hotmail spam filter

[helenp]

Hi,
I donīt know if this is the right place to post this,
anyway,
I have a problem,
hotmail filters our e-mails as spam,
if I send the same e-mail from my private account it is not filtered as spam.
I spoked with hotmail, they told me to tell my clients to put our e-mail in the whitelist or speak with our host.
I spoked with our host and they said, that they canīt do anything with hotmail, that their spamfilter is not ip based it is domainbased?
We ever sent any spam.
And they told us to do the same, tell our clients to put us in the white list.
But we capture the clients through internet so they arenīt our clients until they receive our first e-mail, that of course ends in their spam folder that nobody check.

this is a big problem, anyone know how hotmail works and where is the solución?
Will it be so for ever or will they drop us from their spamlist in x time?

Thanks in advance

[celgins]

That's a tricky situation! So the email addresses you use ([e-mail]) are being filtered by Hotmail, and this is your primary way of reaching clients?

Hmmmm. I can only think of two things I would try, (and they may not work well!):

1) It is unlikely that you can do this, but you'll probably have to find a way to contact your clients using an email address that contains another domain name.

--or--

2) In an effort to sort of, "trick" the system, you could possibly use server-side scripting to send your emails. This may not work, but whether you're using ASP or PHP on your website, you may be able to use CDONTS/CDOSYS, or the PHP Mail component to send emails to clients.

If you leave out the "From:" mail-header, or use a 'do-not-reply-to-this-address' type email address, Hotmail may not be able to filter it.

Like I said, both of those may fail, but I don't see a lot of ways around that issue.

[helenp]

Thanks,
The php thing will not do, I download all email and answer them on my pc, and anyway send e-mail without any fromadress to answer I donīt think is any good.

At this moment I am answering all hotmails with an private e-mail account

[celgins]

Well, I was thinking that you could possibly include your real 'reply-to address' within the email message, if using PHP to asend the messages.

I know of an 'email-guru', so if I come up with some answers, I'll let you know.

BTW....I wish I had known about your site when I traveled to Espana! :)

[helenp]

Thanks Celgins,
I really appreciate some help.

Donīt worry, next time you come to Spain you already know where to go :)

[helenp]

I have been doing a lots of tests,
and seems like if I send as an reply the hotmail account receives it, only new emails are spammed out.

[celgins]

Hmmm. Interesting.

Are you testing this using PHP mail functions?

[helenp]

no, normal why, filling in the form on the web.
actually when I found out that hotmail had problem with my email I ever checked send myself emails to respond, I just checked sending e-mails to hotmail,
so itīs not that bad after all

[truezeta]

I've noticed that problem with my newsletter, even though folks opted in through their hotmail account. It's very strange.