A few days ago CSS-tricks  posted an entry about what clean and semantic html code looks like, and gave many tips about how to compose it, using a wonderful example.

It’s really great  to compose html as in that example, and not just to be cool, but to be standards compliant , save bandwidth and time redesigning and don’t forget that search engines will love your site (and when I say search engines , I mean Google ;-))

Unfortunately, for Web Designers and Html coders specialized in e-mail marketing this is just an utopia, because composing an e-email in html is, the most of times, like crossing a virtual mines field:

• Don’t use a tableless Xhtml+CSS  layout: Instead of, use basic html with tables and, at most, inline CSS.
• Be careful with images: If you send too many images, your e-mail probably will end into the spam folder of spam filters. Also, your recipients won’t receive anything (but <alt> tags content) if they don’t download them.
• KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid):  You can make fewer mistakes when coding keeping your layout simple. Complicated cool designs won’t help you anything.
• Test, test, test and test it again: Test your e-mail in several clients (as Outlook, Lotus Notes, Thunderbird...) and webmails (Gmail, YahooMail, LiveMail...), each one has got its own weak points and just the experience will teach you how to improve your skills in html for email.