Eight Proven Ways to Protect Your Company from Spam
Eight Proven Ways to Protect Your Company from Spam
2. Use a contact form that utilizes server scripts. Most “Contact Us” pages use a programming method that makes email addresses easy for spammers to locate. Ask your website designer to recreate your contact forms using server-based scripts (Active Server Pages, PHP, etc) or visit this website which generates the code for free. http://www.tele-pro.co.uk/scripts/contact_form/
3. Use private registration for all domains. When you registered your company’s website domain you were required to enter email address information. This email address is the primary method used by your domain registrar (Network Solutions, Go Daddy, Yahoo, etc) to contact you. Unfortunately spammers can query this email address and begin spamming your company. The major domain registrars now offer a domain privacy option which hides your contact information for a nominal fee ($7 - $9 a year).
4. Do not use generic email addresses. Spammers always try to send spam to common email addresses (info@, sales@, support@, help@, etc). If you are going to use a generic address, then make it difficult to guess what it is by appending a number to it (info44@, sales71@, 39support@, etc).
5. Restrict autoresponders on your email server. Autoresponders send an automatic response when an email is sent to your company. Examples of these include out of office replies, order confirmation messages, etc. Normally spammers don’t receive a response, so they do not know if an email address is valid. You can either disable autoresponders, limit them to respond only to employees (for out of office messages), or require that a condition must be met (perhaps a specific subject line), to prevent spammers from getting a reply back.
6. Protect your employee computers from viruses and spyware. Malicious programs such as viruses and spyware will search a computer for email addresses and send them back to the spammer. The spammer will then have your entire company’s address book and begin sending messages to all of your employees.
7. Restrict employees use of newsgroups, wikis and blogs. While there are legitimate business reasons to use these collaborative technologies, employees must exercise caution. Newsgroups, wikis and blogs are web-based discussion sites that allow people to post questions and receive answers to any type of problem from anyone around the world. People usually enter their email addresses to receive notifications. Spammers will search these sites and harvest all of the email addresses that have been posted. Restrict employees from using their email addresses on these sites or require them to use a “free” email account like Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail.
8. Disable automatic picture downloads in your email program. It is very common for email messages to include graphics or other formatting to make them more visually appealing. Unfortunately, spammers use web bugs (hidden graphics in spam messages) to allow them to identify when a message has been read and who read it. Most email programs give you the ability to prevent graphics from being displayed, thus preventing spammers from knowing if a message has been read.
All of the steps listed above will prevent spammers from capturing email addresses at your company once you make the changes. Unfortunately, it will not reduce the level of spam you are currently receiving since some spammers already have your email addresses. These spammers can also share your email addresses with other spammers causing an endless cycle of spam.
The only effective way to eliminate your current volume of spam is to begin using spam filtering. We offer a spam filtering service that is the best in the industry and is proven the most effective at stopping spam dead in its tracks! Our customers absolutely love our service and we know you will be amazed at what our service can do for your company too. You don’t need to purchase any hardware or software, there are no long term contracts to sign, and you can terminate service at any time. It’s completely risk free! We’re so convinced that you will love our service that if you call us today we’ll give you a free 30 day trial.
Eight Proven Ways to Protect Your Company from Spam - To learn more about this author, visit Bryan Bowers's Website.
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1. Remove email addresses from your website. Spammers use automated tools called “address harvesters” to search through thousands of web pages per hour and extract all email addresses found.
2. Use a contact form that utilizes server scripts. Most “Contact Us” pages use a programming method that makes email addresses easy for spammers to locate. Ask your website designer to recreate your contact forms using server-based scripts (Active Server Pages, PHP, etc) or visit this website which generates the code for free. http://www.tele-pro.co.uk/scripts/contact_form/
3. Use private registration for all domains. When you registered your company’s website domain you were required to enter email address information. This email address is the primary method used by your domain registrar (Network Solutions, Go Daddy, Yahoo, etc) to contact you. Unfortunately spammers can query this email address and begin spamming your company. The major domain registrars now offer a domain privacy option which hides your contact information for a nominal fee ($7 - $9 a year).
4. Do not use generic email addresses. Spammers always try to send spam to common email addresses (info@, sales@, support@, help@, etc). If you are going to use a generic address, then make it difficult to guess what it is by appending a number to it (info44@, sales71@, 39support@, etc).
5. Restrict autoresponders on your email server. Autoresponders send an automatic response when an email is sent to your company. Examples of these include out of office replies, order confirmation messages, etc. Normally spammers don’t receive a response, so they do not know if an email address is valid. You can either disable autoresponders, limit them to respond only to employees (for out of office messages), or require that a condition must be met (perhaps a specific subject line), to prevent spammers from getting a reply back.
6. Protect your employee computers from viruses and spyware. Malicious programs such as viruses and spyware will search a computer for email addresses and send them back to the spammer. The spammer will then have your entire company’s address book and begin sending messages to all of your employees.
7. Restrict employees use of newsgroups, wikis and blogs. While there are legitimate business reasons to use these collaborative technologies, employees must exercise caution. Newsgroups, wikis and blogs are web-based discussion sites that allow people to post questions and receive answers to any type of problem from anyone around the world. People usually enter their email addresses to receive notifications. Spammers will search these sites and harvest all of the email addresses that have been posted. Restrict employees from using their email addresses on these sites or require them to use a “free” email account like Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail.
8. Disable automatic picture downloads in your email program. It is very common for email messages to include graphics or other formatting to make them more visually appealing. Unfortunately, spammers use web bugs (hidden graphics in spam messages) to allow them to identify when a message has been read and who read it. Most email programs give you the ability to prevent graphics from being displayed, thus preventing spammers from knowing if a message has been read.
All of the steps listed above will prevent spammers from capturing email addresses at your company once you make the changes. Unfortunately, it will not reduce the level of spam you are currently receiving since some spammers already have your email addresses. These spammers can also share your email addresses with other spammers causing an endless cycle of spam.
The only effective way to eliminate your current volume of spam is to begin using spam filtering. We offer a spam filtering service that is the best in the industry and is proven the most effective at stopping spam dead in its tracks! Our customers absolutely love our service and we know you will be amazed at what our service can do for your company too. You don’t need to purchase any hardware or software, there are no long term contracts to sign, and you can terminate service at any time. It’s completely risk free! We’re so convinced that you will love our service that if you call us today we’ll give you a free 30 day trial.
Eight Proven Ways to Protect Your Company from Spam - To learn more about this author, visit Bryan Bowers's Website.
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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