Are you sick and tired of opening up your email account everyday just to find countless amounts of uninvited email? Email that includes bold and annoying statements such as: "product recommended by Mary", or "make $6,000,000,000.00 overnight..." or "buy Viagra now"... and so on?
Are you tired of going through your "junk" filter every day just to catch one or two emails that you were actually waiting on receiving, but were buried in pages of spam? If you fall victim to any of these spam problems, read on to learn several HUGE tips on preventing spam email in your business.
Create alternate email address when listing company, URL etc
As a small business owner or employee (depending on your job duties), you may find yourself giving out your email address for many different reasons. Signing up for: online seminars (webinars), newsletters, business directories, search engines or other products or services that capture your data, can become a BIG problem!
Most companies implement a "privacy policy", that usually states how your personal information will not be used to spam you, or to release your information to third parties. Unfortunately, many companies cannot be trusted to safeguard your data, and several companies forward your email address and name to many other third parties, greatly increasing the amount of spam that you will receive. Always use an alternate "throw-away" email address, to be used when registering for anything online; including subscriptions and reports. Creating and using an alternate email address will greatly help in preventing spam email in your business!
When registering a domain, get a "private registration" so no one can see your email address and contact info, to help prevent spam email.
Private registration for your domain name is a HUGE necessity, in your pursuit of preventing spam email. When you register a domain name, your contact information, or the contact information of the person who registered the site, can be displayed to the general public. In other words, a person could log onto a website such as the "Whois" directory (search it in your favorite engine), then enter your URL and your contact information will be displayed for all to see. Imagine a spammer's ability to go onto this or a similar website; find your REAL name, your REAL email address, and quickly start spamming the crap out of you!
By registering your domain under "private registration", your contact information will not be shown when a spammer decides to learn more about your company. It is important to keep in mind, that even though a private registration "hides" your contact information, there are ways for savvy spammers to circumvent this barrier of protection.
Turn spam inbox on "high" depending on the software you are using
One obvious but overlooked feature within most peoples' email software, is the "spam" or "filtering" option. Although the name of the spam filter varies depending on the company who created the software (or website), they all generally serve the same purpose. Having the spam filter set too low, can result in bucket loads of spam email creeping into your inbox. Having your junk filter set too high, can result in many of the emails that you actually want to receive, being marked as spam.
I personally recommend setting your filtering to "high", instead of low or moderate. This will catch most if not all spam, but will also capture many of your legitimate emails. You can create "rules" in your email settings, to allow email from certain domains (URLs) or certain names, to always go to your inbox. If your spam filter is either turned off, or turned to "low", you should definitely make the change needed today, to help in preventing spam email from flooding your inbox.
Try to refrain from creating "easy" email addresses such as one using the first letter of your first name and full last name
Spammers are clever and resourceful people more often than not. Let's pretend your first name and last name is listed on your company's website. If your name is John Smith, and the name is listed on your website, a spammer will try variations of your name such as: jsmith(at)yourcompany.com, or johnsmith(at)yourcompany.com, or john(at)yourcompany.com.
If any of those email addresses actually belong to YOU, guess who will be getting loads of spam to look forward to? Yes, YOU! Always remember to take in consideration the fact that spammers can "guess" your email address, whenever you create an email address, or have one create for your business or company. This will prove to be a very important step in preventing spam email from flooding your account!
Delete cookies from your internet browser daily (stored cookies can be tracked by spammers)
One highly unused tactic in the fight of preventing spam email, is changing your internet browser's "history" settings. When your internet browser stores cookies and files on your computer, websites load faster and many websites "remember" information that you may have submitted during your last visit to the website. History settings also allow an internet browser to store the websites that have been visited within the last hour, day, week, and even months.
Unfortunately, as convenient as it may seem to keep your history settings set to 30, 60 and 90 days, keeping cookies stored in your browser (on your computer) can actually cause the spam email that you receive to surge!
Believe it or not, cookies can be "read" by websites that you visit, spyware and adware installed on your computer and in other ways. Cookies contain information regarding your internet browsing habits as well as personal information that you may not want shared with the general online community; including: which sites were visited, how long each site was visited, the products/services/subject of the visited sites, and more.
Would you want a spammer to have such detailed information regarding your viewing habits? Could you imagine received countless emails that were directly related to the products that you purchase and the websites that you visit? Always delete cookies regularly from your internet browser, or disable your browser's ability to store cookies and history altogether.
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