Is Your Ezine Being Zapped?
About a year ago I wrote an article titled 'Winning The War OnSp^m'.
... the war on sp^m is not being won at all.
In fact, the problem is now so serious that sp^am is shaping upto be the gr About a year ago I wrote an article titled 'Winning The War OnSp^m'. Unfortunately, the war on sp^m is not being won at all.
In fact, the problem is now so serious that sp^am is shaping upto be the greatest threat to online marketing. The threat comes not from sp^mmers themselves, but from thefilters that are being used to block them.
These filters are hitting hard at the very core of ecommerce -Ezine Publishing. Anti-sp^m filters operate at two levels: (i) client-sideprograms that reside on individual computers and (ii)server-side programs that ISPs are using to block incoming sp^m.
The problem is that the filters are now so sensitive they areblocking even the most innocent of Newsletters. For example, if your Newsletter contains the words 'remove','unsubscribe' or 'click here' it will trigger anti-sp^m filtersin many of the programs that are now being used by ISPs.
The result? Your Ezine is zapped, deleted - and a large percentage of yoursubscribers will think you have stopped publishing yourNewsletter. What can you do about it? Here are some tips to avoid sp^m filters: (1) Post your Newsletter online and then email your subscribersto tell them that the latest issue is now available online.
(2) In your Newsletter carefully avoid (both in the subject lineand the body text) all words that are likely to triggeranti-sp^m filters. Use the free service listed at the end ofthis article - it will flag any words in your Newsletter thattrigger anti-sp^m filters.
(3) Instead of saying 'to unsubscribe' (which is a phrasecommonly found in sp^m), say 'If you no longer wish toreceive...' or 'If you wish to leave this mailing list...' or'To take yourself off this list...' (4) If there are trigger words that you simply cannot avoid, youcan disguise them using carets (^) or other symbols. The 'F'word would become fr^e and the 'U' word would becomeuns^bscribe.
(5) Include the word 'Newsletter' in the subject line of youremail - this will help the filters identify your email asnon-sp^m. (6) Avoid whole words in upper case.
In many Newsletters theheaders are capitalized - this will trigger the filters. (7) If your Newsletter contains ads, scrutinize them carefully -ezine ads, by definition, contain words frequently used bysp^mmers.
Here is a fr^e service that will help you avoid sp^m filters.Before you mail out your Newsletter, just send a copy of it tothe email address below with TEST in the subject line:mailto:
[email protected] Within a few seconds you'll receive a report that analyses yourNewsletter and gives you a score (0 to 5=no problems 12-16=overthe limit for most ISPs). If you write articles, it's worth submitting them to this testas well, together with your Resource Box (I just sent thisarticle to Sp^mCheck and got a score of 4.6).
Sp^mCheck is operated by Sp^mAssassin, a filter that is widelyused by ISPs - so this is a good test of whether your Newsletterwill get through to your subscribers. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .