AOL Clarifies Its Requirements and Recommendations

It really does make sense for ISPs to want to help email senders to get messages through to users who want them.

But “who wants them” is more complex than “anyone who filled out my sign up form” in an age where message relevancy, bounces, complaints, and authentication increasingly way in.

Just today, AOL announced two new or revised documents they’ve published that should give a firm understanding of both what they suggest strongly as well as what they require.

Your ESP should help you take care of most of the requirements they list, since most are technical or procedural in nature. A quick read of the suggestions validates recommendations you’ll find being expressed in the permission only email community over and over again.

It’s also nice to see where we’re on the same page with those who decide what happens with our email. This type of transparency helps everyone but those who don’t adhere to the standards.

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By: Marc Kline

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10 Comments

  1. Rob Wendes

    Firing a broadside out to all and sundry doesn’t seem to be too clever a marketing strategy, so I can understand what drives these initiative from AOl etc.

    However, in some way or another, wouldn’t you expect this to be self regulating? After all, if someone really doesn’t want the e-zine, there doesn’t seem much point in ramming it down their throat!

    Specific, targetted lists seem a much better way to go; but how to achieve this Nirvana:-)

    4/30/2008 5:20 am
  2. Lori Titus

    You would think, but spammers don’t care about that. Most spammers rely on quantity, not quality, to drive a sale. Think about all the pharmacy and libido-driven spams you receive in your inbox every day. And when you are hacking into someone else’s email server, using a free service like hotmail, or simply spoofing someone else’s email as a return address, who cares about the financial implications? A single sale of fake Mexican Plavix to Grandma Joe, and you are in the black!

    Wait a minute – if you use Google, AOL, or something else with a good spam filter, you don’t see these types of email…..

    I’m not as bothered by the guys who are sending me spam because they believe making a sale to me = me wanting to be on an email list. I can always blacklist their emails, never purchase from them again, or request to be removed from the list. That type of spam is from ignorance – they aren’t constantly sending me emails from different email addresses, hoping I’ll bite on one of them.

    5/1/2008 3:15 pm
  3. Soren Jordansen

    Quote from the AOL site: "When users click "report spam", you can get a copy of the spam complaint through our Feedback Loop (FBL) system"

    Does that mean that AWeber gets a copy of these reports? And could that be used to purge these spam button clickers from the list they reported?

    This may be sci-fi (I have no idea), but in theory it would be great because…

    a) The subscriber doesn’t want to be on the list
    b) The list owner would love to get rid of them
    c) and it would probably be good for AWeber overall.

    5/3/2008 6:30 pm
  4. Justin Premick

    Soren,

    Exactly :)

    If an AOL subscriber marks your email as spam, AOL notifies us and we automatically unsubscribe that person from your list.

    More on feedback loops

    5/5/2008 11:02 am | Follow me on Twitter
  5. Joeran

    @Soren – Hey Soren, such a Feedbackloop is a Standard for E-Mail Marketeers – It not an advantage to aweber, which will divide this marketing-provider from others.

    5/7/2008 5:05 am
  6. Steevn Lanier

    And this is exactly why I use aweber. So I dont have to worry about this stuff :D But I agree with Soren, I think an auto unsubscribe for AOL users would have an advantage. Would definitely like to see something like this implemented.

    5/7/2008 9:37 pm
  7. Hope Clark

    Not being technically savvy, I’m having a problem with this AOL policy. ALL of my subscribers are double-opt-in. They specifically ask to receive my information for their careers. Yet ALL of my AOL users are bouncing. Don’t have a clue how to correct it, either. We’re talking 500 members here. And the AOL users think it has to do with me not sending the newsletter. My members email me upset when they do not receive their information. I’m not a standard email marketeer. I provide a service.

    Anyway to get a list of those on our membership that have marked our email as spam? I’d love to be able to tell those from the AOL screw ups. Like any newsletter editor, I don’t want members who don’t want to be on my list, but it’s much worse than that.

    Hope

    5/8/2008 12:38 am
  8. Joeran

    In that case, there are many issues possible. But we can check all of them. But there are further details needed about the mail server configs and any correspondence between you and aol postmasters.

    Best regards from Germany.

    Jöran

    5/8/2008 3:36 am
  9. Marc Kline

    Steevn,

    You’re in luck – we do already automatically unsubscribe people who mark messages as SPAM.

    Hope,

    AOL may be blocking all of your messages due to a variety of reasons. We see this happen occasionally. Fortunately, it’s usually easy to resolve once you contact AOL’s postmaster.

    As Joeran suggested, we do need some more information from you.

    I’ve forwarded your request to our Customer Solutions team, who can tell you exactly what you need to do to come to a resolution.

    5/8/2008 9:03 am
  10. Douglas

    From a recipient’s viewpoint, I use AOL for most subscriptions and I rarely have a problem getting a confirmation email or follow-ups. Strangely, though, often after months of getting a newsletter etc. which I subscribed to and read, I would just suddenly stop getting it. They would not show up in the spam folder, and when I contacted the publishers they either still showed me as active, or that I had unsubscribed (which I was sure I hadn’t), or I just received no response.

    In addition, I occasionally receive obvious spam (Claim your lottery winnings etc.) that normally end up in my spam folder. And I sometimes find emails from known senders in my spam folder.

    So I would say that AOL’s filters are inconsistent and confusing, but it’s good to hear that they are getting decent reviews from the community.

    And I will be sure to check out your suggestion to contact the AOL postmaster.

    Thanks. Hope my input helps, and if you can find out what is going on with my disappearing newsletters please let me know.

    5/30/2008 12:17 am

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