[0] It's January, which means we're all thinking about New Year's Resolutions, and starting the year off on the right foot. A little housekeeping is usually in order. Why not start with your email lists?

We see lots of questions in the NTEN Affinity Groups [1] about email delivery - the problems we are all having making sure that our email ends up where it's supposed to. Adam Bernstein from Electric Embers will be leading a fabulous session on this topic at the 2007 NTC, but if you're looking for a few pointers in advance, we've got them for you.

Sparklist just released this white paper about improving email delivery [2]. If you don't want to read the whole thing, here's a short summary:

1. Deliver your email from a static IP address.
2. If you don't host your own email server, make sure to ask your host a few key questions. Do they screen prospective clients (to keep spammers out), and can you get a fixed IP address?
3. Make sure your DNS entry is complete and correct.
4. Publish an SPF [3] record for your domain.
5. Embrace your unsubscribes. It keeps your list clean and makes delivery to others more likely.
6. Watch your delivery rate at particular ISPs. If a particular ISP is rejecting more email, you may want to try to tweak how email is sent to those addresses.
7. Test your content to see if it will avoid the spm filters. Use the free content checker from Lyris [4].
8. Check for legibility. If you're sending email (HTML or text) that has broken lines or is otherwise goofy looking, it's much more likely to be reported as spam.
9. Use a professional email solution. Including all your recipients in the BCC field is a sure-fire way to end up in the spam filter.
10. Respect the recipient. Send your lists what they want, when they want it.