Knowledgebase of all things email
Guides
How to add a DKIM record to your domain
To reduce the risk of your emails ending up in a spam folder, it is important that you authenticate the service you send via to use your domain name.
How to add a SPF record to your domain
To reduce the risk of ending up in a spam folder when you send emails, you should allow the service you send via to use your domain name.
How to add a Sender Domain to Userlist
In order to use your own domain name to send emails from Userlist you need to add a Sender Domain to the application.
How to set up Google Postmaster Tools for your domain
Adding your domain to Google Postmaster Tools is fairly easy. Just follow this guide to access spam rate reports for your domain.
How to set up a custom Return-Path
Setting up a custom return path is an important step to take in order to ensure DMARC compliance, and here's how to do it if you use Postmark.
How to verify your domain
Imagine if your competitor could set up a newsletter in your name and send emails from your domain? To prevent that you must verify your domain.
Glossary
Bulk Email
When the same email message is sent to multiple recipients it's considered Bulk Email. This isn't necessarily spam, however.
DKIM
DKIM lets email servers to verify the authenticity of an email. It uses DNS record lookups to verify the sender of a given email.
DMARC: Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance
DMARC is a way to let recipient servers know what email servers you send emails from, and what they should do if they receive an email not sent from one of your servers.
DNS: Domain Name System
DNS is the phone book of the internet. Whenever you type a domain name into your browsers address field, the browser asks DNS what computer it should contact in order to get the website, you've requested.
Email Service Provider
The service provider you hire to send and/or deliver your emails. They'll run email servers and spam filters for you, and many provide a web interface.
Email client
Your email client is the program you use to read and send emails with. For most people this means something like Outlook, Gmail, or Apple Mail.
Email server
An email server is a computer capable of both sending and receiving emails. It connects to other email servers on your behalf to deliver your emails.
Google Postmaster Tools
Postmaster Tools gives you detailed reports about emails received by Gmail and Googles other email services.
Pyzor
Pyzor is a collaborative system used to detect bulk and spam emails. It is run by your email service provider, often as part of SpamAssassin.
SNDS: Smart Network Data Services
SNDS is Microsofts online portal that gives email senders access to data about emails received by Outlook.com.
SPF
SPF is a DNS record that contains information about what servers are allowed to send email for a domain.
Spam
Spam is defined as unsolicited marketing emails, although a more common definition is "all those damn emails I don't want to receive".
SpamAssassin
A popular spam filter used on many email servers. It works by running a bunch of tests and uses a summary score to evaluate the spamminess of an email.
Spoofing
When someone sends an email pretending to be sent from someone else, it's called spoofing. This is commonly used in phishing attacks.