advice IP Address Got Blacklisted By Doing Outbound Marketing - Help!

[howudoin8]

Hello Community,

I have about 25 domains registered for outbound marketing & all Outbound emails are sent through their webservers. All my server email addresses are added as "Alias" in my Gmail account, so I have to log into Gmail to send these emails.

Now I'm using Boomerang for Tracking & sent just 50 mails to prospective clients. Within 4 to 5 days my IP (Provided by my Internet Service Provider) got on the Blacklist (I checked at https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx)

There were No clickable links in sent mails but to be fair, I did not write something to the tune of "If you don't want to get another email from me, then simply respond with 'Unsubscribe'"

Also, I changed only the Client's Name & site url in each outbound email but the rest of the email content was same (For all 50 emails). All 50 emails were sent at different times & not in one go (I used "Send Later" Feature of Boomerang)

So why did I ended up on the Blacklist? What am I doing Wrong?

Do I have to try multiple email templates even for a single campaign of just 50 outbound emails?

Do I need to get multiple IP's & then do outbound marketing (by using those)?

Your inputs would be appreciated.

Regards
Bhupinder

 

[Lord Antares]

Loving the FAQ: https://talentdomains.com/faq/

lmao

 

[xynames]

Very spammy FAQ.

 

[Dondomainer]

Loving the FAQ: https://talentdomains.com/faq/

enlighten me - Why the policies of a website have to affect my email if I do not have business with that site?

you realize that what you say does not make sense

 

[xynames]

They just mean that it's a template website where every FAQ answer is the same, and meaningless. Just like his copy/paste spam.

 

[johnnie018]

@illumy

 

[iAchilles]

For every person who thinks that a laser targeted unsolicited email containing a domain of strategic value to a business, is spam, there is a person who is thankful to receive the same email.

I've no idea about the OP and their methodology but requiring 50 domains looks shady and spammy to me.​

 

[karmaco]

I am sick and tired of domainers spamming me I am not a lawyer but as far as i'm concerned anyone I have not had a business relationship with who send me unsolicited emails to buy their domain is spamming me. That was always my understanding on what spam is and I don't care if it isn't. I must get 30+ emails every day spamming the living daylights out of me and i'm sick of it already. It has gotten much worse lately and many of these somehow end up in my inbox and bypass gmail spam filters.

Thank you @xynames for your advice on spamcop.net I think I should make this part of my regular routine to report when i'm spammed every time, maybe just maybe the spam will lighten a bit if I do this and these idiots from certain locations which I won't mention publicly will be taken down till they realise it isn't worth their time and effort.

Well said. Some are obstinate and can’t understand that chasing someone down to buy something they didn’t ask for is spammy. The person who receives it decides if it’s spam or not. If somebody wants to buy your crap domains or web services they will come calling.

I don’t care what the legal definition is, if you have happen to you what happened to the OP you will have to be very selective with your purchases and your outbound targets. I suspect the names were super irrelevant to the business sent to and that’s partly why marked as spam.

I have never seen anyone else here who outbounds complain of this publicly so OP did something above and beyond to get this reaction.

 

[topdom]

If you are offering an upgrade probably not spam. They may have keywordinc.com and you offer keyword.mobi without knowing .mobi is very unpopular these days, then this means you are "spamming" without knowing it. If they have keyword-keyword.com and you offer keywordkeyword.com, probably not spam, but then you must make 75 percent discount to be fair (you can imply such a thing if there is no price).

How to decide if something is spam. An algorithm needs to look at some clues to decide. I would call too many mindless irrelevant messages spam. Being commercial in nature or not, alone , shouldn't be a determining factor.Because money is not everything. Time is important as well. For example you may email a colleague and ask some questions. If they are relevant easy to answer questions your colleague may be happy to answer it, and may offer joint work etc. If they are boring questions which would take time to answer, it would be closer to being spam, and it can be worse than an obvious spam, because the recipient may not know what to do about it and spend too much time without gaining anything.

I tell myself I will do outbounding tomorrow, but then I become lazy and don't do it. Many successful domainers here send outbound emails regularly. I don't send outbound messages to sell something: I do it, to wake them up, and make them react to it in some way, so I get some feedback.
In reality there is no reaction or feedback. It may lead to a sale , but not an immediate sale, and I can't check whether outbounding works because there is no communication. I suspect if I do outbounding regularly I would make many more sales, But I'm just lazy, and I don't like social part of domaining. If marketplaces were good enough, there would be no need of sending outbound messages, because people would easily find what they were looking for.

 

[CJ6]

For every person who thinks that a laser targeted unsolicited email containing a domain of strategic value to a business, is spam, there is a person who is thankful to receive the same email.

I've no idea about the OP and their methodology but requiring 50 domains looks shady and spammy to me.​

I disagree. I feel like for every person that is happy to receive 1 e-mail, there is probably 10,000 that receives spam (in their eyes).

 

[iAchilles]

I disagree. I feel like for every person that is happy to receive 1 e-mail, there is probably 10,000 that receives spam (in their eyes).

Based on my experience and the data I have, I disagree with you. If you're trying to sell worthless crap, I would agree.

 

[CJ6]

Based on my experience and the data I have, I disagree with you. If you're trying to sell worthless crap, I would agree.

Yes, all of the spam I get is worthless crap. I don't think I have ever received an email for a name that was good.

 

[DomainRecap]

Nothing wrong with reporting Spam, but outbound marketing is not the same as spamming if done correctly.

Agreed, and some people are going way overboard in terms of what they categorize as SPAM.

I get lots of unsolicited email from newspapers, radio, TV, etc. asking to advertise businesses on their platforms, and I view these as business offers, but I guess a lot of people would just hammer the SpamCop servers with each and every email?

People gotta make a buck, within reason, as long as they don't break the law.

 

[branding]

Agreed, and some people are going way overboard in terms of what they categorize as SPAM.
.

"Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Whether the message is an advert, a scam, porn, a begging letter or an offer of a free lunch, the content is irrelevant - if the message was sent unsolicited and in bulk then the message is spam."

Direct quote from spamhaus.

 

[DomainRecap]

"Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Whether the message is an advert, a scam, porn, a begging letter or an offer of a free lunch, the content is irrelevant - if the message was sent unsolicited and in bulk then the message is spam."

Exactly, and I am referring to email that is unsolicited and only sent to an individual email address. Like virtually any email you receive from friends, relatives, contacts, etc. that isn't a reply.

That's how businesses do business and I get that stuff all day long.

According to the OP (whose other actions I am not trying to condone) that's what he stated he did (1 email, 1 recipient, no bulk), which was what my previous reply was in reference to.

 

[johnnie018]

Agreed, and some people are going way overboard in terms of what they categorize as SPAM.

I get lots of unsolicited email from newspapers, radio, TV, etc. asking to advertise businesses on their platforms, and I view these as business offers, but I guess a lot of people would just hammer the SpamCop servers with each and every email?

People gotta make a buck, within reason, as long as they don't break the law.

howudoin8 obviously break spam law

 

[johnnie018]

I have never seen anyone else here who outbounds complain of this publicly so OP did something above and beyond to get this reaction.

because most uses hundreds email address and don't start thread when IP get banned @illumy

 

[DomainRecap]

howudoin8 obviously break spam law

I'm just going by what he claims here, not what he might have actually done.

 

[howudoin8]

I’m not making any assumptions. I’ve seen your emails! You perhaps forget that you spam me with your domains too. I’ve received at least a dozen unsolicited messages or emails from you offering your domains. I haven’t reported them because you and I have a prior (from a long time ago) business relationship and your emails don’t bother me really.

Are you posting responses for the heck of it? The last communication that we had regarding domains was somewhere around Jan 2018 & that was only after you bought 2 domains from me! Moreover, you initiated the initial conversation because you saw my domain listed here at NP & were interested in acquiring it (& you did Acquired it afterwards & still hold it to this day).

I did sent you emails immediately after that offering my other domains but that makes sense since you already bought a few domains from me.

You were never part of outbound campaign (that this thread is about) since it was done within the last 1 month!

But the domains you’ve offered me are let’s face it extremely low end and offered within your spam pitch as comparable to this vast set of domains you list that sold for large sums when in reality your domains aren’t in the same league whatsoever. To me, the comparisons you make are not bothersome. To others, evidently it has moved them to such annoyance that you’d dare waste their time by claiming that your domains compare to the long lists of quality ones you mention that they’ve reported your spam.

If you see no value in Crypto .org domains then that is you opinion & nothing wrong with that. But such domains have been sold for $xxxx & you can check that on NameBio.

In any case, I didn't sent any domain related email after you mentioned that you are mostly a .com guy.

But the bullshit part of your response is making more assumptions that my recent outbound mails also claim that my "domains compare to the long lists of quality ones" & "it has moved them to such annoyance" that they’ve reported my spam.

When in reality I've not even sent any comparables in this outbound campaign! Emails are nothing more than 2 to 3 sentences long & that's it!

You’re not going to change anything so why waste all of our time asking. You’re really no different from the emperor with no clothes searching for subjects who will tell him that he’s clothed.

If there’s a problem here it’s with you not us - you’re wasting our time with a thread that seeks advice then ignores it. We’d ask that you move along - and stop spamming.

Your inputs are not required anyway since you're more interested in making bullshit assumptions rather than to offer some insight. The problem with you is in trying to prove that "my way is the only right way" & to support that you're more interested in making assumptions.

Don't waste your time by responding & heed my earlier advice of moving along. There is nothing for you to prove here!

Or if you’re not going to stop at least spare us the bit about how you’re not spamming. Save that losing argument for your ISP. You may tell us - hey this is what I must do but don’t insult our intelligence by claiming that it’s not spam.

Unsolicited email is technically spam. End of story. It takes just one - only one - report to shut you down. Arguing as you’re doing doesn’t change the fact that you’ve been tagged for spamming so obviously both recipient and your ISP believe that you have spammed.

Your argument is illogical. You’ve been tagged for spamming with a sustained spam report and yet you doggedly repeat that you don’t spam.

Unsolicited email is not spam but rather Unsolicited Bulk email is spam. That is NOT my personal opinion but rather The Definition of Spam by SpamHaus.org at https://www.spamhaus.org/consumer/definition/

The Definition of Spam

The word "Spam" as applied to Email means "Unsolicited Bulk Email".

Unsolicited means that the Recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent. Bulk means that the message is sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content.

A message is Spam only if it is both Unsolicited and Bulk.

They (not me) have even taken the botheration to color "and" in Red in order to highlight this point.

As far as "tagged for spamming" is concerned, I was tagged by Spamhaus itself & looking at their Spam definition, my conclusion is that my emails had "substantively identical content" & that's the reason as to why I got dinged. I got to this conclusion because I only changed client's Name & their website url in each sent email, while simply using the same template for rest of the email body.

Any outbound marketer, reading this, should learn from my experience & not commit the same error.

I'm using logic here by going to the source & seeing as to how I violated their policies. You on the other hand are more interested in creating your own definition of Spam... & then making assumptions about my campaign in order to support that definition.

Like I said earlier, nothing for you here so simply move along.

 

[howudoin8]

Years ago I sent one email to about 5 people. Then some evil people from my university forced me to sign a paper which said "I won't spam again..", although I used an anonymous email. I signed it after some modification, because I knew some evil creatures were trying to block my overall progress...after two months that handreg .biz was sold for 4 figures (and for even higher price by new owners), so this is a proof that I was not spamming (, and this also proves that it is not the case that some good guys who were aware of the situation, and bought the domain to help me, because it was sold for multiples higher after a short period of time; yes probably there were good guys who tried to protect me from such evils, but not in this story).

Interesting story but did you used a university email (or their server) to send mail? Otherwise why would they be interested in forcing you "to sign a paper which said "I won't spam again.."?

 

[howudoin8]

According to the US government, yes, you are, and it's illegal:

CAN-SPAM, a direct response of the growing number of complaints over spam e-mails,[6] defines a "commercial electronic mail message" as "any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose)." It exempts "transactional or relationship messages." The FTC issued final rules[7] (16 C.F.R. 316) clarifying the phrase "primary purpose" on December 16, 2004. Previous state laws had used bulk (a number threshold), content (commercial), or unsolicited to define spam.

Note that:

• Emails need not be sent in bulk to be considered spam.
• Even if sending in bulk were a prerequisite, bulk indicates quantity, not how the emails are sent.
• Your emails are not transactional.
• Your emails are unsolicited.
• Your emails are commercial in nature.

Furthermore, CAN-SPAM only defines spam in the eyes of the US government; spammer blacklists are free to use their own definitions and are often stricter.

If you send unsolicited commercial email, you're going to get blacklisted. That's just the way it is. You could invest resources in evading these blacklists, but doing so may not be legal.

Edit/Note: Even if you don't reside in the US, if recipients are within the US, there is still a risk of the US government attempting to enforce it, in much the same way that the EU attempts to enforce privacy laws like GDPR on entities outside the EU:

On April 1, 2006, Mounir Balarbi, of Tangier, Morocco, was the first person outside the United States to have an arrest warrant validated under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Mounir's trial was held in absentia, and he was sentenced in a closed session.[27][30]

Furthermore, you're almost certainly in violation of Gmail's Terms of Service/Acceptable Use Policy/whatever they have, and these reports do make their way back to Google. The most likely outcome from this, should you choose to continue, is that your Google account will be suspended. Anytime anyone reports an email as spam--that is, when you click that Mark as Spam button in your inbox--a slew of reports are sent out. That's how you wound up blacklisted, and Google is keeping track of reports against your account. If you have anything important attached to that account, now's a good time to make backups.

Adding an unsubscribe link won't help. You'll still be in violation of CAN-SPAM, you'll still receive reports against you, and you'll still get blacklisted.

I'm not a lawyer but CAN-SPAM's definition of spam certainly sounds more stricter than that of SpamHaus.org

Since I was blacklisted by SpamHaus, so I have to correct my approach according to their policies. This is why I talked about unsubscribe link & not having "substantively identical content" in sent emails.

But you are right in saying that when someone uses Mark as Spam button, then that will also get you blacklisted. I make sure to target only relevant leads in order to minimize the possibility of this happening.

As far as gmail is concerned, till today (this campaign was done about a month ago) I haven't received any Communication/Warning for this, so I guess there's not an issue from their side.

 

[howudoin8]

@joro001 is right about CAN-SPAM act. It's actually stricter than most blacklists are.

Usually blacklists concider something spam if it meets both requirements:
A) it's unsolicited.
B) it's sent in bulk.

Here's the tricky part. You think you are not sending in bulk. Different mails, non automated. Now let's take alook at what spamhaus (not their biggest fan but that's worth a whole different thread) defines as bulk: "Bulk means that the message is sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content."

So... In your scenario:
A) check
B) check

Exactly, both conditions have to be met along with taking care of "substantively identical content". I didn't took care of last bit & hence got dinged by SpamHaus.

 

[xynames]

Save your spam defense for your ISP. I think you're going to need it.

Yes, this person is bad spammer, probably sending thousands of email. Wonder how many of Namepros member get spam from howudoin8.

Well, I am one of the ones he spams via the forum, that's for sure.

And I'm asking you now to stop spamming me, which incidentally the latest spam you sent me was April 30, 2019, the reason you probably don't recall, is that you switched over in 2018 to spamming me via NamePros messages versus via email, such as the below:

I didn't ask for you to send me that? It was not a continuation of a prior conversation. You sent it out of the blue, unsolicited, spam. Why would I be interested in such a "Premium Quality" "gem" domain? Most everyone here dislikes your spam and we all agree that it is spam,

you're the only one in the dream world of thinking that you are not a spammer. Everyone and your ISP believe that you ARE the father. Oops, I meant...are the spammer. But beyond being a spammer, you're proving yourself to be a very foul mouthed disagreeable individual, and for that I have no time. So, next time you spam me I'm going to report it to SpamCop if via email, or to the forum mods if via message,
So,

stop spamming us!

I've done it before but at least I have the decency to admit that it's undeniably spam.

if you’re not going to stop at least spare us the bit about how you’re not spamming. Save that losing argument for your ISP. You may tell us - hey this is what I must do but don’t insult our intelligence by claiming that it’s not spam.

Your argument is illogical. You’ve been tagged for spamming with a sustained spam report and yet you doggedly repeat that you don’t spam.

 

[howudoin8]

I've done it before but at least I have the decency to admit that it's undeniably spam.

I am sending messages to people who mostly do not want to receive them. They have the right to feel annoyed by me. I respect that.

Saying that it's outbound marketing and decidedly not spam is like when a thief says ''but at least I don't kill people''.

If your domains are not relevant to their Existing business than that definitely can be classed as spamming. Usually in such cases people take no time in clicking the "Mark as Spam" button.

However, in my case the domains were relevant to their business & even received inquiries about price after the initial email. Not going to disclose the name here but I offered the .com version to a US Advertising Agency which currently is using the .co version.

My point is only that "outbound marketing" & "spamming" are not synonyms if proper precautions are taken care of while doing the former. Although yes, even targeted emails can be marked as spam if recipient is not interested or simply having a bad day...

 

[howudoin8]

Save your spam defense for your ISP. I think you're going to need it.


Well, I am one of the ones he spams via the forum, that's for sure.

And I'm asking you now to stop spamming me, which incidentally the latest spam you sent me was April 30, 2019, the reason you probably don't recall, is that you switched over in 2018 to spamming me via NamePros messages versus via email, such as the below:

Most everyone here hates your spam and we all agree that it is spam,

you're the only one in the dream world of thinking that you are not a spammer. Everyone and your ISP believe that you ARE the father. Oops, I meant...are the spammer. But beyond being a spammer, you're proving yourself to be a very foul mouthed disagreeable individual, and for that I have no time. So, next time you spam me I'm going to report it to SpamCop if via email, or to the forum mods if via message,
So,

stop spamming us!

Usual Trolling continues!!!

This thread is about discussing outbound marketing through Email & Not forum Messages!

Have you not noticed that yet or have you forgotten the difference?....

In any case, since you've posted this, your response to that Screenshot Message was a simple "No Thanks" & that was the end of that thread. Moreover, you haven't received a single message from me since. I invite site admins to confirm this.

Heed my earlier advice of moving along & no need to waste my time by responding here!

 

[howudoin8]

Funny man, you convince yourself of this?...shame. You send bulk email and now your IP is blocked! OK not spammer! Definitely not spammer! Inncoent! Big mistake make by spamhaus!

Shame on you for not reading my response before commenting or Are you just another troller?!

I never said "Big mistake make by spamhaus!". I was merely saying that sending unsolicited email is not spam (as per their definition of spam), but rather sending "Unsolicited Bulk Email" is spam.

This was in response to @xynames where he was claiming that unsolicited email is spam.