[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]

Let’s talk about email.

There’s a whole lot of it out there:

According to talosintelligence.com, the Cisco Comprehensive Threat Intellegence team, in January 2018 there was an average daily legitimate email volume of 73.13 billion emails. The other 421.81 billion daily emails were classified as some type of spam – from the annoying but harmless to serious cyber-attacks.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”padding-2-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”1056″ alignment=”” animation=”None” img_link_target=”_blank” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%” img_link=”https://www.talosintelligence.com/reputation_center/email_rep”][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”padding-2-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”1055″ alignment=”” animation=”None” img_link_target=”_blank” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%” img_link=”https://www.talosintelligence.com/reputation_center/email_rep”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” equal_height=”yes” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column centered_text=”true” column_padding=”padding-2-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color=”#ececec” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1519831643399{border-top-width: 10px !important;border-top-color: #171e77 !important;border-top-style: solid !important;}”]

How does email authentication work, exactly?

As diagrammed here (PDF link), electronic mail STMP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) works like the postal system. You write a letter, mail it, and it goes through multiple routing systems before being delivered to the destination. Once there someone decides if they should open it, or if it’s junk mail. Every email that arrives in your inbox contains a trace log of all the steps it went through (source code) .

Emails with attachments (PDFs, images, documents) are treated like packages. They are usually ‘sniffed’ for dangerous contents, and rejected if problems are detected.

An email message is signed with a digital signature that your server provides. It includes your Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail). The receiving server checks these by running a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Confirmation), and if the email passes that and probably a blacklist check then it will be delivered.

Having the right authentication gives you a good sender reputation, and gets your email into your reader’s inbox.

Is my Email considered spammy?

Good question. A professional’s email send reputation is very important. A good place to test your Email’s sender reputation is on mail-tester.com (free). This great service, a free piece of software from the developers of MailPoet and AcyMailing, will quickly test the quality of your Email address. A score of 5 or less means trouble. Here’s the how-to with more details and suggested fixes (PDF).

I think it’s time you got a custom domain name.

Custom domain email address, like your@yourname.com, give you professional credibility. It usually comes with a higher sender reputation as well, since AOL.com, Yahoo.com, and Hotmail.com host many spammy and hacked email addresses (Comcast.net doesn’t look good, either, and Verizon.net dumped their email last year).

At the moment, there are several options places to get a custom domain email address (here’s a detailed How-To PDF):

GSuite – Google’s for-pay version of GMail, $5/month/user. Google has reputable sending servers.
Through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) – Bluehost is offering 5 email addresses for $3.95/month, and SiteGround is offering email service as well for $3.95/month.
Wix.com and other managed website building platforms are offering email as well, but it seems to be through GSuite.

Without a doubt, Email is one of the most important, but trickiest, parts of the world-wide web.

So congratulations to your for tackling it!

Go to Academy Resource page (Password: fowled)

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Have a question? Comment? Suggestion?

Email me at marina@marinareznor.com

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” bg_color=”#a37a5b” scene_position=”center” text_color=”custom” custom_text_color=”#ffffff” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”padding-1-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ font_color=”#ffffff” column_shadow=”small_depth” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]

THIS MONTH’S HOW-TO: Fixing your email reputation

Step 1) Find out your email reputation by running Mail-Tester.com You can also click on the picture to the right.

You will get a score out of 10. 5 or greater is considered not spammy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/2″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”1059″ alignment=”” animation=”None” img_link_target=”_blank” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%” img_link=”https://www.mail-tester.com/”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]The drop-down menu will give you details on your score:

Click here to view your message.
This will display your message in HTML, HTML without images, and Text. You can also view the source code from your email, which contains the path it took from your server to the inbox.
SpamAssassin’s opinion
SpamAssassin is widely used and very good spam filter. It is going to give you feedback on your DKIM and SPF signatures, what it thinks of your email provider, and detect any fogeries.
Correcting problems: contact your email provider
Authentications
Will check if you are authorized to use your email address, if your DKIM signature is valid, and if you passed the DMARC test.
Correcting problems: contact your email provider
Ways your message can be improved
Emails without images are favored for accessibility reasons. If you are sending an image, A LT attributes provide a textual alternative to your images. It is a useful fallback for people suffering from sight problems and for cases where your images cannot be displayed.

Content safety – Don’t include any raw HTML elements, javascript, iframes or applets.
We didn’t find short URLs – content shorteners like Bit.ly can link to unsecure sites
Your message does not contain a List-Unsubscribe header – The List-Unsubscribe header is required if you send mass emails, it enables the user to easily unsubscribe from your mailing list. Because this software was written for testing mass emails, it tests for this.

Blacklist check
mail-tester.com checks against 26 of the most common email blacklists. You don’t want to be on any.
Correcting problems: Click on the list your are flagged on and follow the directions for verifying your email and domain.
Broken link check
Your email should not contain any broken links. These can show up in your signature line.
Correcting problems: fix broken links.

REAL LIFE PLOT DEVICES

There’s a new guy in town

Crypto-currency miners demand a great deal of electrical power to run their computer infrastructures, and north-central Washington has some of the cheapest power in the United States. What could happen when a new kind of miner comes to a small town? Article link to the Wall Street Journal article on archive.is[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” bg_color=”#a37a5b” scene_position=”center” text_color=”custom” custom_text_color=”#ffffff” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”padding-1-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ font_color=”#ffffff” column_shadow=”small_depth” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]UPDATES (AND PROOF THAT TECH IS NOT INFALLIBLE)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”padding-3-percent” column_padding_position=”right” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”1051″ alignment=”” animation=”None” img_link_target=”_blank” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%” img_link=”https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2018/02/broken-auto-update/?utm_source=list&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=020818″][/vc_column][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”2/3″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]

WordPress update breaks automatic update feature

In a sloppy move, the WordPress 4.9.3 service update accidentally disabled the automatic update feature of WordPress. If you depend on WordPress automatic updates to work properly, you will have to go into your WordPress dashboard and manually install the next update of WordPress 4.9.4, which restores the functionality. If, however, you have an automatic update plugin like ___ this will do the update for you.

WASTE TIME LIKE A PROFESSIONAL WEB DEVELOPER

Blend the past and present with unique views of Great Britain.

The National Library of Scotland has created a browser-based tool that lets you look through a digital spyglass at portions of England, Wales, or Scotland and see what was there over 100 years ago. They do this by geo-synchronizing old maps over recent maps, and you move the spyglass along to reveal the history beneath. This is a world-class time-waster.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” bg_color=”#a37a5b” scene_position=”center” text_color=”custom” custom_text_color=”#ffffff” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”padding-1-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ font_color=”#ffffff” column_shadow=”small_depth” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]

IN NEXT MONTH’S NEWSLETTER

GDPR, newsletters, your website, and your mailing list.

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, which was approved by the European Union and will go into effect May 25th. If you have anyone on your mailing list with a European email address, you fall under this regulation. In fact, most authors will need to be in compliance. Next month we’ll talk about what we need to do. Have a particular question you’d like me to address? Drop me an email.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” bg_color=”#a37a5b” scene_position=”center” text_color=”custom” custom_text_color=”#ffffff” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”padding-1-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ font_color=”#ffffff” column_shadow=”small_depth” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]

WHAT I’M WORKING ON

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]I am following the updates to WordPress.org code and plugins to make them GDPR compliant. There are several free and simple plugins I am testing that will help with compliance, and I’m also watching MailChimp to see what direction they are offering. Two-part authentication for joining mailing lists is part of the GDPR, and MailChimp discontinued that automatic feature last November. I opted back in for my mailing lists, and I’m wondering if MailChimp will quietly reinstate that feature.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”Full Width Line” line_thickness=”3″ divider_color=”extra-color-3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” bg_color=”#ececec” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”padding-2-percent” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]

My name is Marina Reznor, and I am a romance author by night and a web developer by day. I’ve been hanging around the internet for a long time, and enjoy sharing the information I come across*.

Have questions? Comments? Let’s be friends.

Email me here: Marina

Did a good friend forward you this email?
Click here: Join the Academy and receive it every month yourself.

*I am not paid to recommend or advertise any tool or service, and if I was I would clearly disclose the fact.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”Full Width Line” line_thickness=”3″ divider_color=”extra-color-3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][/vc_column][/vc_row]