If you are deleting important emails or can't face
your bulging inbox, it's time to take action.
Solutions come in two flavours: prevention and
management.
Prevention
Spammers use robots to harvest email addresses.
Whenever, you leave your address unprotected on the web, you leave yourself
exposed to receiving an influx of unsolicited emails. Prevention means less
emails reach your main inbox.
Disclosure of email addresses
Is it safe to leave your email address in
newsgroups or in guest books? Will your email be protected from unscrupulous
spammers?
When disclosing your email address to receive
useful information or a freebie, will your information be sold? What is the
privacy policy?
It may be wise to anticipate the worst (being
spammed) and take precautions. Many web users now provide a portable email
address e.g. hotmail.com or yahoo.com to protect their main email address. But,
those addresses are not always accepted.
Solution? If you have a domain name, create a new
email account under a fictitious name e.g. if your address is normally
helen@....com, use a fictitious name
e.g. jonathan@....com. This way, you can
delete the new address if your inbox is abused.
Email address on your website
Hide your email address on your website using
one of the JavaScripts provided in previous article Anti-spam email address for
your website (http://www.marketingcues.com/tools/antiSpamEmail.htm)
Management of your inbox
The emails reaching your inbox may be legitime but
they may only be fully appreciated in small doses. An overflowing inbox becomes
a work hazard, creating a stressful and sometimes unmanageable
situation.
When receiving regular e-newsletters or frequent
emails from the same source, you may want to set message rules for those
incoming emails.
(The instructions relate to Outlook Express
although Outlook has similar features. In Eudora and Netscape, look for
'filters' instead of 'message rules'.)
Message rules are instructions to your email
program. They contain three parts:
- Condition e.g. 'where the subject line contains special words'
- Action e.g. 'move it to the specified folder'
- Rule description: refinement of the condition and action. In this case, you would identify the 'special words' and
the name of the 'specified folder'.
How to create a message rule using Outlook or Outlook
Express
1. Sorted into specified folders
Incoming emails can be automatically redirected in
any specified folders you have created. For example, I have created folders for
my numerous newsletters.
This way, there are fewer messages in my inbox leaving
important ones easy to spot.
Furthermore, I feel no pressure to open my
newsletters when I am busy attending other business and when the time is right,
I can leisurely browse the newsletters all grouped in the same folder.
Note
that folders are displayed in alphabetical order. Folders called '1-Newletter'
or 'A-Newsletter' will rank higher than 'Newsletter'.
2. Deleted or blocked
When you cannot opt-out from some spammers' list, create a message rule to
delete or block their messages as they come.
3. Colour-coded or highlighted
Messages in the inbox are colour-coded or highlighted. For example, email notifications of any
sales occurring on my website are displayed in red and results from website
forms are purple.
The coloured fonts stand out and are ideal for messages that
require immediate action.
4. Flagged
Incoming messages may already be flagged when first displayed in your
inbox (using a message rule) or flagged after being downloaded.
To insert a flag, click on the flag column next to the
message. The flags are useful to draw attention and can serve as a reminder for
future reference. To group flagged messages, click on the flag icon in the
header of the flag column.
You will find more message rules in the Help menu
of Outlook Express.
