Archive for September 2011
Email Spam, Forum Spam, and Online Conduct
EMAIL SPAM
E-mail spam is the most common form of internet spamming. It involves sending unsolicited commercial messages to many recipients. Unlike legitimate commercial e-mail, spam is generally sent without the explicit permission of the recipients, and frequently contains various tricks to bypass e-mail filtering. The most dedicated spammers are often those making a great deal of money, or engaged in illegal or immoral activities, such as pornography, online casinos, and internet scams.
Due to the negative image caused by marketing with SPAM, it is very important not to engage in the activities of Bulk Messaging and other SPAM-like activities, like falsifying an internet identity to promote a product or service. If you or your employees are advertising through email, be sure that the clients you are sending e-mails to are valid leads that have requested the information you are providing.
NEWSGROUP AND FORUM SPAM
Forums and Newsgroups are collaboration tools that have been around for many years. Recently, they too have been victims of Spam activity where bulk messages are posted in order to advertise a website or a company. Using good will to spread the word about your company is different from spamming. As long as you are offering people actual advice and resources, and not hiding your identity, it’s the same as offering people free car washes for one day when trying to promote your new car wash. In that case, you are not spamming.
However, the line between good-will promotion and spamming is often blurred. Regardless of how you market, it is best to avoid spamming at all costs.
BASIC WEBSITE CONSIDERATIONS
Often, individuals creating websites are unsure where to start. There are many companies offering website creation services and internet marketing. Be wary of tools that help you create your own websites. Some of these tools or programs make it easy to create a website, but a business often suffers from not having a custom-created website, costing the business owner time and money eventually. But, regardless who creates the site, keep in mind that a successful website:
* Contains well-developed content that is organized in a clear, cohesive manner
* Contains correct grammar and spelling
* Contains correct syntax and code
* Offers users clear navigation
* Provides Site Maps
* Provides an About Us page with business information including the year founded, industry, size of your business and location
* Provides a Contact Us page with your company’s phone number, address, and email address
* Isn’t too graphic intensive (which can make it difficult and time-consuming to load)
* Employs proper use of Meta Tags (Keywords, Descriptions)
* Takes advantage of Paid Search Engine Optimization services
* Often utilizes traffic-generation services
Sincerely,
Ilya Bodner
Small Business Owner
Finding The Best Anti Spam Solutions
Before you start finding the best anti spam solutions, there are some simple steps that you will have to take care in order to avoid spam. Make sure that you share your email ID with only those whom you know well. For other services, make use of email services that are web based. Beware of spam bots. They are programs that are made to accumulate the email IDs throughout the net for preparing a mailing list. This list is used to send all unsolicited mails to users. Try to use the form of email that do not does not display your address in the webpage code. Install various kinds of anti-virus and other anti-spyware programs. Keep updating the version frequently. Email configuration should be done to disable the features that identify an email while you are downloading some images.
Easy Anti Spam Solutions at your Service
Now that you have taken all the basic precautionary measures, it is time to look for the program oriented anti spam filters. You can use the SpamPal identifies the well known spammers with the help of spam blacklists. eXpurgate, requiring two different email IDs, works well in filtering spam. POPFile are very effective in categorizing and separating the unsolicited mails from the personal messages. For POP accounts, Death2Spam is extremely effective. MailWasher Pro is secure and a time-saving spam filter that also protect your computer from viruses. Some of the other effective spam filters include Spam Bully, Spam Inspector, and Zaep. Another effective spam filter is the Spamihilator that takes the help of Bayesian filters to protect the email accounts.
You can even block the spam with the help of spam blockers. Anti spam for outlook includes Spam Bully that keeps your inbox free of spam. They work with Bayesian Spam Filter that makes use of artificial intelligence along with server blacklists to filter in only the wanted mails. They often put forth a password to be typed in correctly by unfamiliar sender so as to allow that mail into your inbox. Some of them are pre programmed where the know spammers are inserted. They accordingly block them. Some of the programs filter the emails based on the keywords used in the mails. Some of the email spam filters are configured and can be easily customized. Thus, with some basic knowledge about spam and the anti spam software, you can easily find the best anti spam solutions.
The Best Anti Spam Programs in the Market
Spam is everywhere. It is at the office, at home, at school, in the laptop at a properly franchised coffee outlet and even in our PDA. We cannot escape this flu virus of nefarious individuals sitting in a dark region of the world where crime status has not evolved enough to make it illegal. They send their million troops on a daily and even hourly basis and sometimes, we simply come across their emails offering us a service which is sometimes intriguing but mostly disgusting. This is the reality of spamming and everyone who has ever had an email account would know what this article is talking about.
It is a good idea to get an anti spam programme to combat the problem and here are some features you should be looking out for when choosing one, never arm yourself improperly, or you might risk losing the war against spam. The best anti spam programmes in the world should be easy to use, and most of them run silently in the background, supporting the major email clients like Outlook Express. Binding with these clients they act just like anti virus programmes, by constantly tracking and scanning each email as they come in, their root i.p, their email address and they lines within the email, scanning for common characteristics of a spam email. You should also be able to add block lists to the spam programme, to ensure that a certain email string will never reach your client.
The best anti spam programmes in the market should also be extremely user friendly, and don’t bog down your system. This adds to the problem rather than prevents it as the one major problem that spam can give you is a slower system. Some might prefer to get a all in one package software, which has antivirus, anti adware, malware and email scanning capabilities. While this is alright for most users, a single focused programme to block spam is far, far more effective and takes up less resources of the computer. Good spam programs also should be able to highlight the possible sources of the email, their i.p addresses and print out a report which you can then send out to the relevant authorities, like your email host. This way, they can add information to their firewall and eliminate the problem not only for you, but for other email users within their hosting network.
It is a good idea to research as much as you can on the spam program you are wanting to get. Some might be free and some might cost money, but just because they cost really high or are freeware, does not vouch for the quality of the programme. Read up on reviews and see whether the programme you want has any conflicts with the email client you are using. This way you will ensure that the best anti spam programs in the market find their way into your desktop and get rid of your spam head aches forever.