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Ask Al: What is Backscatter? (2026 Version)
I’ve written about backscatter before . (And so has USA Today .) And I’ll probably write about it again. Backscatter, at a high level, is d...
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Ask Al: GPT Transition, Reputation, and Issues
In my latest Ask Al video for Valimail , I walk viewers through the current state of Google Postmaster Tools , the very important sender fee...
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Ask Al: How do you actually set up a BIMI logo?
In previous videos, I’ve talked a lot about BIMI sender logos, often in the abstract. Many people do seem to understand what a BIMI logo is,...
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BIMI: What does self-asserted mean?
What does it mean when people talk about a "self-asserted" BIMI logo, and should you set one up? That's the topic of my latest...
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Troubleshooting 554 5.7.5 DMARC-related SMTP rejections
It's a bit of a cryptic error message, isn't it? Mail bouncing back with "554 5.7.5 Permanent error evaluating DMARC policy....
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How does a mailbox provider support and display BIMI logos?
If you’re wondering exactly how a mailbox provider like Yahoo, Google, Comcast or Fastmail might implement support for decoding and displayi...
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From DMARCbis to DMARC: New DMARC RFCs
DMARC has been updated! Three new RFCs have been published (RFCs 9989 , 9990 , and 9991 ) governing the latest incremental updates to the DM...
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Troubleshooting 4 different types of Microsoft DKIM rejections
If your attempts to send email to Microsoft-hosted inboxes are bouncing back intermittently with authentication-related rejections; specific...
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Interview with Sam Masiello
It was a pleasure to sit down for a special edition of the Valimail “Ask Al” video series for a Q&A with an old friend and industry vete...
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FUD: CAN-SPAM and PO boxes
I saw somebody recently say that one of their biggest fears about starting a newsletter is that CAN-SPAM (the US federal anti-spam law) req...
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Five Inbox Logos That Are Not BIMI
Every so often someone emails me a screenshot from their inbox and asks a simple question: Is this a BIMI logo? A lot of the time, the answe...
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From and reply to: Routability and matching domains?
Here’s a question that comes up enough that I’ve got multiple versions of it sitting in my blog scratchpad, just waiting for me to draft my ...
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Ask Al: January review and reset for email senders
You survived Black Friday. You survived Cyber Monday. You survived Q4 and 2025. Now what? In my first Ask Al video of 2026 , I walk through ...
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Ask Al: 18 Months, 61 Videos
Just around eighteen months ago, I started work on a new video series for my employer, DMARC provider Valimail . The goal? Answer an email r...
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Where does a BIMI logo show?
Here's a question that I was asked recently: Where, exactly, does a BIMI email sender logo show in the inbox (or next to the inbox) in a...
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SPF fail, DKIM pass, DMARC pass: A confusing Microsoft rejection
Here's a confusing rejection that an email sender asked me about the other day. It's a Microsoft OLC (Outlook Consumer, aka Hotmail ...
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Ask Al: Can I require login to unsubscribe? (in 2025)
Hey, on the one hand, I am genuinely surprised this question still pops up in 2025. But I get it. Every day, someone is new to this whole em...
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Ask Al 57: Protecting Parked Domains
For my latest Valimail video, I tackle something I don't think gets enough attention: how to secure your parked (non-mail-enabled) domai...
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Email forwarding in 2025: Ugh!
Email forwarding is a huge pain in the rear end. Various smart people have various, differing opinions on why. My opinion is that we can tha...
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Ask Al: Why did my BIMI logo SVG file turn black?
You thought you did everything right. You dutifully exported your SVG logo from Adobe Illustrator, you converted it to the tiny-ps format va...