[PLUG] Gmail says we are sending spam

[Denis Heidtmann]

My wife has a small website (mindfulcooking.org) and an associated list of
email contacts.  Over the years the contact list has grown to about 195.
For quite a while the email was handled through the web site built by my
son.  As the contact list got larger, we first moved to using mandrill, but
very recently moved to Google apps.  (Were using evolution--it kept
misbehaving).  Using Google apps kept my wife's email address @
mindfulcooking.org, and promised to keep our mindfulcooking and personal
email interfaces consistent.

The first email she sent to the list went fine.  Two weeks later her second
email was rejected by Gmail as spam.  I have tried with little success to
understand what Google says to do to avoid this problem.  I understand that
the constant increases in volume and sophistication of spam has caused
constant tightening of spam controls, and we are suffering from that
tightening.

I do not  have sufficient understanding of email and the various
authentication procedures to solve this problem.

What suggestions do you experts have to offer?  Pay for a service?  A
consultant to set up our Gmail?  Mailchimp? (we tried it briefly, but
Mandrill was much easier and sufficient.  Now Mandrill is an integral part
of Mailchimp.)

Thanks for your ideas.

-Denis