Spam Free Marketing

I received an email the other day from a work at home mom who recently started a small publishing company. She wanted to start selling advertising to other WAHM businesses but was concerned about bulk emailing them... with good reason.

Spam is the four-letter word that most offends those of us working online. Everyone with a website receives it and like bad art, we all know it when we see it. But also -like art- in a way, spam is in the eye of the beholder. I have participated in discussions that disintegrated because each member had his or her own definition of spam and was angry at those who disagreed.

In the offline world, it is perfectly acceptable to cold-call or snail mail a business to tell them about a product or service you offer. When I worked in an office environment, I took such calls all the time. Often, I said 'no thank you' and that was the end of it. But every once in a while, the call came in at just the time I was searching for such an item - and a sale would be made.

Of course, the power and low-cost of email make this an inexact comparison. So what do you do when you have a product or service that you *know* your target market *needs* -- and you want to use the power of the Internet to let them know about it?

THE PERSONAL APPROACH

The keywords are 'target market.' Find out who they are by doing an Internet search to find them. Check out sites which include directories of businesses in your target market. Then, visit those sites - and send their owners a *personal* email pitching your product. Be sure to use their *names* and comment on something you learn about their businesses from their sites. If they offer newsletters, sign up for them and comment upon something you read there. This establishes a prior business relationship and is not considered spam by *most* people.

However, even this personal approach will offend *some* webmasters, and it will cost you a lot of time relative to the number of people you reach. A more efficient means of getting your message out would be to join discussion groups geared to your audience and announce your product there.

ONLINE NETWORKING THROUGH DISCUSSION LISTS

But message boards and discussion lists have their own spam issues. When joining a list, you must read their guidelines and follow them. Sending out a blatant advertisement to the members of a discussion list will not be tolerated - but you are welcome to describe your business where it is *appropriate* (i.e., someone asks where they can find a product just like yours and you announce that you just happen to sell that).

You are also allowed to put information in your sig line that directs people to your website - so whenever you contribute to the discussion, you have an opportunity to promote your business.

When you join, sit back for a couple of days and follow the conversation so you can get a feel for the tone of the discussion, the people involved and what is customary among them. Then, introduce yourself as a new member (which also give you an opportunity to bring up the subject of your business, website, product - within the guidelines they set when you join).

An added benefit to marketing through discussion groups is the fact that you will build new relationships with other business people that can lead to joint ventures, assistance and even friendship. In the offline world, it is similar to being part of a chamber of commerce or other networking group and it works just as well on the web.

At the ParentPreneur Club, we have our own discussion group, PPC Advisory, where members brainstorm the issues they face as work at home parents. To join, email mailto:ppca-subscribe@topica.com .

Here are more of my favorite groups targeted to work at home parents. You'll find others specific to your needs by searching for them at http://www.yahoogroups.com and http://www.topica.com

mailto:clubmom-affiliates-subscribe@yahoogroups.com This group is made up of members of the Club Mom affiliate program. All members have websites with mom-related content and products, which makes them ideal partners for the Club Mom membership program. You must be an affiliate of Club Mom to be a member of this list.

mailto:DirectSelling-subscribe@yahoogroups.com For direct sales consultants who exchange ideas and suggestions on building a client base, fund raising, recruiting, booking, inspiration, motivation, party games, contests, merchandising, holiday ideas and more.

mailto:EP-subscribe@yahoogroups.com This is a function of the Entrepreneurial Parents (http://www.en-parent.com ) website. A forum for Entrepreneurial Parents (EPs) to connect directly with each other, discussing topics ranging from balancing work and family under one roof, to sharing practical business tips, to collective brainstorming, to supporting each other in responsible parenthood.

mailto:themompack-subscribe@yahoogroups.com The MomPack (TM) is a cooperative, not-for-profit organization, founded by working moms, run by working moms and for working moms to exchange business information amongst each other to help promote and advertise each other's businesses on and offline.

DON'T FORGET THE SEARCH ENGINES!

Do not overlook the value of getting your site listed in search engines, which will bring prospective customers to *you*. There are still many engines that will list your site for free. If you plan to do this yourself, walk do not run to http://www.jimtools.com . Jim Wilson carries one of the most complete free site submission resources we have seen.

Merle at http://www.mcpromotions.com also has a wealth of resources at her site. She specializes in promoting websites and handles our monthly search engine submissions for the ParentPreneur Club. Her prices are very reasonable.

GET PUBLICITY

Press releases should be part of your marketing plan, as well. There is nothing so cost effective as having your business mentioned in an offline publication or other medium. One newspaper article could result in dozens of leads for your business.
Karon Thackston has put together a free email course on how to write effective
press releases. To receive it, send a blank email to mailto:pressrelease@zipresponse.com Karon can also handle your PR needs. http://www.ktamarketing.com

Another interesting offer comes from JeriLynn Thomas of the Womens News Bureau. Jerilynn is offering a PR Boot Camp tailored to the needs of female entrepreneurs. Check it out at http://www.womensnewsbureau.com/prbootcamp.htm

EZINE ADVERTISING

Finally, there will come a time when you will need to pay for some advertising. Ezines that go out to your target audience give you a big bang for your advertising buck - your cost per thousand (CPM) is generally way less than what you could expect to pay in other media. Most sites that publish an ezine carry an advertising page.

We could devote several more articles to the particulars of writing ads and creating marketing campaigns. The one thing you need to keep in mind is that writing advertising copy is not an exact science. No one can guarantee how your audience will respond to an ad, no matter how well you think it turned out. The big marketers always test ads first and we suggest you do. You can buy ezine ads at deep discounts at http://www.ezineadauction.com (another site run by Merle of MCPromotions). We use it ourselves to sell remnant space in our ezines and have bought ads in other newsletters at a fraction of their published rates. This is a great resource for anyone who needs to advertise their businesses.

As you can see, there are lots of low-cost options for promoting your business online that do not entail bulk email. They're easy to implement and are proven to work... try them and see!

--------------------

Donna Schwartz Mills is the work-at-home parent behind the ParentPreneur Club
http://parentpreneurclub.com/cgi-bin/art/pl.cgi?sp Find out how we're getting healthy while earning a healthy living at home - http://www.unitoday.net/socalmom .

What is Spam?

spam: noun

Spam is unsolicited e-mail on the Internet. From the sender's point-of-view, it's a form of bulk mail, often to a list culled from subscribers to a Usenet discussion group or obtained by companies that specialize in creating e-mail distribution lists.

To the receiver, it usually seems like junk e-mail. In general, it's not considered good netiquette to send spam. It's generally equivalent to unsolicited phone marketing calls except that the user pays for part of the message since everyone shares the cost of maintaining the Internet.

Some apparently unsolicited e-mail is, in fact, e-mail people agreed to receive when they registered with a site and checked a box agreeing to receive postings about particular products or interests. This is known as both opt-in e-mail and permission-based e-mail.

Spam also bogs down the internet with unneccessary transactions to the point that I have seen it crash servers that have to deal with literally thousands of junk messages flooding them all at once.

A first-hand report indicates that the term is derived from a famous Monty Python sketch ("Well, we have Spam, tomato & Spam, egg & Spam, Egg, bacon & Spam...") that was current when spam first began arriving on the Internet. Spam is a trademarked Hormel meat product that was well-known in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

Michael Bloch
michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community.
Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions.
_____________________________________________

Copyright information....If you wish to reproduce this article, please acknowledge "Taming the Beast" by including a hyperlink or reference to the website (www.tamingthebeast.net) & send me an email letting me know. The article must be reproduced in it's entirety & this copyright statement must be included. Thanks. Visit www.tamingthebeast.net to view other great articles FREE for reproduction!

Michael is an Australian Information Technologies trainer and web developer. Many other free web design, ecommerce development and Internet articles, tutorials, tools and resources are available from his award winning site; Taming the Beast.net (http://www.tamingthebeast.net)

Hacking the Spammers

I was talking with someone I know who is a real wiz with computers. He was telling me that if someone is persistent enough, they can basically break into any computer. Our service provider was recently attacked and the hackers placed programs in the system which were disruptive.

Their priorities were to first get the server back up and running. In order to do this, they had to find and remove the disruptive files the hacker had placed on the system. Their next step was to identify how access was gained, and close that doorway. Finally they will make a concerted effort to identify the hacker. If, and when they do identify this person, they intend to prosecute them criminally, and sue them civilly for the damages they caused.

Surprisingly many of the Hackers are kids still in High School taking computer science classes. As an exercise, not approved by their teachers, they create viruses or hack into their friends computers just for fun, and prove that they can do it. Every once in awhile however, it backfires and they create something that doesn't work the way they intended. This can quickly spread and have world-wide implications.

Other Hackers know exactly what they are doing and have a malevolent purpose. These people are sick. Their intention is to hurt others, which they do. These people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Hacking is something that must be stopped. eCommerce is growing everyday, and the actions of these cultural misfits can cost millions in both money and lost time.

Spammers who send unsolicited ads to thousands by the hour are also a major problem. While admittedly I have a high profile email address, and probably receive more than my share of spam, this can be similarly disruptive to the operation of a business. There is no reason why I should have to sort through several hundred ads to find my email. This is disruption of service and the spammers should be held liable.

Now there are two kinds of spam. At the risk of offending someone, the first is perceived spam. Some "yo-yo" either signs up for something, or requests information, and having a mental lapse, forgets they did. They then complain bitterly when they receive it.

And then there is the "mental giant" that subscribes to a newsletter or ezine under one email address, which is forwarded to their main one, and forgets they did it that way. For security purposes, they have to be using the mail address they subscribed under to be removed, and don't. They find it easier to simply fire off an expletive filled missive to anyone they can identify.

Be aware that there are some people, who hate spam with such a passion, they actually get software that parses a message and automatically sends a complaint to every email address and domain it finds.

Someone had published an article I had written, and since it included my domain name, a complaint was fired off. That is simply not fair. I didn't send the email, it wasn't sent from my account, but I received a warning. The retard who did that apparently doesn't care who they hurt in pursuit of their "holy grail".

But perceived spam is only a very small part of the real problem. I don't mind getting an unsolicited email from a real person. I can always ask them to remove me, and they normally do. A real problem is the spammer who forges an email address, and if you try to respond, your message is returned as undeliverable.

Some ISP's have identified domains the spammers use and it is automatically deleted, so you never see it. In order to combat this, the spammers send it out their scams with a stolen email address that actually exists. I recently received over 6,500 remove requests from people who had received an ad for a sex site, sent out with my return email address someone had used. This is rather a simple matter, and the headers in the email clearly show it didn't come from me. However, the inexperienced would lay the blame squarely on my shoulders. This is identity theft and the perpetrators should be severely punished.

You are especially at risk to a hack attack if you have either a DSL or Cable connection, as you are always connected when your computer is on. Someone could break into your computer and spam to their hearts content using your account. We have our computers networked together, and it requires a password to access the files. While that will protect us from the majority of attacks, a determined effort could gain access.

The best protection the average person can use is a "firewall" which prevents people from accessing their computer. Search engines will quickly reveal where they can be obtained.

Now if we could only get the hackers to concentrate on the spammers, maybe this entire problem would go away.

Bob publishes the free weekly "Your Business" Newsletter Visit his Web Site at http://adv-marketing.com/business to subscribe. As a bonus, get 40,000 FREE E-Books from Larry Dotson, when you visit http://www.ldpublishing.com

SPAM and how it can save you money!

There are times when we all need some clarification on what spam really is.
We all get it but seldom do we hear it defined. Spam is very important to
the success of the entrepreneur in a few important ways. Let's define and
look at it more carefully, taking into account the old saying "there is a
sucker born every minute".

What is spam?

Spam is the garbage email that we all get daily from either get rich quick
sites or porn sites. You will rarely get spam under any other subject. You
know you are in receipt of a spam email if you get information that you
didn't specifically request. You know you are a sucker (the one quoted
above) if you decide to buy from a spammer.

How can we stop spam?

Why would we want to? Read on

The hidden secret about spam that could save you thousands of dollars.

We all need to treat spam as a news service. What do I mean by this you
ask? I get about 20 spam messages a day on average and consider it a free
news service of businesses to stay away from. In other words, when you get
a spam message be sure to "insert" a subject at the top of the message that
says "Another business that is a scam or is going bankrupt". The first part
of the subject is very clear and covers most of the spam you will get. The
other half is very important.

Many companies on the net right now are going bankrupt, in fact this number
is in the tens of thousands. You can bet 100% that if you get a message
from a company that is trying to sell you something that seems legitimate
they are trying to keep from going out of business. You can purchase their
wares but the odds are they will use your money to pay their creditors or
simply pocket it without sending you a thing.

Most people would probably pay for such a service that provided them with
updates on business scams and companies that are going under. But, it's
free for us all. As a matter of fact, I recently worked on a software
problem with one of Microsoft's tech support people. This guy was one of
the core database programmers that you just don't see everyday on the
street. During our work we had a short break while the program was
compiling so I asked him how long he worked for the largest company in the
world. He told me, just over two years.

Then it hit me, I asked him how Microsoft blocked spam. I figured this
grand company had some secret way of doing it and just had to know. He told
me that he gets about a hundred spams a day on average and that there is no
way to block it since it is just so rampant. So folks if Microsoft can't
stop it, spam is here to stay, so let's use it and save some of our hard
earned money.

Oh, look at what the cat just dragged in

Spam clip

-------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Consumers, Increase your Business Sales! How?? By
targeting millions of buyers via e-mail !!
25 MILLION EMAILS + Bulk Mailing Software For Only $150.00
super low price! ACT NOW !!!

Our Fresh Addresses Will Bring You
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-------------------------------------------------------------

Need I say more?

George Kosch MSc. is Webmaster for Worldprofit.com, a renowned technology
services consultant and educator. He has appeared as a speaker in several
technology seminars and on Canadian television as an industry expert.For
other helpfulinformation on how to grow your business, go to
http://www.worldprofit.com/autoresponse.

Spam is no vegetable!

Spammers are like spiders coming from the World Wide Web
and crawling in and on your mind, head, your body and spine.
Many dictionaries do not give you the meaning of Spam. One
dictionery defines it a a vegetable. The spell check in many word
processing software would not give you its spelling!

Our unabashed dictionary defines Spam as pinching the bottom
of a girl in a crowded street.

On a crowded elevator of a sky-scrapper of a computer giant, a
shapely lass was pinched at her bottom.
She turned back and growled, " Who is spamming me?"
The handsome young man behind her looked at her in face and
said, "Pardon me. I thought it was a safe address".
"Never mind, I will opt in for your mail!" The girl replied smilingly
as she was impressed with his looks and mannerism.

As you know spam (noun) means an unsolicited e-mail message
sent to many recipients at one time, or a news article posted
simultaneously to many newsgroups or lists.

Spam is a sort of junk mail. Generally the contents of a Spam
message or article are not relevant to the topic of the group or the
interests of the recipient.

Spam is an abuse of the Internet in order to distribute a commercial
or religious or political message or publicity material to a huge number

of people at minimal cost.

Spambot means a program or device that automatically posts large
amounts of repetitive or inappropriate material to newsgroups on the
Internet.

Internet users are experiencing an increase in spamming! As thousands
of new web sites are created every year and more businesses flocking to
the Internet, spamming either due to ignorance of Internet culture and
rules or a willful disregard for them, has grown.

Quite a few big companies also utilize Spam techniques. Many people
abhor such intrusion on their time and privacy but many people like to get
mail. The popularity of email lists is growing. Many new list servers have
come.

How can you deal with Spam?

Simply hit reply button and write stop in Subject. Most people will
honor your advice except the mischief-makers Unless you find that the Spam is
due to ignorance of internet rules, do not waste time in writing to advise
that you find spamming to be invasive and annoying, and urge them to stop the
practice immediately However, many spammers hide their real email address and
many such replies bounce.

In such cases, you can write to the postmaster of the spammer's Internet

service provider, complaining that they are disturbing your privacy.
This is not always effective, as unscrupulous spammers have found ways to make
their messages appear to originate from another provider entirely. But
if your message does get through, the Internet service provider may cancel the
spammer's account.

Laws are rapidly changing. The business organizations and individuals
can get into trouble if they display total disregard to the rules regarding
email broadcast. In Europe and US the laws and rules are enforced strictly and many
people lose their ISP for spamming.

Shah N. Khan has over 20 years experience in marketing and supervising
life insurance sales force besides underwriting and advertising. He is now editing a
weekly ezine Fraternity Briefs Online http://www.yahoogroups/group/fraternity2
He also works as Internet Marketing Consultants and helps his two sons
in their web designing business. http://www.shah.khan.as

Don't Be A Spam Artist!

One of the hottest discussion topics going around the web these days is Spam. Spam is different things to different people, but basically it is sending email advertisements to anyone who did not request them or give permission to send them.

I do not consider an email from an acquaintance telling me something they think might interest me- spam. I do not consider people telling me about their business and asking for advice-spam. I do not consider advertisements from companies I have asked about-spam. I do not consider an invitation from a publisher to join their opt-in list-spam. However, these invitations should not be sent out in mass mailings.

There are, however, many things that I do consider to be spam. Unfortunately, when I first started on the Internet, I was guilty of spam once or twice. It does not necessarily make me a bad person, just an uninformed one. Now that I know what is considered to be spam and what is not, I would never in any way, shape or form become a Spam Artist!

These are some things to avoid doing:

* Sending your ad to any email you come across - SPAM! Do NOT send your ad to anyone unless they have asked for information, or if they have joined your opt-in list.

* Joining every discussion and announcement list you can find and sending your ad every few hours - SPAM! When you join these email lists, they will send you an email with their guidelines for posting. Please read and follow these guidelines carefully.

* Subscribing to an ezine and then replying to the ezine with your ad - SPAM! This is one way to get yourself removed from a lot of good lists. If you receive an ezine, do not reply with one of your ads.

* Buying email address lists and blasting your ad-SPAM! Most of the people on these lists probably do not even know they are on them. Therefore, you do not have their permission to send your ads.

* Adding people to your opt-in list without their permission - SPAM! Inviting people to join your list is one thing, but adding them without permission is a definite NO-NO.

* Visit every board you can, leave an ad and never come back - SPAM! Message boards have specific rules for posting and are usually for people to discuss and learn from each other, not for posting ads.

If you are unsure as to whether something is spam or not, visit some boards and ask other more experienced netpreneurs. It is better to be sure than to be accused of spam. Join some discussion lists also, to learn more about spam and what you should or should not do.

Message Boards:

http://www.free-publicity.com/cgi-bin/talk.cgi http://www.bizweb2000.com/wwwboard/ http://start-smartz.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi#post

Discussion Groups:

mailto:pubsonly-subscribe@topica.com mailto:Newbies911-subscribe@topica.com mailto:epub-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Visit these sites for more information on what spam is, what to do about it and how to avoid it:

http://w3.one.net/~banks/spam.htm http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/antispam.html http://www.spamfree.org/ http://stopspam.sparklist.com/

Be cautious of the way you conduct your business. Some people are tolerant of spam (if you are not a repeat or offensive spammer) and will just hit the delete button, but some will report anything they think is spam.

Do some research on spam and how not to become a Spam Artist!

Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com MyOwnEzine.com is a website, ezine and service which provides the resources, tools, guidance and more to help you start, publish and promote your own ezine. You can contact Terri at mailto:ter02@newnorth.net Subscribe at mailto:subscribe@myownezine.com or visit http://www.myownezine.com for lots more info.

PC Doctor+ Guide 4 Reducing Spam

Get Some Protection: Part 4 Spam

SPAM . . SPAM . . SPAM . . Yes it really was named after the famous Monty Python sketch featuring the intrepid Erik the Viking.

What Is Spam?

Unsolicited e-mail. Over 60% of all e-mails are now unsolicited sales messages - and it's growing.

Junk mail is the scourge of the Internet. While it's a real shame that something as useful as e-mail should be contaminated by this claptrap there are serious implications to it's phenomenal growth. EU businesses spend 1.5 billion a year trying to counter it and now Governments are looking at ways legislate against it.
There are no ways to avoid it completely that we know of but you can take steps to minimise it.

Common Sense Tips to Reduce SPAM

Never visit web sites advertised by Spam mail

If you do, never, NEVER buy anything

Do not reply to the e-mail or click an unsubscribe link - doing so merely confirms that your e-mail address is active and that the message has been read.

Delete Spam messages immediately

If certain domains are particularly bothering you report them to your ISP

Don't register for free services - especially those that don't allow you to opt out of third party and/or related products and services - they'll forward your address on to other Spammers.

Set up a dummy web based e-mail account such as Hotmail and use this address as a scrap bucket if you can't avoid providing an e-mail address. Organisations such as Hotmail routinely clear out dead messages to save space which means once you have set up your dummy account you can forget about it.

Blocking Unsolicited Mail In Microsoft Outlook Express

Once you have received an unsolicited mail into your inbox select it by clicking on it once.

Move the pointer to the MESSAGE menu option on the top menu bar
Select BLOCK SENDER

This action adds the senders address to a growing list of blocked senders. Each time a mail is received from any of those in the blocked list the mail is moved automatically to the DELETED ITEMS folder and does not appear in the INBOX.

Blocking Unsolicited Mail In Microsoft Outlook 2000/2002/XP

Use the RULES WIZARD within the TOOLS menu to create a rule to send any mail suspected of being Junk Senders to the DELETED ITEMS folder.

When an unsolicited e-mail arrives in your Inbox then select it by RIGHT clicking on it once and choose to add it to the junk senders list.

Delete the mail manually from your Inbox

The next time a mail arrives from the same source it will be moved automatically to the DELETED ITEMS folder. As the list grows the amount of junk mail in your Inbox will diminish.

Steve Latimer is Systems Manager with Arrival Computers (http://www.arrival-computers.co.uk). PC Doctor+ Guides are aimed at users new to computing. They may be reproduced and included in web sites as additional content provided a link is added back to the Arrival Computers Web Site.

Beware Spam Withdrawals

I 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.
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@onlineprofits4u.com

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox. Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies: B2Secure Inc., a Web-based hiring management software company; Digital Graphiti Inc., a software development company; and Sidebar Systems, a company that creates-cutting edge convergence software for broadcast media outlets. Tim is also the founder of OnlineProfits4U.com, an ebusiness dedicated to the success of online entrepreneurs. Tim is also the Ebusiness Startup and Design Expert for Entrepreneur.com, the website of the national publication Entrepreneur Magazine. http://www.smallbusinessqa.com
http://www.onlineprofits4u.com
http://www.digitalgraphiti.com

Is There A Future For Spam?

Will you always be buried underneath a mountain of spam? Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? With the current flood of spam to your inbox and ever more devious practices on the part of spammers you'd be forgiven for thinking that spam is here to stay.

The tide has turned folks. It may not seem like that right now with spam being just as abundant as ever. Spammers are getting desperate though. Their most recent move to use home computers as spam zombies demonstrates this desperation quite clearly. For spammers to want to use low speed cable and DSL connections to send their junk email means one thing - the email servers they're normally using are being blocked as quickly as they go online.

This is not to say that spam will just disappear. The volume of spam you're receiving hasn't noticeably reduced. Not yet but it will. Education is beginning to take effect. People are deleting spam instead of replying to it. Home users are hiding their PCs behind firewalls, antivirus software and spam filters. Companies are implementing enforcable Internet policies which prevent employees from sending spam, jokes or otherwise, during working hours. Even Microsoft have made a committment to fighting spam. Their recent buyout of Giant Software may see spam filtering as a default feature in the next version of Microsoft Windows perhaps?

Let's just imagine for a second what might happen if spam doesn't decrease over the next few years.

The geographical hotspots for spammers are Russia, China and the Phillipines. Could a government ,say perhaps the US Government, take a drastic step. Maybe initiate an electronic first strike on the countries which host junk email servers which are used to send out billions of pieces of spam every day? The US already have military Cyber Warfare teams fending off attacks from hackers working for foreign Governments. How hard would it be for them to initiate a cyber assault on spam servers? The US and China actively trade cyber warfare body blows every single day - although this is never discussed on the evening news.

Could data embargos be used to "choke" spammers of their online resources? The Internet itself is compromised of 13 central "pillars" and millions of nodes. A joint venture between the US, UK and the EU could theoretically shut down entire nodes to certain countries - a sort of E-embargo. No data in. No data out. In a world that relies so heavily on data this could bring any offending spam supporting country to its knees in just a few hours.

What's the likelihood of either scenario ever developing? Anywhere from non-existent to highly probable. We live in a world where absolutes mean nothing as each day passes and we surpass what was previously thought impossible.

The future of spam is a dim one. Public outrage and the drain on bandwidth and Internet resources as a whole has forged a bond of common anger between Joe Soap users and big business worldwide. The message is clear - Spam Has To Go!

What was once a very lucrative business for the spammer may soon be putting up a "Closed Due To Lack of Business" sign. Let's hope so.

Niall Roche runs Spam-Site.com which reviews and tests spam blockers and also provides tons of information on the origins of spam and how to fight it. http://www.spam-site.com

Hall of Shame The Bad Boys of Email Spam

Trust, Inc.The majority of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) or spam is sent by a relatively small group of dedicated professional spammers. The Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) indicates that 80% of all spam comes from just 200 known spam operations. This data is in line with research completed by CipherTrust research scientists, which indicates that most spam originates from a relatively small group of tightly integrated spam networks. While were all very familiar with the spam messages we receive each day, it is interesting to take a look at who these spammers are to put a face to the problem. Following are four of the most notorious and prolific spammers in the world.

Alan Ralsky
Mr. Ralsky is currently one of the most egregious spam senders in the world. His organization, based in Michigan since 1997, uses Chinese, European and US-based servers to host and send spam to millions of email boxes daily. But thats not enough for Ralsky. Not only does he operate as a spammer, but he also provides hosting services to other spammers.

In 2002, Verizon sued Mr. Ralsky for causing their network to freeze twice. The lawsuit originally sought $37 million, but was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Ralsky is no longer allowed to send email over Verizons networks, but admits no wrongdoing in the case and has vowed to continue sending bulk email.

Mr. Ralsky was convicted in 1994 for falsifying documents to defraud two banks in Michigan and Ohio and was fined $74,000. In an unrelated case in 1992, Ralsky was sentenced to 50 days in jail and ordered to pay $120,000 in restitution for failing to deliver a contract involving unregistered securities.

While Mr. Ralsky sends millions of unsolicited email messages selling everything from diet pills to online gambling, he claims that his business is legitimate and that his emails are not spam. He also insists that he does not sell pornography. Were sure hes an absolutely charming fellow.

Scott Richter
Scott Richters Denver-based company, OptinRealBig, is responsible for sending out billions of spam emails. He is one of the most outspoken and notorious spammers in business today. Whereas most spammers attempt to keep a low profile, often denying any involvement in spam, Richter seems to enjoy the spotlight. In fact, Richter even attempted to start up a Spam King clothing line before Hormel (the company responsible for bringing delicious canned Spam to dining rooms around the world) put an end to his trademark-infringing idea.

Richter and his partners were named in a lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General and Microsoft. That suit, filed in 2003, sought millions of dollars in punitive damages, but was settled out of court in mid-2004 with a paltry fine of $50,000. For quite some time, Richter regarded his legal entanglements as excellent advertising for his company which, he claimed, gains value each time he is sued.

Recently he has changed his story somewhat. Faced with prolonged lawsuits led by Microsoft as well as various state and corporate entities, Richter has now declared bankruptcy. As his father (who is also his attorney) said, "Its the legal fees that are battering the company. OptIn is profitable but for these lawsuits."

Andrew Westmoreland
An apparent accomplice of Scott Richter, Westmorelands Texas-based company, Internet Access Group Inc., sends millions of spam messages pushing everything from gas to online diploma mills to auto loans and mortgages. His business also operates under the names Brilliant Marketing, Aphrodite Marketing, OptiGate Networks and Players Exchange Club.

Robert Soloway
Robert Soloways Oregon-based company, Newport Internet Marketing Corporation, has sent millions of spam emails and has been the subject of numerous complaints and lawsuits by class action groups and Microsoft.

Soloways spam messages often contain get-rich-quick schemes selling (what else?) spam software and fresh email addresses. Yes, thats right folks; you too can send spam to 15 million recipients for just $295. At least thats what the ad says, but would you want to give your credit card number to someone like this?

Slam the Door on Spam
This is just a small sampling of the questionable characters who insist on clogging your inbox with junk email. While these may be some of the most egregious offenders, there are plenty more waiting in the wings who would like nothing more than to be considered equally offensive. As these new spammers rise through the ranks, well keep you posted on who they are, and what kind of shady business theyre up to.
Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The companys flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.