More adventures in replying to spam | James Veitch - The Contemporary Hysteria of SPAM

Why do people get so hysterical about SPAM? Who hasn’t been bombarded by unsolicited email and if you are in business you will want to be very careful that your emails are only received by those who have consented to be on your email list.  How should we regard spam?  Read on and find out.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

The Contemporary Hysteria of SPAM

By: Robert Evans

Spam is one of those internet nuisances no one should have to put up with!

But in many cases, the furious and avid anti-spam campaigner, while attempting to rid the internet of this nuisance, causes some very real and equally serious side effects. In fact, we should not have to put up with that either!

Under the current climate of aggression towards the sending of SPAM emails, is it any wonder that hysteria is beginning to set in?

Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning spam. I hate it with a passion. I am always very careful to ensure that the people on my mailing lists have chosen to be there. Verification is of the utmost importance when building my lists. As are clear instructions to unsubscribe should anyone wish to be removed.

Adopting a double optin policy should be of primary importance to every online marketer and webmaster.

But is this enough?

The answer, it seems, is a resounding NO!

In my own experience, people often forget that they have opted in. This can cause problems that really only reason can solve.

But most of the time, I have to say, reason does not even get a look in. Take the case of a good and trusted friend of mine.

He almost lost his entire downline (which he had worked VERY hard to build) after he had paid for an ezine ad.

One subscriber (who had clearly forgotten he had subscribed to this particular ezine) got very hot under the collar and alerted some self-righteous vigilante anti-spam "service" (and the company with whom my friend had built his downline) and they were indeed ready to have him kicked off the internet! It was only because he was prepared to jump through hoops to clear his name that the matter was resolved, but it was a close call.

And only recently I had a sharp email from someone accusing me of spamming. I had sent a message to the safelist I had paid to join and he was obviously on the list or he would not have received the message. 

In his email to me he said that he had never joined the list, and that my message was "Spam, pure and simple," and that he had filed a report with the FTC.

My first reaction was to fire off a reply in my own defence, which he never had the courtesy to answer, and in fact I have not heard from him again. So perhaps it has all blown over.

But why do people get so hysterical about a few emails arriving uninvited into their inboxes when they scarsely bat an eyelid at the daily influx of junk mail coming through their letter boxes?

There may be occasions, of course, when you feel something simply has to be done. That's okay, but why not try the reasoned and measured approach BEFORE you blast your complaint off to SpamCop. For example:

·         if you've received a message via a safelist, ezine etc, for goodness sake check to make 100% certain that you are NOT a subscriber to this list and if you cannot confirm this yourself, take it up with the OWNER of the list

·         if the message has come directly from an individual, reply to them and ask them how they came about your email address. This is to ascertain whether they are bona-fide or not. If the reply to them bounces, then you can be almost certain they are spamming you and you can take the matter further

·         I myself receive thousands of unsolicited emails every month. Most of the time I just grit my teeth, click the delete button and commit the offenders to the trash can. In my view that seems to be the best solution for the time being. At least until someone somewhere can come up with a more "grown-up" approach to dealing with the whole sorry business.

Author Bio
Robert Evans has been doing business online since 2000. He runs a resource center offering free and low cost marketing products and services: www.market4profit.net

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Robert Evans

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/email_articles/spam_email_hysteria.htm

What You Must Know About Spam

Does spam annoy you?  Spam and scams online, how would you define them?  What are they and how can we avoid them?  Read on if you want to find out.  Leave a comment to let me know what you think of this article.

What You Must Know About Spam

By: Mihaela Lica

What Is Spam?

When referring to emails, according to the NCES (National Centre for Education Statistic), "Spam refers to electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings. Some people define Spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. In addition to being a nuisance, Spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth. Because the Internet is a public network, little can be done to prevent Spam, just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail. However, the use of software filters in e-mail programs can be used to remove most Spam sent through e-mail."

Some search engines use the term to describe websites that try to attain a high listing rank by submitting identical or mirror pages. In this article I am going to give you a few tips about email Spam. 

If we give a too general definition to the word, we might end up taking for Spam perfectly legitimate emails. Not "any" unsolicited mail is Spam. Spam means unsolicited bulk email.

If a message is unsolicited that doesn't make it Spam. The same goes for bulk. A message is Spam only if it is both unsolicited and bulk. When you receive an unsolicited job enquiry, you do receive an uncalled-for email. But is that Spam? No. What about a newsletter? That is bulk, but no Spam if you are a subscriber. 

Why Do You Get Spam?

Have you posted your email address online in forums, chat rooms, on your website? Than why do you marvel? Spammers gather the addresses from the Internet; so no wonder your own found its way onto a spammer's list. Besides, spammers use different other means to get what they want: viruses, Trojans, buying from other spammers. 

Spam Scams

How many times have you received an "update your account" email from paypal, a bank or ebay? How many times have you received a "warning message"? Maybe it didn't look suspicious to you as it came from an institution you work with, but was it really that way? This kind of emails is referred to as "phishing scam". There is not much you can do when this happens. Just don't click on any links in that email, don't give away any confidential information such as social security number, bank account or credit card number. There are some free tools that can protect you against known phishing websites. For example download the free EarthLink toolbar and report the scam to the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

What about the emails from different Nigerian (or other nationalities) citizens offering you a percentage of a vast sum of money? Yes, you've got that right: scam. You'll only loose your money on this one. Better don't be curious. They will ask you to pay a fee in advance - a so called transfer tax, and guess what: some complications will appear, you have to pay more and more and end up with nothing. And don't believe the "you won money" lottery sweepstakes either. You'll only spend. The same goes for the Nigerian purchase scam: they want to buy something from you, pay by check and they wish the goods to be sent in Lagos, Nigeria. 

A Major Don't

Don't reply to spammers... ever! Don't send any "remove me" message. By doing so you confirm your address is active, you show you read bulk messages, you prove your ISP doesn't use Spam filters. You are the perfect candidate. You will never be removed. On the contrary... 

Spam Fighters

If Spam really bothers you and you want to fight against it, than you have plenty of possibilities. If you are an American, join Cauce at: www.cauce.org. If not... check out Cauce's international partners (example: EuroCAUCE for Italy, Spain, Germany, Holland, France, Norway).

Associations such as to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or other volunteers' organizations are there to help protecting you against scam or other illegal emails (children pornography for example). Detailed information about Spam, Spammers and ways to fight against them you can find here: www.spamhaus.org.

Author Bio
Mihaela Lica is a skilled journalist and PR consultant, founder of Pamil Visions - www.pamil-visions.com Previously she used to work as a military TV redactor for Pro Patria and the Military Media Trust within the Public Relations Directorate of the Romanian Ministry of Defence.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source:  By Mihaela Lica

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/email_articles/spam_what_to_know.htm

SEO For Beginners: 3 Powerful SEO Tips to Rank #1 on Google in 2018 - Part 1

If you want to know the mistakes to avoid when you want to generate traffic to your website read on.  If you haven’t realises the importance of search engine visibility you will after you read this article.  It is in two parts.  The article will cover the first 5 costly search engine mistakes to avoid.  Come back for the next 5 tomorrow.  Let me know how useful you find this article with a comment below.

10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid – Part 1

By: Brad Eden

If you have a website then you already know the importance of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is to real estate. It's the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales.

Usually the owner or designer of the website is the person designated to drive traffic to the site. The chief ingredient in generating traffic is the search engine. Of coarse, you can use advertising, but it's going to cost you. Using the search engines to generate targeted (interested in your product) traffic is the least expensive method known.

Unfortunately, many website owners do not understand the importance of search engine visibility, which leads to traffic. They place more importance on producing a "pretty" website. Not that this is bad, but it is really secondary to search engine placement. Hopefully, the following list of common mistakes, made by many website owners, will help you generate more targeted traffic to your site...after all, isn't that what you want.

1. Not using keywords effectively. 

This is probably one of the most critical area of site design. Choose the right keywords and potential customers will find your site. Use the wrong ones and your site will see little, if any, traffic.

2. Repeating the same keywords.

When you use the same keywords over and over again (called keyword stacking) the search engines may downgrade (or skip) the page or site.

3. Robbing pages from other websites. 

How many times have you heard or read that "this is the Internet and it's ok" to steal icons and text from websites to use on your site. Don't do it. Its one thing to learn from others who have been there and another to outright copy their work. The search engines are very smart and usually detect page duplication. They may even prevent you from ever being listed by them.

4. Using keywords that are not related to your website. 

Many unethical website owners try to gain search engine visibility by using keywords that have nothing at all to do with their website. They place unrelated keywords in a page (such as "sex", the name of a known celebrity, the hot search topic of the day, etc.) inside a meta tag for a page. The keyword doesn't have anything to do with the page topic. However, since the keyword is popular, they think this will boost their visibility. This technique is considered spam by the search engines and may cause the page (or sometimes the whole site) to be removed from the search engine listing.

5. Keyword stuffing. 

Somewhat like keyword stacking listed above, this means to assign multiple keywords to the description of a graphic or layer that appears on your website by using the "alt=" HTML parameter. If the search engines find that this text does not really describe the graphic or layer it will be considered spam.

This is just a few of the methods and techniques that you should avoid. Do not give in to the temptation that these methods will work for you. They will do more harm than good for your website.

Not only will you spend weeks of wasted effort, you may have your site banned from the search engines forever. Invest a little time to learn the proper techniques for increasing search engine visibility and your net traffic will increase. 

Author Bio

Brad Eden is a Entrepreneurial Sciences expert with 14 years of industry experience in real estate, marketing and technical communication. He currently consults with IBM in CA. Brad owns & operates a free traffic resource for entrepreneurs. americanfreetraffic.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Brad Eden

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/website_traffic/search_engine_mistakes.htm

How to stop your email marketing being marked as spam

Should you promote your business via email?  Many may now fear that their email marketing could result in their emails being considered spam.  Read on to find out how to avoid the pitfalls and why email marketing is still considered in this article by Drew Michael to be more effective than RSS, Blogs and PPC.  Let me know what you think with a comment below.

Opt-In Email and eZine Advertising Still More Effective Than RSS, Blogs, and PPC!

By: Drew Michael

When you factor in all the costs related to promoting via an Opt-In Email or Ezine campaign you are still getting the best return on your advertising dollar investment than using RSS, Blogs or PPC. The measurable results are significantly faster than RSS and Blogs and less expensive than using Pay Per Click marketing. Without a doubt, Email and Newsletter advertising campaigns are still two of the best tools available to promote your product or service.

Email Marketing Campaigns

There are a great many people that are still reluctant to use what is one of the best marketing tools available today. Many marketers associate email marketing with spam and have concerns about being shut down by their ISP or hosting company. The fact is, done right and by following specific guidelines you have little to fear. Follow the guidelines outlined below and you will probably kick yourself for not using this tool a lot sooner.

1) CAN-SPAM COMPLIANT: Just about everyone receives hundreds of spam-related emails per week and that is the main reason a lot of legitimate businesses balk at using email marketing. But if you are a legitimate business you only need to do a few things to make your email marketing efforts legal.

(a) Subject Line: It should not be misleading in any way. It should relate to the body of the message and it is a very good practice that the first paragraph relate to the subject line.

(b) Specific Opt-Out Instructions: You must include a way for the reader to opt-out by supplying a link that works.

(c) Physical Address: If you work out of an office this is the address that should appear after your signature. If you work out of the home your home address should appear after the signature.

(d) From Address: Messages should be from the same "from address"

2) USE OPT-IN EMAIL ADDRESSES ONLY: This is very important. Use only Opt-In email addresses for your marketing efforts. There are many legitimate email suppliers so you have a lot of options. And even using 100% Opt-In Email Addresses does not guarantee that you won't have a few people complaining. But if you purchase addresses that include the full name, IP and date stamp you have proof of the opt-in just in case it is needed.

Additional Tips For a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

1) USE EMAIL MARKETING SOFTWARE: We like Broadc@st HTML Bulk Email Software

(www.myaffiliateprogram.com/u/mailwork/b.asp?id=1979) and GroupMail 5 (www.infacta.com/asp/common/groupmail.asp). Some of the suppliers listed below provide free email marketing software.

2) USE SPAM FILTER SOFTWARE: Don't let this software intimidate you. The software is easy to setup and use. It is a good idea to use spam filter software to filter out words or phrases that tend to get flagged by ISP spam filters. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free spam filtering software.

3) USE AUTORESPONDERS: Using an autoresponder will save you a lot of time and work. You can preload messages and assign specific criteria to when they should be sent. Some of the suppliers listed below provide free autoresponder software.

4) TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY ONLY: For best results send your email campaign from Tuesday to Thursday. These are the days that will obtain the most attention to your message. Monday is usually bad because people are planning their work-week and getting tasks out of the way quickly. Fridays are bad because most people are already planning their weekends.

5) COME TO THE POINT IMMEDIATELY: Don't write a book. Try to be as brief as possible and outline your key points in the first paragraph. If you word it right the reader will read on.

Here is a short list of companies that supply 100% Opt-In Email Addresses.

Email Leads For Less

www.email-leads-for-less.com/Hot_100_Opt-In_Email_Leads.htm 

EmailResults.com

www.emailresults.com/default.asp 

Exact Sales Leads

www.exactsalesleads.com/ 

Expedite Media Group's Email Marketing Services

www.expedite-email-marketing.com/index.htm 

GetResponse Power Leads

www.getresponse.com/leads_offer.html 

Lifeline Leads

www.lifelineleads.com/default.php 

OptInDataSite.Com 

www.optindatasite.com/ 

PermissionDIRECT

www.permissiondirect.com/index.asp 

Prospects Influential

www.prospectsinfluential.com/ 

Red Clay Media

www.redclaymedia.com/ 

Salesleads.tv

www.salesleads.tv/index.html 

SimplerLeads.com

www.simplerleads.com/ 

TheListGuy.com

www.thelistguy.com/index.html 

Tip Top Leads

www.tiptopleads.com 

VentureDirect List Services Group

www.venturedirect.com/html/lsg-about.htm 

Please take note that the information contained in this article was up to date at the time of writing and is subject to change at any time. Additionally, it is not the authors intent to recommend or guarantee products or services of the companies listed. We believe that they are all legitimate and provide good products and services but readers are always encouraged to do 'due diligence' prior to making a purchase.

Author Bio
Drew Michael is a webmaster and marketer. He is the owner of The Business Junction at www.thebusinessjunction.com, a major software and entrepreneur directory. For a free subscription to The Business Junction Newsletter and free software downloads subscribe at: www.thebusinessjunction.com/Newsletter_Subscribers_SignUp_Page.htm

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/email_articles/email_advertising_effective_rss.htm