If you plan to do e-mail marketing, it is very important that your e-mail server is not on any blacklists. The blacklists are lists of servers used by known spammers. Often, a spammer will use an IP address for a while, then abandon it when it gets blacklisted. If that address gets reused, any e-mail sent from there will be ignored by any e-mail servers that check the blacklists.
If you have an opt-in e-mail newsletter (or any business that uses e-mail, for that matter), it is important that you check the blacklists occasionally. Sometimes, legitimate opt-in newsletters will get blacklisted, even when they shouldn’t.
If your e-mail server does get blacklisted, you need to know it right away so that you can take steps to resolve it. Some blacklists have a way of getting your server removed from their list, but sometimes, you may need to start sending your newletter from a different server (or the same server with a new IP address).
Fortunately, there is a website where you can easily check your server against 710 known blacklists. It is called dr. Jørgen Mash’s DNS database list checker. The page isn’t pretty to look at, but it is a very effective tool. The information that it gives you is pretty straightforward and easy to understand.
It’s hard enough to get you subscribers to read your newsletter, but you’re doomed if it doesn’t even get delivered. Be sure that your not being stopped by the blacklists.