While the spam filters for Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and other email providers are pretty good, sometimes they make mistakes and are a little overzealous in flagging emails as spam. Here's how to make sure the emails you do want to see don't land in your spam folder.
For most programs and services, all you have to do to whitelist an email is add it to your contacts list. In Gmail, for example, open an email from someone you never want to be flagged as a spammer and hit the down arrow next to the Reply button, then select "Add [person] to Contacts list".
In Outlook, add the email address to your Safe Senders list (under Tools > Options > Preferences > Junk E-mail). Also check the option to "Automatically add people I e-mail to the Safe Senders List".
For Yahoo!, you have to set up a filter to keep emails from being flagged as spam: Go to Mail Options > Filters and add a new one. In the "From header:" rule, add the email address and the "Choose Folder" to be your "Inbox".
You can use filters with Gmail too, for more advanced spam controls. Go to Settings > Filters > Create a new filter and you can add the email address, contact's name, just the domain (e.g., @itworld.com), and other criteria. Check the box "Never send it to Spam".
For instructions for other email programs and services, see How to Whitelist an Email in Gmail, Outlook, AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail and Other Internet Service Providers from SocialBuzzClub.
Photo by Pedro Lozano
This story, "How to make sure important emails never get sent to spam" was originally published by ITworld.