How to Avoid Spam from a Bulk Email Marketing Campaign

Spam is one of the most obnoxious things out there on internet, second only to maybe pop-ups. Spam is a result of a bulk email marketing campaign. Companies compile or purchase massive lists of valid e-mail addresses which have been snatched out of cyberspace and begin to market worthless products to them in hopes that a small fraction of the millions of people they send to will actually be dumb enough to purchase something. Spam blockers seem to be worthless these days. With the amount of spam mail circulating, the 50%-75% of bulk mail that it sifts out is just not good enough. Plus they tend to hide your friends and family in there too. How to fight the bulk email marketing campaigns?

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. The best way is to introduce an email verification system. This shoots an e-mail back to the person that sent the e-mail to you saying in so many words that, “If you are human, click here and your message will be delivered”. Sometimes there is a CAPTCHA attached for even higher security as computers can be told to auto-click on these types of e-mails. They haven’t thoroughly figured out the automated CAPTCHA yet so this is an even better option.

2. Most bulk email marketing campaigns are done in HTML format. If your e-mail service provides it, you can tell it to trash any HTML based e-mails. Very few people actually send normal e-mails via HTML. The only major concern here is that you may have an e-mail coming from a source you trust like your bank (ha, ha).

3. Set up an exclusive e-mail for online service. This is the one you use online any time you are giving someone your e-mail address. Only give your real e-mail to the most trusted sources and to your friends and family. This should help your address to stay off the bulk email marketing campaign trail.

4. Unfortunately if you are already receiving a lot of bulk mail these steps may not work so it may mean changing e-mail addresses. Use something uncommon for your new ones and do your best to keep these addresses out of circulation with the previous steps.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you have a spam blocker to prevent unnecessary e-mails from a bulk email marketing campaign.

[jesssle]

on 12/3/2008 Avoiding spam is tricky, since spammers are always devising different ways to counter measures email clients put in. It's a particular problem with kids email and one of the only ways to completely avoid it is to use a specifically designed email provider, like safensoundmail.

[Mosss]

on 10/23/2008 Good