But this email intrigue continues. A new message just came in addressed to "Undisclosed Recipients." The subject says "Hello, how have you been?33, " and body asks whether Undisclosed Recipient is drowning in Credit Card Debt. Hmmm! I wonder where I should forward this. The Roundup won't need it, what with all this E-Z money soon to be coming in, so maybe I'll send it to that frisky autoresponder. Perhaps when it gets rid of its existing credit card debt, it can get a charge card and help Heather get her education. I'm sure it'll be only two or three seconds before I receive another email offering sure-fire guarantees around getting a credit card. That'll come in handy for Heather and Auto.

But wait! This is last straw! Now my web site is sabotaging me behind my back. Now as far as I know, and I do know because I designed site, it contains a number of resources for business people and entrepreneurs. But what's this? I now have an email from a sender "who has just visited my site and thinks I would be interested in hearing more about an opportunity involving horses." Horses? Is my web site self-generating equine-related content at night when I sleep? Does it have a dual-personality? This opens up possibilities for a catchy new logo: "Business by day. At night -- oats and hay!"

Such is allure of my technology's secret life. But this does answer one question for me. Now I realize that spammers are actually targeting ezines, autoresponders, and web sites. It makes a lot of sense. After all, no actual person would ever fall for this stuff.

7. Assume people are going to instantly subscribe to your e-zine. For example: "Dear Healthy Subscriber" They will want to subscribe in order to feel healthy.

8. Allow your subscribers to collect stuff from each issue of your e-zine. It could be ebooks or software. They'll tell others and those people will subscribe.

9. Tell people what their friends or family might say as a result of them of learning what's in your e-zine. People care about what other people think of them.

10. Make people feel like it's their idea to subscribe, they will be less hesitant. Tell them in your ad "You are making a smart decision for subscribing".