Support Manual / Dashboard / Email and Spam White List

You can add your 3rd party SMTP settings into the "Email and Spam Whitelist" area.  Most people do this when they use another mail provider for their email and they want system messages such as invoices that automatically send from the system when an order is made, or your Blogs sending email address needs to correlate to your mail provider hosted elsewhere.

Common issues you might hear if you have not set these settings up, and your are using a 3rd party mail host issues with messages going into your client's inbox. "sender email could not be verified" this is the most common error your clients will see when you send an automated message from the system such as an abandoned cart notice, order notice, blog announcement, new products notice etc...

Once there you will see screen that looks like this:

Click "Add Account" and you will get a pop up to enter in your SMTP Settings.  Be sure to collect all of the settings from your current mail host.

The pop up screen will look like this:

Once you populate the info with your email hosts info click "save" then "test".  You can send a test to any email account you like, and alter the content of the test mail.  Then click "Send Test Notification"

The Testing pop up will look like this:

If your email is full you can empty out your junk, spam, and sent folders to free up some space.  Here is a quick way to do that.  Be sure when you clear out those folders that you empty the "trash" folder afterwards.

You can empty entire folders easily if you are wanting to delete the entire contents of an email folder.

Click on the gear icon in the bottom left corner.

Click "manage Folders"

Click the folder you want to empty.

Click the gear icon in the bottom.

Then click "empty".

Manage Your Subject Line

Subject line will be a huge determinant to your email's ability to get into the inbox. You should not write an email subject line that is significantly longer than your header because the longer your email subject line is, the more likely it would be flagged as spam.

Remember three primary rules:

•     Shorter is better! (But not less than five or six words)
  
•     Don't rely on words that are included in the "spam words" list in the next section of this post.
  
•     Avoid using all caps or special characters in your email. They may end up resulting in having you flagged as spam.
  

You can get away with using "spam words" in your subject line if you have a great sender reputation and use them with moderation. However, if your test email goes to the spam or junk folder and you have a spam word in your subject line; your first test fix should be to remove it.

Write Content that Isn't Full of Spam Words

This rule, as well, may seem fairly obvious. However, you'd be surprised how many emails are sent daily and then end up in the spam or junk folder because they were loaded down with words like "free" or "credit." Writing content for email marketing can be a very specific process that's not different from writing for a Search Engine Optimization page in the fact that you need to write to a certain algorithm. There are many free online tools that will scan your email content and give you a score or a color-coded rating regarding the likelihood that you will be flagged as spam. While these tools are imperfect, they can give you a red flag if you are clearly in the danger zone.

The basic rule of thumb is to understand the words and types of language that most email service provider spam filters will consider likely junk mail. Then simply write in a manner that doesn't incorporate those words or style. It may mean that you need to think a little harder while writing your copy, but that effort will be worth it when you hit the inbox. After all, it doesn't matter how persuasive the word "free" would be with your subscribers if they never actually see the email.

Avoid Emails that Are One Large Image: Minimize Images Overall

Emails that are one large image have a high chance of being flagged as spam if you don't already have a good sender reputation. Using a large image to encompass the entire email is a frequent trick of email spammers. If the entire content of your email is in an image file, then the email spam filters have nothing to spider in terms of content and can't figure out if your message is junk or not. We've all seen emails get delivered to our inbox that are one large image. However, your deliverability chances decrease if your email is one big image. As we noted earlier, even if you hit the inbox, your conversion percentage will be decreased as well.

While images are an important part of any email template, the more images you use the more you may experience spam filter issues. If you are having a difficult time making it into the inbox, then one of the first steps you'll want to explore is to reduce the number of images in your email template.
Minimize the Use of Red Fonts and Huge Headline Size Fonts

Red fonts and huge headline size fonts have also been shown to cause spam filter issues, though not as frequently as many of the other issues noted here. As a general rule, it's just a better idea to avoid using red fonts (pick an off-red color), huge headline fonts of more than sixteen pixels or a combination of both. There are plenty of design options that still give you great flexibility without using those font sizes and colors.

Here are the instructions to setup your email account in outlook 2010:

(you can also click here to watch a quick video on how to set this up)

1. Open Outlook 2010. If the Microsoft Outlook 2010 Startup wizard displays automatically, on the first page of the wizard, click Next. Then, on the Email Accounts page of the wizard, click Next again to set up an email account.
   If the Microsoft Outlook 2010 Startup wizard doesn't appear, on the Outlook 2010 toolbar, click the File tab. Then, just above the Account Settings button, click Add Account.
2. Click Manually configure server settings or additional server types, and then click Next.
3. In the Choose Service page of the wizard, select Internet Email, and then click Next.
4. Provide the following information on the Internet Email Settings page:
   Under User Information:
   
   1. In the Your Name box, enter the name you want users to see when you send email from this account.
   2. In the Email Address box, enter your email address.
   3. (you can obtain your e-mail account information when you edit your e-mail address in the "email and spam white list" area of your Websiteforge Members area.  Or click HERE to view a quick video on how to obtain your email account information)
   Under Server Information:
   
   1. Under Account Type, select POP3.
   2. In the Incoming mail server box, enter "mail.websiteforge.com" OR "mail.wsfcloud.net".
   3. In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) box, enter "mail.websiteforge.com" or "mail.wsfcloud.net".
   Under Logon Information:
   
   1. In the User Name box, enter your email address.(this will look like your e-mail address with the "." symbol instead of the "@" Symbol.  Example: Yourname.YourDomainName.com
   2. In the Password box, enter your password. If you want Outlook to remember your password, make sure the tick box next to Remember password is selected.
5. At the lower-right side of the page, click More Settings, and then fill in the Internet Email Settings dialogue box as follows:
   On the Outgoing Server tab, select My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.
   On the Advanced tab:
   
   1. Under Incoming server (POP3), be sure SSL is NOT checked.  And use port 110 for Incoming.
   2. Under Outgoing server (SMTP), use either port 25 or 2525 for outgoing.
   3. If you're using POP3 and you want to keep a copy of your messages on the server, under Delivery, click Leave a copy of messages on the server. If you don't select this option, all messages will be removed from the server and stored locally on your computer. (it is recommended that you do not check "leave a copy of messages on the server".  However if you do BE SURE TO CHECK "Remove messages after x amount of days" and specify 1 to 3 days)
6. On the Add New Account page, click Next. After Outlook 2010 tests your account, click Close to close the Test Account Settings dialogue box.
7. On the Congratulations page, click Finish.
8. On the Account Settings page, click Close.

Yes, there are 2 ways this can be done.

1. You can sign up for Google apps standard.  This is a paid service with Google.  Once you sign up with that service we can point your mail records to their servers.  Click here to view Google's pricing.  Click here to see our procedure for changing the MX records for their service.

2. This is a free way to use Gmail to send and receive messages as you. (for example you can send messages as JohnDoe@JohnDoesDomain.com if "johndoesdomain.com" is your domain name)

First you will need a free gmail account.  You can use your personal gmail account or create a new one just for this purpose.  Then enter that account as either your personal user or the new user account that you have just created and follow these steps you can also view a quick video on how to set this up here:

• Click the Settings gear in Gmail.
• Now select Settings from the menu that comes up.
• Go to the Accounts and Import category.
• Click Add a POP3 mail account you own (or Add another email address you own) under Check mail from other accounts (using POP3):.
• Enter the account's address under Email address:.
• Click Next Step ».
• Type the user name (For Websiteforge users you will use your email address using the "." instead of the "@" symbol, for example "JohnDoe.JohnDoesDomain.com") under Username:.
• Enter your POP account's password under Password:.
• Next change the POP server name under POP Server to "mail.websiteforge.com"
• I strongly recommend NOT to keep copies of retrieved messages on the server (Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.)
• Click Add Account » (or Add Account if you have previously set up the address for sending in Gmail; in this case, you're done).
• Make sure Yes, I want to be able to send mail as ___. is selected.
  • This allows you to send mail from Gmail using the POP account's address in the From: line. Typically, it won't hurt to turn this on.
• Click Next Step ».
• Enter the name you want to appear as the sender when you send mail using the address in Gmail under Name:.
• Click Next Step » again.
• Now click Send Verification.
• Switch to the main Gmail window and go to the Inbox.
• Open the Gmail Confirmation - Send Mail as ___ message as soon as it arrives (this may take a couple of minutes).
• Copy and paste the confirmation code into the Enter and verify the confirmation code form.
• Click Verify.

This is not a problem, if you wish to use an exchange server or other mail provider we can point the mail records to that provider.  All you need to do is contact Support either by email: support@websiteforge.com, by Phone: 1-888-558-2446 x2 or create a ticket and supply us with the I/P address of your new mail provider or exchange server and all of your contact info.

Once we make those changes we will notify you and ask you to confirm the changes.

Also see details here about DNS settings.

Currently we do not have a DNS manager for users to make these changes on their own.  But we are happy to make any changes like this for you.

You can view and remove messages in webmail.

You can enable webmail for an email account in the WebsiteForge Members area.  By editing the email account and checking the "allow webmail" check box for the account this will allow you to login to webmail.

Once allow webmail is enabled you can visit your webmail site at webmail.YourDomainName.com

see screenshot:

Then click "login". (if you are unsure of your E-mail password you can click Here to watch a quick video on how to obtain your email password)

Once logged in you can view your messages.  or Delete them.  If you have already received your messages in a program like outlook and need to make some room for new messages you can either remove them in webmail, or can change your email client settings to not leave messages on the server for more than 1 to 3 days. (This is the recommended practice).  If you wish to remove messages in webmail you can select all messages.  See Screenshot:

See Screenshot:

Click on the "select arrows", then click "all".  IF you wish to select all to remove the messages.

See screenshot:

Once all messages are selected you can click Delete.  You should only remove all messages when you are sure you no longer need them, or they are already downloaded to a program like Outlook.