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Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission
Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses
When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance
Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format
Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content
Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:

Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:

Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance
The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation
Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

•http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
•http://www.bondedsender.com
•http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting
Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Everyone has heard a friend or relative complain about having to take out a second mortgage but don’t really know what that means. Let’s find out!

The real term for this is called a home equity loan. This is a common loan type that homeowners can use for whatever they want.

A home equity loan requires that you use your house for collateral just like a normal home loan. There are different types of home equity loan out there and you can always use the money for whatever you want.

College, bills, and home repairs are some common uses. You will need outstanding credit to be approved for this kind of loan though.

A closed end type home equity loan gives you a big chunk of money immediately and you can’t get another loan until this one is fully paid.

The amount you can get depends on factors such as how much your home is worth, your income, credit score, and similar things. A closed end loan usually comes as a fixed rate type and allows you up to 15 years to pay it off.

An open ended home equity loan is a little different. This loan will let you borrow money whenever you have a need for it.

The loan lender will set up a line of credit that is pretty much based on all the same factors as the closed end loan. These usually have an adjustable rate and you can make payment for 10, 15, or even 30 years.

So why are these called second mortgages Because you are adding yet another loan payment that uses your house as collateral and adding another monthly payment. Though tempting, it can cause you a lot of problems in the future.

Another common type of home loan is the adjustable rate mortgage or ARM. With this type of loan, the interest rate will fluctuate depending on the 6 different real estate indexes.

The interest rate changes so the lender of the loan gets a proper margin. That’s due to the fact that the indexes influence the cost of funding that loan in the first place.

Basically, your lender lets you take on a little bit of the interest risk instead of just the lender like in a fixed rate loan. This type of loan can be great if the interest on your home loan consistently falls for a long time.

You don’t have to worry that much about the interest rates because even if they jump drastically, there are limits on how much your payments will increase.

These limits are called caps and mean that no matter the size of the interest jump, you won’t pay more than a certain increase in a certain time period.

As an example, let’s say a lender gives you an adjustable rate mortgage. It has a 1 percent cap for any 6 month time frame and a 4 percent total cap for the entire loan.

Your payments can increase as much as 4 percent at the maximum until the loan is paid off. That’s not too shabby if you consider when interest drastically drops, you save a ton of money.

Every area in the country has different interest rates so you should read up on it before you opt to go with an adjustable rate mortgage.

Local newspapers usually include interest rates and predictions so that is a great place to go to keep an eye on things.

A day or two before your wedding, there is usually a wedding rehearsal and then a wedding rehearsal dinner. This is paid for traditionally by the groom’s family, and it’s when you will give your wedding attendants their gifts as a thank you for being in your wedding.

Bridesmaids

- As a rule, jewelry is a good idea for the ladies. If they have pierced ears, you can give them earrings. If their ears aren’t pierced, you can give them necklaces.

It’s always a good idea to give them something that they can wear on the day of the wedding to go with their dresses.

Groomsmen/ushers

- For the men, it’s a little more difficult to choose an appropriate gift. If you can’t find something that will be appropriate for all of them, you can choose comparable but  different gifts.

Beer steins, shot glasses, and other similar items can be used, or something else that will reflect their individuality.

Remember, when you are choosing your gifts that these are your friends and family, and that you want them to know that you have appreciated everything that they have done.

The wedding rehearsal dinner is a time for the wedding party to come together and have a good time before the wedding.

Enjoy yourself and have a good time with your wedding party. You are celebrating the fact that you are going to be getting married soon, and that you will be starting a new life together with you spouse.

A fixed rate mortgage is one of the most common types of home loan in the USA. It’s very easy to understand and set up and helps people know exactly what type of commitment they are making financially.

It has one main benefit over all other types of loan. Stability. No matter what happens with fluctuating interest rates, you are guaranteed the same payment each month for the entire term of your loan.

This really helps give people peace of mind because they don’t have to wonder if their next loan payment will be higher than the previous one.

Some people are very meticulous when it comes to bills and don’t want to feel like they are gambling on the real estate market.

This is what helps make a fixed rate mortgage so appealing. The payments don’t change so you have a much better chance of being able to save up money for home repairs, vacations, and new purchases.

This loan is also good for people who have to travel a lot. Knowing your payment will be the same when you get back from a far away place can really help your state of mind.

Most lenders who will give you a fixed rate mortgage will give you the option to pay off some of the principal early without any penalties.

This can be a great way to lower your overall amount of payments or decrease the monthly payments. The interest you pay all depends on the real estate market when you get that loan.

It can help to talk to a real estate agent who can recommend if you should buy now or wait for a more suitable time.