Improving email deliverability when using subdomains

[Chris Jenkins]

We recently implemented the Ning Premium service for domain masking (http://my.hudforeclosed.net). Since mail is sent from Ning servers posing as hudforeclosed.net, we are having a little trouble with the delivery of invitations and other Ning-initiated mail (particularly with Gmail).

In the past, we have enabled everything from DNS and MX records to Domain Keys and SPF records. Should we be looking to do the same for Ning?

Thanks!
Chris

[DJ Webster]

Im also experiencing the same problem, someone would would send me a mail but will take hours before it arrives

[Mike Nicholson]

Hello!

If you're sending batch messages the reason for the slow delivery is that we throttle this email to reduce the chance that your subdomain will be black listed by major email providers (e.g. Yahoo! and Gmail). Sorry for the delay, but we've found throttling these large batch messages to be the most effective way of guaranteeing that your messages make it through.

Adding an MX record with a value of amx.ning.com to the domain name that you're using for your social network tends to help a bit with the spam filters, but it does not help delivery time.

Cheers!
Mike

[Chris Jenkins]

Thanks, Mike. This "partially" answers my question. Any thoughts on the other methods? The reason I ask is because we went through all of this in trying to improve deliverability and eventually partnered wtih an Email Service Provider (ESP) who had a good reputation and sent a lot of mail. To improve deliverability, they work with their clients to set up Domain keys (for Yahoo), SDF records (for Hotmail and MSN, I think), and make various other DNS and MX record tweaks. It has helped tremendously. Just hoping Ning can do the same since you are sending so much email on our behalf. Let me know if you need more technical details.

[Mike Nicholson]

Hello Chris!

We are indeed working with various email white list registries as well as directly with some of the major destinations for our email (such as AOL, Yahoo! and Google). We're doing additional work every day to ensure the lowest rate of messages ending up in the junk mail folders :)

Cheers!
Mike

[Steven Pauwels]

Hi Mike,

I'd like to use the MX record to sep up mail on my domain: http://www.iphonic.be and use the SPF record to help with spam... I'd include mx.ning.com in the txt record. Any other servers I should include?

thxs!

Steven