If you ever find your email messages don't get through, or if you'd like to head off problems before they occur, following tips should help.

Encourage all your email contacts to "whitelist" your email address in their email program.

Just like you can say which email addresses you don't want to get messages from, you can specify a list of email addresses you always want accept.

In Yahoo or Hotmail you can set up your filters to accept email messages from a certain source regardless of subject line or content of message.

It takes a little patience to set up, but it pays big dividends by not losing important messages.

With Outlook and Outlook Express, you can set up message rules to always accept messages from certain senders.

If you send messages to people who use AOL, try this technique. Get them to add you to their address book "safelist" or "approved senders."

This helps AOL identify that message recipient "knows" you and has a higher likelihood of actually wanting to receive your message.

Email AOL tech support for help on this if you encounter a problem.

If filtering and "white" listing don't work, then your friend needs to contact their ISP to sort out problem.

Their ISP can certainly figure out why messages don't get through, but it may take some concerted encouragement to get ISP's customer service to take time to investigate cause.

And remember not exceed 40 characters when developing your subject line.

Step #5 - Remind your subscribers where and when they opted-in

If you do not e-mail your subscribers very often, say once every fortnight, it would be good to remind them where and when they opted-in, right at top of your e-mail.

In e-mail marketing, popular axiom, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" bears much truth.

Don't expect your subscribers to remember where and when they opted-in to receive information from you if you're not in frequent contact with them.

If they can't recall when they opted-in to your list and you fail remind them - don't be surprised if they scream "SPAM"!

Step #6 - Provide an unsubscribe link

In e-mail marketing, you should never ever hold anyone hostage.

You'd rather settle for happy unsubscribers than angry subscribers, right?

So, provide your readers with an easy and convenient method to unsubscribe.

They'll sleep more soundly at night and so will you.

Step # 7 - Check and test your e-mail

You've spent a great deal of time crafting your e-mail.

So it is a good practice to check through your e-mail to make sure you do not overlook following: 1) Spell check your e-mail 2) SPAM check your e-mail 3) Test all e-mail links 4) Double-check mail merge codes (if any) e.g. $firstname$ vs. {FIRSTNAME} (especially if you're sending out same e-mail using different autoresponder software)

Step #8 - Use fixed-pitch font and proper formatting

Use a fixed-pitch font like Courier and perform a hard carriage return at end of each line at 60 characters to avoid formatting problems.

Step #9 - Track all e-mail links

This is an often over-looked step. Tracking your e-mail links will allow you to gain valuable insights and discover what works and what doesn't.

Use tracking information to refine your future e-mail marketing campaigns.

Step #10 - KISS (Keep It Simple and Short)

Lastly, keep your e-mails simple and short.

The more e-mail content you create, higher chance of triggering SPAM filters.

If possible, use e-mail marketing to Pre-Sell, not Sell.

Follow these 10 steps in your next e-mail marketing campaign and watch your campaign results skyrocket!