What is an Email Blacklist? Here is How to Get Off a Blacklist!

An email blacklist is a database that lists either the domain you are sending the email from, for example: yoursite@yourdomian.com. The data base also lists your IP address that emails are sent from. These blacklists are used by serval originations in an attempt to prevent massive amounts of spam from ending up in your inbox on a daily basis. The main organizations that rely on these lists are: Internet providers, free email provides (like gmail etc.) and anti spam vendors. These type of organizations refer to these lists to block emails that are listed from entering their servers. Getting your domain or IP address on one of these blacklists can really crush your email deliverability and hinder your business.

What is a Spam Email?

We all get them on a daily basis so lets define “spam”. A spam email is defined as: an unsolicited and unwanted junk email sent out in bulk to an indiscriminate recipient list. Typically, spam is sent for commercial purposes. Spam emails can also be sent for malicious purposes as well like phishing schemes etc.

The Two Different types of Email Blacklist Services

Email Blacklist services can be broken down into two separate categories:

• Internal email blacklist service
• Third party email blacklists services.

Internal Email Blacklist Service

Free email providers such as gmail and yahoo do rely on information provided by third party blacklist services. These type of companies will also run their own blacklist. This type of blacklist is run directly by a company for the companies own use and is called an internal email blacklist service.

Third Party Email Blacklist Services

Unlike an internal email blacklist kept by companies like Gmail, third party email lists are much more open to the public. You can check the listing yourself if you suspect that your domain or IP address is list on one of these blacklists. These services are run by independent organizations. These organizations provide their services to companies in an effort to combat spam .

List of Third Party Email Blacklists

Here is a list of third party email blacklists that organizations use to block spam from entering their servers:

• 0SPAM
• Abuse.ro
• Abusix Mail Intelligence Blacklist
• Abusix Mail Intelligence Domain Blacklist
• Abusix Mail Intelligence Exploit list
• Anonmails DNSBL
• AntiCaptcha.NET IPv6
• BACKSCATTERER
• BARRACUDA
• BLOCKLIST.DE
• CALIVENT
• CASA CBL
• CBL
• CYMRU BOGONS
• CYMRU BOGONS IPv6
• DAN TOR
• DAN TOREXIT
• DNS SERVICIOS
• DRMX
• DRONE BL
• FABELSOURCES
• HIL
• HIL2
• Hostkarma Black
• IBM DNS Blacklist
• ICMFORBIDDEN
• IMP SPAM
• IMP WORM
• INTERSERVER
• IPrange RBL Project
• ivmSIP
• ivmSIP24
• JIPPG
• KEMPTBL
• KISA
• Konstant
• LASHBACK
• LNSGBLOCK
• LNSGBULK
• LNSGMULTI
• LNSGOR
• LNSGSRC
• MADAVI
• MailBlacklist
• MAILSPIKE BL
• MAILSPIKE Z
• MSRBL Phishing
• MSRBL Spam
• NETHERRELAYS
• NETHERUNSURE
• NIXSPAM
• Nordspam BL
• Nordspam DBL
• NoSolicitado
• ORVEDB
• PSBL
• RATS Dyna
• RATS NoPtr
• RATS Spam
• RBL JP
• RSBL
• s5h.net IPv6
• SCHULTE
• SEM BACKSCATTER
• SEM BLACK
• Sender Score Reputation Network
• SERVICESNET
• SORBS BLOCK
• SORBS DUHL
• SORBS HTTP
• SORBS MISC
• SORBS NEW
• SORBS SMTP
• SORBS SOCKS
• SORBS SPAM
• SORBS WEB
• SORBS ZOMBIE
• Spam Eating Monkey SEM IPv6BL
• SPAMCOP
• Spamhaus ZEN
• SPFBL DNSBL
• Suomispam Reputation
• SWINOG
• TRIUMF
• TRUNCATE
• UCEPROTECTL1
• UCEPROTECTL2
• UCEPROTECTL3
• Woodys SMTP Blacklist
• Woodys SMTP Blacklist IPv6
• WPBL
• ZapBL

How to Get Your Email or IP Address Off a Third Party Blacklist.

The First step to get off of a third party email blacklist is to find out that you have been list for sure. SEO Tools Mogul offers a free blacklist look up tool that can help you get started in the process.

Sometimes you will also receive an email from the blacklist that you have been added too informing you that you have been listed. Once you have determined that you have been blacklisted then, you can get started on getting removed from the list. Each blacklist will have its own procedure to get removed from it. So once you have determine where you have been blacklisted, you should go to the company’s website and see what the procedure is.

Here is an example of the removal request process for 0SPAM. This will be an request for an IP address removal.

The First Step is to navigate to the website. You can see on first page they have where you can test to see if you are listed.

Now that you have found the website navigate to service and click on IP Removal request.

Once you click on that link you will be taken to the following path and be asked to create an account.

Now that your account has been created you will be able to access the page to enter your IP address and your reason to request the removal.

Depending on how you ended up on the blacklist, your hosting company might be able to help you. I unfortunately ended up on a blacklist about 2 years ago with a legitimate company I was running. I was no longer able to send or receive emails from my domain suddenly, out of the blue. I was using godaddy and they where able to determine that might site did get hacked and that was the reason for the backlisting. They did get me off the list and recommended that I upgraded the security on my website. I was getting around 18k views a month at the time so, if your site is reaching these levels it might be time to consider better security. I haven’t had an issue since so it was definitely the right call.

How To Get Off an Internal Email Blacklist

Getting your self off an internal email blocklist is very similar to the process to getting off a third party email black list. The most poplar email used today is gmail. They have a straight forward process to request removal.

Here is the link – https://support.google.com/mail/contact/gmail_bulk_sender_escalation?hl=en&rd=2&visit_id=638001530171982514-4084622494

Here is a look at the form you will need to complete and the options:

CONCLUSION

Getting an email address or a domain blacklisted can be a very stressful experience, especially if you are running a business. The main thing to do is stay calm and take the necessary steps to get off of the list. It can be frustrating as it will take some time to fix this problem. The main thing you need to do is find out how you were blacklisted so you can prevent it in the future. In my case it turned out to be a positive. I was having issues with my site going down. After I got blacklisted and added the extra security my site is virtually never down and my emails are getting delivered better than ever. Make sure what ever problem you had that got you on the list is fixed, or your going to just end up back on the blacklist and it might not be so easy to get off a second time.