Monday, February 11, 2013

Inside Scoop From Yahoo

Morgan Mandel
Yesterday, while I was doing my freebie event for Girl of My Dreams, I ran into something of a roadblock from Yahoo. It was a mystery to me why all of a sudden I got a warning from them saying I might be doing spam, and to stop e-mailing for an hour.

I tried after a few minutes and got the warning again. I waited about ten, and sent an e-mail and it went through okay.

I was curious enough to call Yahoo Web Hosting from which I received my e-mail account and asked what exactly set off the red flag. Here's a few things I learned, which people with Yahoo accounts may not be aware of:

500 e-mails are allowed each day, BUT only 100 per hour

Sending a message to an official Yahoo e-group (listserv, loop) is considered only 1 message, even if there are many e-mail addresses where the message is going.

The words, FREE, or PROMO, are okay to use. (I thought maybe that's what had set off the Yahoo warning)

It's okay to put the same link in messages, as long as you don't exceed that limit.

The answer about sending the same message was kind of ambiguous, though. It may set off a red flag. The representative said it might be a possibility. The main thing is to not exceed the numbers within an hour.

Yesterday, I had set up a few categories in my contact list and sent out to those categories, which included around 28 in one and 19 in another. Then I tried to send out a joke to 4 people and it wouldn't go through and gave me the warning. so, apparently, those category e-mails plus others I'd sent must have put me over the limit.

By the way, I also asked about re-sending jokes that have lots of e-mail addresses in them. Only the addresses in your own To: line count toward your quota.

So, that's what I found out today. Apparently, this is in the fine print from Yahoo, which of course I never read!

By the way, my promo for Girl of My Dreams turned out to be my personal best,  with 16,465 downloads in the US and 3024 in the UK, despite the obstacles! It's a romance, not a mystery, by the way, so I'm not mentioning more about it. (g)

9 comments:

Marilyn Meredith a.k.a. F. M. Meredith said...

I guess I'll never have to worry about this, but it is interesting to know.

Maryannwrites said...

Hard to imagine going over the 500 a day limit, or the 100 an hour limit. That doesn't explain why your attempt to send to 28 and 19 addresses, following with 4 more, prompted a warning.

Morgan Mandel said...

That was after sending out other e-mails. Somehow they must have added up to 100 that hour. I don't believe I did 500 that day, though.

Morgan Mandel

Holly Jahangiri said...

So, spammers take note: Put all your target addresses into the CC: or BCC: lines!

::facepalm::

Morgan Mandel said...

You are a clever one, Holly!

Morgan Mandel

Stephanie Burkhart said...

Thanks for sharing, Morgan. The info is good to know.
Smiles
Steph

Barbara Edwards said...

Thanks for sharing, Morgan. So how did my hacker send out a kazillion emails?
Boggles me.

Anonymous said...

Yea, I finally figured out how to post comments here. (Just had to click on the post on the screen and bring it up again a second time and--wow--I got a comment click!) As to figuring out Yahoo. Morgan I am impressed beyond words by what you learned. Anyone who moves around technology like Yahoo impresses me all to pieces.

Morgan Mandel said...

I had to call to find out that valuable information. I figured it was worth a try. I'm glad I did.It's always wonderful to get a real person on the line!

Morgan Mandel
http:/www.morganmandel.com