Spam. Those annoying, time-consuming emails that clog your Inbox and ruin your day. You wonder: How did it ever get so bad? While it’s not possible to completely eliminate spam, there are quite a few things you CAN do about the problem to reduce your burden.

Spam is defined as an unsolicited email trying to get you to buy something. In addition, it’s email that tries to get you to give up something: your credit card number, social security number, login ID, etc., by pretending to be a legitimate email. Here are some tips for stopping the current spam you’re getting, and avoiding getting on new spam lists.

1. Maintain two email addresses: a Personal Email Address (that you give to family, friends and business associates)personal one, and a Safe Email Address (one you use whenever you’re ordering something online, signing up for an email newsletter, or creating a profile on a website). For instance, I use a Hotmail account for my Safe Email Address. If a spammer were to get a hold of that address, fine. All the spam will go into my Hotmail account, which I only look at once a week. Hotmail has a great anti-spam filter built in, so it’s easy to see what’s spam and what’s not. This practice leaves my personal email account relatively spam-free (maybe I get two spam emails a day to my personal account). Some free email services include Hotmail, Yahoo and GMail (Google’s new email service).

2. Use your Safe Email Address to send emails to companies who might be harvesting email addresses from incoming emails. For example, say you want to write to a company to ask them about their products. Some companies will harvest your email address from the email you send to them, and put you on their mailing list. By using your Safe Email Address, you can avoid seeing messages from these companies come to your personal email address.


3. Stop giving your email address to everyone who wants it. Does your local bank really need your email address? Does your grocery store need it? Just because someone asks for it doesn’t mean you have to give it to them. If it’s a non-local company, or you are signing up for a mailing list, then they probably do need it. But it’s okay to leave the email address blank when filling out forms. Always ask yourself, Do I want to be contacted by this company via email? (Speaking of mailing lists, make sure the companies you subscribe to have a public, posted Privacy Statement on their website.)

4. Do not put your Personal Email Address on your website. Instead, use a form so that your email address is hidden. However, some spammers use special software that looks at the HTML code hidden in the form to steal your email address, so using a form by itself isn’t always the safest route. Better yet, use a free Form Processor so that your email address is never even in the HTML coding on your pages. The service I use is Bravenet’s Form processor (www.bravenet.com). You can see ours in action here:

http://www.passionforbusiness.com/send-email.htm

5. Never buy anything that’s sent through a spam email. First, it just encourages them to continue to spam. Second, it tells them that your email address is accurate, and they can then sell that address to someone else.

6. Never reply to spam and ask to be unsubscribed. They’ll just ignore it anyway, and it tells them that your email address is accurate, which just keeps you on the list. Note: many legitimate emails newsletters and mailing lists use automated unsubscribe links at the bottom of their emails, and you CAN use these to get off of mailing lists.

7. Use anti-spam software, like Norton Internet Security, on your own PC to filter spam as it comes into your email system. You still receive the spam, but it gets filtered to a Junk Mail or Bulk Mail folder, and segregates the spam from the legitimate email. Most anti-spam filters need to be trained, however, so you’ll have to occasionally tell the filter that something is NOT spam that it inadvertently put into the Junk Mail folder. Many of these anti-spam filters work on the principle of White Lists (legitimate email addresses that you DO want to receive email from) and Black Lists (spammer email addresses that you do NOT want to receive email from). Learn how to train your anti-spam software and it will work wonders for you.

8. Check to see if your ISP or hosting company has anti-spam technology in place, to catch spam before it even hits your Inbox. Be careful, though, because sometimes these filters are over-zealous and you have to train it to accept emails from mailing lists that you have subscribed to.


9. Do not use a catch-all email address. A catch-all email address is set up if you have your own website, and it is intended to catch all of the incoming emails sent to your domain even if there is no legitimate mailbox by that name. For example, your email address might be [email protected]. If that mailbox is set up as a catch all, and someone sends an email to [email protected] (with a spelling mistake in the email name), it will be forwarded to [email protected]. However, spammers know about catch-all email addresses, and will take your domain name (mydomain.com) and add common prefixes to it, like info@ or admin@. If you have a catch-all, then those spamming emails will come to you, even if you don’t have a legitimate mailbox of [email protected] or [email protected] set up with your hosting company. See how easy it is for spammers to get to you?

10. Finally, if spam is really bad, create a new personal email address for yourself, tell everyone about the new address (give them several reminders that you are changing email addresses), then delete the old personal email address. This may seem a little drastic, but if you receive 200 spam emails a day, it might be time to time this final step to eradicate it.


You are not powerless against spam. But you do have to take action to fight back. Don’t let them bully you into accepting hundreds of unwanted emails a day! Take action now to reclaim your Inbox!


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© 2007 Karyn Greenstreet.

Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small
business coach. She shares tips, techniques and strategies
with self-employed people to boost clarity and focus, create sustainable motivation, and increase sales and profits. Visit her website at www.PassionForBusiness.com
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Former WBF Secretary Lynda Mitchell, founder of the non-profit Kids With Food Allergies, was featured in a Q&A; in The Intelligencer as a community leader on Oct. 27, 2007.

She is also featured in this Intelligencer article about Kids With Food Allergies and Halloween candy: hell%22&action;=Search&si;=0&sort;=swishlastmodified&reverse;=desc

(Neen James Accomplishes Great Things for eWomen Network in Philadelphia)

Productivity Expert, Neen James of Neen James Communications recently handed over the position of Executive Managing Director of eWomen Network Philadelphia to Barbara Taylor. More than 140 women celebrated James and her accomplishments at a farewell luncheon at the Union League in Philadelphia.

“I was so honored by my wonderful friends’ and colleagues’ efforts. The ladies of eWomen Network in Philadelphia showed up in masses. And it is they who make the organization such a success,” said James.

While James was involved in eWomen Network Philadelphia, the organization grew 734% in less than 12 months and reached the highest number of new members in North America. She also grew the membership database to thousands of women from the Greater Philadelphia area. James was honored at a eWomen Network conference in Dallas for these achievements.

According to Barbara Taylor, new Managing Director of Philadelphia eWomen Network \"Neen\'s shoes will be hard to fill. She has created a community of successful, driven women who support each other and have embraced her. She moved here from Australia and didn\'t know anyone, now she knows more people than those of us who have lived here for more than 40 years. She is a true leader, a professional and we salute her today. We will miss her in this role.”

The organization’s members gifted James with Tiffany & Co. jewelry and a signed illustration by Bucks County caricaturist Pat Achilles as a small token of their appreciation.

About Neen James
James is an International Productivity Expert and is known for her ability to connect business professionals across the globe while helping them build their business. She is regularly featured as a keynote speaker around the USA, Canada and Australia, and her most recently published book ‘Secrets of Super-Productivity’ has received rave reviews. James’ focus on helping business professionals is also demonstrated with her involvement in several local networks including Women’s Business Forum of Bucks County, Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce Women in Business and eWomen Network Philadelphia for which she served as the regional director for two years. For more information about Neen James, go to www.neenjames.com.

Peggy Farley of the Hepatitis B Foundation Addresses the ABC’s of Hepatitis

DOYLESTOWN, PA (October 2007) – Peggy Farley, Community Relations Manager of the Hepatitis B Foundation, presented a free seminar titled “The ABC’s of Hepatitis” at Doylestown Hospital’s Health and Wellness Center on September 27.

During the seminar, Farley discussed the several types of viral hepatitis commonly referred to as A, B and C. She explained the definition of the word “hepatitis” which translates to the inflammation of the liver and provided the participants with an overview of how research, conducted at the Hepatitis B Foundation’s headquarters in Bucks County, is making progress toward treatment of the disease.

According to Bruce Uhrich, Ed.D., Doylestown Hospital Learning Coordinator for Health and Wellness, “Ms. Farley addressed a critical topic affecting our community. She guided the participants through the myths and facts regarding hepatitis and answered many audience concerns.”

Farley joined the Foundation because of her strong commitment and passion for making a difference in people’s lives. “What you do really matters at the end of the day and I want my work to be for the good of all people,” said Farley.

About the Hepatitis B Foundation
The Hepatitis B Foundation is the only national nonprofit organization solely dedicated to finding a cure and improving the quality of life for those affected with hepatitis B worldwide through research, education and patient advocacy. The Foundation is located in the new Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center, which it created to expand and accelerate its research mission. For more information, please visit www.hepb.org or call (215) 489-4900.

DOYLESTOWN, PA (October 2007) – The Hepatitis B Foundation, a world-class nonprofit research organization headquartered in Doylestown, Pa., is pleased to announce the appointment of Melanie Groft as the Foundation’s new Director of Development.

Groft’s primary responsibilities as Director of Development are to provide dynamic leadership for the Foundation’s fundraising programs and build the Foundation’s base of philanthropic support. She is responsible for all fundraising activities, including annual fund, corporate and Foundation grants, special events and individual major gifts.

According to Dr. Timothy Block, Hepatitis B Foundation President, “Ms. Groft plays a key role at the Hepatitis B Foundation. With more than five years of development and major gifts experience, she brings a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to advance the mission of the Foundation.”

Prior to joining the Hepatitis B Foundation, Groft served as Major Gift Officer and Assistant Director of Alumni Relations at York College of Pennsylvania. There she refined, solicited and generated stewardship of individual major gift prospects, building a portfolio of 150 ranked individual prospects. She also managed and developed both existing and new alumni chapters in the northeast region, and organized programs and events bringing York College alumni back to campus.

Groft received a bachelor’s degree in public relations and mass communications from York College of Pennsylvania and a graduate certificate in public relations and integrated communications from Towson University in Towson, Maryland. She is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and serves as an executive committee member of the York College Delaware Valley Alumni Chapter.

A Doylestown, Pa., resident, Melanie enjoys traveling and spending time with her with family and friends.

About the Hepatitis B Foundation
The Hepatitis B Foundation is the only national nonprofit organization solely dedicated to finding a cure and improving the quality of life for those affected with hepatitis B worldwide through research, education and patient advocacy. The Foundation is located in the new Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County, which it created to accelerate its research mission. For more information, please visit www.hepb.org or call (215) 489-4900.