5 Ways Spam Is Affecting Your Business And what we can all
do to prevent it.

If you had only just got online, and received your first
few emails, you may be forgiven for thinking you had hit
paydirt.

You would already have heard how you won millions on a
foreign lottery, then some benevolent foreigner wants to
give you more millions because a relative has died and he
needs help to get his inheritance, and you’re someone he
can trust. And as luck would have it, those personal body
parts you don’t discuss with anyone are actually too small,
but a few people can help you with that for a very low fee.
And you have all that Cas.h coming so…..

But you’re a seasoned veteran, and none of that is worth
your time, it’s just so much spam.

You probably don’t even see any of it.

Don’t give it a second thought.

Maybe you need to.

It is because it is so easy and cheap to send email that
you as a marketer want to use it,and spammers selling dodgy
pills want to exploit it. They send out a million untargeted
messages in a few hours, and rely on the fact that even if
only 1 or 2 % of the people they sent it to bu.y their wares
they will be in Profi.t.

You try to send a more targeted mailing, but due to the
spammers all email is being vetted more carefully, and spam
is hurting all of our businesses, even responsible marketers
like you who wouldn’t even think about using it.

Here are the 5 reasons you should consider the
implications of spam more carefully.

1 The time it takes to sort your emails is increased, but
you can always use filters or antispam software. Which
brings us to

2 False positives in antispam software means, if you don’t
check the filtered out spam, you may miss a valuable
contact from a customer. So you have to check it all
anyway.

3 Your customers use spam blockers, or their isps do so you
need to rethink your newsletter or email to your list of
prospects so you don’t trigger theirs.

4 Due to the amount of people you can reach with email, you
are more likely to encounter someone who reports you for
spam even after they signed up and double opted into your
newsletter. Result:- your domain gets blacklisted, and you
spend time undoing the damage.

5 People are more wary about giving their e-mail addresses
out so it’s harder work getting them to sign up for your
newsletter in the first place. You need an easy to find
privacy promise on your site.

Because so many people have used spam to sell their
products, we all suffer.

Even with all these spam related problems, email remains a
viable and usable option for Online marketin.g, but it needs
a bit more care than it did before.

Governments may be stepping in and passing laws to outlaw
spam, but the spammers themselves will move their servers
to a safe place with a more tolerant government. We need to
do our bit to keep email as an advertising option and play
safe.

Consider putting your newsletters online and sending a
short email with the link to the latest issue in it.
Never bu.y from a spammers email, and despite some advice
you may have seen to the contrary it is unwise to try to
reply to unsubscribe, that just proves they have an email
address which is live.

Be careful where you get leads from if you bu.y them, some
unscrupulous companies will sell you email lists harvested
straight from website mailto links.

CD’s full of 1000’s of names are not a good buy to market
to, they will have been sold and sold again, and the people
whose email addresses are on them will have been sent too
many offers already.

Always email responsibly, and ensure you give people a
plain privacy link, and an even more plain unsubscrib.e link
in every email.

Douglas Titchmarsh runs several websites, and blogs including
http://www.cashinonline.info and
http://www.titchmarsh.com

In today’s spam-filled email world, it’s sometimes VERY difficult to get your news releases and PR pitches to the media person you are trying to reach. These tips hold true for personal emails, too, so even if you don’t do P.R., this article offers some important email tips.

Here are a few ideas to help you be more successful in reaching your target.

1. Write the release with spam filters in mind.

There are many words that trigger spam filters these days. Learn to write alternative words, substitute zeros for Os or add * in the word to avoid the spam trap. You can find out which words are likely to be a problem in this excellent list provided by Dr. Wilson: http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/spamfilter_phrases.htm

2. Check your content to see what your spam filter rating is.

There are free sources to check your email. One of them is Lyris Content Checker ( http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker/), which checks it against the SpamAssassin database.

3. Send each email individually, not as a CC or BCC.

The CC function allows everyone to see who you sent your email to so you definitely don’t want to do that. The reporters will get irritated when they see you have sent it to all of their competitors. As my grandmother used to say,”It’s better to keep some things to yourself.”

The BCC function allows you to hide the list of recipients from everyone who receives the email, but it doesn’t hide it from the email programs and filters. These programs know that you are sending a BCC message to a list, and if you send it to 10 or more, it will automatically trigger the spam filter.

You can send your emails efficiently from many database programs. I use ACT! and it allows me to not only send to a group, with each email going individually, but it also keeps track of what I sent to whom.

There are also systems available, like the one I use to deliver my ezines (which comes with my 1ShoppingCart.com service), designed to send hundreds and thousands of emails all at the same time. And the best thing is, you can tailor your release to add personal details about each recipient, such as their name and the industry they cover. I use my shopping cart to deliver my newsletters, but you can also use a service like ConstantContact for this.

4. Include the recipient’s name in the subject line.

When someone sends me an email that begins, “Lois,…”, I pay attention. I know that this person either knows me or I have subscribed to their ezine or asked to have them communicate with me for some reason. And I NEVER report these people as spammers. If I don’t want to continue receiving information from them, I politely unsubscribe or email them to take me off their list. Think about it. You respond better when someone uses your name, don’t you? It’s a terrific way to get someone’s attention.

5. Include [News] or [Pitch] in brackets at the beginning of the subject line.

Again, you need to give the reporter an easy way to spot your news as legitimate. So tell them up front you are sending them news or a pitch and watch your email delivery rate soar.

6. Include the reporter’s column or beat in the first paragraph.

A reporter is always going to pay more attention to your pitch if you are one of their faithful readers. If you start out your email with something like, “Jane, in last week’s Cooking for One column, you said…”, you will surely get the reporter’s attention.

7. Include all your contact information

Nothing’s worse than getting an email that you want to respond to immediately and having no way to contact the person except by email. Give the reporter all your phone numbers. And don’t forget your physical address and website domain. Make it easy for them to contact you.

8. Never include any attachments.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave without Internet access, you know that attachments are the way that most worms and viruses are spread on the Net. Windows XP strips off most attachments, and most corporate entities don’t allow attachments to come through their systems. They can even get you blacklisted so your emails cannot get through. So don’t be stupid. Don’t send attachments unless someone asks for them.

9. Provide a link to your website to download photos, graphics, graphs, bios and other background information.

Just about anything that you need to deliver to a reporter can be uploaded to your website. You can include product photos, people photos (remember to make them 300 dpi for print/ 72 dpi for online and in various sizes, so that the media can choose which size they want to use), bios, background information, sample chapters, and even an entire digital book. If the reporter wants you to send the product or a physical book, then you’ll have to mail that, of course.

10. Always include a subject line, but never put “Hi” or”Hello” in the subject line, especially alone.

Emails without subject lines are usually spam, and those that say hi or hello are usually viruses, so no one is going to open them. Be thorough. Include a subject line.

11. Follow CAN-SPAM rules and allow an easy unsubscribe method to your email list.

Even if you don’t include a one-click unsubscribe, you should at least include a statement that tells the reporter how they can get off the list or let you know that their beat has changed. A simple statement that says, “To get off this subscriber list, simply hit ‘reply’ and put ‘remove’ in the subject line” will suffice. And don’t forget to include your name and address.

Lois Carter Fay, APR, is a 30-year veteran in the P.R. and marketing field. She now produces three marketing ezines, Brainy Tidbits, Brainy Flash, and Success Secrets of Women Entrepreneurs. All are free.

Visit http://www.MarketingIdeaShop.com or http://www.WomenMarketing.com to subscribe and claim your free special report.

You don’t find many negatives from iPod customers. All The Same, one thing often brought up is the inability to transfer music from their iPod to a second personal computer Though the iPod has no trouble copying music from your PC or laptop to iPod using iTunes, the opposite is disallowed. If you don’t use iPod to PC Software, you will not be able to copy your iPod files to an extra PC. This subject oftentimes occurs when iPod users get a new PC or have to install the operating system on their existing personal computer. Apple forbids this process because it doesn’t want unauthorized sharing of purchased videos and music from the iTunes shop. Still yet, there are many reasonable times that people need the power to move from iPod to computer. If a personal computer goes down and you need to re-run the system files, you might need iPod to Computer copy software to get your priceless videos and music. Otherwise, the clean installment of iTunes will wipe out your iPod, potentially costing you $100’s of dollars in unrecoverable files. Another common situation iPod owners require these types of software packages is when they buy a new machine and wish to move their existing database of iPod music and videos on the new computer. Over Again, if you don’t have this type of program, you could possibly lose your valuable iPod files. There are many developers on the market today that provide computer programs to accomplish this project. A speedy visit to freeware websites will bring out a lot of alternatives. You can also just type ‘iPod to PC transferring software’ into Google.