This guest post was written by Tom Kulzer, the CEO of Aweber. Aweber has arguably THE BEST email management system in the world. Check out Aweber here: Aweber.
In 1936, long before the rise of the personal computer, Hormel Foods created SPAM. In 2002, the company will produce it’s six billionth can of the processed food product. But that mark was passed long ago in the world of Internet spam.
- Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)
- Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?
- Stop The Flood to Your Inbox
- Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future
- Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.
- The Final Blow
Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)
The modern meaning of the word “spam” has nothing to do with spiced ham. In the early 1990’s, a skit by British comedy group Monty Python led to the word’s common usage. “The SPAM Skit” follows a couple struggling to order dinner from a menu consisting entirely of Hormel’s canned ham.
Repetition is key to the skit’s hilarity. The actors cram the word “SPAM” into the 2.5 minute skit more than 104 times! This flood prompted Usenet readers to call unwanted newsgroup postings “spam.” The name stuck.
Spammers soon focused on e-mail, and the terminology moved with them. Today, the word has come out of technical obscurity. Now, “spam” is the common term for “Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail”, or “UCE.”
Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?
Chances are, you’ve been spammed before. Somehow, your e-mail address has found it’s way into the hands of a spammer, and your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are several possibilities.
Backstabbing Businesses
Businesses often keep lists of their customers’ e-mail addresses. This is a completely legitimate practice and, usually, nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes though, the temptation to make a quick buck is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to outside advertisers. The result? A lot of unsolicited e-mail, and a serious breach of trust.
Random Address Generation
Computer programs called random address generators simply “guess” e-mail addresses. Over 100 million hotmail addresses exist – howhard could it be to guess some of them? Unfortunately for many unsuspecting netizens – not too hard. Many spammers also guess at
“standard” addresses, like “support@yourdomain.com”,
“info@yourdomain.com”, and “billing@yourdomain.com.”
Web Spiders
Today’s most insidious list-gathering tools are web spiders. All of the major search engines spider the web, saving information about each page. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but save any e-mail address they come across. Your personal web page lists your e-mail address? Prepare for an onslaught!
Chat Room Harvesting
ISP’s offer vastly popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names. Of course, spammers know that your screen name is the first part of your e-mail address. Why waste time guessing e-mail addresses when a few hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of actively-used addresses?
The Poor Man’s Bad Marketing Idea
It didn’t work for the phone companies, and it won’t work for e-mail marketers. But, some spammers still keep their own friends-and-family-style e-mail lists. Compiled from the addresses of other known spammers, and people or businesses that the owner has come across in the past, these lists are still illegitimate. Why? Only you can give someone permission to send you e-mail. A friend-of-a-friend’s permission won’t cut it.
Stop The Flood to Your Inbox
Already drowning in spam? Try using your e-mail client’s filters – many provide a way to block specific e-mail addresses. Each time you’re spammed, block the sender’s address. Spammers skip from address to address, and you may be on many lists, but this method will at least slow the flow.
Also, use more than one e-mail address, and keep one “clean.” Many netizens find that this technique turns the spam flood into a trickle. Use one address for only spam-safe activities like e-mailing your friends, or signing on with trustworthy businesses. Never use your clean address on the web! Get a free address to use on the web and in chat rooms.
If nothing else helps, consider changing screen names, or opening an entirely new e-mail account. When you do, you’ll start with a clean, spam-free slate. This time, protect your e-mail address!
Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future
Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don’t use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don’t post it on any web pages, and don’t use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.
Before giving your clean e-mail address to a business, check the company out. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Does a privacy policy explain exactly what will be done with your address? The most considerate companies also post an anti-spam policy written in plain English, so you can be absolutely sure of what you’re getting into.
Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.
Many a first-time marketer has inadvertently spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone messages usually stop him in his tracks. But by then, the spammer may be faced with cleanup bills from his ISP, and a bad reputation that it’s not easy to overcome.
The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is: If anyone who receives your mass e-mails did not specifically ask to hear from you, then you are spamming them.
Stick with your gut. Don’t buy a million addresses for $10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something sounds fishy, just say no. You’ll save yourself a lot in the end.
The Final Blow
The online world is turning the tide on spam. In the end, people will stop sending spam because it stops working. Do your part: never buy from a spammer. When your business seeks out technology companies with which to work, only choose those with a staunch anti-spam stance.
Spam has a long history in both the food and e-mail sectors. This year, Hormel Foods opened a real-world museum dedicated to SPAM. While the museum does feature the Monty Python SPAM Skit, there’s no word yet on an unsolicited commercial e-mail exhibit. But, if all upstanding netizens work together, Hormel’s ham in a can will far outlive the Internet plague that is UCE.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
This is some excellent background information on what spam is, why it is done, what can be done to prevent and what not to do as a blogger to prevent from becoming a spammer. Spamming is such a nuisance that any number of such posts can only add to our ability to tackle the menace. Hopefully, the prediction that spam eventually stops because it does not work, will come true!
November 10th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Besides unsolicited commercial email, spam is also used in other contexts, suck as:
- link spam, where someone (automatically) spams multiple forums and/or blogs with posts or comments
- in chatting, when someone repeatedly types the same text
- in games, when someone keeps firing the same weapon all the time instead of switching around
- in texts, use a certain word more often then one usually would to get higher keyword density (I'm not saying keyword density is important, but some people think it is)
So basically spam is anything that's repeated, unwanted and most of the time annoying.
November 10th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
@Tom, what more one should know about SPAM? I think you said all in this post. I never studied a history of SPAM from anywhere till now. From my experience the spammers easily and massively pick email addresses from web so never make your email addresses open to public/robots. Try not to read a spam email because they receive an acknowledgment once you open it and they make sure from there.
James
November 10th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
This is a great read for novice marketers. When we first start, putting your name out there is your number one priority, and we fail to see our actions, as fail to realize that in some cases we may be put in the spammer category. As we grow, and build our experience, not only do we get annoyed by spammers and realize that it is not effective, but we actually avoid certain techniques to stay off the spam list. Great post guest post. Cheers
November 10th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Spam seems to have become an excepted part of the Internet age unfortunately. Thanks for the knowledge on the subject. I think as long as dislike and contempt grows towards spam the further it will be pushed away.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:49 am
Aweber seems very useful. But i am looking for the cheapest best email hosting software that can hold more than 5,000 emails. – Thanks
November 11th, 2009 at 5:23 am
SPAM emails can be very annoying, offensive, and clog up your inbox. The golden rule when you receive a SPAM email is NOT TO REPLY.
November 11th, 2009 at 6:44 am
You have nicely described that what the spam is and what is the way to prevent this. So one thing that we should not reply to emails that are spam.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:05 am
The block addresses box only takes 500…just delete some of the less obtrusive sites and you should be able to add the latest…good luck.Just hilite some of them by dragging your arrow over them and remove the block…
November 12th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Indeed, spam can be a huge problem, not just annoying… if you get spam to your blog that you can be penalized by google… and lose business!
November 13th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
My second line of defense against spam is the junk mail filter in Microsoft Outlook.
Your main defense if you use Microsoft Exchange is putting a spam filter on that – I use (and can recommend) Sophos Puremessage – it certainly does the job for me.
November 13th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Being fairly new to pretty much everything that has to do with internet marketing and as much as I am trying to get my name or better saying the name of my store out to the public so my number one rule is not to spam. Yes, I do comment on blogs and I do release articles or press releases but don't think that's spamming. Please correct me if I'm wrong because I do not wanna be called a spammer!
Anyway, spamming costumers with unwanted emails I think is the best way to lose costumers instead of making them to come back to your store or blog. There lots of other and more effective ways to do some marketing but email spamming. It takes me every day lots of time to get my emails checked and cleaned from all the Spam and I truely hate it! It's wasted time of the day I could spend on doing more effective things. Those people don't even realize how much it cost a bigger company on monthly wages they pay their staff just for how much time they spend on cleaning their emails from Spam and so far their is no 100% proof spam filter available.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Interesting post on the origins of spam. Surprisingly many people do not know these things and they don't know how to protect themselves against spam. Anyone who has been online for years has learned a lesson or two about spam.
November 14th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Never respond to a spam email – it confirms that the email address works. Technology is moving forward on this issue and we can look forward to less spam mail but more spam in other areas on the internet. Howver, Captcha and other devices will again reduce this problem over time.
Regards,
John
November 15th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
5,000 mails are big list
November 16th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
I hate spam. I am sure like me everyone get a lot of this in their mail boxes. Thanks to Captcha a lot of spam can be blocked. Who knows, with time we will be able to address to this problem effectively. Until then, we need to keep on deleting them as they creep in our mailboxes!
November 16th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Tips on How To Get SPAM Email Filtering System
Make sure you have this Key Features:
*Configuration wizard that automatically configures your mail clients to use Spam Monitor
*Support all popular email programs such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla Mail and Eudora
*Automatically white-list email addresses or servers that you frequently correspond with
Smart Updates to automatically updates blocking filters and plug-ins
*Supports connection to unlimited POP3 or IMAP4 servers and mailboxes
*Customizable local black and white lists. networks or IP addresses for manual configuration
*Checks every email against a network of millions to keep scams out of your inbox.
*Checks to see if the email has been specially formatted or designed to avoid or bypass anti-spam rules.
*Looks at the source of the email and recognizes known spam broadcasters.
*Checks to see how the email was sent; whether it was part of a mass mailing or was sent on its own.
*Anti-phishing and Fraud Protection
*Protects Multiple Email Accounts
*Powerful search feature
*Easy-to-use spam filter
*Supports Bonded Sender
*International Language Support
November 19th, 2009 at 9:19 am
I knew most of this, but the Monty Python bit of information was new information.
I guess it's off to youtube to find a video!
November 24th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
I used to get a ton of spam, but lately I have been using SpamFighter for MS Outlook. This seems to filter out most of the spam for me. Unfortunately, I will have to double check the spam folder to ensure I didn't miss anything important.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
spam i got hundreds of spam on my blog.
every days on my mail.
it's really weird their spam software using strange language maybe Russian or other language that i don't understand
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Thanks for the wonderful article about spam.I have got clear idea of spam from this article.I think we can contain spam by using captcha.
December 5th, 2009 at 9:13 am
To start earning money with your blog, initially use Google Adsense but gradually as your traffic increases, keep adding more and more money making programs to your site.
December 5th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Hmmmm that’s cool.
December 6th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Thanks for the wonderful article about spam
December 7th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
GR8 Mate, Wish we had people like you in South Africa too, this is valuable content!
December 8th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Great!!!
December 8th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Why isn’t this working for me?!
December 8th, 2009 at 4:46 am
Any idea when this was posted?
December 8th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Great post, I’d Digg this.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Helped me out a bunch, great post!
December 9th, 2009 at 3:54 am
Your posts are the best! Always helpful!
December 9th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Wow…
December 29th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Excellent background information on what spam is..!!!!
This is just like unwanted guest..
January 6th, 2010 at 2:32 am
I have been spending months to opt-out of many of my junk email (through aweber and such) but the obvious spam just gets deleted. However, I am happy to note that my spam has reduced drastically and the most spam I am getting are going to the easy to guess emails ie: customerservice@ or orders@ may have to change those too and make sure I change the places I use them.
Thanks for the post on SPAM & Spam
I like fried Spam.
Tam
January 10th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Great done and keep posted. Looking forward to reading more from you.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Great to knwo about spam. Thanks for sharing.
February 16th, 2010 at 5:00 am
Really very prolific and unique knowledge has been provided on email spamming. I was really fed up of the spamming. Thanks for giving some dazzling and unique tips.
March 5th, 2010 at 5:32 am
Everyday i found dozens of spam mails in my email accounts, but i never find any genuine email.