by Karen Fegarty http://www.blacklistmonitor.com

We all know that email is probably today's most popular way to advertise. Every day our inboxes are filled with messages from people who want our business--whether we asked for contact or not. Email is today's biggest communication factor; but why shouldn't it be? It's all but free to use, and it's almost instantaneous.

But there is one problem with advertising via email that you may not think of very often: blacklisting. All it takes is one complaint, and your ISP or domain name can be put on someone's black list. If you're on black list, your emails are not getting through--and neither is your advertising message.

So how big of a problem is this? Well, AOL, one of world's biggest Internet service providers, winds up blocking a whopping 80% of messages to its subscribers due to blacklising. Your email could be most legitimate message ever sent, but if one person forgets they signed up or decides to complain, you could be blacklisted. And for your business, resulting slump in sales can be devastating.

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Author: Dave Tan - Wednesday, June 23, 2004

------------------------------------------------------------------- Can Your Visitors Contact You From Your Website -------------------------------------------------------------------

HTML Version: http://www.ebookok.com/resources/wd_no_contact.html

Argh, where's contact button?! Believe it or not, some websites just DON'T WANT any visitors (even customers) to CONTACT them. There's no email address, no contact form, no NOTHING!

What if a potential customer wants to BUY something from your website but have a few questions or doubts that he/she needs to ask you first? If you have a FAQ page, that's first place he/she will definitely seek answers...but what if your FAQ page still can't provide answers he/she seeks?

Don't care?! Not your problem?! Would rather prevent spam than going through all trouble?!

If your website can't even provide even HANDLE SIMPLEST form of communication, you will definitely lose lots of potential customers (even loyal customers) because simply can't contact you!

That's why Contact Us button or link should be placed in a highly visible or accessible position. This is common sense. Who would feel SAFE to buy from a someone let alone a website that don't even provide most BASIC form of customer support. What if product they bought is defective or they're having some trouble accessing it?

If you're HIDING your website's email address purely because of spammers, especially from those email harvester software, you do NOT really need to REMOVE your email address from your web site. You can create and place a simple GIF image with your email address on it using same background color as your web page.

Example 1: