My emails are being labeled as spam. Why?

[DanK104]

I recently registered a new domain name for use for email. Something similar to "thesmiths.net" (except my name isn't Smith). The reason was so I can have a permanent email address that doesn't depend on me staying with my current ISP. The domain is hosted at my businesses' host site. Anyway, when I started emailing some people, my emails ended up in their Spam or Bulk email folders. This included everyone with an @yahoo.com address. Also sbcglobal.net. Hotmail and AOL seem okay.

My question is: is there a way to prevent my email from being considered spam? I know I can ask my friends to list me as an "okay address", but that means I first need to contact (from some other email account) everyone I plan to email, which is not real practical.

Thanks for advice!
DanK

[Blackheart]

Try contacting the ISPs that think your email is spam. Maybe they only have a whitelist?

[Doctor Q]

It could also be that thesmiths.net resolves to a particular IP address (e.g., 123.123.123.123) but when IP address 123.123.123.123 is looked up (called a reverse name lookup), it doesn't map back to thesmiths.net.

Some email servers do these reverse lookups and flag messages that don't pass the test. Again, this is something to take up with your ISP.