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If this is not the correct forum, I apologize. I could not find one relating to emails.
I am wondering if anyone has some insight with regard to external files. It seems like many email clients block any external content (loaded from a server) such as images.
Firstly, does anyone know how many (%) of people block all external images which are not attached?
Secondly, is there an effective way to bypass this system and still load an external image or any other file type?
It seems like Outlook by default (in security settings) blocks this type of content. Most business users by my account use Outlook. Correct me if I am wrong.
Any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.
This is good and it protects the user from malicious content aka 'web bugs'. Why? How? Spammers/marketers can use server-side code for an image tag to generate an image. Usually used on logos, or on a single pixel. This can be relatively harmless code that may just count the message as viewed. A spammer may use the image trick to confim email addresses as valid (image code executed = valid email address) or execute other malicious code. Another case of the few runining it for the many.
The best way to deal with images when you are sending out your own enewsletters etc. is to:
1) Not have images! Or at least have a text only version option so your message will get read. Multi-part email sends HTML and plain text.
2) Make sure your list is clean and that people have opted in. Then they'd be more likely to add you to their safe list and view your images. You can use a list management service. Try something like [lyris.com...] or [constantcontact.com...] for online list management.
3) Make sure the top of your email has some text "if you are not able to see this message, click here for an online version"... of course that won't work if links are disabled too :) which can happen in Outlook too, perhaps if too many links are spammy.
4) Don't spam. Keep your domain clean. Here's a whitepaper on deliverablity by Lyris: [lyris.com...]
