A big-time dilemma is brewing online. In an understandable attempt to bypass all that annoying spam, e-mails that onliners want to receive are getting lost in the shuffle. Newsletter subscription requests are not being completed and important e-mails are not getting to their intended parties.

Your Whitelist is the list that contains the e-mail addresses of those you do in fact want to receive e-mail from. Some services require the accepted addresses be in ones address book to be added to the whitelist. While other software/services call this list the approved or allowed senders list and require you manually add those you want to accept e-mail from to your list. Regardless of what this feature is called, it is clearly not being utilized correctly and in many cases, at all.

What can be done about this? A little user education and E-mail Whitelist Etiquette is in order!

=> When signing up for an online newsletter, mailing list or Web site service, immediately add their e-mail address or dot com to your approved or white list. This will ensure smooth communications with you and that e-mails will get through with the information you requested or confirmations necessary for you to acknowledge your request.

=> If you initiate the request, it is your responsibility to promptly add the other sides e-mail address or dot com information to your whitelist. This extra step will reflect that you are courteous and tech savvy! In addition, doing so will avoid those who you have requested information or services from, from having to follow verification e-mail instructions just to get you the information you requested. Besides, you cannot count on everyone responding to those verification e-mailsmany simply dont or cant (automated subscription systems).

=> Before getting upset because you perceive someone didnt respond, check to see if their e-mail was inadvertently deleted or sent to your Trash or Junk folder. Then, upon finding these e-mails in your Trash or Junk folders, add their information to your whitelist straight away. Too many onliners become belligerent about a supposed lack of response when in fact a response was sent and because they didnt clear the way for the e-mail to be accepted it was diverted to trash or not allowed through.

=> Web sites and newsletters should have a response or thank you page that clearly requests site visitors and subscribers to add the required e-mail address to their whitelist right then and there. If onliners know the address to expect e-mail from, it is much easier to expect that they will add that address to their whitelist and your e-mail will get through.

It is important that every onliner make a conscious effort to become aware of the above issues and integrate these suggestions into their day-to-day activities. Only then can an informed online community use e-mail for the efficient and convenient communication tool it was meant to be.