As reported from the New Scientist, a team of researchers from IBM, and Cornell University developed a new algorithm for detecting spam in emails, called SMTP Path Analysis. The algorithm works by examining the path information (probably by looking at the Received headers), and detects patterns that are likely to be the route of a spammer. "…the algorithm is not meticulous enough to efficiently catch spam on its own, but works well in combination with content filtering tools.

Engineers at ActivSoftware recently announced their new algorithm called ‘slow start outbound connection ramping.’ This new server technology attempts to avoid becoming flagged as spam by automatically monitoring delivery success and failure rates and adjusting simultaneous connections to an email service provider based upon those parameters. It begins with a very low number of simultaneous connections to any one ESP for any one IP address. It monitors delivery failure to success ratios and slowly ramps up the number of connections to that ESP from that particular IP.

In another recent attempt to help legitimate email senders avoid becoming flagged as spammers, researchers at ActivSoftware, using a bayesian spam filter, sifted through over two hundred thousand words flowing through their email servers and itemized the top 50, or so, words most likely to trigger spam filters. The words are organized by their spam to ham ratio, or illegitimate to legitimate email ratio.

The team analyzed many factors within this data, but the most compelling was the spam to ham ratios. Words such as click and here don’t rank as high, since they are used often in legitimate email. Whereas words like madam, rarely found in legitimate email, while readily found in spam email, had very high ratios. Using this method the team created, what they deemed, "A superior list of spam words."

The top twelve words follow:

• homeowner
• discreet
• madam
• materially
• unclaimed
• anticipates
• soma
• preapproved
• unconditionally
• beneficiary
• refinance
• intercourse

To view all the words visit the ActivSoftware Blog

Rob Thrasher and Pete Freitag are nationally published auhtors on the topics of email communications, marketing and software coding. Contact the authors

Are you tired of spam stealing your time, your money, your bandwidth and your hard disc space?

The time you devote each day to sort and delete spam from your inbox could be put to much better use. In the European Union alone, the working hours employees are spending on sorting and deleting spam is costing the companies and estimated 10 billion euros every year! By manually sorting out spam after it has reached your inbox you are loosing time and money, as well as bandwidth and space. You are also putting your computer at risk by allowing possibly hazardous content to enter your server. Supportcave.com offers free intelligent Spam Blockers, helping computer users to protect their computers as well as reclaiming their time, money, bandwidth and space from the spammers.

Every day - 365 days a year - more than 10 billion spam e-mails are sent out to e-mail users all over the world. Despite new laws and verdicts trying to strike down on the spammers, the number of spam e-mails are expected to rise to 30 billion a day by the end of 2005. Today spam constitutes 37% of all e-mail traffic in the U.S.

Spam is not only annoying, it’s dangerous and it is causing financial losses for companies as well as individuals. For example, an estimated 10 billion euros are spent every year by companies in the European Union to deal with spam. Spam is sent out by fraudulent companies and individuals and can often be infected with viruses, spy programs or other undesired software. Studies show that 95% of all computer viruses are sent through e-mail. Even virus free spam causes problems since it consumes the users’ time as well as hard disc space. Spam is however not only shunned by the users, the Internet Service Providers abhor it as well since it chews up a lot of bandwidth and disc space, and the non-stop sending of e-mails uses a lot of system resources and stresses the e-mail servers. This leads to a less effective Internet and increased costs for everyone.

The best way to protect your self from spam and battle the spammers is to use a Spam Blocker. The most basic forms of Spam Blockers are software programs periodically checking your e-mail for the best known types of spam and remove them, or filter them into a special folder for you to remove. There are however much more sophisticated Anti Spam programs on the market. The Webroot Spam Shredder is a Spam Filtering Software that lets you to remove spam e-mails from the mail server without ever pulling them down into your inbox. This means heavily increased security for your computer and your network and is the most efficient and effortless way of controlling your incoming e-mails. You will be given the opportunity to accept or delete suspected e-mails while they are still on the server. You can also choose to quarantine them for later review.

The Webroot Spam Shredder is equipped with a smart learning engine, which studies your decisions to keep or delete spam. The longer you use the Webroot Spam Shredder, the more effectively the program will sort your incoming e-mail. The Webroot Spam Shredder Whitelist and the Webroot Spam Shredder Blacklist features let you identify e-mails that should be immediately delivered or instantly deleted. If you use Outlook, Outlook Express or Eudora for your e-mail, you can effortlessly import your contact list into your Whitelist. When friends, family, colleagues etcetera send you e-mail those letters while be instantly delivered to you inbox and you won’t have to make any decisions regarding them.

The Webroot Spam Shredder database is a frequently updated to protect you from the latest known spam. You can choose your desired level of protection and the type of messages to scan with the Spam Shredder.

Are you tired of spam stealing your time, bandwidth and hard disc space? Applying the Webroot Spam Shredder allows you to determine up to 99.9% of the spam e-mails. Install the Webroot Spam Shredder today and start safeguarding your time as well as your money from the fraudulent spam senders!

www.Supportcave.com offers new and enhanced Spam Blocker Software. Not only will these programs effectively check and clean your email from spam, once installed it identifies and diverts spam before it reaches your inbox, - freeing up your time and your system’s resources.

1. Ignore Spam Email

Do not open an unsolicited email. Spammers are just playing a numbers game. They simply send out like a million emails and hope that at least a third of them stick.

Spammers try to gather as many email addresses as they can. They don’t even know if any of the addresses are active. It is when you answer them that they know whether or not it is an active account that is checked often.

2. Do NOT Click On the Unsubscribe Links

It is natural for you to want to click on the link at the bottom of the email that promises that you can be taken off of their email list, but do not think for a second that this is what happens.

When you click on the “click here if you wish to stop receiving these emails” link, the spammers simply change the name that sends it to you. All you have proven is that you are indeed opening and reading emails.

3. Use Various Email Addresses

Since it is unavoidable to receive spam, set up a “dummy” email address. You would use this address when you register for newsletters, order products, enter contests, and register your new software.

You would like to avoid using you primary email address, or the email address that you receive from your ISP for things like that. This is the email that you would give your contacts or “safe people”.

4. Don’t Post Your Address

If you have a web site, avoid posting your email address in your “contact me” section. Since spammers scan through web sites and look for the @ symbol, write your email address with the word “at” instead.

That makes it a bit more difficult for spammers to find your email address because they use special software that searches for the symbol, and not just the words.

5. Do Not Purchase from Spam

The absolute worst thing that you could do is buy something from spam. Just imagine how perfect the world would be if everyone gathered together to refuse to buy things that were offered in an unsolicited email. Spammers would be out of business the moment that they realized that they weren’t getting anywhere.

6. Beware of Free Trial Software

For every legitimate download, there are plenty that are designed to get your personal information, which will eventually lead you to more spam. This is particularly popular from free trial software as well as free software.

Spammers use this method in a similar manner as they would use a gift promotion and contest sign in. That is one of the most beneficial ways for spammers to get you on their hook.

Visit Stop Spam Center for the latest news and information about how to block spam.

I’m sure I’m not the only person on the planet that remembers getting the occasional chain letter in school.. you know, the kind that was actually written with a pen or pencil on paper that told you either something wonderful would happen or something terrible would happen or both if you did or didn’t send out 20 copies within 7 days. Ugh. I still remember my fingers cramping as I tediously re-wrote the letter 20 times and the looks on my friends faces when they realized the note i just passed them was leading them to the same path of wasted paper.

Things have changed a lot since then;

Not just the venue has changed though, now we not only get poems with promises of good luck or threats of doom for not following instructions, we get petitions, promises of rewards from big companies, plea’s to call your local government person because of some pending law that will be devastating to someone or something, and suggestions to boycott popular companies because of some alleged injustice they have performed. (Just imagine the phone calls these companies get!)

I get amusing chain letters in my email box occasionally mixed in with some urban legends and Christian Internet hoaxes for variety and before I knew better I’d give a little laugh, a roll of the eyes and pass it on to the 10 required friends with the promise that something good would happen in 10 days (or that I would escape a horrific tragedy)

Oh but then I learned. I learned about SPAM and about how to finally change my email address when it got overwhelming!

Perpetuating email chain letters is not a good idea. I read recently that most Internet service providers prohibit it in their terms of service… hmm… I will have to read those terms to see what else I’m not allowed to do! But it is with good reason that they have these rules.

You know the old ‘phrase’ I tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends… yada yada yada… well imagine what happens when you forward that silly email to your 20 friends and they each send it to their 20 friends… well already you’ve got 420 copies going out to cyberspace and taking up bandwidth and bogging down servers all over the place - especially if your 20 people are co-workers on the same email system!

What else is wrong with it? Well you’ve just added your name, or at least email address to a long and growing list of which you have no control over. This is like sending out an engraved invitation to spammers and scammers all over the world and suddenly the note from Aunt Joan is burried among 50 emails trying to sell you everything from viagra to stocks and bonds.

So what can you do? Well, the first and most obvious is delete it. But sometimes it’s a cute story or a joke or some other reason to smile or chuckle and we all need some of that now and again so you want to forward it? Take these steps to do it safely.

After you’ve clicked forward go through the email, delete all the email addresses that are hanging on to the mail of all the people that have recieved it with you.

Leave only the portion of the email that you think is funny or cute and take out all the instructions to forward to 10 - 20 - or 50 people and what will happen if you don’t

Use the bcc: field for the emails of the people you’re going to send it to to keep their emails from being passed on if one of them chooses to forward it.

Finally, while I definately recommend against it, some people are just too superstisious to let a chain letter break. If you MUST continue a chain letter, still follow steps 1 and 3 above and get yourself a disposable email address for this purpose. Belive me, if you’ve never had to change your email address to get rid of the junk, you don’t want to find out how fun it is! Remember, it’s not just advising your friends and family and co-workers of the new email, but many of your online accounts use your email address if not for signing in, for getting lost passwords etc. How frustrating to go to get the status of some account and when you realize you can’t remember the password the only option is to have it emailed to you and you didn’t update the account!

So, get a disposable email address and use it for forwarding chain letters (if you have to) but also for signing up for things on the Internet! Then when the spam hits the fan, you can just delete the account and get a new one.

Lisa Campbell
Newbie Guide to CyberJunk

Other Web Sites:
Parenting an Intense Child
Web and Logo Design at Affordable Prices

Stop intrusive pop-up ads and regain control of your online world! Intrusive and distracting pop-up windows are not an unavoidable part of being online. You don’t have to put up with offensive, time consuming and bandwidth stealing pop up ads. Visit Supportcave.com today to try out some of the most sophisticated pop-up blockers on the market - for free! Make screen cluttering pop-ups a thing of the past by installing a pop-up blocker right away.

- You enter a webpage, and suddenly your window is filled with a myriad of annoying new little windows, multiplying like amoebas and cluttering your entire screen. Every time you click on a window to shut it down five more windows are opened, ultimately making your computer freeze or even crash.

- You try to read a friends’ webpage located at a free web hotel, but every time you click on a new link the screen is smothered with commercials about mortgages, miraculous diet pills and MLM-marketing.

- You use a search engine to find information, but when you click on the top link you are suddenly faced with x-rated pictures and very graphical commercials for generic Viagra.

Do any of the above scenarios sound familiar? Unfortunately most of us can answer YES! to that question. While using the web we are constantly targeted by commercials, and a lot of them come in the form of intrusive and distracting pop-up windows. They are however not only annoying, they are also stealing valuable bandwidth and slowing down our browsing; thus making our time online less effective. In the long run, these pop-up ads are making the whole Internet much slower than necessary, costing the users time as well as money.

Fortunately pop-up ads are not at all an unavoidable part of the Internet. There are several programs available online that once installed will block all forms of pop-up ads. These programs are known by many names, including pop-up blockers, pop-up stoppers, ad window blockers and pop-up removers. They all work in a similar way, but are not identical.

Most of them offer you the ability to start of by using the general settings, and then later customize the program to flawlessly match you specific needs and preferences. Stopzilla, for example, is a very user friendly program constructed with the novice user in mind. Still, it offers you the ability to tailor the program for your self later when you have become more accustomed to it. Maybe you would like to have a visual or audible warning every time a pop-up is detected and blocked? Maybe there are some web pages where you wish to allow pop-ups? Other programs, like the Pop-Up Stopper Professional, have even more settings to choose from for the more advanced user.

The good thing about most pop-up blockers is that you can usually set the program on "auto enable", which means that the pop-up blocker will start whenever the computer is started. You don’t have to worry about remembering to turn it on; it will always work in the background, protecting you while you’re online.

Before choosing a pop-up blocker make sure that it is of high quality in order to get the most out of you time online. A good pop-up blocker should be able to stop any undesired window that tries to open automatically, regardless to whether it is a pop-up or pop-under ad. It should also be able to block the kind of ads that open up after a page is loaded, or when you leave a site or close your browser.

In addition to this, a good pop-up blocker should have a user friendly interface that is easy to manage, and give you the opportunity to customize the settings. Based on you individual settings, a good pop-up blocker should be able to decide whether a launching window is good or bad. A good pop-up blocker can block ads and other undesired windows without interfering with your normal browsing.

Stop wasting your time on intrusive and offensive pop-ups and install a pop-up blocker today!

Supportcave.com offers new and enhanced popup blocker software. Not only will these programs effectively prevent popups, once installed they will also shield your computer from future popup intrusions.

… and you’d better sit up and take notice! Customers concern over Internet privacy issues is on the rise, and for good reasons.

Because of SPAM and phishing e-mails, identity theft and viruses, it’s completely understandable that customers have a hightened concern about their Internet privacy. And it’s not only about e-mail adresses and credit card numbers either. More and more companies are collecting vast amounts of data on their customers surfing and buying habits, which could give fascinating insights!

We’ll see that more and more customers are demanding to be informed about how companies are addressing these concerns. And every ons is scrutinized to see if they deliver on the promises made. So businesses can better comply, or prepare to be left behind.

How you can assure Internet privacy for your customers

1. Create a privacy policy and stick by it

As said, customers will want to know what your internet privacy and security policy is, so you’d better have one! It should have the following aspects in it:

• Secure data: All data must be protected by firewalls, virus protection and any other measure you can take to establish data integrity and data security
• Limit access: Access of data must be granted to as limited a group of employees as possible
• Opt-in: Always ask a customer for the use of personal data, tell the goal for which you need the data, and use the data only for that specific goal
• Double check: If you cannot be sure of the users identity (e.g. when they enter an e-mail address for a news letter) have the request confirmed
• Permission: Never share the information with any 3rd party without the customers permission (don’t forget to check the Internet privacy policy of the 3rd party)
• Customer access: Give customers access to their own data, and an option to change it (this does not have to be online, but is to be preferred)
• Local data: If you use a local means of storing data (ie. on the customers PC, like cookies), explain why and how you use this information
• Enforce: Make sure you enforce this privacy policy, if possible by becoming a member of a 3rd party privacy program, like TRUSTe or the Better Business Bureau
• Children: This is an adult game, do not actively collect personal information from children
• Change: Tell what you will do when you change the privacy policy

2. Make info available online

Make sure that your Internet privacy policy is prominently available on your site, preferrably from every page. Also, make all contact information (e-mail, address, phone number, etc.) available in the same fashion. You don’t want your customers to have to search for the info, do you? They might not find it, and then it’s…

Click. Bye-bye!

3. Address all concerns

Even with an Internet privacy policy prominently available on your site, customers will contact you, to double-check that they can trust your company with their personal data. This is no distrust, sometimes customers want to be reassured by a real, life person. So make sure that you can handle all those inquiries, fast and reassuring.

Marjan Steneker is your host at http://www.customerservicepoint.com, your resource on good customer service, CRM, customer service books, help desk software and quotes.

Spam, as defined in the context of computers, the Internet and electronic messaging, is a term used to designate unsolicited bulk electronic messaging and communication. In particular, spam is unsolicited bulk mailings that are commercially oriented. It is most commonly used in advertising, but it is also used to perpetrate religious, political or other types of messages. Spam is, often times, considered the electronic equivalent of junk postal mail, telemarketing or broadcast faxing. Spam got its bad name and reputation from the advertisement of ill reputable and questionable products, such as pornography, pyramid schemes, fad products, pump-and-dump stocks, etc.

Spam is delivered via several mediums, to include:

· E-mail messages

· Search engines

· Instant messaging

· Web blogs

· Usenet newsgroups

· Text messaging mobile phones

· Internet telephony

The growth of spam is a result of the cost benefit to initiators, who need only devise and develop distribution lists. The other associated costs of spam, such as bandwidth, message management and loss of productivity, become the responsibility of recipients of the messages, ISPs or other public and private entities.

In 2003, the US passed the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003, which establishes standards for sending commercial e-mail. More specifically, the act is intended “to regulate interstate commerce by imposing limitations and penalties on the transmission of unsolicited, commercial electronic mail via the Internet”. The act establishes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as the overseer of its provisions.

The act establishes electronic mail as extremely important in communication since it “provides an opportunity for the development and growth of frictionless commerce”, which is being threatened by unsolicited commercial email. The act establishes the following as criminal behaviors when used in connection with foreign or interstate electronic mail:

· Knowingly accessing a protected computer without authorization

· Intentionally deceiving or misleading the origin of messages

· Falsifying header information

· Falsifying registration information for 5 or more e-mail accounts or 2 or more domain names

· Falsely representing one’s self as the registrant of 5 or more IP addresses

· Obtaining e-mail addresses through improper means

· Perpetrating fraud, identity theft, child pornography, obscenity and the sexual exploitation of children.

Criminal penalties include a fine and/or imprisonment for up to 5 years dependent upon:

· The volume of electronic transmissions

· The amount of falsified information

· Losses incurred by others

· Monetary gains from the act

· Whether the act was committed in furtherance of an felony

· Prior offenses.

Civil penalties are dependent upon the jurisdiction placing the charges and may range from hundreds of dollars to millions of dollars, dependent upon the severity of the crimes and losses involved. Also, property traceable to proceeds from monetary gains and equipment used to commit an offense may be forfeited to the US government.

As critics of the law argue, the legislation fails to dictate to marketers and advertisers, not to spam. In fact, the act does not make reference to the term, “spam”, except as used in the name, CAN-SPAM. The act makes reference to the phrase, commercial electronic mail message, and defines it to be “any electronic mail message, the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose)”.

Legislation is intended to curb practices inherent in spamming, such as e-mail harvesting, dictionary attacks and using viruses and Trojans to perpetrate messages. The act establishes the following with respect to commercial electronic mail messages:

· A message must contain a legitimate return address.

· A message must include and specify a method to opt-out of receiving further messages. The ability to opt-out must be available for 30 days.

· The sender may not initiate messages after 10 days of receipt of an opt-out.

· The sender may not sell, lease, exchange or transfer the opt-out e-mail address to an affiliate.

· The sender may offer a menu of options that allow the recipient to either opt-out or opt-in to future messages*.

· A message must include an identifier that specifies the message as an advertisement or solicitation.

· Messages containing sexually oriented material must contain clearly identifiable markings or notices

· A message must include a valid, physical, postal address by which the sender may be contacted.

· The sender may not send messages to addresses that were knowingly acquired from proprietary websites and ISPs, through automated methods. Particularly, when the site or ISP provides notice of their refusal to give, sell or transfer addresses for the purpose of initiating electronic mail messages.

· The sender may not create automated scripting and other means to gain multiple email addresses for the purpose of transmitting illegal messages.

· The sender may not transmit messages from a computer or email address obtained without authorization.

*Unlike opt-out advertising, which allows the recipients of advertisement to discontinue any unwanted advertisements from the sender, opt-in advertising allows the advertiser to request to have specific advertisement sent. The recipient may allow or deny permission to have further advertisement sent. If allowed, the advertiser immediately includes that e-mail address to its distribution list. Another option is, double opt-in advertising, which is similar to opt-in advertising except that once the recipient grants permission to send advertisements, a confirmation request is sent to the recipient to verify that they did, indeed, allow the permission. The e-mail address is added to the distribution list only after the recipient has positively responded to the confirmation request.

CAN-SPAM is not intended to provide cause for the general public to sue spammers, individually or in class action suits. It is designed to allow enforcement by the FTC and other federal agencies for the benefit of the general public. Individuals remain privy to the state laws and regulations of their particular jurisdictions.

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A typical day at the inbox

Today, I received 374 emails total.

A pretty light day considering some days I get more than 1,000.

To clarify what they were35 were for business, 4 were personal in nature, 11 were from groups I asked to get information from like Neiman Marcus and Urban Outfitters, VH1, and a PR Newsletter.

The balance of 324 was unsolicited (UCEunsolicited commercial email)in other words spam.

If I extrapolate the UCE I’ve gotten in the last six hours alone, I find I must be missing something about myself on some spiritual level..

I am a balding, fat man with a small penis that doesn’t work. I am in debt.

I am looking for a lower interest rate on my mortgage while at the same time making thousands of dollars with no effort on my part in the privacy of my own home—filling out surveys, stuffing envelopes and not selling something that miraculously sells itself.

Even better, I can be a travel agent without wrinkles; obtain a college degree while waiting for my 1500 advance to show up in my bank account; I can restore my credit rating legally while watching my free satellite TV and munching on my drugs sent courtesy of an offshore pharmacy that has a doctor who will write me a prescription… HMMM…definitely something to consider. NOT.

I’ve also discovered that I am a prime candidate to help an African Prince transfer funds into the US. He trusts me. All I have to do is give him my bank account information.

The problem is that I am a woman who doesn’t suffer those ills. Someone thinks I do…There is something wrong with this picture.

The future of bulk email and why it is likely to remain dead

Now, you might be asking why I, who was dubbed the “Spam Queen” in the “Wall Street Journal” three years ago, am even bothering to say anything about email?

Just to set the record straight, I have never advocated spam or sending spam.

One reporter said to me, "Some people consider all bulk email as spam. What do you have to say about that?" to which I replied, "Then I guess you’d call me the spam queen," as a joke.

In our sound byte media world, one editor turned this little quip into a buzzword and I became known almost instantly, all over the world, as representing what everyone, including myself, hates about email.

The media as usual emphasized sensationalism and missed the point.

I am not complaining because my marketing business skyrocketed as a result.

At that time I advocated email as a very effective medium for small business, which because of its low cost lets small businesses level the playing field against big corporations.

At no small personal risk, I visited the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC, and spoke my peace about small businesses and not throwing out the baby with the bathwater before even the very term spam could be legally agreed upon and defined to the satisfaction of marketers, ISPs and the government jointly.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the US economy, and entrepreneurs with their dreams are what have made the US the economic powerhouse it still is today.

Email that is sent to people who WANT to receive it, and that is in accordance with their preferences, still gets a high response. It allows many small businesses to get ahead. I didn’t want to see big corporations or the government take over email and bar entry, filter, and extort everyone else while still sending their own advertising messages freely.

And then came the CanSpam act, which I and many other legitimate marketers welcomed, because it had a great promise of getting rid of the noise while keeping the signal.

As it turned out, the opposite happened. Email filters from ISP’s now block a large amount of legitimate messages, which they call "false positives".

Marketers can’t send the text they would like to send to their subscribers, so they have to resort to filter tricking tactics such as spelling the word spam as sp@@@M so that they can get past the filters that were intended for another purpose entirely.

In a climate like this, legitimate companies that had been diligently following best practices, and keeping their lists clean for years, suddenly did not want to stay in business with ambiguities in the law and the potential litigation that might ensue even if all the rules WERE followed, so many companies just folded.

However the people that continue to send email illegally did not fold.

Often times sending from outside the US borders, they stepped up their operations even more, to the point that there is almost no truly legitimate bulk email left.

In other words, the signal has become lost in the noise.

The simplicity is this — bulk commercial email has gotten to the point where it isn’t effective. We just don’t do it anymore. What’s the point? It doesn’t get a response, and we found people are overloaded with advertising messages and no longer willing to receive more, especially in their inbox, unless they specifically asked for it.

As a marketing professional, the only thing that should count for you at the end of the day is effectiveness. Bulk commercial email has turned into the above, a bunch of unprofessional, ineffective scams.

In other words, Spam is a fourletter word.

Legitimate marketers are staying away in droves and it’s easy to see why. First of all let’s look at some facts. In the United States, it is legal to send unsolicited commercial email. The CAN SPAM act allows for this. You have to provide a way to optout and not hide who you are, and a few more simple but ethical rules.

Although it is legal, there isn’t an internet service provider in the United States who will allow you to send unsolicited commercial email.

Larger mailers have optin information from lists they purchase which imply consent but those lists aren’t originated from the mailer, but from other submailers—you get a free thing or access to a particular site and the user checks a box that it is okay to get information from their “affiliates and partners.”

The “affiliates and partners” they are referring to are those who pay for the email addresses and optin information.

These guys are sending you mail legally, but the fact is, they are not getting into your email box for the most part. Blocking, filtering, and doing it the “legal” way bulk wise, is just not working.

Not to mention, there is no way to prove that the recipients opted in or are willing to get the message since they opted in at someone else’s site, not yours.

The response rate is pathetic and when that mail does get through, you have many disgruntled individuals who never remember opting in, so in their view, the mail is unsolicited. The only way to get email into inboxes en masse is by not following the rules, so the only messages getting through are the scams, including the pornographic, illegal, and objectionable.

It is ironic that the very thing people want to rail against, they are getting more of in the aftermath of CanSpam.

So where does that leave us?

What can a small businessperson do to get their message out, and not break their bank?

How to market effectively in the new internet wave

If you are a small businessperson, there are 3 alternatives that you should consider, which are described in this next section:

What is effective you might ask? (Ask away, it’s kind of the point here..)

1) First party offers that impart some value added (a tip; some information, something the consumer is interested in.)

Lets say John Q. Consumer gave his email address for a newsletter, or for more information on a particular subject, or to play a game.

Chances are he probably would not be angered to get an email from your company especially since he asked for you to contact him. He would recognize your domain name since he spent enough time on your site to actually ask the info.

Additionally, your internet service provider would not shut you down for violations and you’d start to build a small but effective list of people who are actually interested in what you, as a business owner, have to say.

This has been effective since the beginning of the internet. The only problem is, how do you reach people the first time, to get them to your site?

How do you find a target market for your products that is likely to be interested in what you have to offer and sign up for your newsletter, visit your site, and hopefully buy your stuff?

Is there anything less costly than television, radio, and (ugh!) banner ads?

Yes there is. Drum roll please…..Search Engine Marketing. If you write good ads, and compete with the right keywords, people who are already searching for an answer to a question, doing research, comparison shopping will go to a search engine and type in their parameters.

If you know how to market well, only people who are interested will go to your site.

If you have a web site that is compelling and you are offering a value added, they will ask for more information or sign up for your newsletter, or get your free download.

Now, getting to this point can sometimes take a little time, but if you are persistent, and know how to interpret your statistics, you can do this. If you want the result without the learning curve, hire a Search Engine Marketing Firm.

So the new tools for small businesspeople to stampede traffic to their websites in 2005 and beyond are going to be:

1) Search Engine Marketing

2) Publicity, including press releases that provide meaningful news

3) Providing quality content and expert commentary for radio, TV, and internet hubs in your field

You can be successful on the internet and these tools help to establish you as an expert in your field, as well as attract the very people who are looking for your product or service at the same time.

These are the tools of a new form of marketing, which people are calling "In Touch" Marketing, or "intelligent marketing" and is one way to cut through and actually get you the most possible business, at the lowest possible cost, with laser precise targeting. In future articles I will teach you how to use them with deadly precision.

This is the new way for small businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed in 2005 and beyond.

Remember, you heard it here first

Laura Betterly
CEO, In Touch Media Group
http://intouchmediagroup.com
laura@intouchmediagroup.com

Laura Betterly is the CEO of In Touch Media Group, (OTC:ITOU) and has successfully launched many ebusinesses for herself and others

More information is available at http://www.intouchmediagroup.com

When catastrophe strikes, many insurance companies tend to get flooded with new claims. These sudden surges in client demands can be overwhelming, and that’s where Pacesetter Claims Service, an independent adjusting agency, comes in.

Founded in 1997, Pacesetter Claims Service is a well-established company with offices in five different states, as well as Puerto Rico. They are dedicated to providing the extra support companies such as American Family Mutual Insurance and Farmers Insurance Group need in the aftermath of a catastrophic event.

Having multiple offices spread across the country, and no way of predicting where or when the next disaster will strike, immediate, effective communication, such as email, is vital for Pacesetter’s success. With the company dealing with upwards of 100 to 150 emails per day that are not only valid, but also possibly contain critical information from multiple sources, filtering out the junk email becomes essential.

According to Pacesetter IT Coordinator David Borg, more than 80% of their incoming email was a bombardment of spam. Pacesetter couldn’t afford to have their employees wasting time sorting through these unwanted emails. They also didn’t want to risk the possibility of inadvertently filtering out legitimate messages. They needed a highly effective, highly accurate anti-spam software solution to their spam problem.

Solution

Choosing Securence was an easy decision for Pacesetter Claims Service. Securence offered everything Pacesetter was looking for: accuracy, ease of use, great customer service and cost effectiveness. "The reps stayed in touch real closely in the beginning to make sure things went smoothly," says Borg, who also likes the option that Securence is a service as opposed to just an application he has to install and maintain himself.

Perhaps most importantly, Borg is impressed with the accuracy of Securence’s email filtering software. "During our 30-day trial period," says Borg, "we didn’t have any false positives, and the few junk e-mails that did slip through were because we couldn’t completely secure things on our end. We’re extremely satisfied."

By selecting Securence, Pacesetter Claims Service was able to reduce their incoming junk email by more than 80% with nearly perfect accuracy.

Securence offers anti-spam software, antivirus software and internet filtering software for business and consumers.

Despite the fact that Federal legislation (the CANSPAM act) made it illegal, harvesting email addresses from the web using automated robots remains alive and well.

Spammers who need fresh email addresses release software spider programs that comb the Internet and suck email addresses off Web pages, guest books, and anywhere else you might post your email address.

Once they get your email address, spammers will trade it around like 5th graders with a new pack of Pokemon cards at recess and you can expect the avalanche of email to begin flooding your inbox.

In order to combat this still rampant practice of stealing email addresses from websites and sending people email they don’t want, the following tips should help protect you.

** Break It Up **

Obviously the best way to avoid getting picked up by an email harvester is not to post your email anywhere on anyone’s website (including your own).

If the only way someone can get your email is if you give it to them, that creates a similar situation to operating with an unlisted phone number.

If telemarketers can’t get your phone number, they can’t call.

If you must post your email address, post it in a way that a robot won’t recognize it as an email address. Instead of posting YOURNAME@YOURDOMAIN.COM, you can put YOURNAME (AT) YOURDOMAIN.COM and then, in parenthesis, put (replace AT with @ to email me).

Though it seems like an extra step for legitimate email, you’ll find it a very effective technique.

** Use An Image **

Currently, online spiders (ANY spider, including search engines) cannot read text that appears in a graphic or picture. If you must display an email address on a page, then do it by typing your email address into your favorite graphics program and saving the image as a .gif or .jpg. Then post the image onto your web page so people can see the email, but spiders cannot. This too creates an extra step for people because they must type in your email address, but it’s an effective solution if you must display an email address on your own website.

** Use An Email Form **

Another way to cut down on spam originating from your own website is simply not to display an email at all.

Instead, allow customers and prospects to contact you through a form where they fill in fields, click a button, and your website emails you their message.

A note of caution: make sure the form script you use does not keep your email address visible in the form code.

If the form code contains the email address, spam robots can find it even though you don’t see it on the page.

** Make It Hard To Guess **

Sometimes you’ll get unsolicited email because a spammer guessed your email address.

It’s not a far stretch to imagine that someone probably has the email Jim@yourdomain.com, so spammers will do a "dictionary" attack on common usernames.

One way to defeat this is to place a "dot" (.) in your email address, such as Jim.Edwards@yourdomain.com. The dot makes it virtually impossible for spammers to guess your email address.

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months… without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com