A cleaner for Windows Registry is a tool aimed at Microsofts’ Windows operating systems. What is does is remove unwanted and redundant items from the registry.

Although Registry Cleaners keep the Windows Registry clean off unwanted material, some security experts disagree with this claim and questioned their benefits.

The utility of registry cleaners becomes even more controversial because some security experts associate them with malware and scareware propagation.

Registry Cleaners help in the protection of a system by successfully cleaning the Windows Registry. They clean all the unwanted and useless configuration data from the system and enhance the efficiency of a slow computer.

Configuration data could be found in several forms that replete the Windows Registry. Settings for malware installation and propagation, unwanted information and information of uninstalled software are generally categorized as configuration data.

Registry Cleaners perform scanning of the registry and try to identify unwanted values so as to repair or remove them.

Benefits:

The Registry Cleaner Software makes computer efficient and improves its performance by deleting all the unwanted information.

It is not just sheer size and complex structure of Registry database that make manual cleaning of debris and invalid entries difficult but also missing files references and broken links make the task almost unfeasible. However, Registry Cleaner Software is competent enough to perform the cleaning process automatically and flawless.

The rectification of a wrong registry key can lead to some advantages.

Until and unless majority of applications have shifted to .NET Framework, which is not dependent on the registry for the setting of applications, registry cleaners will always have a critical role to play.

Some of the registry cleaners present users with backup and restore utilities, which enable them to undo the undesirable changes done by the registry cleanup software.

Computer users, who usually add or remove applications, should have Registry Cleaner installed in their systems. But security experts believe that virtual machines are perfect systems for Registry Cleaner installation because they need reliable reverting means to go back to the best known testing scenario.

Nevertheless, some security experts hold completely different opinion on the usefulness of registry cleaners and have discarded their benefits to remove redundant or unwanted items.

The real potential of RSS lies in Broadcasting.

In former times, jumping up on a soapbox or any
platform in the street to speak your mind was
a popular pastime. Mainly reserved for political
radicals, the biblically inspired or the Cuckoo’s
frequent flyer’s club - the soapbox did fill a need.

The need to express oneself.

I have always thought of RSS/Blogs and blogging as
more of a ’soapbox’ than a ‘journal’ or a ‘weblog’
of daily events. A modern day techno version of the
soapbox with the transfer of one’s firmly held
beliefs/opinions in a few kb’s here and there along
the information highway.

The stronger the beliefs or opinions - the more
popular the blog. The more unique the content - the
more entertaining the blog is to read.

It also gives you a platform for entertaining
off-beat ideas and new ways of thinking. And it’s
a very democratic platform - where anyone’s input
can be just as valid as another.

Forget the vote, the blog is a much more democratic tool.

And it’s very young. It has a long way to go.

Nothing stays the same, everything changes, everything
evolves — even our methods of thinking, our means of
expressing ourselves. RSS/Blogs is changing the way we
communicate.

Imagine a Model T, a Fifties Cadillac, and a present day
Ferrari in your mind. Now imagine your vision or view of
the automobile if you only had the Model T to base it on?
the Cadillac?

Don’t underestimate or even judge RSS by its present day
form - this soapbox is morphing as you read this!

Ever wonder what RSS/blogs will be like in fifty or a
hundred years? What about websites? What about the
Internet? We’re only at the Model T stage - ever wonder
what that Ferrari will look like?

Lately, I can’t get that idea out of my head! What blogs,
the web, all this will be like in fifty years, a hundred
years, a thousand years? Personally, the future of RSS is
what interests me the most.

I have some background in the art field, people in that field
are always looking ahead. Artists are trained to think ‘in’,
‘outside’, and ‘ahead’ of the box. Especially ahead of the
box - five shots ahead of the cue ball - at all times.

For an artist, it’s a pure matter of survival. They have
to be ahead of crowd just to be mildly interesting. The real
fortune tellers leap ahead of the pack. Forging the way.

Blogs and RSS are forging the way for new ideas, new methods
of expression…it’s our own little wired soapbox…just
waiting for you to step up. And that soapbox is expanding
and evolving — What will that ’soapbox’ morph into?

Blogs/RSS will evolve and change. No doubt it will turn
that wired soapbox into your own personal interactive TV
channel — broadcasting your ideas, opinions, products onto a
billion channel internet…

Sound too far-fetched? Well, the radio version of this
system is just starting. Podcasting is just turning the
corner - read more about it in this Forbes.com Article.

If we have radio, TV can’t be far behind! And the key
is RSS.

RSS gives us our own publishing facility, but it’s more akin to
broadcasting than publishing. It broadcasts our ideas, our
websites, our products…

Basically, I believe, RSS is paving the way for a billion channel
internet where each website will be it’s own interactive tv channel.
As storage space, transmission, download times… becomes irreverent or
instantaneous — how can it not happen?

As we crave more visuals, more audio, and more instant gratification
from the internet and webpages; how can RSS not deliver it?

The foundation, the infrastructure and the groundwork are already
present; connecting the dots will only be a matter of time.

So keep your eye on the cursor and don’t underestimate or even judge
RSS by its present day form; this soapbox is morphing as you read this!

And grab that remote; thanks to RSS, surfing a billion TV channels may
just become your favorite pastime or nightmare in the very near future.

—-
To Put RSS On Your Site Within Minutes - Visit This Link:

RSS and Blogging Guide
Copyright © 2005 - Bizwaremagic.com
This article may be freely distributed if this resource
box stays attached. Visit http://www.bizwaremagic.com/blog
for more mildly amusing RSS/Blog content.

RSS content is delivered through RSS feeds. These are simple files structured in a specific way. [A type of xml]

RSS stands for either Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS files (which are also called RSS feeds or channels) simply contain a list of items. Usually, each item contains a title, summary, and a link to a URL. RSS files look a lot like HTML code. It is up to the user to use this information in any way that he wants.

You should provide an RSS feed if you want to distribute your information to a vast and fast-growing community of users, who are more interested in knowing about your topic. In general, people who write articles or publish newsletters benefit the most. Most blog software allows you to offer RSS feed of the blog posts. You can also offer your press releases through an RSS feed.

In general, anything that you publish frequently can be offered as an RSS feed. For example in the share market, the prices of the shares are always fluctuating. People holding shares or those who are interested in that business would like to stay updated about the price of their shares. When RSS feeds are created for such fields it will be of very great use undoubtedly.

Soon, you will find online retailers and other catalog companies also offering RSS feeds of their product range.

There are 2 main components of a RSS feed.

* Channel: A channel is the total collection of items you wish to highlight in your site. There is exactly one channel per RSS file.
* Item: Item is a single thing you wish to highlight from your site. There is at least one, but no more than 15 items per channel. But it is better to limit to 6 items per channel.
* RDF: RDF is the mother specification of RSS.

Example - You may create a RSS feed about all articles on your web site. That is, articles covering different topics in one RSS feed.

Then the channel will contain information about the feed (”Read articles on various subjects”), the location (web site address or URL) and a short description of the content you have written about.

There will be multiple items in the RSS Feed. Each item will have information about one article (the title, author, category, short description and the URL where the article may be found).

The user may see the index in a suitable viewer called RSS aggregator or reader, display the contents on a web page, or use it in any other way he thinks fit.

An aggregator, as the name suggests, is a piece of software that collects content from many websites that publish new content regularly (CNN, New York Times, Wired, etc.) provide a list of headlines of the latest content. In addition to displaying these headlines on their own websites, it is very common for publishers to make them available for syndication, so that other websites or applications can also include their headlines. When a website has an RSS feed, it is said to be “syndicated”.

The RSS aggregators come in many different forms and flavors. The most popular are desktop applications and RSS aggregation Web services.
* In the case of desktop RSS aggregators, end-users have to download them to their computers and install them there.
* In RSS aggregation Web services, on the other hand, the users can create their own accounts and then use those websites to view RSS content directly from their Web browsers.
After installing an RSS aggregator or registering at a web-based RSS aggregator web Service, the user needs to proactively add the link to your RSS feed in to the Aggregator to view your content.

When any new content item is modified or updated in the RSS feed, the user is notified of that through his RSS aggregator. The content is also immediately available to him, without having to face any SPAM filters and other obstacles on the way.

RSS being essentially a pull-content delivery channel, that is, in order to receive content via RSS the end-users need to subscribe to the RSS feeds they desire. Content cannot be delivered to people who have not granted permission to be contacted by you. At the same time, the other side of the coin is also true! The user who had given permission once can revoke it instantly, taking away your capability of communicating to them.

This fact makes the marketers and publishers more alert and force them to send only relevant information to their subscribers. Therefore, the chance of the user stopping the subscription suddenly is very remote. He is assured of receiving only information that is of use and interest to him. This is why exactly RSS is very powerful.

Dirk Wagner is the CEO of http://www.internetmarketingoasis.com a powerful resource for needed marketing tools and creator of the #1 IMO Marketing Toolbar. He also is the publisher of a free home business online course at http://www.team4success.biz.

Quick question… do you publish ‘Articles’ on a regular basis?

I’m talking like on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

If so, then your in for a real treat.

If you haven’t heard, RSS(Real Simple Syndication) is taking the Internet by storm because of its many Benefits, especially for someone(you) who provides fresh ‘Quality’ content on a regular basis.

Not only does RSS GUARANTEE 100% delivery to whoever opt’s in to your feed(s), it can also ‘Syndicate’ your content across the Internet in an instant to thousands of websites and portals delivering an avalanche of FREE targeted traffic to your website(s) at NO Cost to you what so ever.

WoW! Was that a mouthful or what? It gets better, so hold on.

We all know that without Traffic to our website(s) we have no business.

We also know that the Internet is starving for fresh content on a Daily basis to feed its evergrowing appetite for information.

The upside to this IS if your someone(you) who publishes articles as one of your means of online promotion for your website(s) then your in for a real ride.

As you well know Article Directories are one of the primary places article publishers(like yourself) go to submit their articles.

Why?

Simply because this is where website owners go to find fresh related content to publish in their newsletters or on their websites on a daily to weekly basis to feed their audiences need for Information.

And with time always being a major factor, adding fresh related content can become quite a chore for a website owner who is already hard pressed for time as it is on a daily basis while trying to keep up with all the other daily duties a online business requires.

So with that being said, how does RSS and Article Directories fit into the mix and how can You benefit from this technology by providing and submitting fresh ‘Quality’ content on a weekly basis to Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication?

The answers simple.

The Article Directories(at least most of them) NOW have RSS Feed databases available under any category your article falls under for those website owners who looking for RSS feeds and have websites that are RSS ready.

Whats this mean for you?

This means everytime you submit your new article to the Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication and they approve your article to the particular category you request upon submission and lets say for example 1000 websites have that RSS Feed category plugged into their RSS Feed list, guess what?

The next time that RSS feed updates(usually within 24 hours) guess whose article is going to show up on all those 1000 websites INSTANTLY?

That’s right… Yours!

Whats this mean for you? Simple… more Traffic and more $$Profits$$!

Are you starting to see the HUGE benefits to RSS and Article Directories adopting this new technology?

Do you see the benefits this will give the person(you) publishing articles to these directories on a regular basis?

I think you do because I know I do.

RSS Syndication is truly becoming the cornerstone of how content is delivered and/or syndicated online and it has only begun.

Once everybody else Jumps-On the RSS band wagon after seeing the true benefits of RSS Syndication and how it can deliver their content to their target audience without any worry of being redirected into the trash can like email, You the publisher will benefit for years to come receiving FREE targeted traffic, collecting more leads and making more sales without having to do anything But provide fresh ‘Quality’ content to these Article Directories on a regular basis.

So… the only thing you have to do now is find those Article Directories that offer RSS Syndication and start submitting your articles to them.

If you don’t write and publish your own articles maybe you should consider getting started and/or hire a Ghost Writer to write them for you.

Below I have listed a few resources for you that offer RSS Syndication for you to get started with. I would of listed more but there’s just to many.

(Note: Some of the resources below are free and some are paid just so you know in advance.)

Article99.com

GoArticles.com

EzineArticles.com

Announce-Article.com

Well I hope you found this article informative and helpful, the only thing left for you to do IS… Take Action!

Want to get MORE ‘Insider’ marketing Secrets on How-To drive HUGE amounts of Laser Targeted Traffic to your website? Then you need to subscribe to Cory Threlfall’s ezine called… The Internet Wonders eZine at — internet marketing

RSS feeds and blogs (and blog and pinging) are part of the latest hyper-frenzy in internet marketing. Tools and services are mushrooming all over. But there seem to be some rather distorted ideas about all this.

Unless you want to get into the technical stuff, exactly what an RSS feed is doesn’t really matter. Now I care because I use them for a lot of things, work with code and do geeky tech stuff. But from a marketing perspective the underlying technical structure is only relevant because it clues us in on what to use an RSS feed for. And that’s the thing you have to understand.

An RSS marketing feed is not about the feed’s content in most cases. Feeds that carry large quantities of content are usually referred to as data feeds and that’s not what people are going to put in their RSS aggregators. A basic RSS feed consists of a varied number of items with title, a link to the full content source and a short extract or description from the full source. There’s more but that’s the basics.

If you subscribe (by email) to something like the daily New York Times headlines, think about what a typical item looks like:

++++ Big deal thing happens somewhere

++++ By A Writer

++++ Once again an astonishing big deal thing has happened…

++++ Read Full Article: URL-link-to-news-story

Title and author - short description - link to full content

Just like an RSS feed item.

What should be obvious from this example is that RSS feeds are about change. New content. Updated information. They are not about static content.

The group you want to reach, people who surf via RSS, are looking for an efficient, fast way to identify new content that they are interested in. So if you’re going to do an RSS feed, you need it to link to and report on new and updated content.

There are lots of tools available that will let you create your own feeds, manually or with varying degrees of automation. One of the most popular means is by blogging. You really don’t need any technical knowledge at all to set up a blog and produce a feed.

You can use a blog just as a feed generator. Basically this is what blog and ping software and services are doing. That kind of feed is not for people, it’s for the search engines. It’s a way to alert the SEs that a new site with un-indexed pages exists. Blogs used that way are not what I’m talking about here.

You can create a blog about anything. What’s important is that new content is added regularly. There are many ways to add valuable content to a blog. You needn’t be a brilliant writer, many don’t require much or any writing.

The best way to check this out for yourself is to blog-surf. No matter what kind of site you have - or what kind of product you want to promote - there’s always a way to write about it, find new information, check and report on similar or related products and sites, report on industry news, provide your own opinions and ideas.
As most people quickly discover, it’s far easier than it sounds at first.

Your blog will produce at least one RSS type feed. Blogger produces just an atom feed, WordPress and other blog software normally produce one or 2 types of RSS feeds and an atom feed. Services like feedburner.com can allow you to “burn” your feed and then promote a single burned url which will provide any kind of feed a user wants.

Now that you have content and an RSS/atom feed that links to that content, your next step is to publicize your feed. You have two different main avenues since your blog has real content.

First you can add your feed to RSS search engines and RSS directories.

And second, because your blog has that real content and isn’t just an RSS feed generator, you can add your blog to blog search engines and blog directories. You could even use blog traffic exchanges like BlogExplosion.

This is a simple, low - or basically zero - cost, yet highly effective way to get new traffic from at least two sources.

First from your RSS feed. Feeds are an increasingly popular way to save time, search and surf. If your content is valuable and interesting people will subscribe to your feed and click thru to those full articles or posts that interest them — targeted traffic from a group that is relatively affluent and tech savvy.

Second, blogs are extremely popular. A good blog will get linked, reported, commented on, other blogs may pick up your feed and report items from it. All of this exposure can bring valuable free traffic.

And finally, as an extra good thing, search engines like blogs because of the regularly updated content - they are nuts about fresh content - and the easily spidered structure blogs use. So as your blog pages get indexed in the SEs, you can also get direct search engine traffic.

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

Richard has become a blog/feed freak largely because of the traffic implications and because he likes to write. For more on RSS Marketing visit http://www.MarketingWithRSS.com/blog and for general eCommerce check out http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites.com/

Spyware and Adware viruses have rapidly become the number
one threat to your computer with over 90% of computers
already infected. These include “Trojans”, Web Bugs, Advertiser
Software, Monitoring Software and more. Fortunately there are
good spyware protection and adware spyware virus removal
tools available. Sorting through them all to find the right one is a
challenging task and an important decision to make.

Consequences From Spyware: hijacked browsers, reset home
pages, changed search results, spam emails sent to you, slow
browsers, toolbars added to your browser, and many more.

You Need To Understand What Spyware Is!

Spyware and Adware, also called “Malware”, are files made by
publishers that allow them to snoop on your browsing activity,
see what you purchase and send you “pop-up” ads. They can
slow down your PC, cause it to crash, record your credit card
numbers and worse. If you’re like most Internet users, chances
are you’re probably infected with these files. Simply surfing the
Internet, reading email, downloading music or other files can
infect your PC without you knowing it.

Q. So What is Spyware?

A. Spyware are individual programs that embed themselves
within your computer and monitor your internet browsing
activites. They can spy on your confidential information
(passwords, credit card info, etc).

Q. What is Adware?

A. Adware are software applications that display advertising
banners and popups. If you get inundated with popups chances
are you have been infected by Adware.

Q. What is Malware?

A. It is the short term for malicious software. Malware are more
commonly referred as viruses, trojans, and worms.

Q. What is a Trojan virus?

A. A Trojan virus is software that breaks through computer
security and disguises itself as something benign (harmless).

Q. What are Computer Viruses?

A. Destructive programs that disrupt the normal functioning of
computer systems.

Is Your Computer Infected?

This is no longer something that you only see in sci-fi movies -
spyware can attack anyone! If you’ve downloaded some music,
files or documents and suddenly started getting annoying ads
popping up on your screen, you could definitely be infected with
spyware and/or adware software!
Anyone who visits corrupt websites (you won’t know you have),
clicks on deceptive popups or views a spam email message is
vulnerable. Simply put, if you’re online, you’re at risk.

The Short Summary: Is your PC running slower than usual? Are
you getting popup ads and do not know where they are coming
form? Then you could have spyware software running on your
computer without your knowledge.

The Solution: choosing an anti spyware software protection
program immediately, to eliminate the threat to your computer,
files, sensitive information and peace of mind.

Joe Borges helps you to keep your computer files safe. To learn the essential steps to protecting your computer and files on the internet and get a free trial spyware scan, visit our Detect Spyware website.
Joe Borges is an Internet Marketer and Online Business Owner with experience in web development and implementation. He is also a professional SEO Consultant, helping internet businesses increase their web presence, website traffic and Search Engine Ranking. Get essential tips, tools and strategies that you can use right now to protect your computer and your most sensitive information by visiting:
http://www.alertcomputer.com

RSS feeds are reshaping how we access information online. In the past, when you wanted to know when your favorite information site had some new information on it, you had to go visit the website, wait for it to load, get distracted, etc. With the growing popularity of RSS feeds however, this is no longer necessary.

One ingenious use of RSS feeds is to get your customers to subscribe to an RSS feed on the latest products you offer. The latest sales for the month, news related to the products and services you offer and more. Using an RSS feed, a customer can know exactly when you post new information online without wasting time or having to wade through information that they aren’t interested in. Keeping yourself in front of your customer will result in more sales.

An RSS feed for your coupons

FindSavings.com for instance offers their visitors the ability to subscribe to RSS Feeds for coupon deals being offered by the favorite brand name stores. Whenever a new sale or rebate is posted, the customer is notified via their RSS news aggregator, their browser or their online reader. Getting the sale into the hands of the customer right away increases the chance that a sale is made.

RSS feeds bypass nasty spam filters

Every day it seems that email spam is growing. It has gotten so bad that the usefulness of email as a communication medium has been greatly compromised. Because of this volume of spam, as much as 85% of your email messages may not get through to your customers. Using RSS feeds, you can achieve 100% delivery effectively bypassing traditional spam filters.

RSS gives your customers exactly what they want

RSS feeds can be created on very specific topics. Like a laser beam, they can be aimed to give information on very specific niches. Narrowing the focus of a feed will generally increase the usefulness of the feed to the customer. It also increases the customers interest and trust in what the feed offers to them. All of this will result in more sales.

Want to us RSS feeds to increase your sales? Give your customers the information that they want and crave and your bottom line will thank them.

Joe Duchesne is the webmaster for http://www.sreamerfeeds.com. Screamerfeeds specializes in offering news and opinion on RSS Feeds and related technologies.

Reprint freely as long as you keep the keyword rich link live and this resource box intact.

A friend asked me: I don’t get it. Why do spammers have such a hard time spelling
things properly? I get mail trying to sell me “viagggra”, increase my “brest” size, or
save me money accessing “pr0n” sites or buying “seks toys”. Even more puzzling,
there are plenty of spam messages where it takes me a few minutes to even figure
out what the subject actually is, with subjects like “sa vem oneyo n vviiiaaagra” or
similar. What’s the story? Why can’t these people use a spell checking program??

I have often wondered this myself, with spam messages like “YOU JUST WONT A
GREENCARD” (don’t they mean “won”?), “Morgage ref id last opportunity” (don’t they
mean “mortgage”)? and, my favorite “earn a college degre instantly” (they
presumably mean “degree”, but if they can’t spell the word degree, how can I have
confidence in the legitimacy of what they’re offering??)

But anyone who has spent more than about five minutes looking at the problem and
attempted solutions to spam knows why there are such rampant misspellings: to try
and sidestep spam filters. In additional to individual spam filtering systems, there
are now many Internet Service Providers who filter your email before it even gets to
your mailbox, weeding out the most idiotic and easily recognized of this junk.

Of course, if you are a physician and have patients who are concerned about that
Merck Vioxx prescription you wrote for them two years ago, it is theoretically
possible that their message won’t make it to you. If you’re a mortgage broker, well,
news of your competitors offerings might be something you do want to
receive. But overall, most people don’t want this junk, so the people clogging up the
Internet with the billions of spam messages sent daily continue to try and sidestep
these filtering mechanisms, and the misspellings, typos, and oddly presented words
(like “0ffer” with a leading zero rather than “offer” with a letter o) presumably offer
some minimal ability to do just that.

The irony of all this, in my opinion, is that the more spammers try to do overt and
stupid tricks to try and sidestep the filters, the less effective their messages are.
They might measure 1 sale in 250,000 messages a success, but better targeting,
legitimate offers, well-written ad copy and genuine opt-in distribution lists might
just improve those odds quite a bit. And if you’re selling something, wouldn’t you
like to avoid having 95% of the Internet spontaneously hate you because of your
marketing techniques?

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980, and has written sixteen
different technical books. His latest projects are College Finances and Ask Dave Taylor, where he’s happy to receive questions from readers.

Spam has probably joined death and taxes as one of those things that just can’t be avoided. However, there are prudent steps that you can take to reduce spam or even prevent it, especially if you run or are thinking about running your own website.

One of the chief ways that your email ends up on a spammer’s list is because of the action of spambots. Spambots are robotic programs that systematically go through the world wide web collecting information, in much the same way that search engines crawl the web. However in the case of the spambots they are not seeking information to index in a publicly used search engine. They are collecting any email address that appears in the html code of the web pages they visit. These email addresses are then sold to advertisers.

If you are launching a brand new website and proudly put your email address info@yourdomain.com , then very soon you will start getting spam email to this virgin email address, due to the relentless searching of the spambots. It’s a dilemma; you want your web visitors to be able to contact you but you don’t need hundreds of spam emails adding to your burden of unsolicited mail.

Here are a few things that you can do.

1. Use a form to collect feedback from your site. If you use a form to collect information from your web visitors then you don’t have to publish your email address on your site. However, you have to be careful about which kind of form collection method you use. Some form systems require you to put your email address in the html code of your web page. Although your email address is not visible when looking at the page in a browser, it will be collected by the spambots. Remember, the spambots are not human beings, they are only collecting the information that appears in your html code. Choose a script where the email address is kept on your server.

2. Render your email address in the form of an image: Instead using text to show your email address, make a jpg or gif image with your email address. You can match the normal background and text that appears on your page so that the image looks like your normal text. Someone viewing the site can just copy the address down and use it in their email program. Don’t try to be clever and link your image link to your email address, because the spambots will find your address in your html. Once again, the spambot is a robot is “looking” not at your visible web page, but, “under the hood”, at your html code.

3. You can scramble your email using special software or through an online utility. If you go to http://natata.hn3.net/ you can download the Natata Anti-Spam Encoder. You will end up with clickable mailto links which are invisible to spambots.

You can also visit the site: http://www.proles.net/emailencoder/ and scramble your email (but make sure that the link text does not contain your actual email address.

So, it is possible to maintain the interactivity and usefulness of your website, but also to protect your email address from the ruthless spam merchants.

Copyright 2004

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been
working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization,
http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization,
copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He
publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at
http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

Even being as careful as possible with my email address, I still used to receive more than 100 email messages a day, which is no exaggeration. Only about 10% of those emails were from people that I knew and the rest of the messages were unwanted email…”spam”. And I’m sure you can relate to my frustration. It is estimated that over seventy-six billion unwanted email messages were delivered in 2003, costing companies more than $10 billion each year.

So How Do They Get Our Email Addresses?

In making online purchases, you should always realize that your email address could be given or sold, regardless of what the merchant’s privacy policy may state. Even filling out an online survey or registering your email address to become a member of a web site is subject to having your email address given away. Also, there are spider programs that spammers use that search the web and “harvest” email addresses, much like search engine spiders do when they acquire web site information.

Tips To Avoid Getting Spam

1. Don’t Click “Unsubscribe”: On the bottom of some spam emails you will find an “Unsubscribe” link. Some of these are legitimate links, while others are tools to indicate that your email address is valid. Unsubscribing could actually result in getting more unwanted email.

2. Spam Filtering: Some ISPs or domain services carry spam filtering options, and there are filters and rules you can use in some email programs (i.e. Microsoft Outlook, Eudora and Apple’s Mail OSX). While no spam filtering program can eliminate spam completely, it can greatly reduce the amount of spam you receive. But you must be careful in using any sort of spam filtering mechanism, as you may ultimately filter out some of your wanted email.

3. Get Two Email Addresses: Use your primary email address for business or personal use, and the other for making online purchases and for filling out web site registration information.

4. Update Your Web Site: The best overall solution is to have people contact you through a form on your web site, as your email address is not so easily revealed. If you must have direct links to your email address on your site, consider having a link that simply reads “email” or “contact” instead of spelling it out on a web page.

There are many simple methods that you can use to help reduce the amount of spam coming through to your business. By using these tips, you will not only save yourself time and money, but you will ultimately send a strong message to the people send unwanted email.

About The Author

Edward Robirds is a success-driven artist and interactive media developer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 1996, Edward has been building business relationships with several association and commercial clients around the world. Founder of www.DreamseaArtworks.com, Edward uses his artistic skills, expertise and passion to design and develop web sites, interactive CD-ROMs, and print media for his clients.

mail@dreamseaartworks.com