How to avoid being labelled a spammer?

[virtualtraveller]

Recently I had an issue with my host (whom I shall refer to here as ‘nightmarehost.com’ ), they are actually really good a most things including being zero-tolerance and kangaroo-court like, and it raises the issue that most hosts T&Cs are actually incredibly one-sided when it comes to determining whether you are guilty of spamming, so webmasters ought to be aware of this.

The details are summarized below but what it comes down to is you could be suspended, fined and more if someone in your organisation or using domains you host send out a message to 10 or more people, even from another server but related to domains they host. If you are in SEO like me and need to contact other sites with a repeated message asking to exchange links, or even co-promote, you could be in violation. If, like me, your host has tarred you with the ‘spammer’ brush you run the risk of sudden termination.

Am I a spammer? According to nightmarehost.com I am ‘blatantly in violation’ because I emailed a number of strangers without having the mailing list opt-in data to support it (they acted on a single complaint). According to the CAN SPAM act I am well within my rights to email websites in the first instance.

Here’s why; if my message is transparent, shows an origin email and has a topic relavent to their business I can email them once. I also maintain that by proposing to recommend them on my sites I am offering something of value and interest. In this specific case, I maintain we were contacting sites that have a links section inviting others to contact them for exchange. Nightmarehost.com still insisted I should produce ‘opt-in’ records.

We have been diligent to send targeted messages, each one unique (though with a similar message) bcc’d to no more than 5 other similar businesses, and no more than 10 messages a day. We don’t use mailing list software or repeatedly email the same people.

After a polite but affirmative dialogue with nightmarehost.com I established that no more than 10 emails on the same topic would be permissible, even if we were emailing existing listed partners (not a links directory I should add here, but a genuine guide recommending selected businesses) to update records. All the same they took a zero-tolerance approach with some laughably unreasonable replies to my questions. Theoretically someone could have me suspended by doing a Joe job by spamming out from a hotmail account but placing my domains in the message.

It’s a pain to move everything to a new host, so I’m now severely hampered in setting up link partnerships. Let’s face it many sites are involved in active link building and rely on email so this sort of hardline really creates a big fat grey line between what is genuinely spam and what is responsible emailing.

Meanwhile, it got me investigating since we’ve experienced an increasingly poor response to all sorts of creative ways of opening a dialogue with a site administrators for link exchange. See the next post on a new topic ‘avoiding emails caught up in spam assassin software’.

[OneMoreBite]

It seems odd to have a webhost suspicious simply because you use the same subject line and send more than 10 emails, but they all have their own rules. Without seeing the email in question, it could be you sent simply too many at one time (usually 10 wouldn't do it, but 50 might). If you included your complete contact info and removal instructions, it seems you'd be in compliance with the Can-Spam Act though.

Doesn't sound like a very friendly host though. I've sent several messages with the same subject line myself, especially when I'm replying to link requests, and other than them having emailed me in the past I have no proof of them opting in, so it'd be a little silly to be labeled a spammer by sending a message to them.

My guess is they objected to your sending the same message to multiple people in a batch. Was that the case?

Warmly,
Kathryn

[virtualtraveller]

Host server acted on a complaint and then tarred me wioth the 'Spammer' brush since I told them I have no 'opt in' data. What followed was a long email dialogue to establish exactly what constitutes 'bulk unsolicited mail' and therefore would require 'opt in'.

Anyway, read any of the anti spam policies of any host and they pretty much say 'any bulk mail activity whatsoever which we have the sole right to rule on...'

[drowranger]

Spamming being a touchy topic and sometimes hosts are way too proactive to prevent spams from them . Sucks though .