Keep Your Work From Home Newsletter From Being A Spam Filter Casualty
It’s hard to get your email
through to clients, friends and family with all the Spam
Filtering going on these days. If you are a Home Based
Business owner that sends out a newsletter regularly you’ll
want to keep the following tips in mind to make certain your
Work At Home Newsletter is getting through all the Spam
Filters.
Spam is defiantly a problem. At one time I was receiving
almost 300 per day, spending a good part an hour sifting
through the mass of junk was more than I could tolerate. So
I too enlisted the help of a Spam Filter –
Spam Arrest.
I do worry about losing out on emails that are important and
interesting, but this is the price we all have to pay for
those Spammers that have abused and are abusing the
Internet.
Most Spam Filters use a Blacklist – these are clusters of
email addresses and domain names that are known for sending
out a lot of Spam. Recipients of Spam generate most
Blacklists’. So your newsletter could fall victim to a click
happy Spam identifier that clicks your email into the
dreaded Blacklist vault.
Spam Assassin, Cloudmark’s SpamNet and
Spam Arrest all use different methods of
blocking spam. Spam Assassin uses a point system to conclude
whether or not an email is Spam. If your Newsletter scores
high it will surely be treated as spam and blocked. SpamNet
blocks Spam two ways; the first, filters email based on
keywords like “Free”, and the second allows users to mark
email and submit identified Spam to be blocked to other
users of SpamNet.
My personal favorite is Spam Arrest, because it offers you
total control over your inbox. You can decide who is allowed
to send you email by importing your personal address book,
or entering your known and approved contact addresses
directly into the system.
Emails from unknown senders will receive an auto-reply
message containing a "challenge" -- if or when the sender
completes the challenge (the response), their email is
forwarded to your inbox, and they are then added to your
authorized sender list.
The challenge is easy for people, but impossible for
automated systems (i.e. spambots) to complete.
The Spam Arrest challenge/response system effectively blocks
all the spam while still allowing friends, family and
trusted contacts to email you without the risk of being
filtered out by imprecise software systems.
So How Do You Keep Your Newsletter From Being Blocked?
Here are some tips to help your Newsletter reach your
subscribers:
DO NOT send your newsletter unsolicited. Be sure your
customers have requested to be on your subscriber
distribution list – using an auto responder, like Aweber,
that requires your subscribers to opt-in and confirm that
then have requested your Newsletter will help keep you off
the blacklists.
Use your Newsletter’s name in the subject line. Your
subscribers should recognize your Newsletters name. Using
subject lines that are full of hype and so called trigger
words may get your Newsletter blocked by the Spam filters.
NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. This will surely get the Spam filter
red flags raised and your email forwarded to the dreaded
blacklists.
Words like “Free”, “Limited Offer”, “Money” even “home
business” will engage most Spam filters.
The simplest words like “remove” should be avoided as well.
Use “unsubscribe” in your directions to subscribers that
want to stop receiving your Newsletter.
Spammers most often use free email addresses – so you should
avoid using them at all costs. Send your Newsletter from a
reputable domain name – one that matches your own website
would be best.
Never send attachments with your Newsletter. Attachments put
a fear in most email recipients and will tag your email as
Spam.
Your Newsletter will most likely have words within the text
that trigger Spam filters – these words like “Free” and
“Home Business” can be easily disguised by adding a period
or hyphen between two letters – do not over do it though. It
will not be long before this tactic will be a trigger for
the top Spam filters, so keep up with all aspects of the
best Spam filters so your Newsletter will reach your
subscribers.
Copyright 2005 – Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC
Tim Somers “The Home Biz Honcho”. Changing Your Life,
Helping You Make Money While You Work From Home. Get Tim’s
Top Ten Home Biz Opportunities – Free Report at:
http://www.Home-Based-Business-Opportunity-Honcho.com
If you are ready to start building a Residual Income – Tim
will build you your very own Money Generating Website for
FREE!
http://www.Free-Make-Money-Site.com
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