We can break it down into two main parts.

First, as any of you that have been online for a while as I have, over eight years this month, you have no doubt shared your email address with other people on Internet.

Every single time you send an email message to anyone, your email address is made available to that person. Otherwise, how else can they reply to your email message?

Unless, of course, you are a spammer using stealth email software to hide your identity and real email address and domain of origin of your messages.

That is a whole different type of problem.

And how many times have you been requested to enter your email address at a web site?

Once you press submit, there is no way of really knowing who will end up with your email address and how it is that they plan to use it.

No matter what web site's "Privacy Policy" might state, you can never be certain how they will use your email address information.

The fact that I have used same email address for so many years and use it on my web site as a way for people to contact me, means that my address exists on every Spam disk or CD that is currently for sale on Internet.

We are all vulnerable to this sort of abuse. But there is indeed such a thing as "Secure Email".

One of best ways to control spam is to make use of FREE email forwarding service known as Spam Gourmet.

Visit this FREE service at: http://www.spamgourmet.com/

With Spam Gourmet, after you save and confirm email address where you'd like to receive messages, you can give out self-destructing disposable email addresses whenever you want as follows:

someword.x.user@spamgourmet.com where someword is a word you haven't used before, x is number of email messages you want to receive at address (up to 20), and user is your username.

If you receive more than 20 emails to that address from same sender, their email gets tossed into trash automatically.

This gives you a chance to establish real email contacts from people you want to correspond with and then transfer them to your real email address while eliminating all spam.

But, having a "Secure Email Address" is just one aspect of secure email.

The other part of "Secure Email" that is really important is ability to be able to send someone an email message without fear that what you have written in message will be exposed to unauthorized people.

For most of us, we could care less if what we write in an email message manages to end up getting posted on a web site.

For those of us wishing to conduct business online, that might turn out to be a blessing in form of free advertising.

But how many times have you been warned NEVER to send your credit card number and expiration date to a vendor via email?

Hmmm. Good question. Here's some thoughts to help you with decision.

When NOT To Use an Auto Responder

In general, if you're selling a single product, something that's not really that complicated, only requires a limited amount of information to stimulate interest, or you are using excitement of moment to make sale, do NOT use an auto responder. Just direct people straight to site.

For example, ebooks. Generally, any information you need to stimulate interest can be done on a single page site. You don't want to give away too much either, and if you are setting up multiple messages in an auto responder, what are you going to talk about?

When You SHOULD Use an Auto Responder

A more complicated topic, products or opportunities that require a somewhat larger investment, or plans to cover multiple products or multiple benefits, require use of an auto responder.