Six Easy White-Listing Ways...Stop Losing Important Emails

By S. Kumar
Posted Monday, August 16, 2004

Are you dead sure about receiving of all the important emails that is sent to you?

"The chances are that you are among the 42% of the people who ARE NOT receiving the genuine emails and newsletters that you requested for".

Why this is so?

Increasingly, ISPs are using filtering systems to try and keep Spam out of customers' inboxes. Being automated, these filters are not perfect. Many authentic emails get caught in these filters.

Sometimes, they accidentally filter that "All-Important-Email" you were waiting for. And you have no way to know which of your emails is filtered. The end result is, you end up losing critical info that may prove to be vital to your business.

Is there a way to solve the problem?

Fortunately for all of us, there exist simple solutions. But the action has to come from you to make sure that these critical communications reaches your mailbox - Unblocked.

Six of the most common and easy solutions are given below. It's simple to implement.

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For The HOTMAIL User: You can 'Safe List' an email ID in hotmail. Here's how:

1. Choose the 'Options' tab from the top
2. Select 'Safe List' ( Given under the head -Mail Handling-)
3. Now type the email address that you want messages to be received without filtering in the one line form.
4. Now choose 'Add'

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For The AOL User: Place an email ID in the 'Address Book' in AOL. Here's how:

1. Go to Keyword Mail Controls
2. Select the screen name to which the newsletter is send
e.g "HomeBiz Tip E-Mag"
3.Now choose 'Customize Mail Controls' For This Screen Name
4.For AOL v7.0, include in the section: "exclusion and inclusion parameters", the domains from which email is send.
For e.g. @learnhomebusiness.com, @learnhomebusiness.net

For AOL v8.0, choose "Allow email from all AOL members, email addresses and domains"

5. Choose 'Next'.
6. Choose 'Save' displayed at the bottom.

Important Note On AOL 9.0 : AOL 9.0 has become more complicated. The best way is to place an email ID to the "Person I know" buddy list. All mail you receive from this email ID will pass through the filters. So, make sure that when you join for a newsletter, it is ADDED to your buddy list.

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For The YAHOO User: Correct the 'Bulk' Folder in your Yahoo. Here's how:

1. Newsletters gets mistakenly filtered to your Yahoo 'Bulk' folder. Go to your 'Bulk' folder, locate the filtered newsletter and choose, "this is not Spam", next to the "From" field.

Also, to ensure that you do not miss on important emails to your Yahoo Inbox, do these steps:

1. Open your Yahoo mail box
2. Choose 'Mail Options' (Given at the right corner)
3. Choose 'Filters'
4. Choose 'Add ' button.
5. Now, In the top row - From header: Choose 'contains'.
6. Type the domain from which the news letter is sent.
For e.g. learnhomebusiness.com
6. Finally, at the bottom -Move the message to: Choose Inbox.
7. Choose 'Add Filter' button.

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For OTHER Users: Meant for email programs like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and Netscape Mail. Here's how:

Inform your ISP or the person in your organization responsible for your email that you want to receive all communications from a particular domain.

For e.g. As a subscriber of (http:///www.learnhomebusiness.com) ask them to white-list the ezine "HomeBiz Tips-EMag' so that you can continue to receive our Zero-cost products without a break.

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For Your Own Spam Filter Software: Many times own filter software installed in your computer can act as the culprit. Here's how to prevent it.

Look for "Options" in the filter software that you have installed in your computer. Then give permissions for all emails from a particular email ID or domain.

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Two Additional Tips To Prevent Loosing Important Emails:

Tip #1 : You may be currently receiving all your email messages without a hitch. But, it's still advisable to white-list and prevent future problems in the future.

Tip #2 : Whatever may be the email system you are currently using, add the address from your most recent opt-in Newsletters' email IDs to the 'Address Book' of your particular email system.

Currently, white-listing is the ONLY way to ensure that you receive all your important emails. Do not ignore this important aspect of email communication.

From a personal angle, the major chunk of what I learned so far is from small, nifty newsletters that arrives in my mail box with a welcome smile. I can never block these little capsules of vital info.

If I do, I am blocking myself from the 'tit-bits' that adds to my knowledge. Ultimately, Integrating these 'tit-bits' into my website (http://www.learnhomebusiness.com) , keeps it live and current - Everyday.

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