We have relaunched: What's new at ZDNet Asia?

ZDNet / Insight / Security / Story

Cleaning up a bad e-mail reputation

By Joris Evers, CNET News.com on April 28, 2006

Summary

Companies focus on fixing the reputations of e-mailers and getting mail delivered to in-boxes, not the junk-mail folders.

Events

Microsoft MSDN/Developer Event
25 Mar 2010

One Marina Boulevard, Microsoft Singapore

IT Architect Regional Conference Singapore 2010
20 - 21 Apr 2010

Singapore Management University, Singapore

The Internet Show 2010
21-22 Apr 2010

Suntec Singapore

About a year ago, Publishers Clearing House set out to make sure its e-mail reputation was squeaky-clean.

The company, known for its sweepstakes and magazine subscription promos, stepped up its efforts to be a good e-mail citizen, and to make sure it didn't send out unwanted messages. It developed its own tools. It hired outside consultants. It signed up two full-time employees to oversee all of its e-mail delivery.

Quite an investment of time and money--but worth it, if it meant the company, which relies on mail to do business, avoided having its messages junked by spam filters.

"It has become more of a challenge to send e-mail," Sal Tripi, the director of operations at Port Washington, N.Y.-based Publishers Clearing House, said in an interview. "Because the ISPs are taking certain actions to catch illegitimate mailers, legitimate mailers have to take action to make sure that they are not caught in the same net."

In reputation-based filtering, senders are graded on their practices and assigned a reputation score based on several variables, such as complaint rates, volume of mail sent and response to unsubscribe requests. It's one of the latest techniques used to combat the problem of spam, which makes up more than 80 percent of all messages sent today, according to e-mail security service Postini.

What makes a reputation?

These factors are typically used by antispam filters to tag offenders.

  • The number of complaints, often generated by recipients flagging the e-mail as spam.
  • The percentage of mail sent to nonexistent e-mail addresses.
  • The frequency with which mail hits spam traps (e-mail accounts set up to monitor spam).
  • Unsubscribe performance. How quickly is a recipient unsubscribed or are such requests ignored?
  • Sending infrastructure. Spammers tend to have poor sending infrastructure, often stealing resources.
  • Volume--how frequently and how much mail is sent.

Source: ReturnPath

Also in response to spam, e-mail service providers are aggressively filtering messages to keep the medium useful for their customers. That, allied to the reputation push, is putting a burden on companies to meet the requirements of those providers. If they don't, they risk a slur on their character--and a subsequent ding to their business.

"It is a consistent and ever-changing business challenge to keep abreast of changing ISPs, policies and filtering," said Heather Soule, a representative of online invitation service Evite. "We adhere to the policies that most spam filters recognize, like proper formatting, and test through Habeas to ensure that the e-mails are delivered to our users' in-boxes and not junk/spam or bulk boxes. It is a laborious, constant challenge."

As a result, e-mail is no longer an easy and cheap way to get messages out to a large number of people, but one that needs careful management.

The score
Habeas, a Mountain View, Calif. Company, is a reputation-filtering service that also offers to help companies fix their e-mail reputation--for a price. Companies such as WalMart.com, Staples, Vanguard, Geico and Tickets.com have hired its services, Habeas said. One rival, which also specializes in getting mail delivered to the in-box, not the junk mail folder, is New York-based ReturnPath.

"E-mail is everything but free. Nothing good can remain free," Habeas CEO Des Cahill said. "Just like everyone spends money on search engine optimization, e-mail reputation and delivery is fast emerging as an industry."

Industry experts liken an e-mail reputation to a driving record or a credit score. With a bad driving record, you pay more in insurance premiums. With a low credit score, you don't get good rates on loans. If your e-mail reputation is bad, your mail gets junked.

"We monitor our reputation on a daily basis," Tripi, of Publishers Clearing House, said. "We like to make sure that our reputation remains clean, but it is a big effort."

But if you have a credit score problem, you really only need to hit the three agencies that maintain those records. It's a lot tougher for businesses that want to set their e-mail reputation straight: Hundreds of places compute e-mail reputations, and they may all do it

Related stories

Asia is public enemy No. 1 for spam

Bots slim down to get tough

Talkback

Add your opinion

In order to post a comment, you need to be registered. (Sign In or register below)

Post your comment
Transform your business interactions with real-time voice, video and telepresence solutions.
Tech Vendor: Cisco

ZDNet Asia Live

RT @mistertechblog: I wrote about Nexus One and Touchdown, desktop dock, Bluetooth/USB tethering, ebooks here: http://bit.ly/bRdzx0

1 hour 39 minutes ago by yklee13 on topsy

Read my blog post on getting the most from your Nexus One: http://www.zdnetasia.com/blogs/m...

Data Centre Operator (Fresh Graduates Welcome to Apply) in ... http://bit.ly/bagYuu

2 hours 9 minutes ago by intmasterfeed on topsy

#Cisco #Cloud Cloud on ZDNet Asia: Aussie university joins Cisco cloud ยท Early-adopter criminals embrace cloud... http://bit.ly/d93C8S #TCN

3 hours 12 minutes ago by thetechgang on topsy

www.3w.com.au has seen it's outsourced IT Contracting Business in Manila grow at 4 times the rate of its traditional Australian Based...

9 hours 50 minutes ago by brucemills on Companies' outsourcing spend to increase

RT @3wconsulting: Whitepaper from http://3W.com.au "Outsourcing Your IT Requirements to Philippines" now on @zdnetaustralia & @zdnetasia http://ow.ly/1oY9f

Whitepaper from http://3W.com.au "Outsourcing Your IT Requirements to Philippines" now on @zdnetaustralia & @zdnetasia http://ow.ly/1oYbA

Whitepaper from http://3W.com.au "Outsourcing Your IT Requirements to Philippines" now on @zdnetaustralia & @zdnetasia http://ow.ly/1oYbz

Zdnetasia.com Estimated Worth $178,365 USD. Daily Ad Revenue:$244 USD, Daily Views:81,445 Pages... - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

recently estimated website net worth of zdnetasia.com - http://www.haplog.com/www.zdneta...

19 hours 43 minutes ago by haplog on topsy

When I create an event, I click on an approximate time during the day when I want the event to occur, then I click "edit event detail...

1 day 19 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Google Calendar gets 'smart' rescheduling

ipads break alott i had one it broke three times in the month i had it so i got rid of the damn thing id just go for the laptop Top Grade...

1 day 21 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Report: 'Hundreds of thousands' of iPad preorders

There are a number of websites that still require Internet Explorer to view and IE for Mac Stinks (it is really ies4osx which is the Wind...

1 day 22 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Microsoft: Only minor tweaks in Windows 7 SP1

The receivers don't transmit back to the satellite. Unless there is a phone line attached to the receiver, they don't have any wa...

1 day 25 minutes ago by bessellbrowne on Apple to join the geolocation craze?

"Lead Cognos BI Developer Insurance - Jobs - ZDNet Asia" http://bit.ly/bRcxOG

1 day 20 minutes ago by rhrcognos on topsy

whatever little understanding I have we 'll only progress toward end of the world if we use HPCs to lenthen life of human being. Huma...

1 day 32 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing promises elixir of life

Thanks for the knowledgeable article on SDDs. Allas...when all this reasearch will happen in Indian Universities. Hope the new bill on Fo...

1 day 45 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on APAC HPC users eye solid-state drives

It was a good article. This brings a good opportunity for Indian IT firms to come up with new solutions in this field. HPC can become a b...

1 day 3 minutes ago by abhi32002@gmail.com on High computing most-wanted job in Asia

COL KR DHARMADHIKARY(RETD) its very late to reply the link, but if it is still alive and looking for opportunity, i would like to know th...

2 days 1 minute ago by deb021280 on Education takes off in rural India, helped by PCs

It was just a matter of time until google was marginalised anyway. I'm afraid this will be forgotten in China very quickly. Still, it...

2 days 5 minutes ago by robinsmith on Report: Google to leave China on April 10

High performance computing (HPC) most-wanted job in Asia http://bit.ly/9vFC3i (via @zdnetasia) #singapore

He doesn't care if her shoes are of glass, All he wants to see is a huge rack and nice a*s. Sleeping beauty's not awoken by true ...

2 days 34 minutes ago by warlowdavies on One pair of 3D glasses to rule them all

RT @zdnetasia: EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. (cont) http://tl.gd/i5jjd

EMC COO, Pat Gelsinger, on bridging gaps in the organization and its cloud ambitions in Asia. http://bit.ly/9etOZW

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08 via @zdnetasia

Asian SMBs need to pay more attention to disaster recovery planning http://bit.ly/bDet08

[TECH] URL Shorteners slow Web redirection. - http://bit.ly/bySnWK @zdnetasia

URL shorteners are great but they can slow web redirection & you pray it would never go down http://bit.ly/bySnWK via @zdnetasia

URL shorteners slow Web redirection. http://bit.ly/bySnWK

Chinese agencies cry foul over Google. http://bit.ly/by6rwV

all of sg's isps have been practising compulsory invisible proxy for all home subscribers at their backend since many years back alre...

3 days 44 minutes ago by melvinchia on Web filters mean bad news for business

it is not to good for china.
Proactol

3 days 29 minutes ago by nathonastle on Chinese ad partners beg Google for information

Very good explanation of JMX

4 days 34 minutes ago by Babith B on Managing applications with JMX

The reaction to a report issued Tuesday by Flurry Analytics managed to completely overlook some interesting news--the Android-based Motorola Droid outsold the original iPhone over the same period of time following their respective launches--to focus instead on the sales numbers for the Nexus One.

4 days 38 minutes ago by lonemavericks on diggs

Another ZTE story....

4 days 40 minutes ago by Moderate Your Greed on Philippines opens bid for final 3G license

Keep up with ZDNet Asia

Linkedin Join our network

RSS Feeds Subscribe now

Newsletters Subscribe today

Twitter Follow us

Inside ZDNet Asia

Special Report: Tech Focus in 2010

Latest Videos on Tech Industry

Insight: Interviews with Newsmakers

Search for over 15,000 Tech Jobs in Asia

Find your Tech answers in TechGuides

IT Library: Over 60,000 IT papers at your fingertips

Download IT Priorities 2010 Report