Email marketing continues to grow as a great alternative for not only marketing advertisements and product offers to your customers, but also as way to continue a dialog with your customers that keeps them engaged and coming back to your websites. This combination of offers, ads, and newsletters begins to increase your monthly email volume. It is at this point that you begin to experience some of the challenges of sending bulk email out into the Internet, especially to email addresses that belong to the large ISPs like Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL. You begin to realize that the infrastructure you have in place may now be inadequate to handle the level of email you are sending. Your email is getting stuck in queues for hours, or some email stops getting delivered altogether to your Hotmail addresses. If this is happening, you may need to consider an upgrade to a new level of commercially available email software.

One of the main pieces of an email marketing system is the SMTP server. Why is this server so important? Your SMTP server or MTA (mail transfer agent) is the sending engine of your bulk email system. This server receives generated email from your email marketing application, determines what email domains to deliver it to, and provides the transport and delivery of those messages to the various email domains on your list. Without the SMTP server, your email doesn’t make it out of your site. Picture a pile of un-delivered envelopes that just sit on your desk because there is no post office to sort and delivery them to their destination. In the early days of email marketing when volumes were much lower, many people turned to either their internal email servers like Exchange, or they used freely available SMTP servers like Sendmail, Postfix, or Microsoft IIS SMTP server.

But as the use of email for marketing purposes went up and volumes increased, two things began to happen. One was that using in-house email systems built for personal email communications began to break down because they were not built to handle large volumes of bulk email. Second, was that freely available SMTP servers were not able to adequately address the delivery challenges of sending bulk email to the large consumer ISP domains. These challenges include processing email bounces, throttling email to specific domains and the support for email authentication standards like DomainKeys, DKIM, SenderID and SPF.

Here are some trouble signs for look for:

Long Delivery Times

One main reason you may be experiencing long delivery times for even several thousand email messages is that your SMTP server simply cannot keep up with the load of not only parsing your email messages, but also with all of the DNS lookups that need to take place during delivery. A second reason why you may be experiencing long delivery times is that the ISP you are delivering to is deferring your email. Email gets deferred for several reasons: 1) the combination of your To, From, and IP address are not familiar with the ISP so as an anti-spam technique they will temporarily defer receiving email from your IP address; and 2) your SMTP server is sending email at a rate that is beyond the threshold of the ISP so they may again temporarily defer the email coming from your IP address.

Mail to Specific Domains Is Not Delivered

If email to a specific domain like Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com is not delivered, it may mean that the ISP has put your IP address on a blacklist. This can happen for several reasons. One reason is that your email is generating too many user complaints; people reviewing your email are designating it as spam. Another reason could be that you continually send email at a rate above the thresholds of the ISP. An ISP may choose to put your IP on a blacklist and refuse email from that IP if it detects that you may be a spammer based on your sending patterns. A third reason could be that you are sending too many bad email addresses to the ISP. If your list contains invalid email addresses, and you continually send to those bad email addresses, an ISP may consider you a spammer and put your IP address on a blacklist.

Email Responses Remain Flat or Decrease While Volume Increases

The law of averages would assume that based on a certain percentage of responses per number of total messages, the number of responses would increase at that same percentage as email volume increases. If you are seeing a decrease or a flat percentage as your email volume increases, it may point to an overall deliverability problem that exists within your email system. This decrease in deliverability may be caused by some or all of the problems discussed above. Overall deliverability of your email can depend on many factors including the use of email authentication standards, your DNS configuration, your sending frequency, the quality of your lists, and the throttling of your email within the guidelines of your ISP.

You will experience these issues once your email approaches several hundred thousand to several million a month. Freely available and inexpensive SMTP servers were never architected to support high levels of email, or the deliverability issues surrounding delivery of email to the large ISPs. Consider looking at an enterprise level, commercially available SMTP Server or a Hosted SMTP Relay Service provider that were built for the demands of both high throughput and high deliverability to protect your email marketing investment.

Email spam can be more than just annoying, it can be potentially dangerous to your computer. It can be a source of various malicious viruses and spyware. Therefore it is very necessary to guard your computer against any unwanted email spam. These days it has become much easier with the help of many free email spam filter options.

There are various free email spam mail blockers or filter options that you can choose from. Here is a rundown of some of the most popular free spam blockers for emails.

POPFILE

One of the most popular options is Popfile. It is a powerful and flexible email classification. It offers POP and NNTP proxy that can help you filter spam efficiently. It also helps by automatically categorizing good mails for you. It uses a Bayesian statistical analysis to classify the various incoming messages in various categories as defined by you. It has a very easy to use web interface, which is remotely accessible. This interface helps a lot in Popfile setup and training.

You can also use Popfile with your IMAP accounts to filter the incoming, SMTP or NNTP news. The best thing about this spam filter is that it automatically configures Outlook and Outlook Express to work with them.

You can use Popfile with almost every operating system. It works with 9x/ME/NT/2000/3/XP/Vista. It also works with Mac OS X, BSD, UNIX and Linux.

Despite all these advantages there is one disadvantage. Popfile is known to be a bit heavy on memory and can slow down your computer.

SPAMIHALTOR

Spamihilator is another easy to use, efficient anti-spam tool. It works with almost every email client. Also it has a good detection rate made possible by its Bayesian filters.

Spamihilator is designed to work as a proxy between the mail server and your email client. This way it filters the spam before it even enters your mail inbox. As a result it deletes any bad mail without downloading it. However you can browse the detected spam and read it inside the Spamihilator. In case you want to recover a good mail, you can do it easily.

SPAMATO

Then there is Spamato that can filter POP and IMAP accounts for spam. It does so with high precision with the help of various plug-ins. These plug-ins also make it easy to use Spamato with Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird.

SPAMBAYES

Spambayes is another good freeware spam blocker. It works on the same principal as the other spam filters. It can be used with both Outlook and Mozilla Firefox. The only problem is that it cannot classify or prioritize good mail.

EXPURGATE

Expurgate is also a good option. It detects spam precisely and accurately. However it can not itself fetch mail from a POP or IMAP account. Still it is a good spam filter software program.

Any of these free email spam filter options can help you deal with spam and stop it from entering your computer.

Some people actually like spicy meat in a can. But nobody likes email spam. That’s why anti-spam filters are a good thing. Most email programs come with built-in filters. Add-on filters are also available that function as email proxies. The spam filter lives on your computer like a local email server, acting as a proxy between your ISP’s mail server and your email client, such as Eudora or Outlook. Once it’s installed, the add-on filter checks your mail, filters out all the spam it can identify, and then sorts or deletes it according to your preferences.

Spam Filters for Windows Users

Add-on spam filters, like other software, are designed to operate with specific configurations. Windows users will find the widest selection and easiest access to programs. You can search and download a program that’s compatible with any version of Windows on the vendor’s websites.

For users with POP3 or IMAP accounts or folks who use other email services such as AOL, Yahoo!, or Hotmail, an add-on spam program for Windows might still work. Many of these accounts can be filtered via your Outlook or Outlook Express applications and are therefore compatible with Windows software.

In fact, some of the newer filters offer plug-ins that filter messages on your handheld email device. Anti-spam on the go!

Spam Filters for Mac and Other Users

A quick web search should result in several anti-spam options for Mac users. Most are compatible with Mail or Eudora email clients. Some Mac-friendly filters are even capable of filtering mail in POP3, IMAP, and Exchange accounts.

For users employing other operating systems, such as a Linux box, add-on anti-spam options do exist. Try searching the Mac compatible programs to find versatile software.

Spam Filters for the Computer Challenged

If downloading software and following an endless series of setup box instructions isn’t your favorite way to spend the afternoon, fear not. Spam filters maintained at an offsite server could work for you.

If you have very little memory left on your hard drive or you just don’t like configuring software, try one of the subscription services available online. For a small monthly fee, your messages will be routed through their filters before arriving in your inbox relatively spam-free.

A Life Without Spam

Most users find that adding on an anti-spam program is well worth the small cost and minimal time investment. To choose the right software for your computer, be sure you know your system requirements and make a list of the features that are important to you. You could be headed for a spam-free future.

Working with business Exchange email servers can be severely hampered without a quality Exchange spam filter. This component is used to filter out any unsolicited e-mails that are sent from various sources via the internet. Without any blocking device for spam emails, it is a cumbersome task for web users to sort out wanted or genuine mails from unsolicited mails. The exchange spam filter is strategically embedded between the PC and the server for mail. There is no web user who is completely protected from spam but depending on the measures that are put in such as using the spam filter for Exchange; the threats can be significantly minimized.

A spam filter within an Exchange server is basically software based program, which has the ability to spot, separate and erase any e-mails that have the characteristics of spam. The term spam filter and spam blocker is normally used interchangeably although there is a slight difference between these two tools. With filters, the mail that is directed to a web user’s inbox is divided into non spam and spam categories. The recipient of the mail will then be expected to either open or delete the mails one by one. With an Exchange spam filter the mails that fit the description of spam are instantly blocked and removed.

The key e-mail service providers such as Google G-mail and Yahoo mail use spam filters, which allow users to appropriately sort their e-mails. Many spammers have been able to fool this filtering mechanism, which means that there may be a greater chance that plenty of spam may not be categorized as junk mail. As a result of this, there may be a need to add additional anti spam devices. However, if an Exchange spam filter or blocker is configured correctly, it can be sufficiently effective for reducing the exposure to computer infections from viruses, malware, adware as well as other potentially harmful computer applications.

Apart from the harmful applications that spam predisposes users to, it also has the disadvantage of bulking inboxes with mostly unnecessary mail. It is only with an Exchange spam blocker that threats can be dealt with effectively unlike firewalls and anti-viruses that are not able to deal comprehensively with web threats. The choice of a spam blocker or filter for an exchange server should be done carefully and installed according to the appropriate demands and needs. For instance, an individual is not likely to have the same requirements as a large corporation. The type of anti spam application chosen should also depend on other additional factors including the filter compatibility, ease of use and ability to be customized or upgraded.

Any Exchange spam blocker or filter solution should have professional assistance when it comes to installation and maintenance. The spam filter for exchange will guarantee that the system runs optimally and does exactly what it is supposed to do. Reviews for software companies should be carried out before acquiring any anti spam exchange filter application. This will ensure that a company has the required credibility to offer the highest quality product.

Spam or unsolicited electronic mails are common features in our inboxes when we try to access or read our mail boxes online. The sources of these mails are usually product or service providers who want to advertise themselves through the website without your consent. They employ the service of softwares or robots to generate email address randomly and send these mails in bulk to all recipients.

Most robust web portals with mail servers such as Yahoo, Google mail, MSN have built in applications on their website whereby such mails are not received in the inbox but are diverted into a special box meant for unsolicited mails. This application is not entirely foolproof as some spam mails still manage to find their way into the inbox of the user. Spam mails are loathed by every web user because apart from the time that it causes to be wasted it could infect and damage your system with computer viruses not to talk less of infections that could breach your financial security.

Since eliminating spam mails can not be achieved out rightly reducing its menace is an alternative worth considering. One method being used to reduce spam mails is the challenge response system, this application also known generally as anti-spam software is designed to transfer the workload from the receiver of the mail to the originator of the mail. The trick behind this system is that the sender of those unsolicited mails would not have the time to start sending confirmation for million of mails he has sent out whereas a recognized sender could do so because he really needs to get across to you and could afford the time to reconfirm his intention.

One other strategy being adopted by some user to reduce the level of spam mails they receive in their inbox involves setting up a disposable email address which is normally used for registering on some web sites which are not really important so that mails come from them or their affiliates you can’t be bothered by them. In addition, to this tip it is also advisable not to leave your email address on a website or an online forum because information submitted here are not really kept in confidence but will either be given to affiliates, sold to spammers or web application devised for such will capture and send your mailing address into a database for use in spamming. Technically it is possible to encrypt your email address so that unauthorized users can not gain access to it but to tread on the safe path avoid publishing your mailing details on forums.

In the event whereby all efforts are sanitising your mail box from spam mails fails all you need to resort to is filtering your mail box. This system implies activating a set of rules normally integrated into the web design of most popular mail servers on the internet. On the other hand, you could purchase an online internet anti virus software which filters your mails before it gets to the mail server.

One thing that has plagued more or less all the Internet users is Spam. Thus, the biggest ask of todays Internet age is Anti Spam tools.

As the usage of internet is multiplying day after day, e-mail has become the most powerful and desirable means of communication. But some people are trying to annihilate its great reputation by introducing the spam into it. Spam is nothing but unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant or inappropriate e-mail. They are also known as junk mails. Spam mails are basically aimed at wasting the time and as a result, money of the individuals who are at the receiving end. Many people get annoyed when they see their inboxes full of junk mails, which are hidden between the legitimate ones. This situation may lead to chaos as these people may inadvertently delete the legitimate e-mails while deleting the spam. Also, the spam mails can cause unnecessary burden over the servers by uploading lots of redundant data over them. Moreover, they may even contain viruses, spyware and trojans which can damage the whole system of the receiver.

Hence, people who are acquainted with these ill effects of the spam mails are on the constant look out for better and more advanced Anti Spam solutions to get rid of this menace. Therefore big software companies are continuously trying to develop Anti Spam solutions, spam blockers and e-mail spam filters. Anti Spam solutions are basically designed to check the sender’s name and address and filter the spam e-mails according to a black list of spammers they own. They may also check the recipients’ names and addresses and filter the spam mails according to certain parameters decided by them. Some Anti Spam solutions also use content filtering or Bayesian Logic. They can scan the e-mails and search for certain words or phrases which are common in most spam mails like ‘viagra’ or ‘click here’ and filter the spam e-mails accordingly.

However, these Anti Spam solutions are not infallible. If the software companies are trying to develop more and more advanced ways to block and filter spam, the spammers are also not sitting idle. They are also constantly inventing new ways to hoodwink these Anti Spam programs and cause havoc in the world of internet. Moreover, most of these Anti Spam solutions are not reliable as they may delete some very necessary e-mail taking them as spam. This might happen if a legitimate sender makes use of some of the terms which favorites among the spammers or use an IP address that has been used by spammers in the past. Thus, a reliable Anti Spam solution is one, which minimizes these false positives by adopting a comprehensive anti spam approach by examining both the message content as well as the history of the sender. Moreover, an effective anti spam software is one, which learns the user preferences by analyzing his behavior towards some particular messages. For instance, most of us may delete the messages containing the word ‘viagra’ but some medical organizations may not do so.

Thus, while no Anti Spam software is perfect, still we should use them to reduce the risk of getting plagued by the menace of spam mails.

There are different types of spam on the Internet. One is the "Congratulations, you won!" E-mail, also known as e-mail fraud. They offer the possibility of a cut of millions of dollars that the sender is trying to obtain illegally transferred out of some banana republic in the middle of nowhere. These emails asking to send information to provide the account number and a fax number provided. Soon you will be sending requestincreasing amounts of money to them – and sees the fraud. And if you're naive enough to send them money, but never received a penny cut your alleged "see."

I think I can say that we all hate spam! And no one can e-mail account with say they have 100% immune to this crime were against. Nobody likes to go to their mailbox and find all the junk mail that is unsolicited spam. So what we can to protect us from this threat?

Firstto everything and you kept your anti-virus and anti – spam software updated and current. An e-mail package to install spam filters that ISPs to prevent spam that you receive are not. Good spam filters are in the form of software or hardware. with the event that e-mails from people who do not know, but can communicate simply use the black list of another function blockE-mail.

Another thing to avoid is to publish public e-mail on the Internet. This is because a spammer can scratch your e-mail from a site you visited and which is in their database. Try not disclose your e-mail during the visit on the Internet forums and chat rooms. If you have your e-mail, you must use a non-business to create personal address or account to another account allows for communication on these sites. For GuaranteedEffect, the email security service provider to block all unsolicited e-mail before it reaches the network and this way you can avoid all spam.

There is also the e-mail that at first glance appear to be authentic but prove to be the originator of malicious spam. Such spoofing and phishing e-mail must be opened at any time. To delete them, then immediately notify the site of the online business that supposedly sent the e-mail to find out if there was not areal communication from them.

Spam filter is the solution that most people resort when they try to steam the flood of junk mails and spam.

However, there is a problem!

First: Some spam will still get through.

Second: Some legitimate mails will be stopped as spam.

And that legitimate messages get caught in the spam filters is a big problem. It is a big problem for both the sender and for the receiver. If you use POP accounts on your ISP or use free email accounts like Hotmail you will sometimes be forced to use their spam filters. You are often not even told that legitimate messages may be deleted.

Why will they get stopped?

There are several reasons!

Spam filters may give red flag to an email simply because it contains words which the filters also find in spam messages.

Often newsletters you sign up to get blocked because too many messages are sent out at the same time or some subscriber have complained accusing the sender of spamming. The rules of the spam filters changes over time as this is an ever going arms race between the spammers and the anti spam filter manufacturer.

So how can you stop the flood of spam hitting your email account?

Simple, you have to go stealth!

Look at email spamming as a war.

Using spam filters is like putting on armor. It gives you protection, but it will also cost you and give you less flexibility.

The spam sending gangs, there are estimated to be fewer than hundred worldwide, machine gun bombard only email accounts which they can find.

This means that if they can’t find your email address they can’t spam you.

So how do they find you?

Contrary to popular beliefs they don’t find your email address because you sign up to a newsletter or to legal product information.

Instead they collect or harvest email from web sites using spam boots. The spam boots works in a similar way as web content collecting search engine spiders except they only collect email addresses. They also collect email address from address books found inside email software like Outlook or Eudora. They do this by using viruses and spywares.

Your solution to avoid getting on their lists is to go stealth and become invisible to the spammers!

What do I mean by that?

Simple you hide your email address or addresses from the email harvesting spam boots. But at the same time if you have your own web site you want your viewers to be able to read or click on your contact email.

One common solution is to rewrite the email address on the web site.

Let’s say you email is: info@mysite.com

You can rewrite the address as info@REMOVEmysite.com, info @ mysite.com, infoATmysite.com or something similar. The email address is then readable by human viewers, not by the spammers. The downside of this method is that the email address is not clickable from your web site.

Another method which is preferred by commercial web sites is to use a contact form that also hides the address from the spammers.

One solution which I use and have found to work well is to hide the address from the spam boots with java script. The address then becomes clickable for the viewers. You can learn how to use java script and hide your email addresses from the spammers at http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com/stop-spam.html

You should also use firewall and anti virus software as a protection so that spammers don’t get access to the email addresses from within your computer. As an extra precaution you should also use spyware removal software. This will remove possible spyware from your computer. All this measures should protect you from spammers and their spying eyes.

However, be careful! With this method in order to work you should adopt a strict email discipline and limit the number of people with access to your email addresses and not spread them around.

But, what if your emails already have been spread into the spammers mailing lists?

It is important to understand that the spammers want new and fresh email addresses.

Therefore they continuously harvest the Internet for addresses.

The answer is, use Google!

With Google you will find the web pages on which your email addresses are located. Just perform consecutive searches using Google typing in one of your email address in the search box.

You can then contact the owners of those sites and ask them to remove the email address.

Result:

The spam will not stop immediately, but after a couple of months the flow will start to recede.

Copyright 2004 Per Strandberg

Do you hate spam? Spam has been one of the biggest headache for online business owners. Attacks such as unsolicited email, automatic bot messages and blatant advertising methods are just irritating. However, there’s still light to shred the shadow. After reading this article, you will have better ideas to fight against spam activities in your site.

Captcha is one of the best ways against auto bot registration. One of the most common spam behavior is auto account registration on forums. These bots intend to post advertising messages without manual control. Tools like Xrumer are dedicated for this purpose. Thus, you can set up captcha against bot registration. Alternatively, setting up anti-spam questions that appear randomly will also be useful.

Some spams may come from the same IP. If this is the case, you can try to block IP access on your server. IP block is a built-in function on many web server platform. You can even define an IP range for wider coverage. Note that you may also block other users on the same IP. Another measure is to block the email address and its DNS source. This can save you time to delete spam email.

There are a lot of anti-spam software available on the market. E-mail clients also have built-in defense mechanism against junk emails. But best of all you should avoid spreading your email address over the internet, because your email can be picked up by email harvester software. Using a submission form will be a more secured measure.

I’m glad to see that you hate spam as much as the rest of us. Here are 7 internet-safe tips on keeping the spam out of your Inbox, and junk box for that matter:

I would be willing to bet that a great number of readers are using Internet Explorer right now. Well toss the junk, and get in with the new. Alternate browser’s such as Mozilla Firefox and Apple’s Safari have built in spam filtering tools much strong than Internet Explorer. Mozilla even comes with Mozilla Thunderbird, a highly anti-spamming e-mail program.

Now if you are willing to go the extra mile, you have even stronger options such as Spamcop, where you can pay $30 a month to block out virtually 99% of all spam e-mail messages.

This next tip is definitely one to keep in you arsenal of anti-spam warfare. If you are a frequent product buyer online, use an alternate email account for account registrations. Your e-mail is worth money to the spam gods, they will pay a lot to come in contact with it. Great places to go for free e-mail accounts are Yahoo, Hotmail, and Google.

If you are actively committed to an online forum, keep your email private, and only allow moderators to view it. Spammers will use programs that read forums looking for e-mail addresses and can easily find your’s if it is not kept private. That’s an interesting one!

(Best tip!) Now if I were you, and you were me, I would definitely recommend this product to me.. wait, you.. no us? Well you get the point, this is some of the best stuff on the market. It is a great product that puts your email on auto-pilot. How cool is that? It automatically deletes junk email based on your previous actions, it teaches itself what to junk and delete, how smart!

Now this tip is one that will save you from a great deal of spam, although it may be a little tougher for you to do. Windows comes with a built in firewall, but no virus protection or internet security of that sort. Although you have the firewall, it would be similar to fighting a fire breathing, knight-crushing dragon with pebbles. I would highly recommend some virus protection software such as Kaspersky or Norton. Now this would set you up with a helicopter, fully armed with heat seeking missiles; works great for those fire breathing dragons. I bet you just love those amazing analogies right? Moving on- if you cannot afford to pay for this high quality virus protection, there is still light at the end of the tunnel! There is free virus protection software called AntiVir that isn’t that bad of stuff.

Alright, last step! This one is an easy one and will just provide you with some suggestion on how to stay safe. Check out Anti-Spam Tips now for great ways to fight spam!

Now that I’ve shared with you 7 ways to help reduce the amount of spam you receive, take the initiative to test it all out, or as much of it as you can. If you found this information interesting, please visit my blog. Thank you!