So what exactly is SPAM? Most people will agree that SPAM is unsolicited email. However, if you didn’t read the fine print at that web site you ordered from or rushed through the sign up for that new login you can’t live without and left a box checked that said “it’s ok to send me stuff” then you simply got what you asked for. These kinds of mailings, while you might find annoying, are not technically SPAM and in these cases, it’s ok to simply unsubscribe or log back into your account and check out your preferences or email settings or whatever they happen to be calling it today!

That said, on to the subject at hand. Here are some tips on how you can reduce the amount of SPAM you receive. No one has figured out a way to eliminate it, at least not yet, so, until then, read on…

1. Never, ever, ever click on a link in a SPAM message, especially one that says “click here to unsubscribe,” you’ll just be confirming your email address and opening the floodgates. Remember what I said above about what is SPAM!
2. Never, ever, ever reply to a SPAM message for the same reasons as above.
3. Try to avoid even opening a SPAM message because if it’s written in HTML and includes graphics, those graphics loading can confirm your email address just as if you’d clicked on a link yourself. If you must see what’s in that email, open it in a mail reader that can prevent or block the loading of external images or in SPAM stopping software that will only show you text.
4. Make an effort to avoid posting your email address on newsgroups, forums, chat rooms, guestbooks, blog comments, etc. SPAMmers use robots just like the search engines except these harvest email addresses.
5. Use two email addresses. One for posting on forums, etc. and one for your “real” correspondence.
6. Make your email address unique. Having an address like john@ is just going to make it easy for a SPAMmer. Once they find your domain name, which is so easy when it’s a service like hotmail or yahoo which SPAMmers already love, it’s simply a matter of sending SPAM to every name in the book. Of course, having an email address of j0hen233@ isn’t going to be easy for anyone to remember. This is where you need to find a happy medium, and one you can live with.
7. If you post your email address on your web site, encrypt it. This may only work for a while before the SPAMmers catch up to the encryption technology, but it’s something.
8. Use software to filter out SPAM. Mail reader software like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird have built in SPAM filters or add-ons that you can install to help manage your SPAM. Some flag the message with a [SPAM] tag to help you further filter them or just manually delete them. Some move suspicious emails to a bulk or SPAM folder where you have to go through them later and tell the software whether they are SPAM or not and/or delete them from there. There are also applications available that are not built into your email software but work with it just like your virus scan does. Personally, Marilyn and I use a piece of software called Spamihilator. We’ve used it for quite a number of years now and have found it to be quite helpful.
9. Use a service to filter out SPAM. There are services available that can filter your email before it reaches your mailbox. These services connect directly with your web site’s mail server. One such service is SpamStopsHere which has been used quite successfully by one of our clients for more than a year now.

And, finally, here’s something for you to keep in mind. Please be gentle with that “report as SPAM” or “report abuse” button or your instinctual desire to get back at the SPAMmer. Most SPAMmers forge the from email address, they also forge the headers of the message. This makes it difficult for anyone to tell where the message actually originated. Anyone with a web site can become the victim of a SPAMmer and have their email address “hijacked” and used to send out thousands or even millions of messages. Then, that poor web site owner is victimized yet again when his domain is reported as a SPAMmer and he finds himself on blacklists or blocked by ISPs.

• Reduce advertising costs. Think of your web site as a full-page interactive phone book ad without the outrageous monthly costs. A web site shouldn’t replace all your offline advertising, but it should work alongside it.
• Increase your customer base. With a web site, you aren’t limited to customer’s who live or work near your business.
• Be open 24/7. A web site can be there to answer customer questions or take orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
• Give customers the information they want when they want it. Customers don’t need to call and ask you the same questions over and over again if you’ve already answered them on your web site.
• Announce specials. No need for a rushed and expensive advertising campaign when you are running a special, just announce it on your web site.
• Offer coupons. Putting printable coupons on your web site for use in your shop increases sales and awareness of your web site and keeps local customers visiting your web site looking for more specials.
• Provide employees with what they need. Put employee manuals, documents, and forms in a private section of your web site and save time, money, and paper.
• Display your complete product line. Maybe your shop is too small to display every color, size, and shape of your product line but your web site can do that with only a few extra pictures.
• Find new industry contacts. Link to those you work with (distributors, warehouses, shippers, etc.) and you may find new business and new contacts by having them link back to you. Six degrees of separation isn’t just about Kevin Bacon!

If you have any ideas you think should be added to the list please drop us a line, or leave a comment. We want to hear your ideas!

• News. Post updates on your products, services, latest happenings in your field, links to news articles and your take on them and how they affect what you do. Use RSS feeds and Blogs to do this. Blogs are highly recommended as they provide a user friendly interface that will let you do the posts yourself and thereby keep your costs down as you won’t have to hire your web designer to constantly keep your site updated. Search engines love feeds and blogs that are updated regularly and your visitors will rely on you to keep them informed and/or entertained.
• Articles. Share your knowledge and expertise and not just with your site’s visitors as you can offer your articles to other sites, newsletters, and blogs. For more information, check out Publishing = Rankings Part I and Publishing = Rankings Part II.
• Newsletters or Mailing Lists. Put your news, site updates, articles, etc. into a newsletter or mailing list emailed to customers and published on your site.
• Emails. Add opt-in email notifications for announcements, news, site updates, specials, etc. Only do opt-in, do not get into SPAMming.
• Contests, Incentives, or Specials. By offering contests etc., you provide current customers with a reason to visit your site. You also open the doors to new customers who have to fill out a contest form in order to enter and you thereby get a potential new customer.
• Partnerships. Link to sites that add value to your site, such as other businesses or services you use or work with all the time, and make sure you add text around the link that says why the link is there and why the site is recommended. If your customer’s trust you, then they will value your recommendations.
• Join forums. Volunteer to moderate on a forum in your area of expertise. Every post you make has your site’s URL in your signature which equals free advertising and tons of links back to your site.

Never focus on just getting the search engines to visit your site. If you work on getting people to come back and visit your site, the search engines will follow suit, trust me!

We have detected a new spam tactic in which MP3 files are used to promote stocks.

In the first multi-media spam, spammers have begun attaching MP3 files which are named after popular recording artists and songs. After a recipient has opened the attachment, an electronically enhanced voice delivers a message promoting a stock for a particular company. The message is designed to encourage the recipient to invest in a particular company. The spam perpetrators then sell their shares after the stock price has risen briefly. This is typically known as a “pump and dump” scam.

To listen to an actual MP3 spam message, please use the following URL: http://www.spamstopshere.com/spam.mp3

We believe that what we are seeing right now is just a test by spammers to determine the effectiveness of MP3 spam. We do not believe that MP3 spam will be the wave of the future. It is unlikely that people will fall for an MP3 spam more than once or twice, whereas text and image spam is hard to ignore because it is in the body of the e-mail. We do not think that MP3 spam on iPods is feasible, but spammers certainly are looking to target the new Apple iPhone.

If you decide to give SpamStopsHere a try, let them know that High Aspirations, Inc. sent you! If you are one of our clients, let us know and we’ll take care of everything for you!

This time, it’s Current Catalog. I personally purchase from Current at least once a year, sometimes more. I usually stock up on greeting cards, gift wrap, and even my checks. Now don’t think they are just for personal items, they also do business checks!

So, remember HAI when you want to make a purchase from the Current Catalog which will help support our freebies and the cost of hosting so many free graphics!

If you don’t want to subscribe to their e-Zine, they also offer an RSS feed.

You have some choices when it’s time to publish your article and you can do just one or all of them:

• Publish it yourself on your web site. If you don’t have a blog on your site yet, maybe your new quest for higher search engine rankings is a good excuse to tell your web designer to add one. If you don’t want to add a blog to your site, you can simply add your article as a new section or page on your site. Make sure that you note on the article that it is free for publication on other sites and in newsletters, mailing lists, blogs etc. as long as a link back to your site is included. After all, word of mouth is always the best kind of advertising.
• Publish it in any existing mailing list you may already have incorporated into your site. Remember to include that note about publishing it elsewhere for a link back.
• Publish it elsewhere. There are many options available for publishing your article, you just have to be willing to search them out. One, and a good starting point, is an article announcement list such as Article Announce: Writer and Publisher Exchange. Once on that list, it can be picked up by any number of newsletters, mailing lists, blogs, ezines, etc. And each will give you a link in exchange.

Just think about it, you publish an article every month, post it to your web site and reap the benefits of new content and the attention of the search engines and you’ve gotten the added bonus of all those quality links to your site for every re-publication of your article.

Don’t have time to add “publisher” to your list of duties? Then write your article and pass it on to your web designer for publishing. The time you spend writing that article and publishing it or the money it costs to pay your copywriter and/or web designer to handle it for you will be well worth it in the long run.