SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAMITTY SPAAAAAM
Wednesday, 25 July 2007 @ 10:20This is prompted by another thread- I am daily bombarded with a TON of spam. Hundreds even. About half of the messages go directly into the junk mail folder. I know that first of all I need to make sure my email addresses on web sites are not searchable by spiders using one of various tactics. But what else can I do? I’ve considered forwarding my email to a gmail account, but I’d rather not. What do THEY do to not get any spam? I don’t trust my current spam filter to not delete legitimate emails. Any recommendations for a Mac user?
The first thing that I would recommend is setting up a filter that rejects all mail from outside of the united states. This eliminates about 95% of the spam that I receive. After that, it entirely depends on who is handling your email. Are you managing your server yourself? Is it is with a big name provider? If you are with a big name provider and are still getting massive amounts of spam, I would switch providers. Gmail’s filters are incredible.
First I set up my email filters - if it comes from my address book, 99% chance that it’s not SPAM. I also set up a filter where the email must have my name somewhere in it - if it’s not there, it’s automagically dropped to the trash - spam is almost never personal! Finally, my contact form is built in Flash. Kind of hard to spam through it (some have tried, in which case I respond with my Yahoo! spam-away email so there’s no real loss on my end). So far this has worked great for me. Most SPAM, of which I get maybe 1-2 a day, gets dropped into my trash where I quickly scan for any false positives and then, trash the rest. Oh, I also don’t view HTML email - I let Mail.app strip it, so most spammers can never tell if I got their email or not.
Some good suggestions, thanks, although I receive some international email that is not junkmail, so I won’t be able to use that method.
What’s a recommended email application? I use Entourage for Mac just because that’s what I’ve got. I’d love to have something better.
I use Apple’s Mail.app. Its filtering capabilities are easy to implement and use. I’ve had nary a problem with it. I’m a bit leary with all the new features Apple is trying to implement into it though. HTML email is not a feature in my book. But Leapord could very well change my view on that.
Really? We for sure need HTML email!
How about Mail, Michael? It came with your computer.
I too share your fondness for Mail.app, Ben. It is a classic example of a good Macintosh application: good, clean, simple interface without very many features… which is it’s best feature! Apple builds applications in the complete opposite fashion that Microsoft does. Instead of working to see how many features they can cram in, Apple works tirelessly to see how many they can do without.
I am also nervous about all of the new features that they are putting into Mail 3. I wish that HTML email did not exist. I am leary about the tasks management they are incorporating and all of the silly template fluff. I will be quite sad if Mail because bloated. One of the other things that I love about Macintosh applications is that they are separate—one, simple tool for each task. If I’m not using my address book, I’d rather not be wasting RAM running it. Microsoft on the other hand thinks that ever application has to do everything—mail, calendar, address book, notes, to do list all in one. Another classic example is how you can surf the internet inside of Microsoft Word. Why in the world would you browse the internet from within a word processor?
Well, I’m trying out Mail this morning. So far I like it. (And no, it didn’t come with my computer [at least I don’t think so]. My Mac is 9 years old!!! :-D ).
Actually, the one thing that I found confusing about it is why the address book wasn’t intergrated into it, so I’m surprised to see that listed as a plus, actually.
As far as Junk mail filters go in Mail, I’ve got it set on the “train” mode, where supposedly the program will “learn” what I consider spam based on what I mark or unmark until I feel confident in it’s settings. We’ll see how that goes.
Wade, I don’t see anywhere in the “Rules” where I can make a filter based on the country the email originates from. How would I do that?
Regarding Address Book, your response is an example of how each person likes things different. You find it strange that it’s not integrated into your email client and I find it strange what one would want it to be. The nice thing about how Apple has designed their apps is that they do not have to be running for other applications to access their data. For example, you can browse and select (or auto-fill) an address when composing an email without Address Book running. That’s nice because then you don’t have to have Address Book running, which would be especially nice if your computer is nine years old. What if you were using your calendar application or your instant messenger application and want to access your “contacts” in your Address Book? Wouldn’t it seem strange to launch your email client to do that?
In regards to my “out-of-country” email filter, you would have to create a “from” entry for each of the top-level-domains. Here is a screenshot of what I have done:
Vuel, HTML belongs on a web server, not in my email inbox. Write good, interesting copy and email me the link - don’t send me your web page! Email was built for plain text. Even Rich Text formatting pushes emails boundaries in ways that were not envisioned when email was developed. Email is a simple communicator. Again, if the email is in HTML, there’s a real good chance its spam. Otherwise it was sent from someone who has little regard for the history and technical limitations of email and little regard for my bandwidth, server space, my time and/or interest. Nothing against you personally! :-) I just don’t like HTML email…
/me reaches over and places $5 in Ben’s collection plate
Well, I’m learning a lot here. I guess the annoyance regarding the Address book is that I had to open up the other application to edit an addressees personal info. Is there a way to do THAT without having to open it up?
As for your out-of-country filter, I think I may try that knowing that I can set up rules to not include emails that are obviously sent to me and not as spam.
that’s supposed to be “addressee’s”
Ben, do you work in corporate marketing? If not, I can see why you think that. ;)
Not corporate per se. I work for a non profit. But my argument is based on the history and current technical limitations of email. Even if all email clients were to support web standards, I still think that it would be better and more efficient to create a well crafted text email with a link, address it to a single email address (I don’t want to feel a part of the masses) and include the persons name. Make it personal. I think thats what bugs me most about spam - its not so much that they want to sell me something, its the fact that they don’t personalize it to me - (and obviously that they didn’t ask if I wanted to be contacted by them). But thats the million dollar question in marketing isn’t it? How to personalize the message and make it “real” and yet still hit millions of people. I probably wouldn’t hate HTML email as much if their was some standard set that all email clients supported. But that day is probably a good 3-5 years off. Until then, I will continue to recommend better writing skills, better personalization, and a simple link or two for email marketing.
“Make it personal. I think thats what bugs me most about spam - its not so much that they want to sell me something, its the fact that they don’t personalize it to me…”
Well, first of all you can! I agree spam is bad, but in the corporate world, companies do TONS of personalized HTML emails for events. We drive major registrations for our companies events through effective direct marketing.
There are ways to easily target individuals, and have portions of emails set up to be personalized. Direct marketing skills need to be applied, but the vast majority of the corporate world uses some iteration of Outlook. Hate it all you like you Mac Mail’iphites (I use Mac Mail for personal stuff) but that is the case.
There are lots of email services providers that can help cut down on all of this, and if properly set up, a real HTML event invite or direct marketing campaign can be effectively sent or received. Companies like Acxiom Digital, BlueHorney, CheetahMail, Epsilon, Exact Target, eDiaglog, iPost, Responsys, Sapient and SilverPop all make terrific programs that assist in this process.
You had mentioned technical limitations and file size abuses, but that last HTML email I did, with about 12 images was about 200K total. If that is bogging down your email, then you need a new machine. What should be affecting your email is the PDFs that I sent around that are anywhere from 500K to 10MB. :)
Also, the point of design in the business world is to facilitate the business! It is meant to visual solve complex business problems, thus an HTML email is a highly effective way of marketing your businesses’ solutions to a wide variety of people, in a targeted way that is highly visible to consumers (since everyone uses email).
Yes email is an important communication tool - but I view it as a personal communication system (outside of my business email account - which, obviously is used for business communication). I don’t want HTML email in my personal email accounts. I have to endure it enough on my business account and I think its been used poorly there as well. Again I think my biggest hang-up with HTML email is that email was never developed with HTML in mind, HTML email is often abused (the topic of this post is about spam - which a major portion is HTML based), and frankly if you want me to “see” HTML, send me the link to the website.
As an aside, has anyone done a study on what percentage of users select “text only” over “HTML” based communications?
Finally, design should be informed by the history and context of the medium that is being used. I don’t design 300 ppi images for web, I don’t use 72 ppi images for press, and I don’t use HTML in email.
Well, history is changing for email, that argument isn’t as cogent as your argument for types of resolutions. There are no best practices for printing at 72 DPI (Though some could argue that there are for large scale banners, billboards, etc. where it is fine at the resolution), but there are best practices concerning HTML email direct marketing.
And yes, people do track open rates. We send mostly HTML emails, and generally have a 60% open rate for all HTML. If your IP address is ‘whitelisted’ then you generally have no problems sending HTML emails to optin lists.
HTML email may be becoming more prevalent and accepted, but that does not mean that I have to accept it. You’ll have to find a different approach to advertise to me at least. My client is configured to automatically strip all HTML from every incoming email.
I’m with Wade on this one as my earlier posts make clear. Email may be changing to what the market “demands” but I just don’t like HTMl email for the reasons I outlined earlier. I’d much prefer the personal one-on-one contact, with a link to the HTML stuff you want me to see. Communication ultimately comes down to people. I want to feel like (or even better, to know) that I’m communicating with real people, not a marketing department or a “heartless” corporation. I haven’t yet gotten such a feeling from HTML email. Ultimately it is a failure to communicate correctly with this (me) audience. And now that Outlook will be changing how it renders HTML (I need to find a link on this to share with you all)..Who knows, maybe the market will give up on HTML email? Just like the market eventually gave up on the “blink” tag. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” as one of my wise professors stated.
Interesting comments, Ben. My issue with HTML isn’t it’s impersonality; it is it’s technology. Email is for text—simple, quick communication. I dislike HTML email for the same reason that I dislike attachments. If you want me to see a picture, put it on a server and send me a link. If you want me to see a designed page of special text, graphics, and images then create a web page and send me the link. Or, generate a PDF, put it on a server, and send me the link.
My biggest issue with HTML email is how it forces your formatting on me. What if I don’t like to read my messages on a pink background, set in Comic Sans? Sure, you’re likely not going to run into something quite so grotesque in the corporate world, but I’ve received plenty of messages that aren’t too far off. The reason that email is a medium that should be delivered unstyled is because it is for the most part forced upon you. There are a few things that you can do—such as my filter that strips out the HTML—but for the most part you don’t get to choose what you receive. Have you ever had a friend email you a 20 GB file? Yeah, that was a fun waiting for your email client to start responding again. How much better it would have been had he use the right technology for the right job and FTP’d the file to a server and then emailed your a link, giving you the option to chose when, where, and if you downloaded the file.
I like the read my email with the text set in black, 10 pt Lucida Grande, and wrapping at 400 pixels. If I were to accept HTML email from you, I don’t get that choice; I have to read it in whatever font, color, and format you chose. I don’t want to have to resize my standard window or have to scroll just to read your message.
Other issues I have is how it breaks industry standards that email clients rely on for threading and styling quoted text. It also encourages bad etiquette in regards to trimming and jeopardy-style in-line commenting.
“If I were to accept HTML email from you, I don’t get that choice; I have to read it in whatever font, color, and format you chose.”
Exactly! You can send emails in your own branding. And you can communicate this to a wide audience. I get both of your points, I am just saying your positions on this issue are irrelevant in a corporate setting. The statistics show that they are effective and that they work.
If you dislike them, simply keep doing what you’ve been doing. :) And Wade, don’t you have some HTML emails to build. ;)
Yes, unfortunately. I don’t think that my opinion is irrelevant however; the more I can publish it, the greater chance I have at educating and motivating change.
“Yes, unfortunately. I don’t think that my opinion is irrelevant however; the more I can publish it, the greater chance I have at educating and motivating change.”
Well, I applaud your efforts, but we both know which way the tides are changing on this front. CMOs love HTML emails, and I can’t possible imagine this changing.
Well if their primary email application (Outlook) fails to render it correctly then maybe they might start to realize that their designers and developers may have a point about “technical limitations” of the medium… and finally here’s the link I’ve been looking for to support my remarks about Outlook changing rendering engines and the woe it will cause HTML email senders.
And if enough of us complain, we might return email to its historic easy-to-use plain-text roots and promote better use of good copy and links. (And “clipping” and “bottom posting”…sigh…Outlook was a nasty event in email history even if it meant more people learned about email.)
Another aside (seeing how this has strayed from Spam to HTML email) is that I believe blogs, RSS feeds, and podcasts are a much better way of keeping your clients and interest base informed. Of course they have to “subscribe” but it’s a more user-friendly approach to communication.
The technology may be better, but how many CXX level people do you know who sit around listening to podcasts? Email makes the corporate world go round, and I don’t know how many registrations you’ll drive for a User Conference by having a podcast. ;)
Won’t stop your spam now, but check out spamgourmet.com - nice little service.
I had another thought - I would recommend a host that has Spam Assassin installed. It’s quite effective.
I’ve enjoyed the switch to “Mail” from “Entourage”. The Spam filter is working very well, so now I am dealing with just a few junk emails per day instead of hundreds.