Best Practices for Ezine Newsletter Publishing and List Management: Part 2

Again many thanks to James S. Huggins.

Best Practice 23
Follow laws, regulations and Terms of Service.

Ensure that, in addition to abiding by with these Best Practices, you comply with all applicable Government and anti-spam and privacy laws.

Best Practice 24
Maintain complete, accurate records.

Maintain accurate subscription records, including the origination information (e.g., IP Address, date and time information, confirmation, etc). This information will be useful when you or your ISP receives a spam complaint. This information can also be echoed to subscribers to repeatedly confirm that they have, in fact, subscribed to your ezine.

Best Practice 25
Reconfirm old lists.

If your list goes inactive for an extended period, request subscribers to reconfirm their subscription.

Best Practice 26
Disclose subscriber information in each email body.

Subscribers may own multiple email addresses or aliases all forwarding to the same POP mailbox. Include the subscriber email address within the body of the email.

Best Practice 27
Disclose subscriber information in each email header.

Subscribers may own multiple email addresses or aliases all forwarding to the same POP mailbox. Include the subscriber email address in an X-Field (e.g., X-Subscriber or X-Recipient) in the email header.

Best Practice 28
Include individual subscription details in the body of the ezine.

Include a reminder in your mailings that the subscriber has subscribed, as well as relevant details of their subscription (e.g., the requesting IP address and date/time).

Best Practice 29
Provide your physical/mailing address and phone number.

Disclose your physical/mailing address and your phone number in your mailings.

Best Practice 30
Respond promptly to inquiries and spam complaints.

If you receive an inquiry or a spam complaint, respond to it as soon as possible. For spam complaints, include that person’s subscription information with your response.

Best Practice 31
Provide whitelist info for your subscribers.

Provide information to your subscribers including (a) what addresses they should whitelist to ensure they receive your publication and (b) how they can whitelist your address. Provide this information (or links to this information) on initial subscription and in each email.

Best Practice 32
Individually address each email.

Subscribers may own multiple email addresses or aliases all forwarding to the same POP mailbox. Show the show the subscriber email address (and name, if appropriate) in the “To” field. Do not “hide” the subscriber information. For example, do not use a generic “To” field and hide subscriber information in the “CC” field.

Best Practice 33
Limit the number of confirmation requests and fully disclose this number.

Individuals requesting subscriptions may sometimes not receive a confirmation email. Additionally, they may attempt a confirmation but have that confirmation fail, either because the reply email is not received or because their email client distorts the confirmation code or Subscription Confirmation Code. It is permissible to send a limited number of duplicate confirmation requests provided (a) that this is fully disclosed on the subscription page and in each confirmation email, (b) that the subscriber has a way to turn them off, (c) that the subscriber has a way to inhibit malicious subscription requests from third parties and (d) that the number is small (e.g., an original and three duplicates).

Best Practice 34
Provide an easy way to terminate confirmation requests.

After initially requesting a subscription, a subscriber may change their mind. If you deliver only one confirmation request this is not a problem However, if you deliver multiple confirmation requests, provide the subscriber with an easy way to terminate the subscription confirmation process.

Best Practice 35
Use a consistent subject line tag.

Begin ezine subject lines with a consistent “tag” or text (e.g., “[ezine-name]“) which easily identifies the mailing as related to the ezine and facilitates both filtering and sorting of the email based on the subject line.

Best Practice 36
Use consistent “from” addresses.

Create and use consistent addresses as the “from” addresses for email related to the ezine. You may use multiple addresses (e.g., one for ezine delivery and another for ezine administration), but be consistent in their use.

Best Practice 37
Disclose all addresses used.

Disclose all the email addresses you use for emailing your subscribers. These may include addresses used for ezine delivery, for administrative emails and even your own personal email address, if you use that.

Best Practice 38
Disclose system function information.

Provide sufficient information to your subscribers to enable them to understand how the subscription and unsubscription system works. For example, if a subscriber may confirm a subscription from any address, disclose this to them.

Best Practice 39
Implement the various miscellaneous addresses.

Create and use variety of additional addresses (in addition to list-request@ and abuse@) should be created for domains. These include: ftp@, hostmaster@, info@, marketing@, news@, noc@, postmaster@, sales@, support@, security@, usenet@, uucp@, and www@. Implement these as appropriate within your domain.

Best Practice 40
Implement standard headers.

Emails from ezines and other email lists should include six (6) standard header fields. These are: List-Help, List-Subscribe, List-Unsubscribe, List-Post, List-Owner and List-Archive. Implement these header fields to provide list administration information to subscribers.

Best Practice 41
Implement a List-Id standard header.

Emails from ezines and other email lists should include the standard header field List-Id. This header field clearly identifies that the email is from a “list” and also uniquely identifies the list being used.