Internet and Businesses Articles

It absolutely amazes me how many people over-react to receiving e-mail SPAM.

What is this obsession...this preoccupation with SPAM?

Where are our priorities?

When it comes to SPAM, many of us are ready to support the severest anti-SPAM legislation. Yes, we want to lock up all the spammers and throw away the key! Haven't we learned by now that inviting the government to get involved with anything is a recipe for disaster?

I personally receive a couple hundred e-mails every single day. Approximately half of that is SPAM. Want to know how I deal with the problem? I hit the "delete" button and just like that, no more SPAM!

And since I have high-speed cable access, it literally only takes me a few minutes to make a hundred uninvited SPAM guests disappear. No problem!

I don't let SPAM annoy me or upset me. And I certainly don't let it ruin my day.

When you let SPAM annoy or upset you, all you're doing is letting the spammers win. However, when you use the delete button, you win! You've got the power to delete. Why not use it?

What's so hard about doing that? It's certainly a lot easier on your emotional well-being than getting upset over the situation.

Simply view SPAM as one of those minor annoyances of every day life--like reality television shows, and learn to treat it as such!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

Death by spam is now possible with a new device by Microsoft. The device when implanted in the user’s skull allows downloading of email directly into the brain. Niles Bookbinder, 37, an assistant working for Jon Hanson, author of Good Debt, Bad Debt was accidentally spammed to death Tuesday morning using a beta version of a new email device called, “MS Mind.” A Microsoft spokesperson said, “We don’t have all of the bugs worked out yet, but this is the first death we know of.” Mr. Bookbinder had unwittingly “unchecked” the spam filter in the MS Mind control panel. Without the spam filter, apparently Niles unleashed the entire world of spam into his "medulla interface" and was literally spammed to death. It’s likely the last words Mr. Bookbinder heard were, “You’ve got mail!”

Wireless Medulla Interface providers are popping up everywhere. Dr. Jack Kevorkian sees the new Wireless "G" Medulla cards as a real advance for him. With these systems, euthanasia supporters predict quick, painless death by simply bypassing the filters and downloading thousands of spam emails quickly. Kevorkian said, “I have been looking forward to killing patients by email.” Kevorkian expects his prices to be competitive with AOL. While it is not a victimless crime, it would be a crime without a knowable perpetrator. You would have no way of knowing whether your "loved one” was finished off by the breast enlargement, Viagra softabs starting at $2.99, or $ave $$$ now refinance emails.

A PETA spokesperson, Ima Chihuahua, said she found the idea disturbing because it could lead to so-called Spam Collars that would be used to kill pets as they aged, or "convenience" killings, such as when a young couple could not find a kennel on their way to Vegas or they simply change their minds about having a pet. PETA may be right. It has long been rumored that KFC has been testing the effectiveness of spamming chickens to death versus simply whacking off their heads. In earlier tests, chickens were forced to watch Gili and Ishtar until they simply cut off their own heads, but this experiment was discontinued because of the cruelty to experimenters.

Spamicide, accidental or not, will undoubtedly set off a bitter debate in America as Anti-Spammers and Right-to-Spam groups rally to raise money and jockey for political clout. George W. Bush seemed bewildered at this morning’s briefing. He looked to his press secretary and said, "Are we Right-to-Spam or Anti-Spammers?" Elsewhere, Jesse Jackson, finding it difficult to be Right-to-Spam said, "It should be the choice of the spammee. Spamicide should be legal, available, and rare." NEXT WEEK: Partial Spam Deletion. Should this barbaric practice be outlawed? Are thousands of viable spams being killed in spam filters, just before being downloaded? The debate continues...

Jon Hanson, is the author of "Good Debt, Bad Debt: Knowing the Difference Can Save Your Financial Life"

His web site is http://www.gooddebt.com

jon [at] gooddebt.com

For a bit of musical comic relief go to: http://myspace.com/hansondemo

I. BACKGROUND

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) establishes requirements for those who send commercial email, spells out penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised in spam if they violate the law, and gives consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site.

A "transactional or relationship message" – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is authorized to enforce the CAN-SPAM Act. CAN-SPAM also gives the U.S. Department of Justice the authority to enforce its criminal sanctions.

Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law against organizations under their jurisdiction, and companies that provide Internet access may sue violators, as well.

II. WHAT THE LAW REQUIRES

A. It bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.

B. It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.

C. It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a "menu" of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it's illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.

D. It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.

III. PENALTIES

Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

Additional fines are provided for commercial emailers who not only violate the rules described above, but that also:

A. "Harvest" email addresses from Web sites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email generate email addresses using a "dictionary attack" – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations

B. Use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email

C. Relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

The law allows the U.S. Department of Justice to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial emailers who do – or conspire to:

A. Use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it

B. Use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message

C. Falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages

D. Register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant

E. Falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

Glen Littlejohn, Esq. http://www.mortgagemarketingtsunami.com

Did you know that there are software programs that view web sites and steal email addresses? It's called "harvesting" because they're harvesting your email address from your site. This may be one of the reasons your web site email address is receiving more s*p^a#m than wanted email.

When I first started teaching web design classes, I strongly suggested that students place their email address on each page - it makes your site a bit more "trustable." But it turns out this is just leaving you wide open to harvesting.

So now, what I suggest are links on each page directed to a single contact information page, where your email address is encrypted. If the s*p^a#mmers end up figuring out the encryption, it's still easier for you to change one page worth of information vs. many pages of information. Encrypting your email address makes the gathering process a little more difficult while it provides that legitimate email get through to you.

If you find that one encryption program has stopped working, see if the provider updated the code you were using (many provide regular updates) or change to another service.

Do you have PayPal payment or shopping cart links on your site? Up until about a month ago, the old PayPal coding included your email address. If you haven't upgraded recently, update your PayPal links to include the encrypted code they provide, too. Changing that code stopped quite a bit of unwanted email from reaching me.

Here are some helpful encryption program resources:

http://automaticlabs.com/products/enkoderform/

http://www.robertgraham.com/tools/mailtoencoder.html

http://natata.hn3.net/antispam_encoder.htm

http://www.tucows.com/preview/266685.html

http://innerpeace.org/escrambler.shtml

http://www.wbwip.com/wbw/emailencoder.html

http://w2.syronex.com/jmr/safemailto/

Encryption programs - A VERY good thing to use on your web site to reduce unwanted email.

© 2004 Maria Marsala, Business Builder and former Wall Street Trader. "Powering-UP service busine$$es and their owners". Providing articles, tips, classes, and business resources in our ezine "SIMPLE Business Steps" Learn more at http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com

A blacklist, as the name implies, is a list of people or companies who have met with the disapproval of others. In the online world a blacklist refers to those people who have been marked as responsible for generating spam in a very big way. Blacklists are also known as blocklists.

Blacklists are used to combat spam in a very specific way. When spam is reported to one of the relevant spam fighting organizations the IP address the spam originated from is added to a banned or blacklisted IP addresslist. An IP address is the unique location of you or your website on the internet - think of it as your "home address" online. To put it simply every www.domain.com Internet address has a matching IP address. Any email coming from your website domain also has a corresponding IP address. If your IP address is present on a blacklist then you're potentially wasting your time sending email to customers.

Why are you wasting your time? Modern spam blockers come with the most common blacklists installed and/or allow you to import updated blacklists into your spam blocker. This allows to you block a huge amount of spam but you may also, potentially, block legitimate email. Blacklists are not foolproof.

There are two types of IP address:

Dynamic - changes every time you connect to the Internet. Most commonly used for dialup Internet access. Spammers love these because they're very hard to track and 100% disposable.

Fixed/Static - All websites, most large companies and some individuals use fixed IP addresses. This can cause huge problems if they're reported for spamming.

When an IP address (dynamic or fixed ) is reported for sending spam it's added to a blacklist. There are three different types of blacklists:

Temporary

An IP address placed on a temporary blacklist will have email coming from that IP address blocked for several hours.

After a few hours the offending IP address is removed from the blacklist.

Permanent

When an IP address is added to a permanent blacklist any email server configured to block email from this list will never receive email from that range of IP addresses again.

Comprehensive

This is the most damaging of blacklists. Not only does it block a single IP address it also blocks the IP addresses next to it. For example if the IP address 192.156.66.67 was added to a comprehensive blacklist then all IP addresses close to 192.156.66.67 will also be blocked. This can be a huge problem for those website owners using virtual hosting because if your host has ever appeared on a blacklist then you're also on the same blacklist, by default, because of the shared hosting from the same IP range.

It's important for all website owners to check whether or not they're on a blacklist. You'll need your IP address (available from your webhost) and you can check your blacklist status at: www.mail-abuse.org/cgi-bin/lookup

Blacklists are a necessary evil due to the volume of spam being sent each day but are not an exact science. Take a few moments from your day and ensure that your website or email address is not being blocked.

If you're sick and tired of being buried under a pile of junk email then why not take control today and install some anti-spam software on your computer. Click on over to CPUSecurity.com for more info on what your options are.

The harmful affects of pornography use and addiction are well documented by science. As with most things in life, prevention is the most effective way to avoid ever having a problem with pornography.

The internet is a wonderful place to access information, read updated news, and connect with people from all over the globe. Unfortunately, pornography on the internet is everywhere, and it isn't always easy to avoid. Even people taking responsible measures to keep porn off of their computer screens can stumble across it sometimes. The tips found in this article will help you protect yourself and your family online from inappropriate pictures and text.

Take measures to filter spam. Spammers can make money if only one person of the thousands of people they send sexually explicit emails to clicks on their ad and pays for their service. Do everything you can to keep those emails from ever reaching your inbox. If you have allowed your children to have their own email accounts, filtering spam is the best way to ensure inappropriate images never become accessible to them through email. A quick list of things you can do to eliminate spam includes:

# Only give your email address out to people you know and trust. Do not put your personal email address down for every mailing list or website that asks for it. Many free email services exist now - set up a free account with one of them and use that to sign up for mailing lists.

# Never click on any links in spam and if at all possible, avoid ever opening the email. Both of these actions confirms to spammers that you actively use your email account and you will likely start to receive more spam.

# Purchase and use a spam filter. Many come packaged with a porn filter as well as other features that will help keep inappropriate content off of your computer screen.

Be careful what you download. This should be a universal precaution you take by now each and every time you download something off the internet. Viruses, spyware, and pornography can very easily be hidden in the files that you download - prevention in this case is much easier than fixing the problem after the files have already made their way onto your hard drive. Only download files from sources that you trust, and if you ever have a question as to whether something contains a virus or pornography, do NOT download it.

Use a search engine to find websites. Pornographers use domain names that are similar to popular websites or brands in hopes that people will type in the address incorrectly and end up at their pornography site. I knew a child that wanted to look up codes for his favorite video game, so he typed in the name of the game and ".com." He had the presence of mind to close the browser and tell his parents, but was still exposed to the material.

One of the best ways to avoid this is searching for the address in Google. Then you can preview the results in a text-only format before clicking on the link to go to the page. Many of the popular search engines have a built-in porn filter that you can adjust to control the type of content you don't want to appear in the search results. Others even offer "for kids" versions of their search engines that only return pages deemed appropriate for children.

Use filtering software that includes a porn filter. No matter how careful you are about the sites you visit, chances are good that someday you will accidentally come across a porn site. A porn filter will help ensure that inappropriate material is blocked when you or someone in your family stumbles across a pornographic website. The parents of the boy who stumbled across pornography while looking for his favorite Nintendo game quickly installed a porn filter to make sure their son was protected in the future.

Avoid pornography offline. Porn was around long before the internet. Carry around your own internal porn filter and avoid places that you know will have inappropriate images, movies, or books displayed. If your children are with you, be extra cautious of where they are in the store. If you think there is a chance that they may be able to access inappropriate material while you are shopping, let the store manager know of your concerns. Likely, you are not the only one who is worried about the issue, and real changes can come about from one person simply speaking up.

Take the appropriate precautions now to avoid pornography. If you or someone you know has a problem with pornography use or addiction, seek professional help. Pornography problems not only affect the individual viewing the picture but everyone who interacts with that person.

Nick Smith is a client account specialist with 10x Marketing (http://www.10xmarketing.com/) - More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. For a porn filter and more information about protecting your family online, visit ContentWatch, Inc. http://www.contentwatch.com/

Let me ask a couple of questions:

* If (potential) customers sends an e-mail to your company, do they want to receive an answer?
* If you, in return, e-mail your customer, do you expect that your e-mail is delivered to the customer?

Well, in my case, I answered "YES" on both questions. After all, the customer asks for an answer, so it's normal to expect that when you send an e-mail in return, that the customer receives it.

Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

It is highly important that you get this point, so let me rephrase that:

If you send an e-mail to a customer that the customer wants and expects, it may be that (s)he never receives it!

I've investigated this issue, and the cause of this is the filtering of e-mail by the ISP of the customer, to prevent unwanted SPAM (unsollicited e-mail) to make its way into their mailbox. But not only genuine SPAM is filtered out. Even e-mail that the customer wants (and often expects) to receive, may be caught up in this filter. It's happening so often, there's even a term for it: "false positives".

Sometimes this stays unnoticed, because the customer doesn't get a mail telling her that it was filtered out. Or you don't get a reply from the ISP/filter that your mail didn't pass.

Your "dolphin" e-mail can essentially be caught in SPAM filter "tuna nets".

This can impact businesses on many levels:

* Potential customers do not convert into real customers, because they never "heard from you".
* Unhappy customers as they "never get an answer on their support requests".
* Unhappy Customers that don't get the info / product they paid for (download instructions for digital products are often delivered by e-mail)

When this happens, the customer usually points the finger to the business...

...YOUR business was not responsive;


...YOUR business didn't resolve the customer's issues;


...YOUR business did not deliver!

But, of course, you are not to blame. You responded! You resolved! you delivered! It's the customer's ISP that didn't deliver. An e-mail your customer wanted, and expected.

Mistakes do happen. But sometimes, ISP's and mail service businesses have no interest in righting what went wrong. And since they are not blamed, they get away with doing nothing. But in the mean time, your and my business is hurt by this.

So, it is time to point customers in the right direction. If more and more customers know where to complain if they do not get the e-mail they wanted, chances are that the ISP and/or mail service are forced into action.

There's a lot an ISP or mail service can do. Customers should have the possibility to "whitelist" you. A "whitelist" is a list of e-mail addresses or domains from which the customer allows mail to continue, even when the filter thinks it's "junk". One option that's not an option is to ask customers to switch off the filter. SPAM is just too big a problem for this.

Another company that have taken the heat for filtered mail is SiteSell. They're blamed for not delivering as promissed, because their e-mail was filtered out. And they hit a wall of unresponsiveness when they tried to right this. Or was it that their requests were filtered out? ;-)

As they understood how this is hurting their business, and many other businesses around the globe, they decided to take action, and point customers in the right direction when wanted e-mail doesn't make it into their mailboxes. So they created the "Deliver my mail!" initiative, which I fully support.

I invite you to join them and me. Read more about "Deliver my Mail!" on: http://deliver-my-mail.sitesell.com/sls.html

Let's take a stand, and educate customers on what to do if they do not receive e-mail they really wanted to get. Let customers demand:

"DELIVER MY MAIL!"

About The Author

Erwin Steneker is a senior support consultant with over 13 years of experience in both sales and IT support. Check out his website at http://www.customerservicepoint.com/

Spam. Those annoying, time-consuming emails that clog your Inbox and ruin your day. You wonder: How did it ever get so bad? While it's not possible to completely eliminate spam, there are quite a few things you CAN do about the problem to reduce your burden.

Spam is defined as an unsolicited email trying to get you to buy something. In addition, it's email that tries to get you to give up something: your credit card number, social security number, login ID, etc., by pretending to be a legitimate email. Here are some tips for stopping the current spam you're getting, and avoiding getting on new spam lists.

1. Maintain two email addresses: a Personal Email Address (that you give to family, friends and business associates), and a Safe Email Address (one you use whenever you're ordering something online, signing up for an email newsletter, or creating a profile on a website).

For instance, I use a Hotmail account for my Safe Email Address. If a spammer were to get a hold of that address, fine. All the spam will go into my Hotmail account, which I only look at once a week. Hotmail has a great anti-spam filter built in, so it's easy to see what's spam and what's not. This practice leaves my personal email account relatively spam-free (maybe I get two spam emails a day to my personal account). Some free email services include Hotmail, Yahoo and GMail.

2. Use your Safe Email Address to send emails to companies who might be harvesting email addresses from incoming emails. For example, say you want to write to a company to ask them about their products. Some companies will harvest your email address from the email you send to them, and put you on their mailing list. By using your Safe Email Address, you can avoid seeing messages from these companies come to your personal email address.

3. Stop giving your email address to everyone who wants it. Does your local bank really need your email address? Does your grocery store need it? Just because someone asks for it doesn't mean you have to give it to them. If it's a non-local company, or you are signing up for a mailing list, then they probably do need it. But it's okay to leave the email address blank when filling out forms. Always ask yourself, Do I want to be contacted by this company via email? (Speaking of mailing lists, make sure the companies you subscribe to have a public, posted Privacy Statement on their website.)

4. Do not put your Personal Email Address on your website. Instead, use a form so that your email address is hidden. However, some spammers use special software that looks at the HTML code hidden in the form to steal your email address, so using a form by itself isn't always the safest route. Better yet, use a free Form Processor so that your email address is never even in the HTML coding on your pages.The service I use is Bravenet's Email Form processor (www.bravenet.com)

5. Never buy anything that's sent through a spam email. First, it just encourages them to continue to spam. Second, it tells them that your email address is accurate, and they can then sell that address to someone else.

6. Never reply to spam and ask to be unsubscribed. They'll just ignore it anyway, and it tells them that your email address is accurate, which just keeps you on the list. Note: many legitimate emails newsletters and mailing lists use automated unsubscribe links at the bottom of their emails, and you CAN use these to get off of mailing lists.

7. Use anti-spam software, like Norton Internet Security, on your own PC to filter spam as it comes into your email system. You still receive the spam, but it gets filtered to a Junk Mail or Bulk Mail folder, and segregates the spam from the legitimate email. Most anti-spam filters need to be trained, however, so you'll have to occasionally tell the filter that something is NOT spam that it inadvertently put into the Junk Mail folder. Many of these anti-spam filters work on the principle of White Lists (legitimate email addresses that you DO want to receive email from) and Black Lists (spammer email addresses that you do NOT want to receive email from). Learn how to train your anti-spam software and it will work wonders for you.

8. Check to see if your ISP or hosting company has anti- spam technology in place, to catch spam before it even hits your Inbox. Be careful, though, because sometimes these filters are over-zealous and you have to train it to accept emails from mailing lists that you have subscribed to.

9. Do not use a catch-all email address. A catch-all email address is set up if you have your own website, and it is intended to catch all of the incoming emails sent to your domain even if there is no legitimate mailbox by that name. For example, your email address might be mary @ mydomain.com. If that mailbox is set up as a catch all, and someone sends an email to marie@mydomain.com (with a spelling mistake in the email name), it will be forwarded to mary @ mydomain.com. However, spammers know about catch-all email addresses, and will take your domain name mydomain.com and add common prefixes to it, like info@ or admin@. If you have a catch- all, then those spamming emails will come to you, even if you don't have a legitimate mailbox of info@mydomain.com or admin@mydomain.com set up with your hosting company. See how easy it is for spammers to get to you?

10. Finally, if spam is really bad, create a new personal email address for yourself, tell everyone about the new address (give them several reminders that you are changing email addresses), then delete the old personal email address. This may seem a little drastic, but if you receive 200 spam emails a day, it might be time to time this final step to eradicate it.

You are not powerless against spam. But you do have to take action to fight back. Don't let them bully you into accepting hundreds of unwanted emails a day! Take action now to reclaim your Inbox!

Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She helps you increase sales and profits, and learn practical small business skills.

Get the free audio and ebook, "The Art of Networking and Referrals" by visiting http://www.PassionForBusiness.com

E-mails now have a connection back to their servers. I will leave the technical aspects out of this article. Instead, I will walk you through how information from your computer is getting back to them.

You have probably experienced this already, an e-mail lands in your box with many symbols in the subject line created with the Shift Key plus a Number Key. This is the most common one. For example, it may look like this: &*)(*&^%$#! Except the length of the symbols are longer.

When you click on it to delete it, any further action, including the deletion of the e-mail seems to go into la-la land. In other words, you can do anything else. This may last up to a minute or two depending on your computer speed. You have just been pinged and information is going back to their server saying there is a live connection.

In addition, because the symbols change all the time, it’s difficult to block them unless you use a program like Spam Arrest.

Here is an easy way and excellent way to protect from this and all you have to do is change the way you dial in and out.

If you have a DSL line or any other type Internet connection that is open all the time. Control how frequently you allow e-mails to upload into your system. If you use Outlook, you go into Tools, Options, select the Mail Delivery tab and change "check messages every" 30, 60 or 90 minutes. This also helps on time management if e-mails are eating up too much of your time.

Next, after all your e-mails are uploaded into your software, whether you set the time management feature above, close off the Internet connection. It will not stop the lost 30 or 60 seconds these e-mail lock up your computer but you have cut off any possible pinging.

After you close the Internet connection, read, review and delete the e-mails. After completing this, you can go ahead and reopen the Internet connection, and send your responses.

If you have a dial-up connection, you can do this same method, except you will ignore the Mail Delivery option mentioned earlier.

This actually isn't just happening on e-mails with these symbols. There are other programmed e-mails dumping cookies on your computer. I will not address how to remove cookies in this article. To find out how your software can remove your cookies use F1 (help) on your keypad in your e-mail software to find the answer before. WindowsXP also has additional information for removing cookies under: Start, Help and Support.

Catherine Franz, a eight-year Certified Professional Coach, Graduate of Coach University, Mastery University, editor of three ezines, columnist, author of thousands of articles website: http://www.abundancecenter.com blog: http://abundance.blogs.com

You just sat at your desk, opened your email account and what do you get? First there is some anonymous donkey from an anonymous and anything but respectable mortgage lender telling you that they can arrange your finance at 3% and all you need to do now that your application is approved is to sign along the dotted line and get in touch with them. This is despite the fact that you have never heard of them or even approached them – ever!.

Next we have luscious Lucy asking you if you remember her from when you last met. Her email tells you that she still loves you and she has sent you her personal photos just for your eyes only. Well, you certainly made the right impression there didn’t you. No, don’t click on the click on the link or the attachment……..

Just as your thoughts start to wander and you begin to imagine Lucy in her long fur coat and fish net stockings you have another email. This is one you can’t afford to miss out on. Viagra. You need viagra for Lucy. She needs you. What luck. After much deliberation you decide to pass on the viagra but no sooner have you passed it by……..whats this? someone else is there at the ready with - sildenafil citrate. Oh but hang on, doesn’t the box look the same as the one in the last email? Its viagra again. By now any thoughts of rampant fun with the luscious Lucy are becoming jaded. Just what else could be in the remaining 120 emails you have to sift through.

The next half an hour is spent sifting through emails from important people wanting to show you how to make millions on the internet and others bombarding you with products and ezines about the latest online dating clubs. Someone even wants to sell you some cut price tampax – and your male!

Finally, you are nearly there. So far you have recovered one invoice from all the emails and notification from someone asking about the return of their water filter which you are unsure about. In fact you don’t even remember their water filter. The email opens and this one is from the desk of President Mbongo Bungo Esq a Nigerian Oil Company director. This could be promising. There is talk of money. Not a few hundred or several thousand either but real money. This guy is loaded…wow…this is the one.

Or maybe not

Tip: Fed up with all the day to crap of junk mail I changed all the email addresses on my websites to forms. I set scripts on my servers that report the users directly to their ISP for abuse. Finally, all incoming mail goes into my junk box not my incoming mailbox. This makes it easy to dump all in one go. I then scan through it in less than a couple of minutes and I mercilessly trash the lot. Most people I know and deal with are on my preference list anyway.

How much is your time worth? There is something wrong with your business if you are paranoid about losing an email enquiry and having to find the time to sift through hundreds of emails. Get organised and work smart. You will be glad that you did.

From http://www.birminghamuk.com the Voice of the West Midlands..

Like everybody who will ever read this, I get spam in my e-mail. Mine seems to fall into one of three categories. The first is the Nigerian scam about helping some poor, pathetic soul collect megabucks, supposedly from someone who has died and left a fortune. I’m not sure what is worse: that there are people desperate enough to believe those messages, or that there are people despicable enough to prey on the desperate. The net result is the despicable con the desperate into sending money which the desperate will never see again.

The second type comes from people who sound innocent enough. They have a product or a business or a service or something else that is perfectly legitimate. They surf the web, find one of my sites, find the “contact us” link, and send me information about whatever they have to offer. I suppose, in their minds, it isn’t any different than walking down the street or going through the telephone book writing down addresses, and then sending out bulk business mail with the same offer. They could get the same information for more money and less time by buying a mailing list. THAT is perfectly legitimate. Harvesting e-mail addresses off of web sites is NOT. Spam is officially defined as “unsolicited commercial electronic mail.” The key word is “unsolicited.” If I didn’t ask for it and you send it anyway, it is unsolicited. When people harvest e-mail addresses off of web sites and then send commercial messages, that, by definition, is spam. I report them to my ISP and you should, too.

The third type isn’t so innocent. These people, like the second type of people already discussed, surf the web, find sites, and harvest the e-mail addresses from the “contact us” link. Instead of starting out by sending you what they have to offer, they get devious, sneaky, and just plain under-handed. They send you a message asking for more information about whatever you have to offer on your site. When you graciously respond, it turns out they couldn’t care less about what you have to offer. The ONLY thing they want is to confirm your e-mail address so they can start to dump offers on you, hoping you will buy something from them. Nasty trick.

Let me give you an example from one that once came across my screen. It seemed to be from a nice lady with homey graphics and nice colors in her e-mail. If my memory serves me well, she even stated that she was disabled and looking for ways to earn a living off the internet. In my mind, that’s a hard combination to resist. A great deal of effort was put into this to make it sound as if she had built an internet community around her site and services. Maybe she did; I don’t know. Anyway, I was naïve enough to respond with the information she had requested. Soon solicitations for this, that, and whatever business offer, etc. began arriving in my inbox. I finally put two and two together and realized that they were from her, but I was still reluctant to report it as spam, so her messages went quietly into the trash. I mean, she seemed SO NICE! Then I got this huffy message, apparently broadcast to her entire mailing list, about how if people didn’t want to receive her messages, why didn’t they just unsubscribe, etc. It seems quite a few people had reported her as a spammer and she was getting into trouble. It was time for me to respond, so I told her, bluntly, that what she was sending out WAS spam. It was unsolicited. I never signed up to be on her mailing list, and no doubt the people who had reported her never signed up to be on her mailing list, either. I only responded to a request FROM HER for information and that in no way implied that I wanted to be on her mailing list or that I wanted to receive her offers. She must have gotten the message because I have received nothing else from her.

So how about you? Are guilty of sending out e-mail to people who did not specifically request to receive offers from you or about a business that you represent? If you go around looking for e-mail addresses to harvest for your own purposes, you are guilty of sending SPAM. Instead, post your offers on your web site and market them legitimately. It’s the right thing to do. When people fill out your form, they are giving you permission to send them information. Keep a record so you can defend yourself if they ever forget what they did.

If you are on the receiving end of unsolicited offers, go ahead and report them as spam. Don’t feel guilty; you are not the guilty party. Just make sure you really didn’t sign up for a newsletter or something and then forgot! It is sooooooooooooooo not cool to report spam that really isn’t!

Sandi Moses has been involved in internet marketing since November, 2003. Visit her sites at http://www.123iwork4me.com http://www.123-home-based-business-works-4-me.com

We receive so much information on the Internet, especially via email, that many times we have difficulty separating the good "stuff" from the junk. Most of us put unsolicited email (spam) in the junk category. By the time we weed through all that "stuff" however, we are approaching information overload, and may give "short shrift" to the really good information we receive.

One way to overcome this very real problem, is to create email filters for things you may wish to read at a future time. For example, create a generic filter for the ezines or newsletters you subscribe to, or one for each. This will then automatically separate this good "stuff" from the junk. You can then keep your "inbox" clean and read the information at your leisure when you are less harried.

Use your email filters to weed out the junk. It only takes a moment or so to create a filter, and this will keep all the repeat spam out of your inbox. The best way to filter spam, is not to filter on the senders email address. Most of these are forged anyway, and are different every time. Pick out some "key words" contained in the body of the message. "Stop Snoring, Own an offshore retirement fund, $16,000+ with ONE $20 gift" just to name a few. Filter out those emails that match your key words.

Some of the spam is one time only and you don't need to be concerned with that. One way to do it, is to create a folder titled "Spam". Every day, instead of simply deleting them, transfer them to this folder. If you see a pattern developing, you can easily pick out the worst offenders, and create a filter for them.

When you subscribe to an ezine or newsletter, don't make a summary judgment that you don't want it. Most publishers try to provide a "variety" of items, and it may take several issues before you both click. Like a baseball player, don't expect a "homerun" every time at bat. Give it a half-dozen or so issues before making up your mind. You may simply get an issue that doesn't appeal to you, but the next might be a winner.

Some people go so far as to set up a separate email account just for their personal use, and another for their ezines, which is not a bad idea. But, if you do this, for goodness sake remember which one you used. Most publishers use list servers for their mailings. You can't unsubscribe from a publication except from the address that they have on file. To prevent the "cranksters" from running amok, they require you to be signed on the address they have on file in order to be removed.

If you decide you don't want a particular publication any longer, try to unsubscribe, and if you get a message that you are not on the list, it does little good to rant and rave. If you're not there, you're not there - period. While most publishers don't want people on their list who don't wish to receive it, they have no idea what email address you used when subscribing.

Most publishers will make an honest effort to remove you from their list, and threats to report them for spamming, will not help them to remove you. The majority of the time the people who complain are using a free email account, and are automatically forwarding the mail to their main address. To compound matters, they forgot they are doing this, and get aggravated when they can't unsubscribe under their main email address.

If you are receiving a publication and cannot unsubscribe, filter their publication automatically into your trash basket. This will save you and the publisher a lot of aggravation.

There is a great deal of information on the Internet. If you approach it wisely, you will benefit. If you don't, you may be suffering from information overload, and deleting some really good information mixed in with all the junk mail you receive.

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's Free Ezine the "Tip of the Day" get a Free Ad for their Business at his Web Site? Great Business and Computer Tips – Monday. Wednesday. and Friday. Instructions on how to place an ad are in the Newsletter.

Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm.

It's no secret that the US economy has slowed down, and many jobs have been outsourced overseas. Thousands of companies are still and are being forced to cut costs, decrease benefits, and even lay off employees. Many of those who lost their jobs, wil l try their hand at doing business on the Internet.

It seems however, that lately I've been hearing a great deal about the difficulty of doing business online. Put aside the talk about the hype and the scams. They existed from the first day the Internet was commercialized. They are becoming more sophisticated with their promises of earning millions, but as people become more experienced, they quickly see through them.

Fake email addresses, spam and broken dreams will continue to abound until either legislation forces them to do business ethically, or the well of suckers dries up.

Sounds pretty negative doesn't it. Under other circumstances, it would be enough to put someone off trying to do business on the net. But let's look at the positive side. I don't know about you, but I've met some pretty fine people on the web. They are honest, hard working and a pleasure to do business with. While there are a few "bad apples" (and aren't there offline as well), it's amazing how many friendly, helpful people there are out there.

In the early nineties, before the entrepreneurial invasion of the Internet, the only game in town was the proprietary bulletin boards such as run by Prodigy. Anyone who "dared" become commercial was summarily banned from the boards, and "blacklists of offenders" were actually shared between the board moderators.

But, as commercialism crept in, and the old bulletin boards joined the ranks of the dinosaurs, a whole new strategy started to evolve.

People have learned that you don't have to create something new or re-invent the wheel to make money online. You can join an affiliate program to get started with a minimum of capital outlay, and a decent income can be made. But the old saying "there's no such thing as a free lunch" is even truer today.

Sure, you can advertise online for free, but except for isolated instances, there is a catch. Forget the FFA (Free For All) sites where you can post a free ad for your business. They get thousands of submissions hourly, and most only keep the latest hundred or so current, so your ad has a life measured in seconds.

How about the free ads you find in newsletters? If the newsletter has content and a decent subscriber base, they are a great deal. However, many times the only subscribers who receive it are those placing the free ads, and once they check to see if their ad is there, they "click away" and don't even see anything else.

While you might not immediately learn how to advertise your business, you quickly learn how not to. Email spamvertising is simply a waste of time and money. If it is annoying to you, and the ads are summarily deleted without being read, why waste your money on a similar campaign.

Those who want to do business on the web, and are succeeding, are evolving into a whole new breed of entrepreneurs. They learned from the mistakes that are being made, and have developed a business plan that is working.

So, what is the secret. It really isn't a secret, and it is as obvious as the nose on your face. People are not stupid, inexperienced maybe.- but not stupid. Treat them with the same courtesy and respect you would like to receive, and you will be amazed at the results.

Unfortunately, many would be entrepreneurs don't take their business seriously, and will fail. This is not something you can do when bored, and there is nothing good on TV that night. If your bottom line is to succeed, you must take your online business seriously, and the returns you receive will be in proportion to the effort you exert.

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's Free Ezine the "Tip of the Day" get a Free Ad for their Business at his Web Site? Great Business and Computer Tips – Monday. Wednesday. and Friday. Instructions on how to place an ad are in the Newsletter.

Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm.

While we all admit that unsolicited commercial email is a real pain, I sometimes wonder if the anti-spam zealots are going too far. Last week I was in Costa Rica, and the only practical way to communicate home was by email. I maintain an AOL account just for that purpose when traveling, and was amazed to find out when I got home, that I only received about half of the email which was sent - some of which was important.

Many ISP's (Internet Service Providers) including AOL, have installed content filters which automatically relegate anything "they think" is spam to trash, and the message never gets delivered to the intended recipient, nor is the person sending it notified it wasn’t delivered.

The problem is that there is no personal judgment at the level of the ISP to determine if a note is spam or not. They have installed content filters that "dump" any email that happens to match the keywords they have installed. How dare they determine what I should receive or not receive. Because a word in the note (or the length of the note) met their reject parameters, they will not deliver it? This is wrong!

Shame on them! I don't know about you, but I don't want my ISP acting like "big brother" on my behalf, and determining what I should read and what I shouldn't.

I do agree that spam is not only a nuisance, but is a daily problem that takes my time to sort through and get rid of the "junk" I didn't ask for, and don't want to get. But let me make that determination. I can set up filters that automatically deletes email I don't wish to get myself. I don't need, nor do I want someone else making that decision on my behalf.

It has been reported to me that some ISPs are blocking newsletters that people have asked to receive. Some investigation turned up that certain words were on their "banned" list and they appeared in the newsletter. Several of our publications include a medical column by Dr. Earl Mindell. Will there be words in that column that match the filters these "self appointed guardians of email" have installed - Sure. Will the newsletters exceed some magical length they have determined to be spam - Right again. Is this spam - No!
How about an email constructed in an HTML format? Some ISPs automatically delete anything without text in the body of the email - wrong.

Sending out spam is big business. The federal law enacted in the USA is ineffective as the major "spam houses" simply comply with those guidelines. Some suggest that the domains of the spam houses be blocked. Get real! Domains are a dime a dozen. If one gets blocked they simply use another.

But if someone makes a complaint about you, they may block your ISP. I know of an instance where an ISP blocked Comcast.net and nobody using that ISP could receive email sent by Comcast users.

The early days of the Internet, which was the sole property of the academicians where spam was anathema, are over. The Internet is ideally suited to support e-commerce, which it does very well.
Online advertising is now a way of life.

Now - don't feel I am supporting spam but for goodness sake, I don't want someone else monitoring my email and determining what I should read or not.

How many legitimate emails do we have to "not get" because others are making that decision for us. How many requests for information should get "blown away" because the reply violated some ISP's filters. My feeling is that they should cease and desist, and not be the self-appointed guardians of my inbox.

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's Free Ezine the "Tip of the Day" get a Free Ad for their Business at his Web Site? Great Business and Computer Tips – Monday. Wednesday. and Friday. Instructions on how to place an ad are in the Newsletter.

Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm.

2004 was really a year when the whole subject of email and spam has been at the forefront of the minds of internet marketers.

The anti Spam legislation has had more than the desired effect. I think everyone hates spam, even spammers. I guess also that everyone hates spammers, except spammers, though they probably hate other spammers. An attempt by legislators in different countries to prevent the deluge of spam into Inboxes was to be expected. The spam itself had already spawned the spam filter industry, which has "flourished" this year. I put flourished in "" because flourishing gives the impression of health. Their balance sheets and profit and loss figures may be flourishing, I don't know, but the email industry is not.

Spam filters were set up to prevent spam, not to kill perfectly genuine and good emails, from friends, lovers, publishers you have requested a newsletter from, or anybody else who is not "spamming" you. Some recent figures suggest a significant proportion of valid emails are not reaching their destination. Is that good? Is that what the legislation intended? No, it is it not.

People use filters in good faith, without, in most cases, having any idea how they work. They may be blissfully unaware that, in some cases, good email will not reach them. How much does that damage online business? How many business relationships are damaged by failure to respond to an email that was never received? How many personal relationships are damaged in the same way? Nobody knows. But if, for example, a marriage is on the rocks, one such incident could be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Internet marketers in particular have been covering the subject an enormous amount in the past year. Some are even saying that email is dying. Well, dying is surely an exaggeration. Maybe those marketers want others to give up so they have the field to themselves. However, it is increasingly difficult for internet marketers to get their message, even if requested, to the recipient. They comply, in most cases, with the legislation, but the self appointed Spam Police have their own ideas of what email people should receive. To me, that is far more annoying than spam itself. It is a form of censorship if it snuffs out email that people really wanted to receive.

Is spam as a problem exaggerated too? Well, I have no figures on that, but in my own case it has never been more than a minor irritation. I have 3 websites with different email addresses on, which can presumably be harvested for spam email lists. One of those websites has been there nearly 2 years. So is my Inbox filled with spam? No. I get a few, but it is a minor irritation. Maybe I'm lucky, I have no way of knowing.

I do know that the people I expect to hear from do get their emails to me, but I have no spam filters activated. I have just never found it necessary. One problem I have noticed, though, is nothing to do with spam filtering. Once most marketers legitimately get hold of your email address, they start sending far too many advertising only emails. Even if they start off with one or a series of helpful emails, which you may have requested, it soon deteriorates into an ad bombardment. Recently, I opted out of the list of a well known internet guru for that very reason.

So, it is up to internet marketers to put their own house in order too. If they send out emails that people find useful, entertaining, reliable or profitable (preferably all 4), on a consistent basis, people will look forward to their good content. They will take the extra steps necessary to ensure the emails they want get through to them. In most cases, adding to the address book or "approved" list will do just that. Who will want to "approve" an email address that sends nothing but ads when the expectation was, originally, useful content. I think the average person would accept a reasonable amount of advertising, if it is relevant and is a small % of the content.

I cannot foresee that email will die, even as a marketing tool. But it could be in need of surgery, and it is up to all of us to learn the surgical procedures.

Roy Thomsitt is the owner, webmaster and author of http://www.change-direction.com , a new website in late 2004, about working online in a home based business. He has a background in offline advertising, with practical experience of working from home in marketing since 1995, plus 2 years of experience with online marketing. Professionally, he was trained as a management accountant and has substantial background in project management, implementing new office, accounting, computer and management systems.

Spammers get email addresses from web pages using programs called spiders which tour the internet capturing letter strings with the "@" character in it.

Signing up for extra information at some sites and giving your email address can also get you a flood of unwanted mail, but although it feels like spam, it is, or started as, "Opt-in" email.

However, recent legislation in some countries can redefine this as spam if it fails to have certain features, like return address and physical address
(of course, just what is required depends on country).

Overcoming that kind of spam is a challenge after you have signed up in a weak moment, although there are a number of programs that attempt to solve the problem. Just one is K9 from http://keir.net/k9.html

But consider this situation: you have a web page and you expect a flood of visitors, and need to put your email address there.

But how do you keep it clean?

Well remember the spiders look for an @ in the string.

We can put an alternate symbol in its place. So meandherATthere.com
sits on my web page. With that particular one, we assume that the visitor has the nouse to preplace the AT with an @ and not think it is a new way to write email addresses, and the program would take care of it, and they needent do anything!

Rather than go through all the alternatives here, you will find a list of different methods and some comments about each one, on the site www.takeyoursiteup.com.

May your site not send you any more unwanted visitors!

David is a former Medial Scientist who got into programming and web development and lives in South Australia. His yahoo box gets a regular stream of spam, and doesn't want any more!

Am I Just Being Paranoid Or Are The Robots Out To Get Me?

It all started in the early part of the twenty-first century.

In the early days of email we were thrilled with its speed and reliability, far superior to "snail mail" but there's always somebody who has to go and spoil things for everyone else. In the case of email it was the purveyors of the namesake of a certain pork-based substance. They became such a nuisance that large teams of robots had to be employed to keep them under control.

As the porkers got smarter, the robots had to become smarter still. At first, everybody agreed that stringent measures must be taken to defeat the porkers. Ever hear the phrase "throwing the baby out with the bath water" or "the cure is worse than the disease"?

The number of spam merchants multiplied over and over. Eventually, the only way of controlling them was for every email user to have his or her own robot to filter their mail. I did not want a robot filtering my mail but I didn't have much choice: nobody was allowed an email account without a robot to monitor its use.

Every time I log into my email, I pause and listen for the faint metallic scraping and a slight pneumatic wheeze as the robot wakes and prepares to filter my mail. No matter how quiet I am, he always knows and is instantly awake and alert, ready to do his job. I did not request robotic help, don't want it, don't need it but the robot is here to stay.

I think my robot is like the paranoid android in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: slow moving and depressive, so I call him Marvin (not to his face, of course). I don't suppose my Marvin feels that censoring my mail is a suitable occupation for a robot of his caliber, any more that his namesake thought attending the car park at the end of the universe was a great career for a robot with a brain the size of a planet. On my part, I am sure that I am old enough to take full responsibility for my own correspondence. There is no need for Marvin to wear out his circuits on my account but it appears that we are stuck with each other for the duration.

The extent of Marvin's power first caught my attention when a regular newsletter which I enjoyed failed to arrive. Delivery just stopped altogether.

I asked my email provider if there was a problem with this particular mail and they said there was nothing wrong with my mailbox, it must be a problem with the sender. I asked the sender why delivery had stopped and they said it hadn't, it must be a problem with my mailbox. I gave up and just resubscribed myself to the newsletter. Every time delivery stopped after that I wondered what else I might be missing in the way of interesting mail.

It was shortly after this that it became apparent to me that Marvin has a bad attitude. Now I can sympathise with him because I know how it feels to be stuck in a boring job while the brain cells shrivel. That doesn't mean I think he should behave badly, he should do the job to the best of his ability (even if it is beneath him) and not make mischief.

Everyone seems to believe that the robots keep changing the rules in an effort to keep ahead of the porkers but I don't believe that. I think they keep changing the rules mostly out of boredom but, in Marvin's case, I sense a certain underlying malevolence. This surfaced recently when I sent an email to a friend I had not heard from for a while. My mail bounced back with a message to the effect that spam would not be delivered. How dare they, Spam indeed! From that day on, every mail I tried to send bounced straight back at me.

Angrily, I contacted the email company support desk to complain. They helpfully told me that this problem was nothing to do with them, I must have used forbidden words in my emails and that was why they bounced. The forbidden words included "friend", "free", "you", "internet", "remove". The list of forbidden words is long and growing longer by the day, it is difficult to make up proper sentences without using the forbidden words, soon our only way of emailing will be by inventing a new language.

My problem now is that I cannot get email through to my friends and they cannot get email to me. Too late I realised that we neglected to exchange phone numbers: there seemed no point when email was so quick and easy. Now I can't send email, can't receive email, the robot has isolated me.

Only one way left to break out of quarantine and it's a long time since I sat with pen and paper to write letters. I won't use the word processor as I am convinced Marvin will recognise it as a means of communication but I don't think he will know what the pen is for and I doubt he'll be suspicious if I take some envelopes with me next time I go out. A glorified email filter is hardly likely to know the purpose of a mailbox which is not of the virtual variety.

I hear Marvin stir even though I have not switched on my computer, he seems to have the ability to read my mind. There is a faint clanking sound, the smell of ozone, an electrical crackle in the air. His hand on my shoulder is heavy and cold, the steel joints creak as his fingers tighten. I don't think I will be going out to post any letters.

This is one of a series of articles published by the author, Elaine Currie, BA(Hons) at http://www.HuntingVenus.com The author’s monthly newsletter is available free from mailto:networkerhvm@ReportsNetwork.com

Email is rapidly becoming the standard means of communication among businesses, associates, and even friends. While many people have now been using the internet and email for years, there are thousands of new users on the internet each day. With inexpensive web hosting, free email services, and the blog burst upon us, getting your own slice of the internet pie has never been easier.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking for a refresher course, or you’re new to the internet and email and want to start off right, here are some easy steps to follow to reduce the amount of spam you receive.

Don’t choose an obvious email address. Spammers will generate lists of email addresses based on common names. A common list would be something like: nick@yahoo.com, nick1@yahoo.com, nick2@yahoo.com, etc. If you create an email account with less obvious combinations of your name plus some numbers, chances are better that you won’t find your way onto one of these lists.

Treat your personal email address with care. Only give out your personal email address to close friends and family who you trust. Give your direct business email only to clients and other contacts you trust to only use your address for legitimate business purposes.

Use different accounts for different functions. Create different aliases with your business’s domain name or create a few free accounts from free email servers like Hotmail, Yahoo!, Excite, etc. Use one account that you don’t care about for posting to forums or discussion groups. Use another to subscribe to newsletters and newsgroups. When any of these addresses starts to get spammed too heavily, simply delete the account and switch to a different one.

Remove your email address from your website. Between blogs and cheap web space, it seems everyone has their own piece of cyberspace. Before you put a link to your email address on your site, remember that spammers have bots that harvest these addresses. They will even find addresses printed in plain text. Consider using a web-based form for communication from you website, or place your address as a gif or jpeg.

Do NOT open, respond to, or purchase from spam. Interacting with spam in any of these ways indicates to the spammer that not only is your address valid, it’s also active. Do not respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line, or click on any links to remove your name out of the database, as both of these are common ploys to confirm your email address. Remember, because sending email is so inexpensive, spamming can be profitable even if only a small percentage of people purchase what they’re selling. Don’t support what you’re trying to stop.

Finally, Filter your incoming email using filtering software. Even if you guard your email address religiously, you’ll likely still receive spam. Filtering software is usually inexpensive and effective, but there are some important features to consider with any filtering package:

• Make sure you can control what comes to your inbox and what gets deleted. The best programs create a spam folder for you to review before permanently deleting emails.

• The software should block images from incoming emails. Many jpegs in spam actually hide code that notifies the spammer when the email is viewed. Blocking images will not only keep offensive content off your screen but will also help prevent more spam in the future.

• Choose software that provides you with updates - as new spamming techniques are created and proliferated, filtering software should keep up.

While eliminating spam from coming to your email address is nigh unto impossible, following these simple steps will mean you’ll have to spend less time deleting spam from your inbox, giving you more time for the important things of life –- like reading this article.

Nick Smith is a client account specialist with http://www.10xmarketing.com/ - More Visitors. More Buyers. More Revenue. Find more information about how to filter spam at http://www.contentwatch.com/.

If you are buried in SPAM then you're not alone. It's been suggested that as
much as 50% to 75% of the e-mail traffic on any given day is SPAM. Reading
through SPAM is a waste of your time and it subjects you to potential viruses,
trojan horses, and sexual material which can be quite offensive. Here are some
tips on how to win the SPAM war:

1. Use a throwaway email address when posting to public news groups and chat
rooms and for your Yahoo or MS Messenger Chat accounts. You can get free email
addresses at Yahoo, HotMail and other places. Use your personal ISP-provided
email address only to communicate with trusted sources. If you are an AOL user
then set up an additional email account to use for public posting purposes.
When your free or spare email account starts getting abused just close it and
open another.

2. Take the time to set up different email addresses for different purposes.
Have one for business communications, another for personal and another one for
shopping online. That way you can avoid the risk of exposing one e-mail
address to all of your contacts.

3. If you own your own web site then the chances are that your hosting account
comes with the ability to create new e-mail addresses on the fly. These are
addresses that will automatically forward to your main address. If you have
that capability then use a unique address for each web site or mailing list
that you choose to join. For example, if your site name is abc.com and you
decide to join the mailing list located at xyz.com, you would join using the
address xyz@abc.com. If you start getting SPAM to this address then you know
that the people who run xyz.com are responsible. You can complain to them and
their ISP and you can easily delete that email address.

4. Don't list your email address on your own web site in plain html or as a
link to a contact form. Spammers use automated robots to capture these
addresses and add them to SPAM databases. Instead use an email cloaking script
whenever you need to show your email address. You can search at Google.com
using the phrase "email cloaking" and come up with a lot of options. Just pick
the one that works best for your particular needs.

5. Do not buy anything from a company that sends you SPAM. Not only might the
company or offer be a scam but you are jumping right into the fire by letting
spammers know that your email address is active and that you buy from spammers.
Your address will be sold to thousands of other spammers.

6. Never reply to a spammer or click the "remove my address" link. That only
lets them know that your address is good.

7. If your email service or email client comes with SPAM filters use them.

8. You might want to think about subscribing to a SPAM prevention service.
Search on Google.com for "SPAM prevention service" and review your options.

Following these simple tips could cut your SPAM down by as much as 90%.
Wouldn't that be great!

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We all hate spam and get way too much of it – agreed? Now that we have that out of the way it is important to realize that in everyone’s zest to minimize their spam, we are deleting legitimate e-mails – and those e-mail could be YOUR business messages! Two factors are at play - not reviewing your trash before you empty it and sending e-mail with indicators that trip spam filters.

When sending business e-mail, it is critical that you make certain efforts so that your e-mail will not be inadvertently, incorrectly perceived as spam. Several times each day, legitimate e-mail makes its way into my Junk/Trash due to the sender doing or not doing certain things that trigger most spam filters. These are issues you need to be aware of so that your e-mail has its best chance to make it to its intended party.

Your initial contact and making sure your e-mail gives the perception of a serious business entity can make the difference between being read or being trashed. Here is a simple checklist of things you need to put in practice so that your e-mails are not mistakenly identified as spam and deleted before read:

=> Always include an appropriate, short and accurate SUBJECT:. Many times spam does not have a SUBJECT: or it is malformed without appropriate text. Many e-mail programs automatically send subjectless e-mail to Junk/Trash. You also want to avoid using the words: hello, hi, help, new or the recipient's name or e-mail address as doing so can trigger spam filters.

=> Refrain from using common terms abused by spammers in your subject and/or first paragraph of your email. You know what they are - you see them every day. Many spam filters track these terms and may inadvertently send your email right to Trash.

=> Type your subject with appropriate capitalization and structure. All small case or all caps gives the impression of being spam (and lack of online savvy/education).

=> Make sure your full name, not your e-mail address, is formally displayed in the FROM: field. Example: Jane A. Doe is correct – not jane a doe, or Jane or janeadoe@yourisp.com. FROM: fields with all lower case, only your first name or lack of punctuation indicates a lack of online savvy that is typical of most spammers which signals that your e-mail could also be spam. Not using your last name gives the impression you have something to hide. You always want to use your full and formal name in all business e-mail.

=> Refrain from using any formatting just for the sake of doing so. Formatting can also trigger spam filters if not done properly. Think company letterhead. If you wouldn’t have your name in big, blue, bolded letters on company letterhead do not do it in your business e-mail.

=> Unannounced attachments are viewed suspiciously. Do not send attachments without a specific request to do so and they are expected. If you are going to send attachments over 200K, show extraordinary courtesy and ask the other side FIRST when would be the best time to send your collateral. Then follow through and send it at that prearrange time so the recipient on the other side is available to download your files and keep their inbox clear.

=> When using any sort of spam software or filtering system, before you purge your trash, it doesn't hurt to take a quick peak to see if any e-mail is in fact from folks you know or recognize.

By keeping the above issues in mind, you have the best chance of your e-mail getting to the person on the other side and for business e-mail that could make the difference between making a sale – or not.

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Netiquette site @: http://www.NetManners.com