One of the most common questions I get at the helpdesk or via the forum has to do with my daily emails not arriving where they are supposed to go…
The good news is that I’m aware, and I’ve done everything I can from a technical standpoint to ensure that my emails get delivered. Reverse DNS, secure DNS records, private keys… you name it, I’ve tried to make sure it is in place.
So then, why might you be having issues receiving my emails?
First, you need to know that one of the metrics many businesses use to gauge email effectiveness is open rates…
In other words, when you open one of my emails, many times your email provider sends a little “ping” to my email sender (I use a company to send my emails because there is so many each day) that says you opened it.
Now, truth be told, that’s far from foolproof. If you have images turned off, or a variety of potential security measures with your email reader/provider, that “ping” may not happen.
Even with that, my “open rates” are about 4-6 times higher than industry averages, and my email sending company loves us for that because we don’t cause them problems.
In addition, (and this is especially true if you use a “free” or “hosted” email service like Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, or AOL) your email provider keeps an eye on what you open, and if you click the links in the emails.
So one thing you can do is to make sure to click on the lessons in my emails, at least a couple of times a week.
I get it that maybe you don’t have time to work on that lesson or watch that video right now, but simply by clicking periodically, you’re reminding your email provider that you still want to get the emails that I send.
Now then, here’s the bad news…
Most of the time I get an inquiry about email issues, I can look and see that the previous email I’ve sent has “bounced.” Or, more specifically, your email provider told my email sender that it “bounced.” The reality is that, your email provider decided I’m a spammer, and dropped that email on the floor without delivering it to you and giving you the chance to decide whether you want to read it or not.
You might think that I could contact Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, etc., and let them know that I’m a real person, sending emails that people actually want to receive… but they don’t care (even if I could reach them, they would not care.)
I’m not their customer, you are.
If you know that I’m sending you emails (and I’ll show you how to ensure that in a sec…) and you’re not seeing them in your inbox, or your spam folder, then you know your email provider is bouncing/dropping them for you.
You can contact their helpdesk/support and ask them why you’re not receiving these emails…
You can continue to badger them until they let those email through…
You can go to another email provider if they don’t fix it and don’t respond to your inquiries…
I cannot. There’s absolutely nothing I can do.
Now that you know what goes on behind the scenes, here are some steps to take:
- Visit https://bluesguitarunleashed.com/get-on-the-list/ and make sure to sign up to be on the email list from this form. It’s a little different from most because it has a confirmed optin, which I’ll explain…
- Right after you put your email address in that form, the system will send you an email asking you to confirm that you filled out the form. You must click the link in that email as it “confirms” your email address to my email sender, and that allows them to use a different email sending computer that is only for “confirmed” emails. Most emails on my list are confirmed, but just in case, this is a good place to start.
- If you do not receive the email from step 2, or you have completed that step but you’re still not seeing any emails after a day or two, then you know your problem lies with your email provider, and you’ll need to get in touch with them.
Of course, if you want to confirm anything with us here, you can always email helpdesk@bluesguitarunleashed.com and we’ll be happy to confirm that emails are being sent to you and that you are, in fact, on the email list…
But for the reasons above, we probably cannot do anything about it, and your next course of action is with your email provider, they are the ones dropping your emails for you.
Hopefully this wasn’t too technical and you now know how to move forward to start receiving my emails once again.
