Spam- An Emotional Issue

Spam -an Emotional Issue

Spam- more than just an annoyance. Why does Spam inspire so much passionate hate?

Spam is an emotional subject, just ask any computer user. In a sense, Spam is nothing more than unsolicited
direct marketing in an email version, or electronic junk mail. People dont get as fired up about junk from the
postman, so why all the emotion about Spam? To understand why this is, you need to look at peoples
relationships with their computers.

Email is a push medium, like television advertising; networks push ads to you, just as you are sending, or
pushing an email communication to a recipient . The television viewer has the remote control in hand to bypass
commercials and just surf away. Similarly, it is the email recipient who is in the drivers seat , hand on the mouse
or delete button. Whether Spam is read or not, it still considered a major annoyance for many emailers.

While both Television and email are push mediums, the difference is in the expectation. TV viewers expect advertising;
in my lifetime, its always been a part of the medium. Some creative ads even have some entertainment value. Viewers
have accustomed themselves to using commercial breaks to check on other shows or to get a snack.

With spam, the real emotional trigger is the proprietary way that people feel about their computers. They feel that their
computers are their own private domain, and that they control what they see and hear. The resistance to spam, is mostly
an emotional one; a wish to hold onto this private domain. Or at least the illusion of it. Television has had years to indoctrinate
viewers into the format that networks use. I grew up with the idea that tv has commercials- it always has.

My inbox didnt always have SPAM, and it is not a welcome intruder.

Two years ago, while researching new interactive advertising technologies for an article for SAM magazine , I came across
a company called Amicada. Their concept was to show commercials to computer users, while online and off, for which the
viewer would be rewarded. It was completely opt in, requiring a download of their software. It then initiated ongoing pop-ups
for these commercials on your computer; you could choose to delay viewing an ad, but it was guaranteed to remind you
again later.

I didnt buy the concept; personally brisled at the idea of having more pop-ups while I was online, and any pop ups while offline.
For me the rewards could not be high enough to want to participate; I assumed that the majority of people would feel the way I did.

Perhaps the internet surfing public cast their same vote. Despite significant support and backing by Unilever and some VC funding,
Amicada has joined the DotBomb graveyard. To read the SAM article: http://www.janetabachnick.com/mouse.html

The other emotional trigger of spam is the content of the emails. Items hawked are typically for enlargement of private body parts,
multi level marketing under the guise of business opportunties, viagara, and plain old pornography. It is like a snake oil salesman
having orbed into our living room uninvited, and we arent happy about the intrusion.

As spammers try to be seen and get read, over the volumes other emails flooding our inboxes, they are resorting to new, cheap
tricks, casting additional aspersions on the practice. Subject lines, like here is your statement or here is the info you requested
have gotten us to fall for it, opening an email expecting it to be something in fact we had requested, only to leave us feeling taken,
our time wasted. I havent even mentioned the time and cost factors that Spam takes up.

Now that you understand the emotional issues that people feel with regard to Spam, you can see why any email perceived as spam
reflects negatively on the sender. The message, spam me, and well never do business, ever in this lifetime. You can be perceived
as being a spammer, even if people opted in to get your message, because people forget what they sign up for online. All the more
reason you want to make sure that you are not an inadvertent spammer.

To your effective emailing ~ Jane

Stay tuned for the release of my book Are You Sending The Right Message-
Effective Email Communication for Executives and Entrepreneurs."

Reprint Permission
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears:
"Reprinted with permission from Jane Tabachnick eMarketing (Copyright, 2003, Jane Tabachnick)
If you would like more great articles like this, subscribe to our complimentary newsletter, the eMarketing Edge a
http://www.janetabachnick.com/ezine.html"

Spam Revisited

Spam has reared it's ugly head again. I got thinking about it because of a few articles I've noticed on the subject popping up here and there. One side of it concerns spam filtering software ( the reason you keep seeing weird words like FR^E instead of FREE as publishers try to avoid the trap) and secondly it concerns over zealous `spam cops`.

Here's my take on it. I mentioned this briefly in the bonus issue a few days ago :o)

1. No matter how much mail you're receiving please be sure that you didn't request it. Some things that look like spam are really ads or offers from places you've given permission to. Be vigilant when you enter your e-mail into forms or reply to autoresponders. Watch out for terms such as 'Allow carefully selected companies to send you special offers' or similar!

2. It's easy enough to manage your spam by managing your e-mail addresses. Use multiple accounts to make sure important pail goes one place, and junk goes another. Use one address for all those web forms you fill in.

3. Don't use spam filtering software. None of it really works, yet. If you do use it please be sure to allow your e-zines through. For example, mine always begins with the subject NNews: making it easy for you to filter, or unblock, as the case may be.The address will always be netpreneurnow.com, so you can also enable that domain. No-one else uses that domain bar me!

Some mail service, such as HotMail, have an `exclusive` feature where ONLY e-mails and domains authorized by you are allowed through. That's good to have on your primary, private e-mail. Only mail from contacts can come there. Just be sure to add any new correspondents to your address book or you won't get their mail!

4. Now for the mail that is spam. If it has an unsubscribe link, use it. I know that a lot of unsubscribe links are ignored but the majority do work. If there's no link there's not much you can do except delete it. Can you manage to press that little button?

5. A lot of the stuff you find on the internet is free or nearly so because of advertising. If you enjoy an e-zine, and benefit from it, I'm sure that you can manage an extra ad or two? If you don't like the e-zine or perhaps they're a little to overboard with their solos then just unsubscribe. It's totally under your control. Just remember that a e-zine represents a lot of work to the writer at no cost to you, but I'm glad to have you anyway! :oD

6. The only mailings that I would class as spam are those that I never requested, also called UCE (unsolicited commercial email). Some people bend the rules (a lot!) and take the fact that you e-mailed them to be a good reason to e-mail you ads back. I would not call it spam as such but it isn't really good practice. Another type of unwanted e-mail are those that come from services that were only *supposed* to mail you once, but keep doing it. Finally, the worst kind, are those that just take your e-mail from web pages, news groups or whatever then send you mail. That's the only way someone gets your address without you doing anything short of stealing it from another service. Those people who use e-mail scavengers are the kind that deserve the bad press.

6b. But, like anything, there's a grey area there. If I take e-mail addresses of web sites to request a link swap or similar am I spamming? If I use Zeus (which does the same thing) is that
spam? No, because there's no ad involved in those situations. Do not forget the middle word in `Unsolicited Commercial Email`!

7. And those Spam Cops. I've never encountered one, but the things I hear aren't too good. I'd suggest they are a little more
thorough in their investigations and less hasty. Dialogue is much better!

So how do you say safe from a publishers point of view? Newsletters / Ezines should always be opt in. Don't add someone because they posted to your FFA but an `invitation` could be ok. Don't add bulk lists to your autoresponders. Basically, ensure that anyone who gets mail from you has given you permission!

No doubt this debate will go on and on. Spam will get worse, but as long as you can distinguish between Spam and Advertising and take some basic steps with your accounts all should be ok.

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Stuart Reid is the publisher of Netpreneur News and webmaster of Netpreneur Now! Visit us for weekly tips, reviews, recommendations and more. Sign up for a free ad and 30 free e-books.
mailto:signup@netpreneurnow.com
http://www.netpreneurnow.com/
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Small Business Q & A: Beware Of Spam Withdrawals

Q: I am so sick of all the spam that is sent to my business email address. I spend an hour every morning just trying to sort out the good email from the 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's the best solution for dealing with spam?

A: I feel your pain. I, too, miss the good old days when the only time you'd spend an hour dealing with spam was trying to pry it out of the can.

Due to the nature of my business, I get a lot of unwanted email. I've been working on the 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, and the rest were from people that I would like to track down and field dress with a very dull knife.

Spammers, they are called the scourge of the Internet the digital kin of the 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 with the 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 was the 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 expect the 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. And the sheer number of folks concerned about the abundance (or lack thereof) of my anatomy was incredibly heart warming.

And the 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 days the withdrawal symptoms ceased and I was happy to be free of the majority of the 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, the 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 in the 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 of the ways spammers get you in their sites.

Spammers use "spider software" to crawl the web and harvest email address, so if you have a personal or company website that has your email posted on it, sooner or later a spam spider is going to grab your address and add it to the mill. Likewise when you sign up to take online surveys or receive email newsletters, you are potentially exposing yourself to spammers.

How can you reduce the amount of spam you get? Many people think that you can't fight spam, so you should just accept it and move on. In other words, you can not fight the Borg, so smile and be assimilated into the fold. While spam is hard to eliminate, there are things you can do to lessen the amount of spam you receive and it's impact on your daily business life.

First, stop clicking on the "unsubscribe" links at the bottom of spam emails. While some of the links are valid and will get you removed from spammer's lists, other are actually there just to let the spammer know that your address is valid. Click the link to unsubscribe and you might actually see the amount of spam you receive increase.

Second, it's a good idea to have at least two e-mail addresses. Use one for personal or business use, and the other for surveys and online purchases.

Third, consider installing a spam blocking software on your computer or company network. There are a variety of spam blocking applications on the market that range in price from free to a hundred bucks. Though none of them will completely eliminate spam, they can greatly reduce the volume you receive. Search the Web for "spam filter" and investigate the ones that you feel are right for you.

Your Internet Service Provider should also offer an anti-spam application, but be careful how you use it. I have a client who recently increased the sensitivity of their ISP spam blocker to the point that nothing was getting delivered to their company email accounts, including their own company newsletter. They had effectively built an email brick wall that stopped the spam and everything else. Not a good idea.

Before investing in a commercial spam blocker you might also try adjusting the email filtering settings in your email software. Microsoft Outlook, for example, lets you set rules for handling incoming mail. The same is true with Outlook Express, Eudora, and Apple's Mail OSX. Each have built-in filtering features that can help eliminate unwanted email by parameters you set.

One thing to remember is that if spam didn't work, it would quickly go away. In other words, if spammers weren't profiting from sending unwanted emails they would go do something else.

Probably become a telemarketer or credit card debt collector.

Whether you use a commercial product or rely on your existing email software to filter out spam, just be careful that you don't batten down the hatches so tight that you no longer receive any email at all.

Here's to your success!

Tim Knox
tim@dropshipwholesale.net
For information on starting your own online or eBay business, visit http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

Tim Knox as the president and CEO of two successful technology companies: B2Secure Inc., a Web-based hiring management software company; and Digital Graphiti Inc., a software development company. Tim is also the founder of dropshipwholesale.net, an ebusiness dedicated to the success of online entrepreneurs. http://www.dropshipwholesale.net http://www.smallbusinessqa.com

The Anti-Spam Zealots who went to the FTC Spam Forum

On the three days from April 30 through Friday, May 2, 2003, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) held a "Spam Forum" in Washington, D.C.

According to the FTC website, the purpose of this forum was "to address the proliferation of unsolicited commercial e-mail and to explore the technical, legal, and financial issues associated with it."

While the FTC and other government entities try to figure out how they can legally address the Spam issue, they are doing so without consulting with those of us who run small businesses online. Of the 97 people who spoke at the forum, the majority was technicians and lawyers who represent the ISP's and Anti-Spam companies. A few of the people even represented large bulk email companies.

Forum participants could not even agree on a proper definition of "spam" --- yet they propose that they are the best qualified to help write the laws that will eliminate spam?

My question is this, who represented the small business owner and the small publishers at the FTC spam forum? No one really. It was not because the small business segment did not have representatives willing to speak on their behalf. In fact, both I-Cop.org and OMPUAC.org --- both of whom represent small online businesses --- had petitioned to have their representatives speak at the forum, but both were turned down.

You can read the list of the people who DID speak at the FTC "Spam Forum" at:

http://www.theezine.net/ftc_spam_forum.shtml

Should you honestly believe the anti-spam profiteers had your interests in mind when they had the opportunity to speak to the FTC?

Here are some of the anti-spam profiteers who found representation at the FTC "Spam Forum":

Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) SpamCon Foundation
SpamCop
The Spamhaus Project
Habeas

Even in the hallowed lists of the anti-spam zealots, the profiteers aren't taken very seriously sometimes. When addressing Anne P. Mitchell, Esq., CEO of Habeas, Inc., a member of the SPAM-L list suggested:

"What makes you think that 'we' trust Habeas any more than any other organisation whose business model depends on spam continuing to exist in order to stay in business."

Good point.

William Waggoner, founder of AAW Marketing LLC in Las Vegas, Nevada, did actually support my own point of view. He suggested at the "Spam Forum" that technology techniques like spam filtering hurts even legitimate email marketers!

You know whom Mr. Waggoner was talking about. He was talking about those e-mail marketers who have actually acquired permission from the email recipient to send them commercial email.

When someone in the forum audience laughed at his comment, Waggoner fired back, "You think that's funny?"

So why did they laugh? This gets to the heart of why the FTC Spam Forum was bad news for the legitimate email marketer. Many anti-spam zealots do not believe that there is such a thing as "legitimate commercial email!"

TERM: Double Opt-in - Requires a subscriber to request a subscription and then to verify the intention to subscribe by following a defined procedure.

Even if publishers who now require "double opt-in" subscriptions were to ask for and keep records of "quadruple opt-in" verifications from their subscribers, a lot of anti-spam zealots would still cry foul!

Why else would the terms *s*u*b*s*c*r*i*b*e* and *u*n*s*u*b- *s*c*r*i*b*e* be included in many spam filters with the implied suggestion that email that carries this terminology MUST be spam?

It does no good to be able to prove double opt-in to the ISP's and the anti-spam zealots. Most presuppose that any commercial email is likely to be spam.

The ISP's are honestly concerned with the cost of bandwidth in association with email. Estimates have put the monthly cost of spam to be $3 per month per email account. Thus, if ISP's can reduce or eliminate spam, they can reduce their costs and improve their profits.

ISP's who oppose all commercial email --- you know, the kind who laugh at the suggestion that spam filters hurt "legitimate email marketers" --- think one step further. They believe that if they can eliminate all commercial email, then they can significantly reduce their costs and significantly improve their profits!

At every level of the Internet food-chain, people are concerned with their own profits. The anti-spam zealots, who had the most pronounced representation at the FTC spam forum, will profit handsomely from the loss of commercial email... Or will they?

Without commercial enterprise on the Internet, will people still be flocking to the web in the numbers they are today?

Recognizing the fact that the filtering industry is destroying email commerce, people like Anne P. Mitchell of Habeas, Inc. have come running to the assistance of online commercial businesses. For a price, Habeas will "whitelist" your publication or email --- or should I say for a hefty price, Habeas will "whitelist" your email!

TERM: Whitelist - This is a kind of filter that suggests that any email that meets the whitelist definitions will be pre-verified (under the terms of the whitelist company) as legitimate commercial email.

Habeas purports to offer a "value-added service" that will help your outgoing email reach its destination unobstructed. Habeas also purports its fees to be very reasonable --- up to $500 per mailing list per year. Is $500 really a "reasonable" price? I don't think so.

As consumers, we always think of the "spam war" as something that addresses the unsolicited email from the p*o*r*n industry, the nutritional products industry, and other fly-by-night scammers.

Yet, when the people who are speaking on our behalf in the halls of government think of the "spam war", they are thinking of something else entirely. In fact, they are attempting to remove the cash from the pockets of not only the spammers, but also the small business people who employ legitimate email marketing techniques.

Why do so many anti-spam zealots target all commercial email? Simple, they want to put the cash where THEY think it belongs --- into their own pockets!

John Calder is the owner and editor of http://www.TheEzine.Net Subscribe Today and get real information YOU can use to help build your online business today.

Are opt-in email lists still valuable in this SPAM age?

 One of the things that the introduction of blogs has done is to cause an exodus of sorts from email newsletters or ezines to online publishers simply publishing the information on their blogs.

It is not too difficult to realize why online publishers embraced blogs so quickly and enthusiastically. Actually the SPAM monster appeared to be slowly squeezing the life out of their online business. To meet the SPAM challenge most ISPs have set up SPAM filters that are so powerful that they quite often filter out mail that has been requested, especially mail of the massive opt-in kind. This has meant an increasing number of bounces and undeliverable mail.

With the arrival of blogs there was an easy way out of all this anxiety. Ezines could easily be posted on blogs and no ISP SPAM filter would touch it. And what is more the email aspect of feedback was not lost because readers could easily post a comment at the blog. The huge advantage over email here was that one could see another readers comment and quickly support or disagree with it. Blogs have actually revolutionized publishing the way no other tool has in the history of mankind.

So have blogs made email newsletters and opt-in email lists obsolete? The answer is a firm NO. Nothing would be further from the truth. Even when an online publisher delivers their weekly or daily content at a blog, what is the best way of sustaining and growing traffic to the blog?

Actually even with a website, there is no other more effective way of sustaining high traffic than by harvesting email addresses. This is done by offering and email newsletter or an email course of sorts. This builds up a valuable opt-in email list that you can use again and again to direct traffic to your site. You can even sell them something. As internet marketing experts often point out, the money is in the list.

This is the reason why experts advice affiliates to set up their own sites or blogs to play a key role in their efforts to market their affiliate site. This is simply because it is a huge waste to drive so much traffic to your affiliate site and end up having only a tiny fraction signing up for your affiliate program. By driving traffic through your own site, you have an opportunity to harvest emails and build up a huge, valuable targeted opt-in email list that you can still market the very same affiliate program to, later. In fact research has clearly shown that most people buy only after several repeated encounters of the same product or service.

Even with the introduction of the extremely useful blogging tool and the change of business models by many online publishers, opt-in email lists still remain the most valuable online marketing tool.
 Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.


How to make more money from the google adsense ads on your blog Lois S.Numerous bloggers these days are looking to earn extra cash through the google adsense ads that they post at their sites. Actually the spreading of pay-per-click ads by leading search engines in recent times to smaller sites and blogs has had a major impact on the net. Firstly it has helped to improve on the quality of content on sites as webmasters pay much closer attention to their content so as to attract the right kind of high value google adsense ads that will earn them more revenue.

Still one needs to know how to maximize on their google ads revenue. There are a number of things that you will need to do regularly to ensure that you keep earning a good regular income from google.

Check the value of keywords before posting new content

It is not too difficult to insert most keywords in your area of specialization into your article while leaving your article attractive and useful to readers. You may require the services of a writer, but this should not be a problem as online writers are very affordable.

Do not spend money buying a list of valuable keywords, this information is available for free online. Whats more in your initial experimental stage with keywords buying a list will not be a prudent thing to do. One of the reason is that there is no guarantee that your using certain keywords will automatically and quickly attract the desired high value click ads. There is no certainty in these things. However by consistently using high value keywords you will ultimately enjoy a much higher income than somebody who does not.

Here is a useful link for checking keyword values. It is an overture tool but will also give you a very good idea of what their competitors Google charge for the same keywords.

http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/

Write interesting relevant content

Writing interesting, relevant and captivating content for your website or blog will yield many useful benefits that will ultimately impact on your google adsense earnings. To start with, it is a well know fact that the longer you can keep your visitors in your site, the higher the chances of you selling them something. The same is true with clicks the longer you can keep them wandering around your site the higher the chances that they will end up clicking at some of your google ads and thus earn you something. Well written, relevant content will also make cause your visitors to return again, another vital and highly desirable reaction that makes a website successful. It is much easier to attract back a previous visitor than to win over a new one.

Having interesting and relevant copy at your site is the most effective way of attracting visitors and keeping them longer at your site. Interesting content will also cause your visitors to return again and again. All this will have a very positive impact on your google adsense earnings.

Post your content elsewhere

Posting your quality, attractive content elsewhere will increase the number of quality links leading back to your site. This will help build up the traffic to your website which should have a direct bearing on your google earnings. The higher the traffic a site has, the higher the clicks and this means higher earnings.

The position of your adsense ads matters

Do not ignore advice given by google to affiliates on where ads work best. For example posting them on the left is always better than the right because the eye attention will always be caught by the left before the right. Another good place to post ads is at the bottom of the page.
 Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.

HOW to use Guerilla Warfare on Spammers

Do you ever wish you could travel back in time and smack yourself for doing something dumb?

If I had a time machine, I would travel into the past and warn myself about SPAM (Right after I played the winning numbers for today's lottery).

Come step into my time machine, and take a journey with me into the past. Let me show you how I conquered spam, and how you can follow in my footsteps.

When I was younger, my best friend had a basement stocked full of spam. His family couldn't seem to get enough of it.

The moment I walked into his house, the aroma of spam filled the air.

When I was the ripe old age of twelve, I made the mistake of my life...I tried a spam sandwich. My friend convinced me that it was "really good, dude."

In my defense, I was starving and there was nothing else to eat. That thirty second experience still continues to haunt me.

This wouldn't be my first nightmarish encounter with spam, however.

Ten years later, while building my very first Website, I naively put my email address on every single page of my site.

I wanted to give my visitors a chance to ask me questions, make comments on my site, etc.

As my Website grew more and more popular, I started to receive 100 spam emails a day. Then 500, 1000, 2000...until it became unbearable.

I needed a solution and fast.

The first thing I had to accept was that my old email address was now useless. So I had to give it a proper burial and let it go. Then I created a new email address and applied spam prevention techniques I had diligently researched.

The result? A spam free email account.

Let me tell you, it is total bliss my friend.

You are in a war. You vs. the enemy (Spammers). The war has swung to the other side, but by using guerilla warfare tactics, you can turn the tide of battle.

To win the ever growing battle against spammers, you have to study your enemy, then prepare your battle plan.

This may be the most important sentence you ever read about spam prevention, so pay attention - Spammers cannot fill your inbox with their junk if they can't find your email.

It really is that simple.

With that in mind, below you will find your battle plan:

Step 1: Say good-bye to your old email account

If your inbox is filled with spam, dump it. I know using a new email address can be painful, but in the end you will be happy you took this advice.

Once the spammers find your email, you will never be able to regain full control of your inbox.

Step 2: Create a 'dummy' account at Hotmail or Yahoo!

Whenever you post on a message board, sign-up for an offer, or are asked to give out your email, use this dummy account.

Never use your main email address in such a manner, especially on a message board.

Many people try to "disguise" their emails while posting on a message board, under the false assumption a spam bot won't grab this email.

As an example:

john @ myemailaccount.com
johnATmyemailaccountDotcom

The enemy has now programmed their spamming software to recognize these disguised emails.

Step 3: Use a contact form on your Website

This is a critical step. So listen closely.

Many savvy Webmasters use contact forms to prevent spam. However, it has to be done correctly to be effective.

If you have your email address ANYWHERE within your HTML, the new spamming software will find it.

You can't use HTML encryption to hide your address, like you could in the past. The enemy has created new software that breaks down this code and grabs your email.

Many contact forms require you to use your email address to send the form information. BIG MISTAKE.

The spam bots will grab any email address in your HTML, even if it is in your contact form.

Your CGI script should contain the response email address - it should not be in the HTML.

When you are creating your contact form, use the "Mail-To-Form" script found here:
http://scripts.cgi101.com/

Step 4: Make a graphic of your email address

If you must have your actual email on your site, create a small image of your email address.

Then link this graphic to your contact form.

Now your customers can write down your actual email address and contact you at a later date.

The war rages on against spam, but by using these guerilla warfare tactics against spammers, you will soon achieve your FREEDOM!

Jason Tarasi publishes the reciprocal links newsletter "Elite Links"

Learn HOW thousands of other Elite Links members generate FREE traffic and increase their search engine rankings by swapping links. Grab your free lifetime subscription now at: http://www.freeclassifiedlinks.com/enter