Guarding Against Email Scams

Written by Susan Dunn, Marketing Coach and Consultant


The email scams aren’t going to go away. Our only recourse is to stay ahead ofrepparttar game by learning its rules. The way to do this is usingrepparttar 109537 Emotional Intelligence competency of intuition. Intuition is not some “mystical” thing; it’srepparttar 109538 result of experience and processing, and then getting mindful about what you’ve learned that you aren’t initially aware of. There is always something “odd” about these emails. Stay alert and follow your instincts. Intuition is knowing, rather than thinking.

One type of email scam is designed to get secure information from you – and who knows what else. I haven’t replied to any, so I don’t know what else is involved. I don’t want to know, and you don’t either. The least innocuous result would be getting your email address on some mailing list. The worst-case scenario? Viruses, hardware crashes, identity fraud, access to your account and money, and who knows what else.

If you have an Internet business, or spend a lot of time onrepparttar 109539 Internet, as I do, and receive hundreds of s*** emails per day, you learn to recognizerepparttar 109540 signs. (Intuition is really a matter of lots of experience and paying attention torepparttar 109541 “signals” which alert you that something is amiss.)

If you do business onrepparttar 109542 Internet, as I do, likely you have a PayPal account. This latest scam sends you an email warning you that your PayPal account is about to expire, and requests information, or requests that you go to a site to update your information. (I have recently been receiving these allegedly from ebay as well.) As you know, PayPal says they will never ask you for this information via email, and they warn you not to give it.

Pay attention, because it's very easy to copy someone's logo, font size and color, etc. offrepparttar 109543 Internet, and at first glance it can look just likerepparttar 109544 site it's imitating.

How do you recognizerepparttar 109545 scam email? I’m both sorry and delighted, as an English major, and champion of proper English, to say that one ofrepparttar 109546 signs of a scam email is poor English.

SUBJECT LINE

First of all,repparttar 109547 subject line is almost always peculiar. The latest one I received reads “YOUR PAYPAL.COM ACCOUNT EXPIRES.” No one would write this way. More likely it would say “Important information about your PayPal account,” or “Notice about account” or something like that. Who writes subject lines in all caps? It’s also inrepparttar 109548 wrong tense. Your account WILL expire, or IS GOING to expire, yes?

BAD ENGLISH

Within fake messages I have always – ALWAYS – found typos and grammatical errors, and I mean blatant ones. This particular email contained: “To avoid any interruption in PayPal services then you will need to runrepparttar 109549 application that we have sent with this email (see attachment) and followrepparttar 109550 instructions.” “Then” doesn’t belong in this sentence.

You're Crazy To Market Without A Mailing List

Written by Philip Lim


The whole reason email marketing is done: to drive clients to your web site, where you can sell your products and services to them. But in order to bring them to your site, you need to have addresses to mail those exciting messages to.

You can always buy or rent email lists, but this isn’t always repparttar best strategy. It’s expensive, and there’s no guarantee that repparttar 109536 company you choose got their addresses legitimately. Opt-in email lists (people who ask you to send them information) are always a better method for marketing purposes, and you have a guaranteed target audience.

Increasing your opt-in list of targeted email clients isrepparttar 109537 most important email marketing strategy you can use. Your email list is actually a group of potential "sales leads" and you should treat expanding your email list inrepparttar 109538 same manner you would your leads offline: develop it, and develop it aggressively.

The more effort you put into developing it,repparttar 109539 more potential customers you will have. Conversely, if you fail to collect email addresses, your online business growth will halt. It’s that simple.

Tip #1: Offer Them Content

People don’t just like to give out their email addresses online (and with good reason nowadays!) But if you offer them something in return, such as an informative newsletter, a free ebook, or free software, they will be much more likely to give you their email address when subscribing.

Offering subscriptions, whether to a newsletter, ezine, ebook, software, or online course, isrepparttar 109540 number one legitimate method of increasing your email list (and is used by all ofrepparttar 109541 largest and most successful sites online). People have indicated that they go online for a major, basic reason: to learn. Are you meeting this need? You will be, if you offer them high-quality information through one ofrepparttar 109542 above methods.

Don’t just send them ads (unless they have specifically requested news on current specials); spice it up with information that they can use. They will remember you, will pass your newsletters around to their friends, and your name and company will get known.

Tip #2: Make It Easy For Them

It’s amazingrepparttar 109543 number of sites that have subscription forms tucked away deep within their site hierarchy, or don’t even have interactive subscription forms for signing up. Don’t just rely on repparttar 109544 customer takingrepparttar 109545 initiative of sending you an email asking to subscribe to your content; have a web designer create an easy-to-use form that they can fill in and subscribe to.

Place your subscription box in a prominent area. Normally,repparttar 109546 left top side of a web site isrepparttar 109547 area that a visitor looks at first. This is a natural area to place a small box that says, "Subscribe to our informative newsletter" or "download our free software" to increase your email list. Alternatively, you could create a pop-under that appears before they leave, asking if they would like to subscribe to your quality content. Don’t let them leave your site without offering themrepparttar 109548 chance, with an attractive ad, to sign up - and give you their email address.

Be sure to have a link on each and every web page on your site, offering visitorsrepparttar 109549 chance to subscribe. Otherwise, they may go to your site, click around, and by page four, forget that they meant to sign up for your newsletter or ebook. Remind them frequently with a tasteful link or box on each page, and watch your subscriptions rise.

Tip #3: Assure Their Privacy

When a person visits a web site online, they often hesitate to give out their email address. Since they don’t know you, they often fearrepparttar 109550 worst: that you could be an unscrupulous email harvester, who will turn around and sell their information to sleazy porn sites or lending companies charging high interest rates.

Of course, you don’t do this, and one way to overcome this natural hesitation is to place a prominent privacy notice near your subscription form that states: "Your privacy is important to us. We will never sell or discloserepparttar 109551 information that you provide us with." You have just overcomerepparttar 109552 number one reason that people don’t give out their email address, and increased greatlyrepparttar 109553 chances that your opt-in list will grow.

Tip #4: Don’t Use Force, and Don’t Ask for Too Much Information

Nowadays, some sites have become quite aggressive in their techniques for getting email addresses, torepparttar 109554 point that they won’t allow you to enter their site without giving it. Most people will click away from sites that use techniques that don’t offer choices. Instead, make subscription their choice, and never, ever forcerepparttar 109555 issue.

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