If your email address reads yourname@aol.com or you@bell.com - you are branding name of your Internet Service Provider. Why should you do it? Your ISP doesn't pay you for it. Indeed, you pay THEM a monthly fee!!!

Quite likely you were not aware that you do have a choice here. Instead of advertising Earthlink, GTE, BellSouth, or AOL, you can advertise and brand your own business and your own name.

In case you didn't know, here is how it works. For example, my own service provider is home.com -- but my e-mail program is configured so, that address I use in my "from" field says "wanda@loska.com". I can do that because my web host provides me with a forwarding service. That means, any message sent to wanda@loska.com is forwarded automatically to my *home.com* account.

Don't think that you need to launch your web site to be able to do this -- even if you are not ready, you can use this feature. I suggest that once you get a domain name, you set up a simple page like this: http://internetsuccesscoach.com/bizcard.html -- but even this is not necessary.

On virtually every list, it is common practice to put unsubscribe instructions at bottom of every message (Yahoo groups, also called egroups, is an exception in that sometimes there are no unsubscribe instructions at all). You simply do what is described and you will be removed from list.

In most cases, a simple blank email to an email address or a clicked link is all you need to do. Sometimes you need to include word "remove" or "unsubscribe" in subject or body of message. It just depends upon conventions of list.

Now, this article only applies to mailing lists to which you have subscribed (opt-in). Before you click on any link or send an email off to parts unknown that message is not spam. Never reply or click on any links in spam - just delete message unread.

Don't get mad about receiving mailings from various lists. Most of these now require double-opt-in, which pretty much means you have to want to be subscribed. This is very safe for list owner because not only do list members subscribe to list, but they must also do something else (usually return a blank email) to verify that they indeed do want to subscribe.

It's generally not a good idea to try and reply asking to be removed from list. Most lists have specific unsubscribe functions and simply writing an email saying "please remove me" will not work. Quite often, in fact, a reply will instead be sent to ALL members of list, which simply makes you look foolish.