This deluge of irritating junk has unfortunately interfered with legitimate e-zine publishers, because we're caught in anti-spam crossfire. If you publish any type of e-mail publication, there's a likely chance that your e-zine is NOT reaching a portion of your readers. Why? Their Internet service provider (ISP) or e-mail program uses a spam filter.

These software programs search for words and phrases that are typical of spam and assign each incoming e-mail a "score." If your e-mail has too many of these words and phrases, you receive a high score, and you may be blocked.

<< TOP 20 "KILLER" WORDS/PHRASES YOU MAY BE USING >>

While there are other words that will cost you more "points" than these do (e.g. sexual phrases), here are most common "trigger" words and phrases that you may be using in your e-zine:

1. amazing 2. cancel at any time 3. check or money order 4. click here 5. congratulations 6. dear friend 7. e-mail marketing 8. for only ($) 9. free (including toll-free) 10. great offer 11. guarantee 12. increase sales 13. order now 14. promise you 15. risk free 16. special promotion 17. this is not spam 18. to be removed 19. unsubscribe 20. winner

<< WHAT'S A PUBLISHER TO DO? >>

Patience, Analysis keys to ideas that pan out Small business owners are constantly in search of new ideas to help build and strengthen their existing businesses. Whether you operate an on-line or off-line (traditional) business, you have probably had exhilarating feeling of developing what you think is next great marketing idea or new product for your business, only to have feeling vanish when idea turn sour.

As a small business owner myself and a professional marketer, I have learned one important lesson about idea generation in business: it’s 8th idea that counts. My experience has shown me that very first idea that is generated to solve a particular problem may not be solution, but as long as you keep that idea alive and allow it to grow and change, it becomes an increasingly better idea. Eventually idea grows into a very profitable and manageable business plan. In my case, it seems that it’s often 8th idea that is a real winner.

It Happened to Me…

I’ll draw on personal experience for an example. When I launched my first online business a number of years ago, I had idea to take advantage of my experience as a professional marketer in staffing and employment industry to bring valuable knowledge and information to general public. My first venture was a resume writing website, which was neither a success nor a failure. In short, it really did nothing.

As I look back on that venture, I realize now that I simply did not have enough information or internet savvy to put together a reasonably decent website and market it effectively. I pulled business offline after only 3 months. What I did not do, however, was kill original idea.