Eliminating Spam

Dear $$$,

Postage rates are going up making it more expensive than ever to advertise by direct mail. A direct mail piece costs roughly a dollar a piece. Contrast this with email. With email advertisers can mail millions of emails for nothing. Is it any wonder Spam continues to increase? The problem will only get worse leaving us just two choices:

1. Tough it out by looking through all your email manually.
2. Aggressively filter your email and risk false positives.

Neither choice is good. Either way you miss good email and real business.

Luckily there is a third option: the two-email scenario. This technique eliminates Spam like a ginsu knife. Here's how it works:

Setup a Private email for family, friends and close business associates only. Don't give it to anyone. If you want to be aggressive, don't even put it on your business card (I've seen email get on Spam lists by handing out business cards at chamber functions). The private email is PRIVATE - fiercely so. Keep it away from the public.

Setup a Public email for everyone else. Put this email on your site, on your business card, and everywhere on the Internet. Scatter this email about like the autumn leaves. Feel free to distribute your public email openly to anyone and everyone that asks. Have no fear of Spam. They can't get at you.

Now, on the mail server, forward your public email to your private email so you get ALL the email from both boxes (we, or your ISP, do that for you).

As time goes by your public box will get picked up on spam lists. At first you'll get 10, then you'll get 1000. We all know how that goes. When you've had enough, close your public email. All the junk coming into your box will cease immediately. Who cares if you cut these people off? You'll be left with just good mail from your family, friends, and close business associates. Now open a new public email (under a different name) and keep on marketing. This way you keep good contacts and stay open to new business too.

The Internet Man

PS. Just a reminder - cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies next month. Register your cell phone number on the National Do Not Call list by clicking here.