Put That Spam Back In The Can!
Ah, Spam. With a capital "S". A gent named Hormel (ring a bell?) created it back in the 1930s: Pork-based mystery meat in a neat, rectangular, self-opening can. (Remember the key that was stuck to the bottom of the can, with which one grabbed the lid and rolled it back, revealing a slab of salty-but-delicious, ready-to-eat-if-you-dared "meat"? If you DO remember, you're the "mature" type. Good for you! If you DON'T remember, well, you just don't know what you were missing.). WWII made Spam a household word, when any rough and tumble G.I. could carry it with him into battle. The 1950s found it in every loyal American housewife's larder, just waiting for some dining emergency or camping trip to bring it, sliced, diced and fried up, to the family table. Rumor has it that even today, Hawaiians consider it their favorite gourmet treat! (If you actually want to know the entire history of this remarkable American product, here you go: www.spam.com)But we digress. Needless to say, that's not the kind of spam a web design firm wants to help you rid yourself of. Nosirreebob! The spam we want to can is the kind that arrives uninvited in your private and business email accounts. Oh, yes, you know what we mean: "Had your Viagra today?"; "My auntie in Nigeria died and I just want to share the millions of dollars she left me with YOU, a total stranger!"; "Need a fancy, overpriced watch knock-off?"; blah, blah, blah.
Los Angeles, where we are lucky enough to conduct our web design and online marketing business, is not the only place in the world where people suffer from spamitis. Of course not! But in an effort to help our clients (and ourselves), the Attention Interactive online marketing staff did a little investigating and found that there are very effective and reasonably priced (if not downright cost-free) programs which catch that apparently self-proliferating spam before it ever infects a computer. (We are somewhat surprised by how many otherwise well-informed internet users seem unaware that they can easily do something about this annoying problem, which is why we're bringing it up here.)
As with most software, not every spam blocker works with both macs and pcs, so a little research is required (damn! there's always a catch, isn't there?!). Certain email programs come already equipped with some version of a junk mail filter, spam catcher, or headache alleviator, but how well do they work? You may already know the answer to that one!
Since there are so many spam catcher programs on the market, there is no need for Attention Interactive to school you on a lot of them. We'll just mention a couple that our online marketing clients think are exceptionally well designed.
ClearMyMail.com is an excellent example of an easy-to-use, inexpensive junk mail catcher (that word seems more appropriate than "filter", since the spam is "caught" in their web). ClearMyMail is a British firm with real, live human beings who respond to your questions almost instantly via email (remember, though, that there is a time difference and those silly Brits do like to sleep at night). The first 30 days of the trial run are free, which seems to be fairly standard (it should be!). If you like the service – and our web design clients tell us you will! – the yearly fee is a small amount of money very well spent. They even give you a price break if you order 2 years at a time.
Once you've signed up for ClearMyMail, you give them a list of your preferred/accepted email addresses – the ones already in your address book – so that those will be allowed to go through to you, no questions asked. From that point on, any addresses that they don't recognize will be put in a short list and emailed to you throughout the day (you can determine the frequency). You are given the choices of a.) allowing them to go through to you in perpetuity; b.) one time only (so you can see who's writing, in case you didn't recognize the return address); c.) blocked one time only (this one seems a bit odd, but you may have reasons for wanting to do this); or d.) blocked permanently. This process takes about 30 seconds. Once you've sent it back to them, you will instantly receive the emails you told them to put through. The rejects go to hell (we hope) in the proverbial hand basket.
The really great thing about this system is the fact that over time, the junk mail simply stops coming in, even to ClearMyMail's spiderweb, at least in the droves it once did. No more "Viagra. Is it right for you?"; no more offers of free millions from deepest, darkest Africa; and no more cheap Rolexes.
A very different type of spam blocker can be found at Spamarrest.com. This is one that requires a "response" to a "challenge" before a stranger's email is permitted to reach you. As with ClearMyMail, you provide Spam Arrest with your existing, accepted email addresses (from your address book). When Mr. Stranger sends you his first email, Spam Arrest replies with a gentle "challenge", asking him to identify himself to you. If he does so (and spammers will generally not), his original email arrives at your mailbox, safe and sound. From then on, Mr. Stranger can email you uninterrupted.
The cost of Spam Arrest is almost identical to that of ClearMyMail, including the free 30 day trial run.
As we said, these are but a couple of programs that have been recommended to us by our clients. Attention Interactive is here to help our web design clients with this and many other spam catcher programs. We host our Enterprise level clients on Rackspace servers and we can install any type of spam protection you want. In addition, when we provide online marketing services for your business, we are very savvy when it comes to crafting HTML messages that will not end up in somebody else's junk mail folder.
