Spam Filters do generate False Positive

Internet is definitely making a visible trail of an improved medium of communication. Online businesses and promotions are but just some of the fields that make use of this worldwide connection. Email marketing is indeed of great importance for businesses that concern online promotion.

A big part of online marketers fail to understand the real score of their mailings. A message prompt like ‘message sent’ is not a guarantee that the message reached the prospect’s inbox. There are instances when promotional emails and even opted-in newsletters get block and thus land on bulk folders.

Most if not all ISP’s and email users utilize spam filters. Spam filters are softwares made to limit the effect of spam (these are messages that suggest violence, pornography, obscenity and the like). Spam filters have different spam detection techniques – certain filters check the content of the message, while others depend their detection on whitelist and blacklist. Though spam filters vary in detecting spam, most of them can be configured by the users - such as changing the level of security or updating the whitelist and blacklist databases. Furthermore, because of the unwanted effect of spam, be it in the context of homes, small businesses or large ones, email users and mail administrators tend to increase the security level of these filters. This results to a low false negative (false negative occurs when the filter fails to block a spam) which is very desirable. But increasing the security level increases the false positive as well. Unlike false negative, false positive occurs when a legitimate email is blocked from reaching the inbox. And this is very unlikely for email marketers. Heightened false positive rate hinders online businesses to progress. In addition, large amount of money is wasted during internet campaigns, and false positive can hamper businessmen from building relationships on their clients and prospects.

Spam filters are good; they help us in our fight against spam and spammers. But there isn’t a perfect filter. An ideal spam filter should generate a zero false positive and a zero false negative. Unfortunately this is hard to achieve, quite impossible actually. But it’s great to know that there are email delivery assurance systems which can help online marketers optimize there campaigns and mailings. Email delivery assurance systems test your emails on major mail administrators and ISP’s to know if indeed the inbox is reached. If not, these email delivery assurance systems can help you fix the problem that hinders your emails from landing on prospected inbox(es). One of the email delivery assurance systems used today is EmailReach – an assurance system that uses delivery audit. If you are planning to secure an email delivery assurance system, you may want to visit http://www.emailreach.com.

 

Types of Spam Filters

Types of Spam Filters

Spam filters are designed to block unwanted messages generated by unethical senders. Presently, there are different spam filter programs in the market available for email users to purchase. These programs are designed differently, which means that their methods of detecting spam vary.

Businesses which require email messaging for information dissemination would find it helpful to know the different methods used by spam filters. This will in turn help them tailor there message’s content as well as their mailing procedures. Thus, being aware of spam filter programs can help in the optimization of any internet campaign.

The most common type of spam filter is the Content-Based Filter. This type of filter as the name suggests, looks on symbols, words or phrases in the subject line, headers and content of the message which are suspicious. The filtering process is very dependent to phrases and words chosen by the user as spam, this means that spam messages with words or phrases not included in the list of the user will make it to the inbox time and again unless the user creates another filter to deal with those words and phrases. The good side of this filter is, it can be fashioned in anyway the user wishes to.

Another type of spam filter is the Bayesian Filter, unlike content-based filter; Bayesian filter undergoes ‘training’ where the filter learns the difference between a spam and a legitimate email. During this ‘training’ messages are broken into tokens and these tokens are then stored in databases (tokens of good messages are separated from those of spam). This type of filter requires minimal maintenance and can adapt easily to users’ usual message, just like if the user is a medical practitioner, anything that relates to medical field will be considered as good. The primary drawback of Bayesian filter is that optimum filtering will not take place immediately, since the filter is dependent on the messages on which it is trained.

In addition, there is a Blacklist-Whitelist filter where the whitelist is composed of the ‘good’ email addresses and the blacklist is composed of email addresses believed to send spam. This kind of filter ensures that received emails are from whitelisted senders only and any address aside from the whitelisted ones will be blocked. With this, email users can expect a zero false negative. The main disadvantage of this filter is that, whenever a real-time blacklist (RBL) is used, there is a tendency that the whole IP is considered as spam sender, though only a part of it used to send spam.

Challenge-Response Filter on the other hand sends messages to unknown senders asking them to do further action/step to justify their intention of sending the email. These further actions can be a request for the senders’ website to ensure that the email is legitimate. This type of filter is quite applicable to low traffic email users.

Community filter is another type of spam filter. This filter has a central server where users can send suspected spam; the server itself then saves the ‘fingerprint’ of the message to the database. When enough users flagged the message as spam, the ‘fingerprints’ of the message will be blocked in the future. But before a spam is blocked, many users have already opened it.

If your business makes use of email in sending promotional or newsletters, you should at least know if your email address is in the real-time blacklists so that you can apply for whitelisting. And at least know the basic symbols, words and phrases to be avoided in sending emails. Try visiting www.emailreach.com for more information about spam filters.

 

Increase Your Sales without Jeopardizing Your Reputation

Online marketers know the importance of internet marketing campaign. Most marketers, if not all are convinced that good marketing strategy is the key for their companies’ progress. Online marketing campaign aims to promote product or service to prospects, and convert these prospects into customers. Basically, online marketing uses SEO (Search Engine Optimization), this will improve your placement in search engine listings. Another thing is sending follow up messages for those who have visited your site and opted-in for mailings.

One of the major problems online marketers are facing nowadays is fighting spam filters from flagging their legitimate emails as unwanted, unsolicited, etc. Stringent spam filters tend to hamper internet marketing. If you are running an online business, you have to know what a spam filter is, and what does it do. Spam filter detects unsolicited emails which are often offensive – promoting violence, pornography and the like. But because unethical senders keep on looking for ways to make there emails look legitimate, spam filters become aggressive in detecting unwanted messages, but since these filters are not perfect there are false-positive and false-negative. False-positive emails are emails flagged as spam, although they are not. On the other hand false-negative occurs whenever a filter fails to detect a spam message as spam.

As an online marketer, you have to be aware of the different filtering strategies employed by spam filters of mail administrators and ISPs, so that you would be able to make your emails legitimate not just in nature but as well as in appearance, preventing them from being blocked. Most filters use content assessment – looking for a word or a phrase that is associated to spam. Another type of filter is the Bayesian filter, where the filter is accustomed to good and bad emails. During the ‘training’ the messages are broken into tokens and these tokens are then stored into databases (tokens obtained from legitimate emails are separated from those obtained from spam). In addition, there is a Whitelist-Blacklist type of filter. This filter would simply allow you message to reach the inbox if you are listed on its whitelist, otherwise your message will be blocked.

There is also a Challenge-Response filter where you are challenge to do further actions before your message gets to your prospect’s inbox.

(Preventing your message from being flagged as spam and making your message reach your prospects’ inbox)

To ensure deliverability of your newsletters, make your message appears unspammy. Learn the words, phrases or symbols to be avoided in a subject line, such as the word ‘free’, #, $, etc. Encourage your prospects to place you in their whitelist if they are using a whitelist-blacklist filter. If you want to know more about email deliverability, try checking www.emailreach.com.

To prevent your message from being flagged as spam use a double opt-in, this means that your prospects are required to confirm their intentions on your updates and follow ups before you add them into your database for mailing. This would give you an idea of who are interested on your product with a little possibility of getting reported as spam. Another thing is, make your opt-out procedure easy, just like attaching an opt-out link on emails to be sent or simply require your prospects to send an empty email whenever they decide to undo their subscription. Once you impose a tedious procedure for opting out, your prospects might report your message as spam to expedite their unsubscription.

 

Making Spam Filter Your Buddy

The web keeps the business world revolving. Infinite possibilities are unfolded as online business comes to exist. Through the internet, marketing campaign, promotion, news reports and many more are made in just a matter of minutes. With this, transactions are made easy resulting to more sales. But this is not the real score nowadays, with people sending unsolicited emails (dubbed as spam), mail administrators and users tend to install spam filters in order to prevent annoying and offensive messages from reaching their inboxes. But the thing is, your legitimate message can be blocked.

Spam filters are generally designed to eliminate spam messages in the inbox by either directing the received message on the bulk folder or deleting it. In other words, spam filters cleanse the user’s inbox from unwanted ‘trash’ – pornography, violence and the like. Since these filters are not perfect, legitimate messages can be flagged as spam as well.

Spam filters vary in terms of the method used in detecting spam. The most common type of method is content assessment. This method relies greatly in the content of the sent message or looking for ‘kill’ words or phrases. Bayesian logic is also one of the methods used. Unlike content-based filters, Bayesian method has some sort of ‘training period’, wherein the filter is accustomed to what a legitimate or a spam message appears like. One of the drawbacks of Bayesian method is, it is so dependent on the ‘training’ made. Furthermore, other spam filters use Whitelist-Blacklist method. If the message address is in the whitelist, then it will be directed to the inbox, otherwise in the bulk folder.

In addition, spam senders keep on devising tricks to make their emails appear legitimate; As a result, spam filters become more stringent in their filtering. And worst, your opted in promotional might not reach your prospects/clients inboxes. EmailReach can help you in assessing the content of your message, which will lessen your possibility of getting flagged as spam. If you want to increase your sales amidst stringent content filters try visiting www.emailreach.com.