I also shared that one massive problem that I considered WORTH tackling is the dismal email deliverability rates that many email marketers are experiencing.

After all, what good does it do to build a list in the hundreds of thousand (which is where my database is at), if much of the email doesn't get through.

This is a problem that I have discussed with numerous top online marketers. Many of these marketers, with lists in the hundreds of thousands, and even millions, long for "the good old days" when a much higher percentage of their email was delivered.

Many ezine publishers confide that they sometimes send out a mailing and then wonder if ANYONE received it. Responses can often be that low, and if it's a well-written email, the problem HAS to be that it didn't get through.

Many marketers have started doctoring up individual words used in their emails, thinking that this will partly solve the problem. I find that words broken up with strange punctuation, or deliberately misspelled, hurts overall response rates more than it helps!

Many marketers have grown so frustrated that they've started simply publishing their newsletters on their blogs, giving up on the notion of delivering their full message right to subscribers inboxes. They just send out a very short email inviting the reader to the latest blog post. I don't consider that the best solution.

However, setting up your email system so that more of your email gets through isn't beyond the capability of the average email marketer.

This is a topic that even those who don't use email marketing need to understand because then they'll know exactly why they often don't get emails that they WANT to receive.

The step-by-step instruction on how to remedy this problem are beyond the scope of this article. It would take a book to explain ALL of the intricacies. In-fact, there is an excellent primer on the topic entitled, "Email Delivery Secret - EXPOSED." This primer is brief yet thorough, and very inexpensive. You can get it at: http://IncreasedEmailDelivery.org

Both this ebook, and experts that I've talked with on the topic, explain that the key is how the server that the email is sent from is configured.

Things that kill email deliverability, but are easy to correct are:

1) Having open DNS server settings... allowing spammers to send email through your server, and also causing many ISP's to block all email from your server. I once had a host that had ALL email from ALL customers blocked for this very reason. Hundreds of screaming customers forced them to fix that oversight!

2) Having an improper DNS server configuration. This may be beyond your control, but may also indicate that you need different hosting. 3) Missing Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records, which other servers use in deciding whether or not to accept email from you. The SPF record is used to prevent or detect forged "from" email addresses.

4) Missing key mailboxes on your server, such as abuse@yourdomain.com, and others.

On the other side of the coin you need to understand that ISP's such as Yahoo.com, Hotmail.com, and AOL, have fairly strict guidelines on what email is allowed onto their servers.... and into their customers' inboxes.

The thing is, conditions that cause these ISP's, used by million of your potential customers, to block your emails are all published polices and procedures.

To get more of your email through to customers who receive email at those ISP's, you really only need to make a few changes in your email setup. These are things that make for logical, secure email practices in the first place.

The bottom-line is that you CAN get a much higher percentage of your emails delivered if you'll just set aside a little time to discover why it's actually not getting through. Those reasons aren't secrets that the ISP's hide from you! You just need to learn them and then start working WITH the ISP's.

As previously pointed out, a good starting point is the ebook, "Email Delivery Secret - EXPOSED." It will point you to a lot of tools and resources to check things such as whether your domain (or IP address) is blacklisted, and how to get it unblocked. That inexpensive ebook, with some excellent screenshots for the various server control panel setups, is at: http://IncreasedEmailDelivery.org

Here's another thing... just taking the time to learn these few good email practices will put you light-years ahead of your competitors. Many of them just seem to prefer "sticking their heads in the sand" and pretending that the problem doesn't exist.

Low email deliverability rates are a real problem. Now, you know how to do something about it.