Hi Everyone:

just to kick this one off...

Are any of you testing subject lines and what kind of results have you been having? Reason I ask? Getting over the first hurdle is becoming tougher by the minute. Spam checkers are killing even the most honest of email campaigns.

One thing they measure and rate is... Subject Lines.

Lets me have some feedback please

Thanks Your Moderator Alan.

G'day Alan,

Interesting topic. Just my $.02 ...

At www.renos.com.au, we have a big (for Australia!) database, and we e-mail to them regularly.

As spam filters started to become popular, we found more and more "bounce backs" occurring.

My principals (Geoff Doidge and Paul Eslick) have excellent credibility and recognition via positive coverage on national TV lifestyle programmes, so we ALWAYS use their name/s in the Subject line.

Then we try for no more than 3 or 4 additional words that describe the letter.

For example ... "Geoff Doidge Renovation Seminar .... Early Bird closing."

Or "New ezine from Geoff Doidge."

We find these Subject lines get past most filters.

We absolutely NEVER use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the Subject line ... also we try to never use any of the words that spammers regularly use ... It takes a bit of effort to actually LOOK at your spam, but worth it.

BTW, I use a free program called MailWasher to preview my incoming mail before it leaves the server.

MailWasher lets me Block, Delete, and/or Blacklist spam BEFORE it reaches my inbox... Often as many as 100 a day!

The beauty of this is that bouncing emails back to the source appears to successfully erase me from their auto spam bots after a few bounces.

I am now almost totally Casino-free because of MailWasher!

(BTW I have no affiliation with MailWasher ... It's just a great program that I recommend to anyone who will stand still! I hate spam, and they seem to be the only folk actually DOING something that works!)

Great forum!

Best regards,

Denis.

What a great post denis thanks. Last week I sent out over 2,000 email to one of my lists. Nearly 400 bounced back and its growing.

I agree with your subject lines thats exactly what I do myself. Tool sounds good.

I feel and research is proving the worst thing any of us can now do is try and be "clever" in subject lines... filters are just wating for that kind of mail.

For example my own Spam Asassin at getresponse.com shows if we dont add a real name to the subject line it adds points "as" spam.

If we use html that also adds points. If we use tables with a bold border its the same again. And more and more... urghhhh

Just be sensible and using a decent tool is the safest way at this point. Anyone else got more to add?


Check out this page it might help...

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm

Thanks

Hi

Dr. Ken Evoy of SiteSell offers another very useful tool.

Before you mail out to all your subscribers, send your mail to this address-
spamcheck-ebizindia@sitesell.net
(Make sure the subject line starts with TEST or you will never get a reply.)
Example - TEST your subject line

You will get back a full SpamCheck Report in seconds. No need to worry - you will never be contacted again on your address, so this is not a clever ploy to get your address

The reply will contain the rating of your email for spamminess and a short ad for their Site BuildIt product (just ignore this).

Hope that helps.

I prefer Lyris' online content checker. Same thing, but doesn't come with advertising See http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker/

Spam filters are totally out of line. I ran my most recent newsletter through a checker and it showed me all the words that the filters object to. Its not just the subject line, either. It checks the body of the email. Here is a short list of the words that kept my ezine from being delivered:

• the
  you're
  read
  this
  news
  please
  unsubscribe
  click
  available
  with
  special
  spot
  view
  master
  about
  cgi
  anyone
  learn
  auto
  web site
  mailing
  list
  order
  membership
  protect
  marketing
  receive
  your
  will
  back
  have
  welcome
  that
  you
  this
  friend
  business
  just
  want
  give
  here
  ad
  paid
  help
  free
  rate
  find
  good
  looking
  less
  best
  not
  only
  personal
  target
  hot
  video
  chat
  domain
  search engine
  software
  from home
  online
  more
  sample
  remove
  first
  work
  like
  make
  fast
  what
  just
  while
  years
  from
  over
  been
  each
  extra
  time
  take
  download
  into
  someone
  all
  need
  chance
  information
  look
  computer
  know
  everyone
  check
  first
  buy
  very
  time
  days
  much
  new
  more
  minutes
  discover
  never
  internet
  don't
  start
  you
  program
  better
  save
  right
  shy
  claim
  sales
  month
  test
  real
  into
  enter
  classified
  limited
  email
  approved
  for
  any
  profits
  without
  legality
  autoresponder
  newsletter
  photographs
  bright
  flashy
  just
  yourself
  save
  within
  card
  advanced
  searching
  feedback
  automatically
  uncover
  whole
  much
  wanted
  without
  family
  document
  seperate
  beginners
  corporate
  deliver
  gifted
  best
  find
  associates
  questions
  asked
  own
  forums
  password
  library
  available

I can't possibly publish without using most of these words, which by the way have nothing to do with spam. This really p***es me off!
Peace,
windsong

That's why, I believe, the best way to go is HTML. HTML newsletters give you the ability to add comment tags in between words, breaking them up and making them unreadable by the Spam filter.

For example ...

FREE!, which will still look like "FREE."

Plus, another added advantage is to use graphics for banned words -- so, owning a graphics program, is a great advantage.

Finally, for text only, you can still send HTML with plain text boundary that says "to view this newsletter, click this [URL}."

Me 2 cents.

Michel:
You are trying to get me started, aren't you? I don't like html newsletters. They are bandwidth hogs. Also, many of my subscribers live in other countries besides the USA and they pay by the minute for their internet connection. We are talking long distance rates, here. I do try to keep the file size reasonable for these people. Also, once they download their email, they then go offline while they read their email. I don't have to tell you what happens to the html email. I think what we should do instead is shoot all the spam bots. I'm willing to go to jail for this principle.
Peace,
windsong

There's always the text "announcement" way, which is probably a good way to do it, too, if you are concerned about HTML. It's like the way jl Scott sends all her emails for iCop. A one- or two-liner, that says, "read this week's issue here: [url]."

But listen, I hear ya. spam sucks.

Did you guys catch the article on spam in today's issue of SitePro News? I've saved a copy of it, so if you want to see it just give me a holler.