Welcome to the June issue of ZooNews, a compendium of Web wisdom from Montreal professional Web site design company Zoonini Web Services.

As spammers find more and more ways to bypass people's email spam filters – and the filters in turn get more restrictive – it gets tougher to create email newsletters that do not get trapped in a spam folder somewhere.

To make sure your email announcements – and indeed all your email correspondence – reach your intended recipients, here are a few simple ways to reduce your message's chance of being misconstrued as spam:

• Don't use ALL CAPS in the subject line of a message
• Avoid using very large text in the message
• Avoid sending an email consisting only of an image and no text
• Don't put an exclamation and question mark next to each other in the subject line
• Don't use the word "free" too many times in a message, and avoid using it at the beginning of your subject line
• Don't use "gappy text" where every other character in a word is a space (i.e. l i k e  t h i s)
• Don't use too much HTML code in your newsletter, as newsletters that consist of 90%-100% HTML code – vs. text content – are frequently flagged as spam
• Avoid referencing commonly pitched spam products such as weight-loss pills or erectile dysfunction drugs

Using a variety of other words and phrases in messages – including some that might not be so obvious – add to the likelihood your message will be considered spam. Check out the SpamAssassin criteria list for a zillion obvious and not-so-obvious references. Hint: skip down to the "body" section that starts about half-way down the page. (SpamAssassin is a widely used server-side spam filter.)

Another handy link to keep close by is the free SpamCheck tool, which can help you get a good sense of how likely your email newsletter will be considered spam, and how to fix any potential problems.

Appetite whetted for more advanced advice? Check out an excellent series of articles at ClickZ on email marketing and deliverability.

If you've ever signed up for an email newsletter, or if you send out one yourself, you may be already familiar with the terms "opt-in" and "double opt-in." But do you know what they really mean?

When a newsletter is opt-in, it simply means that your subscribers must give you explicit permission to send them mailings by email. For example, people may fill out a newsletter sign-up form on your Web site, providing you with their email address. Or, they may check off a box at the bottom of a contact form, which may say something like "Check this box to receive news and information on our products and services." In both cases, you will have a record that the subscriber has given you permission to receive your email announcements, which could come in handy in case you are ever accused of sending the subscriber spam. Opt-in email marketing is also sometimes called "permission-based" email marketing.

OK, so opt-in is great, you're thinking. No one can point the finger at me and say I'm spamming someone with unwanted email if I have proof that they signed up voluntarily to receive my fabulous newsletter!

There's one catch, though, and kudos to those who've already figured it out: what's to stop someone from signing up 40 of their closest enemies to the "Excema and Dry Skin Weekly Report"? (an unfortunate practice known as "subscription bombing") The answer: a double opt-in newsletter. This means that before a subscriber begins receiving your newsletter, they receive an email message asking them to confirm their subscription. They just need to click on the URL in the message and presto – their mailing-list subscription will become active. If the person receiving the confirmation doesn't remember having signed up for "The Toenail Fungus Update" they don't need to do anything at all – the unwanted email will never sully their inbox as long as they don't click that confirmation link.

Got a technology term you'd like demystified in ZooNews? Send it to questions@zoonini.com.

Just in time for Fourth of July celebrations, a new site for Michigan's Captain Boom Fireworks launches! With a complete redesign by Zoonini, a fresh and fun logo by AR Design Solutions, and optimized Web content by A.C. Riley Communications, the revamp is sure to make an impact on new and returning customers looking for the best in fireworks displays. A complementary remake of the Captain Boom fireworks-accessories store will come later this summer.

I'm thrilled to report that within weeks of their respective launches, Zoonini/A.C. Riley clients Travel-Buggy and Vision Coach International have received multiple orders and inquiries from people finding their services via search engines. Once again, we witness the positive, concrete results of a well-optimized, well-crafted Web site. Congratulations to both business owners!

À la prochaine,

kp
aka Kathryn Presner