If you are going to run a mailing list you need to be very conscious of the problems you face.
At the technical/design level you need to send emails that people will be able to read.
Plain text emails are obviously going to be legible in all email clients, but are not as attractive as HTML ones.
Unfortunately no two email clients are going to render your emails in exactly the same way.
You need to check against the most common email clients and webmail interfaces to get a “feel” for how the final product is going to look.
Bear in mind that just because an email client can display HTML does not mean that you should try to use the same methods as you would when designing a web page.
Do not include any client-side scripting (javascript etc) as this will be blocked by any good system.
Do not include forms, as these will probably be stripped out.
If you ensure that your HTML is valid you are less likely to find your email being blocked by spam filters.
If you are sending from your desktop make sure that your PC’s date and time are correct.
If you are sending from a server make sure that your mails are being sent out by a user ie. Not being sent by nobody@ or apache@
If sending from a server make sure it has reverse DNS setup – lack of a reverse can lead to email being blocked
Make sure that you keep your list clean ie. That you do not generate large numbers of bounces
Make sure that your list conforms to permission based standards:
“The difference between senders of legitimate bulk email and spammers couldn’t be clearer, the legitimate bulk email sender has verifiable permission from the recipients before sending, the spammer does not.”
Putting a simple footer in each email explaining not only how to unsubscribe but where the person subscribed from will help avoid issues
Including unsubscribe instructions is NOT enough
Subscribing people to your list without their permission is NOT acceptable
Sending mail to people/companies because you feel that they “may be interested” in your products or services is NOT acceptable
If you have an existing relationship with clients / suppliers or potential clients you may send them email, however you should always make it clear how you got their email address if you do not use some form of subscription confirmation.
If you get reported for spamming it can ruin your business.
References:
http://www.spamhaus.org/mailinglists.html
http://www.spamhaus.org/definition.html
http://www.georgedillon.com/web/html_email_is_evil.shtml
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