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Four Tips To Reduce Unwanted Email, Today
Unwanted email is no joke.
At the very least, unsolicited email wastes everyone's time. Much worse however, are the dangers that this unwanted email brings.
I'm talking about the problems of spyware and adware, of computer viruses, and of so-called phishing attacks that enable identity theft and threaten your financial security.
There's no doubt that reducing unwanted email helps just about everyone, whether site owner or site visitor. This article aims to help both.
==ASIDE== Note: this article is based on 3 Tips to Help Webmasters Reduce Sp*m in Their Inbox, Today, written a year or so ago. Webmasters and site owners will find many more tips here - http://www.anyonecansellonline.com/stop-spam.shtml ==ASIDE==
Let's begin.
Here's how webmasters and web visitors can reduce unwanted email: TIP 1. USE A CHALLENGE RESPONSE SYSTEM
What is a challenge response email system?
Well, "it is an anti-sp*m system which is designed to shift the filtering workload from the recipient to the sp*mmer (or the legitimate sender).
"The fundamental idea is that sp*mmers will not take the time to confirm that they want to send you email, but a legitimate sender will." Extracted from - http://domain-dns.com/docs/challenge_response.html
Basically, a challenge response system aims to prevent unwanted email getting through to your inbox.
COMMENT: As a newsletter publisher, I find challenge response email systems time-consuming to say the least. I have to confirm my newsletter publication email address is valid so that my free newsletter gets delivered to my subscribers. For a free newsletter, that's a lot of work.
However, I can see that challenge response systems probably do 'work', to a degree.
Well, without stating the obvious, they're email addresses you can dispose of. They're easy to set up, use once, and forget. So if someone sends unwanted email to this email address you'll most likely never know about it.
COMMENT: As a site owner and newsletter publisher, I am not a fan of disposable email addresses being used to become a site- member, etc. Responsible email marketing is one method that webmasters or site owners use to keep their site free, after all.
However, I can see why a site visitor might want to use them also.
==ASIDE== Disposable email addresses make perfect sense to use when requesting one-off information, like my free articles (ahem!). You receive one free article, like this one, sent to your email address and nothing else. :-) - http://www.wise-buys.info/webmaster-articles.shtml ==ASIDE==
This tip is aimed at anyone who leaves their email address on a website or online forum.
Either replace all email links on your site with "contact forms" or encrypt your email address. And be careful when leaving your email on a forum.
There are several ways you can 'hide' your email address but the basic idea is to try not to leave a 'live' email address on a site or forum. (Technically speaking, I'm talking about not using mailto: for your email addresses.) And you can do this by:
o Encrypting your email address with ASCII-code; o Encrypting your email address using JavaScript; o Using an anti-sp*m feedback form, only; o Putting your email address in an image.
As simple as that, really.
==ASIDE== Hide your email address? From what? Well, programs called sp*mbots search the internet for email addresses. They get added to a database, and eventually used by sp*mmers. Find out how to block sp*m bots from your site here - http://www.kloth.net/internet/bottrap.php ==ASIDE==
COMMENT: As a site owner, removing live mailto: links from your website may take some time, but the amount of time you'll eventually save will make this activity worthwhile. However, not all of the methods discussed above are 100% sp*m-proof.
As a site visitor, you're relying on either not using your real email address (see Tip 2, above), or on hoping that the owner of the site you're using has anti sp*m measures in place to hide your email address. Do take care.
If all else fails, you simply have to filter your email.
That means automatically deleting the junk via a set of rules (or filters). How you do this depends on what email software you use: Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora have email filters (sp*m filters) that are easy to train.
Web-based email sites like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo! etc. also allow you to filter your email.
COMMENT: I still rely on this method to filter out unwanted or bad email, though it never filters out all of the junk. As a site owner, one way I can be sure that the email is unwanted is if it's sent to an email address that I know does not exist; e.g. AnythingGoes@mysitedomain.com (I try and avoid using these catchall email addresses nowadays).
So, there you have it: four tips you can use to reduce unwanted email, today.
As I said in the beginning of this article, unwanted email is at the very least an unpleasant waste of time. So it really is important that you try at least one of the sp*m- reduction tips shown.
Above all, site owners should remove their mailto: links from their website, and site visitors should simply take care when and where they use their email address online.
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