whizardries can help you put all of the pieces in place to get things fixed more quickly. Now, we won’t say that mail will be delivering by 5:00, but we speak the ISPs’ language too and know where to look and what needs to get done so the right things can get said to get the ball rolling.

If you are having problems with approaching the ISPs to get things fixed, we can help with that too. After helping you fix any underlying issues, we will be happy to act as your representative and approach the ISPs who are blocking you and ask for those blocks to be removed.

Do you have problems with ISPs and need help? Contact us and see what we can do for you.

“DNSBL” is an acronym for “DNS Block List.” It’s a list of IPs that someone, somewhere thinks should not be allowed to send email that is set up like a DNS server.  And the list of DNSBLs for the modern mail administrator to choose from is truly amazing.  Just looking at the list makes you feel like you are wandering through a maze of governmental departments and Three Letter Acronym agencies.

When something, somewhere, goes wildly wrong and you find your email servers listed by one, two, or several of these choices, you need to know how to get things fixed.  Usually in a hurry.

Of course, some of these lists are nothing more than an angry geek with a Linux box in his mom’s basement and aren’t used by more people than the angry geek and his seventy-five cats. But, some website somewhere did a check and you found that your mail server is listed.  How important is it to your business to get removed from that list?

Whizardries can help you understand all of this and more.  We can help you by

• Advising you regarding the policies and/or procedures you may have in place that got you listed and how to change them to expedite removal and prevent future listings
• Advising you as to which lists are of primary concern to your business and which only matter if you want to mail a few cats
• Helping you to navigate the maze of contact pathways
• Even acting as your company’s representative and reaching out to the list’s team on your behalf.

If you need help getting off of a DNSBL, we can help.  Contact us today.

“I comply with CAN-SPAM. Is that all that I need to do in order to send mail?”

“How do the latest court cases and FTC consent agreements affect my business?”

Questions like these are common among email senders.  Everyone wants to send email that complies with the law, but which laws apply?

The CAN-SPAM Act applies to commercial email sent in the United States, but other statutes may also apply to the mail you send, depending on things like:

• What kind of mail you send
• Where you are sending the mail from
• To whom you are sending the mail
• Where your recipients reside
• What your mail content looks like

Whizardries is able to help you figure these things out so that your mail doesn’t end up on the wrong side of the law.

Have questions? Please contact us.

Best practices are things that you need to do when you don’t know what exactly to do.  They outline the things that most senders should do in most circumstances in order to assure the widest, best possible delivery rates.

There are times when certain best practices might be disregarded, but you should consider them to be the default settings that should not be changed unless you know exactly what you are doing.

The most widely accepted best practices document out there is the one promulgated by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group’s Sender Special Interest Group.  That document outlines the current thinking of some of the best minds in the sender space on how to do things right.

Topics covered include:

• Obtaining consent
• Unsubscribe practices
• Accountability and reputation practices
• List maintenance and error handling
• Mitigating and resolving messaging disruption

Does all of that sound a bit arcane? Did you grab the document and still feel confused by what you read? Our slogan here at Whizardries is “Making Sense of the Arcane” and we can help you figure out which industry best practices you are already complying with, which you need to comply with and which you might safely disregard without damaging your reputation due to your own, unique circumstances.

If you are already having trouble sending mail, we can help you to make sense of it all in such a way that you will know what you need to do in order to regain a good reputation and send mail that your recipients want and will appreciate.  Contact us today to discuss your company’s needs and how we can help make sense of the arcane for you.