Zinester Implements Support for Sender Policy Framework Zinester will now support SPF, Sender Policy Framework, a simple technology, that has evolved as another attempt to reduce spam. Sinse SPF has been implemented by AOL, it has become essential for any legitimate mailing list service or email service provider to support.
The idea of SPF is very simple. Enabling SPF by the sender side (which is us) means basically adding a special textual comment to our DNS records. In this comment we state that zinester.com sends email only from a specified list of servers and IP addresses.
The receiver side, if it uses SPF to fight spam, would read this comment (by requesting DNS information on zinester.com) and reject any other emails that come from zinester.com (in the message headers), but are actually delivered by a spam server.
This way, the receiving side reduces the amount of spam it receives.
Enabling SPF on the receiving side also means that email from servers that do not have an SPF comment in their DNS records, would not be accepted at all. The fact that Zinester has added an SPF record will ensure that all newsletters are delivered to subscribers.
Posting Page Updates
During these past months we aggressively developing new features for our posting page in order to make it a more convenient and sophisticated tool for posting your newsletters. Sophistication, however, has become an issue - the posting page now seems to be overloaded with buttons, checkboxes, and dropdown menus, which enable all the various features and options that we have implemented. Therefore, we are dramatically in need
of your feedback. Please send us your comments to ezines@zinester.com.
Here's a list of what we've added recently:
1. "Save as Template" Option
A lot of publishers had wished it to be easier for them to compile every new issue of their newsletter. One of the most logical solutions for this problem would be allow any issue (in full or in part) to be saved as a template for future editing and use.
For instance, if your newsletter bears complicated Plain Text or HTML formatting, you can remove the content (i.e. the part that changes from issue to issue), leaving the formatting only, and save it as a template. Next time, when you wish to post a new issue, simply load the template and insert new content into it.
Also,
this feature can be used for some pre-defined messages. For instance, if you wish for your newsletter to be read in HTML only, you can send a Plain Text message to all your Plain Text subscribers stating that a new HTML issue has been published and is available in the archives.
To save the content of your Plain Text or HTML edit windows as a template:
1. Check the checkbox beside "Save as New Template".
2. Type in a name for your new template.
3. Click "Save".
4. As the page reloads, an "Available Plain Text/HTML Templates" dropdown menu will appear below. You will see the name of your new template as one of the options in this menu.
To load a previously saved template:
1. Select your previously saved Plain Text or HTML template from the "Available
Plain Text/HTML Templates" drop-down menu.
2. Choose "Load" from the list of radio-buttons on the right of the drop-down menu.
3. Click "Perform Action".
To update/modify a previously saved template:
1. Select your previously saved Plain Text or HTML template from the "Available Plain Text/HTML Templates" dropdown menu.
2. Choose "Update" from the list of radio-buttons on the right of the drop-down menu.
3. Click "Submit".
2. File Storage
If you are always using the same files to make your newsletter more attractive, you will find this feature most helpful. Previously, it was necessary to upload these files every time you compiled a new post. Now, if you check the "Save" checkbox when uploading a file, it will be saved for future
use and appear in the "Available Files" section.
To insert a previously saved file check the "Insert" checkbox in the "Available Files" section and click "Insert Files". The file will appear in the "Uploaded Files" section.
3. Archiving Options
Archiving your issues is finally more flexible. You can choose from archiving the post instantly (default), delaying the archiving procedure for a chosen number of days (if you want to give your subscribers an advantage compared to those who read your newsletter online) or not archiving the current issue at all (if the current post is a special notice, an ad or a repeated post).
4. Archiving Comments
Tags can be used if you do not wish to archive a certain part of text in your post (such as
subscriber info, unsubscription links, short-time ad offers, etc.). Use one of the clickable images under the editor windows to insert these tags.
Settings Page
You can now easily change most of your list settings, such as From and Reply-To lines, delivery format (HTML Only, Plain Text Only or Both) via the new "Settings" page available from menu on top of your list administration page.
As usual, please send us an email if you have any questions or comments: support@zinester.com
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