X-Confirm-Reading-To for read intimation

[kadnan]

Hi

My system send different alerts to subscribers via email. I want to track whether they opened email or not. For this purpose I want to use "X-Confirm-Reading-To" and X-Read Notification which was implemented by readnotify.com too

I simply added these headers with the destination email address but I could not get intimation. How can I implement it in PHP? pls guide

[encyclo]

The problem is probably not with your code, just that most email clients simply ignore X-Confirm-Reading-To - the spammers killed off that idea. Tracking email receipt is virtually impossible, unfortunately.

[rocknbil]

Weeeeeeellllll . . . . not entirely impossible, but requires some grunt work, and is not 100% accurate. :-)

You place a 1x1px image inside the email, and make sure this image is not accessed via any other means. Use a full url:

<img src="http://example.com/img/email-img.gif">

When the email is opened, a request is made for the image that should show up in your stats. You can review the stats for an indicator of HTML email and image enabled clients that have accessed your message. You just have to figure out what percentage of recipients don't allow html emails or images.

[encyclo]

1x1px image inside the email

True, but these "web beacons" have become almost as ineffective as read receipts - again, they were heavily abused by spammers, so all modern email clients (including webmail providers) disable the loading of remote images by default.

[rocknbil]

Which is why I said not 100% accurate. :-) Don't know what a real percentage might be . . . .

I think the saving grace on those is that if a recipient is willing to open an email, if the text-only content is compelling enough, they might be motivated enough to hit "view all images." In that case, though, one of the images should be something vital to the message. (I can't believe **I'm** even saying that, as that's bad mojo right off the bat . . . . educational exercise only folks . . .