How to create spam safe webmail

PHP
1

I have a webmail that I’m sending out for my music to radio stations with links to where they can download the track.
Sometimes the e-mail ends up in their spam box and I just want to know how to make a webmail that is working with links that won’t end up as spam.

I know one thing could be that they add my address to their address book, but usually a lot of the people are new and don’t know me. So, I just want to know if there is a solution.

The code I’m including in my e-mail is also with a unique link, so I can use this to follow up who is downloading and who is not, so I include a code in php from the MySQL db to the link.

I guess it’s because I include an URL link in my e-mail that makes it end up as spam. Or could it be something else?

2

Are you using the mail() function?

Are you personalizing the e-mail by addressing each person individually (by name)?

Are you sending MIME messages that are correctly formed?

3

This is what I’m using.


$headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . "\\r\
";
$headers .= "Content-type:text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" . "\\r\
";
$headers .= "From: MyCompany<promo@mywebsite.com>" . "\
";
$headers .= "Reply-To: " . $myemail . "\
";
$headers .= "Bcc: " . $cc;
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);

And it’s a loop adding each person separate in every e-mail as well.

4

Is there something wrong with my code here?

5

You are calling the mail() function, which will introduce odd headers and processing that spam filters can easily pick out. There is no ‘Bcc’ header in e-mail (‘Blind Carbon Copy’ - meaning two e-mails are supposed to be sent, not just one). Sending mixed case headers. There should be a space between ‘MyCompany’ and the ‘<’. Some of your newlines are CR-LF and some are just LF. Your message is likely plain-text and not addressed to each person by name.

This is why I don’t like the mail() function - it affords too much room for error, makes mistakes of its own, and lacks a lot of useful features. Plus e-mail coming from it is pretty obvious to spam filters.

Spam filters are tricky to get through, but having malformed e-mail is the primary way they detect spam. The code I’ve written has a better chance since it sends 100% RFC-compliant e-mails, but you’re still somewhat at the mercy of the recipient’s spam filter if you aren’t in their address book.

6

Thank you. I will take a deeper look at your stuff. It was a lot of info there.
Well, my message contains of html. All the design is made inside a table with links to images and backgrounds and so on.
Does your thing work anyway?

7

The best way to do this is to set up an SPF Record (http://www.openspf.org/) in your DNS for the server that’s sending the e-mails.

Also, use a library like PHPMailer or Swift mailer (http://swiftmailer.org/) for better results (as thruska mentions, malformed e-mails and headers are always bad for spam scores).