Here are some of my tips -

1. Talk to your list one-on-one:

From the very first email you send you should always introduce yourself as an actual person and continue to build on this relationship over the following emails. Would you rather receive an email every few days from CompanyABC or from an actual individual with a real name? Which would you be more likely to report as spam?

You’ll notice that Awebers emails all come from Tom – the CEO. They could easily come from just AWEBER but which do you think is more effective? Which are you able to connect with on a more personal level?

When emails come on behalf of a company, even though they are not always trying to push a product to that user, it will always seem that way to them. Be personal, it makes it look less like you are selling and more like you are just a friend helping them out.

2. Be Consistent:

The format you use for the very first email to your list should be the same for every other email you ever send them. The greeting you use, the length of the lines, the layout, the salutation you use at the end - everything should be consistent. This helps customers more easily distinguish your emails from spam.

3. 80/20 rule:

As with everything in life, the 80/20 rule applies here. Too many people get excited by the thought of having a list and rush out trying to sell them every product under the sun. You need to build a relationship with the user before you start asking him for things.

You should always try to keep the balance of 80% information, 20% selling when writing your email series. This will make a big difference to your end results. Not only will you gain trust, integrity and credibility from your list, but when you do occasionally send them details about a new product they should try, they are going to be far more responsive to your recommendations.

Remember, most people subscribe to your list in order to get some kind of information they want or need – they certainly don’t sign up to receive sales pitch after sales pitch. Keep this in mind when writing your emails.

4. Subject - Important:

As we know, the first thing people see from your email is the subject line. If they are going to flag your email as spam, more than likely they are going to do this without even opening the email at all. They will make up their mind based on the subject line alone. With this in mind, there are a few methods I recommend for the subject lines:

a) Using the persons name in the subject line. If they see their name in the subject line they will be far more likely to open that email. “Bob, your free report as promised…” as opposed to “Your free report as promised….”. Which email would Bob be more likely to open?

b) Don’t use any sort of sales jargon in your subject line. Nothing like, "Hey Bob, check out this product…" or "Bob, get 50% off today.." etc. People don’t like being sold to. Instead give them a little teaser to get them to open the email. Even once in your email, you shouldn’t start selling to them right away. Remember, 80% information, 20% max sales pitch.

c) Use a list name in the subject line. Imagine if you signed up for my free report/newsletter called ‘Golf Mania’ and every subsequent email you received from me had that name at the start of the subject line. ie/ "[Golf Mania] Bob, is your golf swing…"
That way, in your inbox, you will instantly recognize my emails as ones you can trust and hopefully can’t wait to open.

5. Don’t send attachments!:

With so many idiots on the internet today, the average consumer has a hard time trusting anyone online. We always hear stories about these viruses that spread via email in the form of attachments. Remember: on first contact, your users don’t know you from a bar of soap. How many do you think are going to trust an email attachment coming from someone they don’t know? Sure your company may look legit, but if they have any doubt in their mind whatsoever then they will send your email straight to their deleted items or spam folder.

If you offer your users a free report, as easy as it may be to send it to them as an attachment (I know Aweber offers this function) I would strongly recommend against it. Instead send them to a page on your site where they can download the report. Sure it is a bit more work and will eat into more of your bandwidth, but the results will be worth it.

Anyhoot, these are just a few things I thought were worth a mention.

Yes you can block specific domains from adding to your list:

http://www.aweber.com/faq/questions/78/

It’s worth noting, however, that as you are using Confirmed Opt-In, you have proof that subscribers are indeed requesting your information.

It seems that most of the "spam" complaints are coming from free domains, so I’d like to not allow subscribes from those. I’d also like to not give out my $39 ebook to people who are clearly not interested in exchanging a legit email address for my newsletter.

At least I’d like to test this.

Is there a way to not allow people to subscribe if their email comes from certain domains? Does Aweber have a "ban" or "filter out" list feature?

Thanks

The code for a Remove link can be found in Help | Personalize Messages
when you are logged in to your account.

Not sure Tom and the Aweber crew want the code to be public or not, so thought it best to tell you how to find it, once logged in to your Aweber account.

Hope that helps.

I don’t see a need to put it in more than one place in a message.

Not sure what I can do to avoid them reporting the brochure as spam, especially as they double-opted-in to request it. Could it be something to do with it being an attachment?

I very much liked the idea of putting ‘unsubscribe’ at the top.

All of the places like AOL, Yahoo, etc. I know of that have spam buttons are email service providers, not just email programs.