Small Business Q & A: Beware Of Spam Withdrawals

Written by Tim Knox


Q: I am so sick of allrepparttar spam that is sent to my business email address. I spend an hour every morning just trying to sort outrepparttar 109565 good email fromrepparttar 109566 bad. I know I could just delete it all, but I'm afraid I'll accidentally delete email that might be important to my business. Short of unplugging my computer, what'srepparttar 109567 best solution for dealing with spam?

A: I feel your pain. I, too, missrepparttar 109568 good old days when repparttar 109569 only time you'd spend an hour dealing with spam was trying to pry it out ofrepparttar 109570 can.

Due torepparttar 109571 nature of my business, I get a lot of unwanted email. I've been working onrepparttar 109572 Internet since 1995 and my email address has been publicly exposed for most of that time, so I am a spammer's delight. It is no exaggeration to say that I used to receive more than 400 email messages a day. Out of those 400 messages about 10% were from people I knew, 10% were from people I needed to know, andrepparttar 109573 rest were from people that I would like to track down and field dress with a very dull knife.

Spammers, they are called…repparttar 109574 scourge ofrepparttar 109575 Internet…repparttar 109576 digital kin ofrepparttar 109577 lowly telemarketer and dreaded junk mailer.

After listening to me complain about spam for months, my lead engineer burst into my office a few weeks ago and announced, "I've solved our spam problem! I've installed a spam filter on our server that will prevent spam from getting through."

Great, I thought, now I can find something new to complain about.

I wondered what I would do withrepparttar 109578 extra two hours a day this wonderful spam filter would give me. My joy quickly waned when within a day my email went from 400 to 40. It wasrepparttar 109579 saddest day of my life. Sitting there staring at my empty email box I suddenly felt very alone. At that moment I realized that not only had I come to expectrepparttar 109580 morning deluge of email, but I had come to find comfort in it. The spammers had become my friends. They wanted me to get rich quick and brighten my smile. They wanted to enhance my love life with generic Viagra and give me great deals on miniature cameras, low interest loans, waterfront property, and more. Andrepparttar 109581 sheer number of folks concerned aboutrepparttar 109582 abundance (or lack thereof) of my anatomy was incredibly heart warming.

Andrepparttar 109583 ladies that sent me email were so nice. They were worried that I was lonely and offered to cure my loneliness if only I gave them a credit card number. How sweet is that?

After a few daysrepparttar 109584 withdrawal symptoms ceased and I was happy to be free ofrepparttar 109585 majority ofrepparttar 109586 spam, though to this day I'm afraid that I might be missing out on something grand.

You and I are not alone, Anna. According to a recent study by eMarketer,repparttar 109587 average Internet email user now receives 81 emails a day, and nearly one quarter of them are spam. Spam now makes up more than 40% of all email and costs U.S. companies more than $10 billion annually. Seventy-six billion unsolicited e-mail messages will be delivered in 2003.

So how do spammers get your email address inrepparttar 109588 first place? It's easier than you might think. While some spam comes as a result of online purchases (yes, there are companies that will sell your email address no matter what their privacy policy says), that's just one ofrepparttar 109589 ways spammers get you in their sites.

Stop Internet Pollution

Written by Chuck Bauer


As we blaze intorepparttar new millennium, technology continues it’s rapid pace yet most people and businesses are not realizingrepparttar 109564 consequence of e-mail. Even as we increase our level of electronic communication, so goesrepparttar 109565 multitudes of new e-mail and internet users floodingrepparttar 109566 bandwidth. Along with all this new hyper growth comes new internet-based abuses and challenges that affect all of us personally and professionally.

These days everyone receives too many e-mails. Unnecessary messages are annoying. The information contained in this article suggests ways to become a solution torepparttar 109567 pollution, decrease spam and allow routine users to have higher levels of electronic savvy. You’ll also find out through our Top Ten Starts and Top Ten Stops how to takerepparttar 109568 necessary steps to protect e-mail addresses from potential abuses.

TOP TEN STARTS: 1.Deleting most e-mails when you do not recognizerepparttar 109569 sender. 2.Compressing information down to concise points. 3.Identifying who you are inrepparttar 109570 subject field. 4.Addressing distribution e-mails to yourself. 5.Placing addresses in Bcc field when sending distribution e-mails. 6.Being respectful of other’s e-mail privacy and time. 7.Cleaning up e-mails if your intent is to pass them along. 8.Educating yourself to increase your Internet savvy. 9.Forgiving others when they mess up. 10.Using spell check before sending e-mails.

TOP TEN STOPS: 1.Placing your entire e-mail database or lists intorepparttar 109571 To or Cc field. 2.Using sarcasm and humor in some e-mails. 3.Opening e-mails with a “fwd” or “fw” inrepparttar 109572 subject matter. 4.Using ALL CAPS or CAPS LOCK in your messages. 5.Writing anything you don’t want shared in public. 6.Changing e-mails addresses every so often. 7.Sending unnecessary attached files. 8.Sending messages using typical spam titles inrepparttar 109573 subject field. 9.Passing along virus alerts. 10.Replying to spam.

TOP TEN STARTS:

1.START deleting most e-mails when not recognizingrepparttar 109574 sender Due torepparttar 109575 huge amount of spam, along withrepparttar 109576 on-going presence of virus’s embedded into e-mail messages,repparttar 109577 current trend today is to automatically delete any messages that you are not certain whorepparttar 109578 sender is. Purge your “deleted items” folder often.

2.START compressing information down to concise points Keep your messages short, concise and torepparttar 109579 point. In other words, have a point then get to it. Most users do not enjoy reading lengthy messages or novels on their screens and they have a tendency to delete or ignore these type of messages. See additional information about information compression by clicking here or clicking your browser to: http://www.enspiron.cc/article.asp?ID=1

3.START identifying who YOU are inrepparttar 109580 subject field Make surerepparttar 109581 recipient knows your e-mail address or is expecting your e-mail. If I am speaking to a client onrepparttar 109582 phone and following up via e-mail, I’ll alertrepparttar 109583 client to my forthcoming message or referencerepparttar 109584 phone call inrepparttar 109585 subject field.

4.START addressing distribution e-mails to yourself Each receiving recipient sees only two e-mail addresses of which both are yours. It will be seen onrepparttar 109586 receiving end like this: To: “Your e-mail address” Fr: “Your e-mail address” And . . .

5.START placing addresses in Bcc field when sending distribution e-mails It is a discourtesy to give out someone's e-mail address. When you send an e-mail message to multiple people and use To or Cc to addressrepparttar 109587 message, everyone sees each other's e-mail address.

Creating A Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) Field: To send a message withoutrepparttar 109588 recipient's name showing: In a message, click To. Inrepparttar 109589 Type name or select from list box, typerepparttar 109590 name, or click Find. Inrepparttar 109591 Name list, clickrepparttar 109592 name, and then click Bcc. Click Send. Or . . . You can displayrepparttar 109593 Bcc box in all new messages that you compose. If Word is your e-mail editor, in a new message, clickrepparttar 109594 arrow torepparttar 109595 right ofrepparttar 109596 Options button, and then click Bcc. If you are usingrepparttar 109597 Outlook e-mail editor, in a new message, onrepparttar 109598 View menu, click Bcc Field. Ifrepparttar 109599 Bcc field isn't visible when you create a new message, you can add it.

6.START being respectful of other’s e-mail privacy and time Everyone is very busy and most place a high level of significance on their time and privacy. Be respectful by applyingrepparttar 109600 things learned in this article and by sharing this valuable information with others. 7.START cleaning up e-mails if your intent is to pass them along We’ve all seen it,repparttar 109601 folks who view an e-mail and want to pass it along so they automatically click “forward.” Inrepparttar 109602 To field they click in their entire e-mail database and hit send. Instead, stoprepparttar 109603 pollution by (a) click “forward” onrepparttar 109604 tool bar (b) remove allrepparttar 109605 fwd’s, message headers and anyone’s e-mail address that may appear (c) place your own e-mail address inrepparttar 109606 To field and (d) place repparttar 109607 e-mail addresses you want to sendrepparttar 109608 message to inrepparttar 109609 Bcc field.

8.START educating yourself to increase your Internet savvy Educate yourself onrepparttar 109610 proper uses ofrepparttar 109611 Internet and stop with excuses such as “It’s too late to teach an old dog new tricks.” An easy way to educate yourself is to search out onrepparttar 109612 various search engines for information about Internet Pollution or e-mail etiquette. Your company might consider “E-Mail Essentials,” a significant half day training offered byrepparttar 109613 author through The Enspiron Training Company.

9.START forgiving others when they mess up Almost daily, I receive e-mail messages from acquaintances that violate most of repparttar 109614 information contained in this article. Instead of spending useless energy registering a complaint or ignoring it, I politely make a specific request for them to change what it is they are doing and why. If you’re going to be part ofrepparttar 109615 pollution solution then provide suggestions on “what they should do.” 10.START using spell check before sending e-mails Using your built in spell checker is a sure way to avoid embarrassments, especially when communicating professionally. Don’t compromise your messages, use spell check.

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