Email Feedback Loops Why They Matter

If someone wants to unsubscribe from your list and they hit the dreaded "THIS IS SPAM" button, instead of the innocuous "UNSUBSCRIBE" button, it can cause big problems. But do you know why?

When you send an email that originates from your domain name, you should always provide the recipient the opportunity to opt-out of your list by clicking on an "UNSUBSCRIBE" button. If you don't have an opt-out button or text attached to your email, you'll want to place it there immediately.

When someone opts-out of your list by clicking on the "UNSUBSCRIBE" button, the communication takes place directly between you and the person on your list. You will be instantly sent a message from them requesting removal from your list. And, as long as you respect their request, everything will be fine.

Unfortunately many people have been conditioned to avoid the "UNSUBSCRIBE" button. They know that spammers often times use this button to confirm that an email address is valid. If a spammer sees that you clicked on the "UNSUBSCRIBE" button, they know that your email address belongs to a living, breathing human being. Once they have this information, they can sell your email to other spammers.

Legitimate email marketers would never use the "UNSUBSCRIBE" button for that purpose. They prefer that you use it to notify them directly so that they can remove you from their list immediately.

Unfortunately, many people will opt-out of your list by clicking on the "THIS IS SPAM" button, and it can cause problems if you're not prepared. When this happens, it's the equivalent of the recipient complaining directly to the Supreme Court without advising you of the problem.

When someone clicks the "THIS IS SPAM" button, it starts a chain of events that are put in place to stop potential problems before they grow out of control. The keyword here is "potential" problems.

It could very well be that a spammer has hacked into your server and discovered a way to send their spam to your list. When someone clicks on the "THIS IS SPAM" button, it can provide an early warning of a bot infestation, a compromised web form or another source of spam abuse.

It can also be from someone who just doesn't want to receive email from you any longer. In either case, here's what happens.

The first thing that happens is that the recipients' computer will be reset to no longer accept email from your domain name. If you try to send them another email, it will either be sent directly to their spam box on be rejected out right.

The next thing that happens is that the email service, (let's use Gmail in this example) will be notified that the recipient has marked the email from your domain as spam. The email service sees this as a complaint and it can handle it in one of a variety of ways.

1. Gmail can choose to do nothing, seeing the complaint as insignificant because this was the first time anyone has marked an email from your domain as spam.

2. Gmail can stop sending your emails to everyone on your list with an @gmail account. This is the last thing you want to happen.

3. Gmail can inform you that someone marked your email as spam and give you the opportunity to remove their name from your list.

The best choice by far is number three. You want Gmail and all of the other email services to inform you when someone clicks on the "THIS IS SPAM" button. If they don't inform you, you will never know that one of your subscribers has asked to be removed from your list, or that they is potentially a much bigger problem.

The "THIS IS SPAM" button does not work like the "UNSUBSCRIBE" button, which informs you of their decision immediately. If you don't tell Gmail and the other email services that you want to be notified when someone clicks the "THIS IS SPAM" button, they have no way of letting you know what happened. This is why you want to fill-out the feedback loop registration form for each email service provider.

It's important that you register your feedback loop address, usually abuse@yourdomain, with all of the major ISP's and email service providers. This is a manual job and it can be a time consuming process, but it is critical that you do this immediately.

You can find the feedback loop submission forms for these major providers by searching for terms like "Road Runner Feedback Loop," "Yahoo Feedback Loop" and "Comcast Feedback Loop." You'll need to do this with all of the email companies where you intend to send email.

Once you've registered your feedback loop address with these companies, they will be able to alert you when recipients mark your messages as spam allowing you to unsubscribe them from your list and stay out of spammers jail.

What is or Constitutes A Spam Email

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Spam emails are emails that are essentially junk emails. They have no real purpose, other than to amuse the spammers who send them and to cause frustration and annoyance to people who receive them.

It is estimated that worldwide around 100 billion spam messages are sent everyday. This causes people to waste time by opening up spam, only to find that it is of no relevance to them and it can potentially slow down internet traffic. If we could get rid of 100 billion messages being sent everyday, it is likely that we would all find that the internet was just that little bit quicker. Dealing with spam emails also costs organisations money, since a business has to pay people to deal with emails and many have to deal with spam emails, which costs that organisation money in terms of staff costs and lost productivity when dealing with the unwanted emails.

When the internet was originally launched, no one had any idea of the real potential for success. Consequently there was little regulation in terms of what went on the internet, indeed, to a large extent, there is still very little regulation in most countries.

However, this was viewed as a golden opportunity by spammers, who realised that they could send out block emails, with details of products or just with meaningless messages. Sometimes the spammers use software that simply takes a guess at email addresses, but sometimes the emails are generated as a result of a virus. Some companies even sell email addresses and then spammers use these to spread their word.

Some spam is actually a front for people to try and obtain money through fraud. Spam mails will arrive that are set up to look like they came from your bank or Paypal, so that you will reply with details of your accounts. This is usually referred to as phishing. All internet users need to be aware that reputable banks and organisations such as Paypal will not ask for your account details over the internet, they already have them and there is no reason for you to provide them; so dont!

Spam can be reported to the Information Commissioners Office in the UK and many Internet Service Providers also encourage users to report spam to them. Sadly most of the legislation refers to UK produced spam and most spam received in the UK is generated outside this jurisdiction, but if enough people keep complaining then eventually the issue may be resolved!

How To Get Infected By An Email Virus

Have you ever received an email with the subject of like this: Paris Hilton Free Video. This has happened to me and to a ton of other people.

What's interesting to notice is the links inside the email. The links called: Microsoft | Unsubscribe | More Newsletters | Privacy... all link to Microsoft websites. Those links are safe, and the spammers (persons who send the spam email) put those links there so the email sounds more realistic, so more folks get tricked that it is an actual real, genuine email from Microsoft.

Why this email contains viruses?

How do I know it. Apart from the fact that it's rare that Microsoft will send an email about Paris Hilton there is something else. This other thing is the big bolg title inside the email: "Paris Hilton Scandal Home Video!" which links to a website. If you click that link, it takes you to a website which automatically infects your computer with a virus.

The link ends up with a exe extension. You can place your mouse above links inside any email (without clicking) and then in your web browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc) at the bottom you will see the actual link address. Try this technique on any link inside any website or email.

Links with exe extensions in emails are the most dangerous, these are not websites, or web pages but a downloadable file.

Never click links inside emails that have that exe extension in the end of the website url. So if the email looks really suspicious first check out the links inside the email. Check that they do not end up in exe

I always ask myself the question once I check my emails: Who can the person who sent me this email be? In the case above I instantly got the feeling it's not someone I know or any newsletter I am subscribed to.

If in doubt do not click the links, just check them first. Extreme care and understanding is required with emails that look suspicious.

That's the most common way to get infected by a virus from emails. The other way is through attachments, by opening attachments that are send to you by spammers. These attachments contain viruses. Attachments are simple files/pictures or anything else attached through emails. Your email client like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail etc notifies you when an email has attachments.

Use a popular email client, they have more safety features. Some automatically block spam, sending to junk folder, a common feature nowadays. Other display warning messages when they detect something suspicious. Plus these web based email clients are free.