We all know how important it is, as a sender, to encourage your recipients to add you to their white lists or safe-sender lists. After all, if you're on a recipient's good list, your emails are more likely to reach the inbox and display just the way you want them to.

But how does a recipient white-list you? While some filtering inevitably occurs beyond a recipient's control - at the company, ISP or system level - individual users can wield some white-listing power at the inbox level. And while the steps may differ slightly among different email programs, the most basic form of white-listing remains the same for all of them: to white-list you, a recipient simply adds you to his or her address book. Once you're in the book, the email program assumes you're someone this person knows, likes and wants to hear from. In short, you're in, and so are your emails.

Below is a listing of how users add senders to their address books in several today's most popular email programs:

AOL 8.0
1. Open the email.
2. Click "add address" icon.
3. Verify the sender's contact information.
4. Save it.

AOL WebMail
1. Open the email.
2. Click on the sender's name or email address.
3. Click "add to address book" in the window that appears.
4. Enter any additional information.
5. Click "save".

Hotmail
1. Open the email.
2. Click "save address" in the toolbar.
3. Verify the sender's contact details.
4. Click "ok."
*Users may also white-list a sender's entire domain (everything behind the @ sign) using the "Safe List" feature under Options ->Mail -> Junk E-mail Protection.

Yahoo!
1. Open the email.
2. Click the "add to address book" to the right, next to sender's name.
3. Verify the sender's contact details.
4. Click "Add to Address Book."

Gmail
1. Open the email.
2. Click "more options" in the email header.
3. Click "add sender to contacts list."

Earthlink
1. Open the email.
2. Click "add to address book" in the email header.
3. The sender will be added to the address book.
4. Use the "address book editor" to verify the sender's contact details, and click "save."

Outlook (2003+)
1. Open the email.
2. Right-click the sender's email address.
3. Click "add to contacts" in the short-cut menu.
4. Click "save and close."

Outlook Express (6+)
1. Open the email.
2. Left-click the sender icon, or right-click the sender's name.
3. Click "add to contacts."
4. Click "save and close."

Entourage
1. Open the email.
2. Right-click the sender's email address.
3. Select "add to address book" in the short-cut menu.
4. Verify the sender's contact details.
5. Click "save."

MacMail
1. Open the email.
2. Ctrl-click the sender's email address and select "open in address book."
3. Verify the sender's contact details.