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Spam Proof Your Website

You realize that it's important for visitors to your
Website to be able to contact you by Email, and you want
to provide easy Email access for customers and potential
customers. Somehow though, you need to protect yourself
from a ton of unwanted junk mail (Spam) arriving in your
inbox. With a little forethought you can minimize your
vulnerability.

There are people who compile Email addresses just for the
purposes of selling them to spammers. It's hard to control
Spam when this happens. To fight back against Spam, the
first step is finding out how the spammers got your Email
address in the first place.

A wise Internet marketer uses a Website host provider that
allows unlimited Email addresses or aliases. An alias
refers to an alternate email address that forwards email
to your real address. When you use an alias,
you're 'real' Email address doesn't have to be generally
available and susceptible to Spam. If you have several
employees in your company, you will need multiple aliases.

You have to provide a contact Email address when you
register your domain name. If you use your real Email
address, then it's readily available to everyone, and that
means the spammers too. When you set up your domain, use a
portable Email address, for example Hotmail. If you have
multiple domains, you should use an alias
(domains@domain.com) on your primary domain for all
registrations . This allows your email software to filter
and save any legitimate Emails that come to the alias from
your registrar's domain.

You are asking for problems if you use your real Email
address when filling out a Web form or when you subscribe
to a newsletter. It's better to create an Email address
that is unique for each Website or newsletter. In fact,
many Email users create a customized email address for
each newsletter they receive, or for each Website that
they filled in a form. If for example, you subscribe to a
newsletter from Greatideas.com (fictitious site name)
create an Email address
of "greatideas.com@yourdomain.com", and route the email
that this address receives to your real Email address.
That way you will always know where the Email originated.
If that address starts getting Spam or junk mail, you can
simply filter it out with your software. Use a unique
Email address if you submit to search engines or free-for-
all pages (FFA.s).

Your own Website can be the biggest source of Email
addresses used by junk mailers. Many Websites list
multiple Emails in their contact details, and any time an
Email appears on your site in plain text, even hidden in a
Javascript or form field, that address can be captured.

If you want to avoid being the victim of spammers, always
think about where and how your Email address is broadcast
and consider if you are making it easy to be a victim of
unwanted junk mail.