Are you unintentionally helping spammers?

As spam becomes a bigger problem for us all, there are simple steps everyone can do to reduce the number of addresses that land in the spammers hands.

We’ve all been there. Something amusing or interesting comes into our email box and our first instinct is naturally to share this tidbit with everyone in our address book.

Unfortunately, if you share this information with everyone in your address book by using the CC option, you’re not only sharing your email but also the email addresses of everyone involved. You could be sharing those email addresses with more than the recipients listed, but eventually all those addresses could, and probably will, land in the hands of spammers.

That’s why, when you send a broadcast email, you should always use the BCC instead of the CC option. By sending the email BCC (which stands for BLIND Carbon Copy) you’ll shield the other addresses from becoming common knowledge.

Spam is a part of life, but by sharing news and jokes by using the BCC instead of the CC, you’ll greatly reduce the risk of exposing someone’s protected address from the evil spammers.

Posted by | Filed Under Email Do's and Don'ts | Comments Off 

Winning Email Ways

It may sound obvious, e-mail is by nature, a form of written expression. Like it or not, you will be judged by your ability to use upper and lower case letters, spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Dotting your i’s, crossing your t’s and making sure your grammar is up to par is only the beginning of developing winning email ways.

As a rule, you should always send e-mail via text rather than html. You’d be surprised how many people do not have html-enabled mail readers. If you use a web based e-mail program (such as Yahoo) make sure that your e-mails are sent in plain text. Each e-mail software program includes a way to send e-mail via plain text. Sending emails in plain text means you can’t alter the font, background or include images in the email, but it ensures that your message does get through. If you want to share a photo, include it as an attachment.

Keep your messages short and to the point. If your message is longer than 2-3 paragraphs, it should either be broken down into multiple e-mails or addressed via the phone or in person.

The subject line of your email should reflect the topic. If you change topics when you reply, then change the subject line. Address multiple points in multiple e-mails.

Line length is controlled by your email software. Keep your line length short. Long lines are difficult to follow. Be sure to include white space between paragraphs. When you reply, trim the included text to the minimum needed to set the context for your reply.

Who among us hasn’t wished for an "unsend" button for email. As a rule, let emotion packed e-mails "cool" for 24 hours. Until the day comes when you computer keyboard has an "undo" key for email, store your message in the drafts folder and look at it 24 hours after composition. THEN decide whether to hit "send".

Maintain a "free" e-mail account via Hotmail or Yahoo. Use this e-mail for e-zines, sweepstakes registrations and other "non secure" areas where an e-mail address is required. Use your "real" e-mail address for family and friends.

Never use cc: to forward a message to several people. It’s possible for e-mail addresses so listed to fall into the hands of an unscrupulous spammer. BCC means BLIND carbon copy. It means the entire list of e-mail addresses is hidden from each recipient’s view.

Another never is never send an e-mail to more than 10 people at once. Most ISP’s view an e-mail to more than 10 addresses as spam. If you want to make sure everyone got your e-mail, put your hotmail or yahoo account as the final address.

Finally, manage your e-mail and don’t let it manage you. Set up an autoresponder so the sender knows their message is received. Set aside a specific time each day to access e-mail and respond. Respond promptly to each e-mail, even if it’s to say "I need to research this".

Posted by | Filed Under Email Do's and Don'ts | Comments Off