# Mail going into yahoo, gmail, hotmail bulk folders



## Mormegil (Aug 25, 2009)

I see that there's a thread about this already, I created this one separately as it may be a different issue.  I've looked extensively into what may be causing this, and I haven't found any errors with my server configuration.  This, as far as I can guess, must be the result of some requirement of these providers that I'm not meeting.

I have:

Valid forward and reverse DNS
SPF Records
Static IP address
Not on any public blacklists

The problem is also definitely at the server and not the domain level. The problem occurs on all domains on my server, even one I haven't used yet other than for this test.  The headers from messages marked spam also don't provide any useful information.  I'm going to figure out how to set up DKIM on my qmail installation and see if that resolves it, but I don't think this is the issue since the hosting company I work for doesn't use DKIM and doesn't have this issue.


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## SirDice (Aug 26, 2009)

You can try emailing abuse@ and ask them why your mail ends up as junk.


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## Mormegil (Aug 26, 2009)

I've filled out a form at yahoo and am still going through the postmaster documentation at hotmail.  For gmail, as far as I can tell there's just a bulk sender FAQ and encouragement to conform to good sending practices, which I do as far as I know.

I guess what I'm looking for is feedback from others who might have run into this issue and how, if at all, it was resolved.  Most of what I've read from searching either points to measures I've already taken or had no resolution other than to warn your recipients to check their junk folders; clearly less than ideal.

I appreciate the reply.


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## vivek (Aug 26, 2009)

Keep in mind, if lots of user marks your e-mail (domain name) as spam (it happens if you send e-mail newsletter), they will consider it as spam. Hotmail may charge you small amount of money to avoid this. I've no idea about gmail or yahoo.


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## Mormegil (Aug 26, 2009)

Thanks also.  I've never sent bulk email and have only used this for my personal email. I want to start using it for my photography and consulting websites, but I really want to try and get this resolved legitimately first.  

One possibly less than savory idea might be to send mail to people I know and have them all mark it as not spam, I could probably get a few hundred people to do it. This is really hokey, might cause even more problems, and I'm not even sure how many people it'd take to make it work.


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## vivek (Aug 26, 2009)

Have you verified your SPF records? http://www.openspf.org/Tools


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## Mormegil (Aug 26, 2009)

Yes, I had previously verified the SPF records.  Also, the headers in received mail at these services lists my SPF as valid.  I've also configured domainkeys, which adds another header verifying validity.


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## osman (Aug 29, 2009)

You have done already everything, just want to add a point which might help you.

There are some sources on internet which these sites gmail/yahoo implement to check overall status of a ip pool. These sites recommend you to use reverse lookup to exhibit either the pool is statically assigned or its for dynamic users. 

for example yahoo uses spamhaus to check the overall reputation of a ip pool.


Thats why these days most of ISPs use reverse lookup for pools to something like "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.Static.abc.com"

So its not just the reverse lookup of your mail server ip which matters but also the overall reverse look of ip pool, to consider if originating ip belongs from dynamic ip pool or static.

Regards


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## Mormegil (Aug 29, 2009)

Thanks for the tip.  The reverse DNS entries for my provider's IP pool all point to static.xxxxxxxxx.net.  Mail seems to slowly be starting to go through to Gmail and Hotmail, but 100% junk folder placement at yahoo.  Haven't heard anything back yet regarding the info I sent them, but I'll keep this updated with any changes.


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## unixeagle (Sep 5, 2009)

Email messages hits the spam or junk folders in Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo for quite many reasons. Some of them are already taken care by you, as you said that you checked if your IP is not listed on any public blacklist.

Each mail server has it's technique for identifying a mail as a spam. The mail message gets into several checks and measurements, and it collects score points as it goes through. If the message hits a defined threshold, it is then identified as spam, and hence delivered to the junk folder.

Your problem may be in how you write your mails, not in how you deliver them. There is some guidelines you should stick to while creating a mail message that will be sent from a private mail server, as, the mail should contain plain text parts not only HTML, and it should not use words like "free rolex watches" in the subject and many other points in the list. You can google for it and you will easily find these guidelines.

After you well craft your mail, you can test it with some online tools that simulates a spamchecker on public mail server and scores your mail and tells you if this mail will be marked as spam or not. These tools are free and you can find many of them by google: spam checker tool.


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