http:/ hewebhostcompany.com/cgi-local/email.cgi

It looks like a normal URL, and there's clearly no email address anywhere in link, but when clicked, instead of loading a web page in your browser as you may have expected, your email program opens up.

How's that possible you might ask? Simple. A little magic with CGI using Perl or PHP will do trick. A free copy of a script that does this is bundled with Postmaster Pro, available at http://www.postmasterpro.com which is discussed below.

-------------------------------------------------- What About Spammers Who Already Have My Address? --------------------------------------------------

So far we've discussed a few fairly simple techniques designed to prevent spammers from obtaining your email address in first place. But, how do you deal with spam you're already getting? Your address is already out there. The solution is to either block or filter.

For either, you'll need software. For blocking, I recommend Postmaster Pro. If you prefer to filter then Spam Assassin is highly recommended. Both run on server, so there is no need to download spam before filtering it out. That's a huge time saver if you're not yet on a high-speed connection. It also makes it a bit less likely you'll end up downloading a virus since email from untrusted senders, i.e. spammers will be significantly reduced.

------------------------------------------------ Spam Blocking Software ------------------------------------------------

Postmaster Pro which is available at http://www.postmasterpro.com takes a novel approach to blocking spam. It only allows email to be delivered after people who've sent you email have been placed on an approved sender list. But interesting thing is that people who send you email can put themselves on your approved list. This is done simply by clicking a link in an email that automatically gets sent to them first time they send email to you, which is perfect for those of us who don't know in advance whom we should put on approved list, i.e. if you're running a business online. It also makes building and maintaining such a list very simple.

Given fact that spammers normally use invalid return addresses, and those who do use valid return addresses seldom read email that's sent there, let alone respond to it (they receive thousands of failed delivery notifications, complaints, remove requests, and autoresponder messages every time they do a mailing) ... it's a very effective technique with no chance of blocking legitimate email, as is case with filtering.

-------------------------------------------------- Spam Filtering Software --------------------------------------------------

For those who would prefer to filter ... Spam Assassin is perhaps best option. It is available at http://www.spamassassin.org. Once you have Spam Assassin installed, it will provide you with very powerful and flexible filtering tools. Spam Assassin is a mature product, having been around for quite some time. If you're going to filter, Spam Assassin is about as good as it gets.

As with any filter though, you do run risk of missing legitimate email from time to time. There really isn't a good way to tell how often this is happening unless you want to read all email that gets filtered out, which negates whole point of filtering. If you set your filters permissively enough though, you should be reasonably safe. For first month or so after installing any filter, you should continue to read every single email in order to make sure it isn't set too restrictively to allow legitimate email through.

By using techniques mentioned in this article, you can take back your mailbox, and dramatically reduce, if not eliminate spam.

-------------------------------------------------- Sean Proske is CEO and founding partner of thewebhostcompany.com which has provided reliable and affordable hosting since 1996. http://www.thewebhostcompany.com mailto:info@thewebhostcompany.com -------------------------------------------------- © 2003 by Sean Proske

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, in your Newsletter, on your website, or in your E-Book, as long as author's Resource Box is included with article.

6. Be prepared to broadcast on multiple occasions. You should not think of email marketing as a one off hit - an all or nothing approach. Research shows that response rates increase with frequency as recognition factor increases.

7. Make use of HTML. Whilst keeping message simple, you should where possible use html to create message - it looks far better on screen, and allows URL's of links to be hidden behind visually pleasing images. You should always produce a txt version of html to be broadcast simultaneously to html, to ensure that recipients unable to accept html will be able to receive your message.

8. Track everything - open rates, unsubscribes clickable-links, emails received, telephone and faxes received. Simply tracking clicks is only half story. You should monitor what happened when click through occurred on website, as well as your sales call centre.

9. Get timing right - don't broadcast over night to B2B databases as first thing that will happen following morning is that message will be deleted. Tuesdays and Thursdays have proved to be most responsive for B2B broadcasts. Sending a message on a Friday afternoon to consumers has proved very successful.

10. Datacapture - make sure that at least one link on your email is to a datacapture screen.

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