Cindy Ehresman's List: Website Development

• Rule 1: Run. Immediately. Don’t pack. Don’t think. Just  GO!

• • Code HTML emails in a plain-text, no-frills editor. That'll output the  cleanest possible code, plus let you easily create plain-text emails. Don't use  WYSIWYGs or expect Microsoft Word to export clean HTML email. In fact, some spam  filters will actually penalize your email if you created it in Microsoft  FrontPage (because spammers do that a lot). Use something like NotePad or  TextEdit (default programs on your PC or Mac) or go get something like BBEdit, or NoteTab Pro.  
  • Don't go nuts with CSS. Use inline CSS as much as possible, and stay away  from CSS Positioning. Simple tables work best.  
  • Design for the preview pane. Open up your email program. How much space is  available in your preview pane? Chances are it's waaaay less the typical width  you design web pages. Less than 600 pixels is a good guideline.Align stuff to  the left. Some preview panes are skinny and vertical (AOL gives about 200 pixels  of width). Make sure your logo and critical content "peeks" out on the left side  of your template.  
  • No JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, embedded video, sound files, or DHTML.  Viruses are typically embedded into those types of files, so anti-virus programs  will block them. Sorry, no fancy stuff.  
  • Unless your email marketing service hosts your images for you, you'll need  to code your HTML emails using absolute paths for your images.  
  • Webmail clients (Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, Gmail, etc) typically strip out any  HTML code above and below (and including) the BODY tags. Therefore:  
     
    • BODY BGCOLORs will not work. Create a 100% wide table with your bgcolor, and  embed your template inside that.  
    • Any embedded CSS inside your HEAD tags will not work. Embed your CSS below  the BODY tag, just above your content.
     
  • Just about ALL email programs turn off your images by default. The recipient  has to click a button to "display images." This is a default feature, and can't  be turned off. And most recipients have to be really motivated to click that  button. Therefore:  
     
    • Don't design HTML emails that are nothing but one big image. Recipients  won't see anything (and spam filters can't read any content, so they'll assume  it's spam).  
    • Take your open reports with a grain of salt. Open tracking involves placing  a tiny, transparent .GIF in your email, then counting how many times the image  was downloaded. If your recipient doesn't turn on images, the graphic won't be  downloaded.
     
  • Always include a plain-text version of your emails. Your email service  should display that version if your recipient can't (or won't) view HTML emails.   
  • Understand CAN-SPAM. You should always include your contact information  in your footer (postal mailing address, phone, email, etc) and always include an  opt-out link. MailChimp's list management service provides you with unsubscribe  link code.  
  • Test your HTML emails like crazy. Sign up for as many email services as you  can, and download as many email programs and spam filters as you can. You may  need to setup a test computer(s) in your office to do all this testing

• "Multipart/Alternative MIME" format
• TABLES. 600 pixels wide max.
• Gmail, Yahoo!Mail, Hotmail, etc., will strip out your DOCTYPE, BODY, and HEAD  tags. Makes sense---they don't want your code to potentially override theirs.  Anything you'd normally code inside those tags (bgcolors, embedded CSS,  JavaScript, background music files, etc) will also get stripped.
• That means no CSS-positioning, DIVs, etc. Before you ask me for a detailed list  of what works and what doesn't, just remember this (it'll save us all a lot of  time): When your email is opened in Gmail, for example, the CSS in your HTML  email could potentially override the CSS on the rest of their page. So they  disable a lot of it. Inline CSS is safer, and plain-old FONT tags are safest  (code like it's 1996, remember?).

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