What’s a blog?

A weblog – blog for short – is a type of website. Blogs are unique from other static website in that they are usually updated often. The main page of the site usually contains the most recent post or posts of the author or authors of the website. Also, blogs often also allow readers to post their comments directly to the site.

All of the factors work together to make blogs a very popular form of website creation, and online community building. If you’d like to try your hand at blogging, here’s how to get started.

First, decided on the topic of your blog. Maybe you want to keep a diary of your daily life for your friends and family. If there’s a topic that you are interested in, say, politics for
example, blogs are a great way to discuss and share your interests and comments on current topics related to your interests.

Once you’ve decided on the topic of your blog, you’ll want to choose a blog software program. The great thing is, some of the best programs and blog services are free!

Many blogging services are based online, such as blogger.com. Just visit these sites and register with them – many will give you free webspace and allow you to start blogging immediately.

If you want to register your own domain name and run your blog on your own server, you will need to install server side blog software. Not to fear, many webhosts come with an automatic installer called fantastico that will make getting your site up and running quick and easy.

Some of the more popular free blogging software programs are Wordpress and B2Evolution. Doing a search for any of these will get you the free downloads if they are not available through your webhost.

Blogs can be useful for building many types of websites. Examples include, corporate sights for keeping employees and customers up-to-date, travel diaries, niche websites on
specific topics, interactive community websites, and more. The ease of posting and editing your blog website online makes blog software useful for many purposes.

About the author:
Angie Noack is a business strategist with a sharp edge for technology. With her unique ability to combine these two skills, she’s able to help businesses save time and increase profits. You can find her online athttp://www.liquidblogging.com/blogs.php.

Below are the keyword list I use when I build my AdSense websites. I call it “My Money Keyword List”. They pay from $1.00 to $100.00 per click. Can you feel the power in this list? The list is in alphabetical order. A few keywords may drop in and out of the list from time to time, but 99.9f them stay on the list.

In the interest of saving space and not make this a very long document, I’m presenting this list in 2 parts. This is part 2 of 2 of the list.

Drum roll please—–:-)

81. Online Poker Game
82. Online Poker Room
83. Online Trading
84. Online Video Poker
85. Pacific Poker
86. Party Poker
87. Pay Day Loans
88. Pay Per Click
89. Personal Domain Name
90. Personal Injury Attorney
91. Play Poker Online
92. Poker
93. Poker Blackjack
94. Poker Chip
95. Poker Download
96. Poker Game
97. Poker Game Online
98. Poker Online
99. Poker Room
100. Poker Rule
101. Poker Site
102. Poker Table
103. Private Jets
104. Quick Book
105. Reduce Debt
106. Refinance
107. Refinance Home Loan
108. Refinance Mortgage
109. Refinance Mortgage Loan
110. Refinance Quotes
111. Register Domain
112. Rehab
113. Rewards Cards
114. Royal Vagas Casino
115. Rule Of Poker
116. Satellite
117. Slot Gamble
118. Slot Machine Picture
119. Spam Filter
120. Spyware
121. Structured Settlements
122. Stud Poker
123. Taxes
124. Teeth Whitening
125. Term Life
126. Texas Holden
127. Texas Holden Software
128. Texas Holden Tip
129. Texas Poker
130. The Poker Club
131. The Poker Forum
132. Three Card Poker
133. Tip Poker
134. Tournament Poker
135. Tramadol
136. Trans Union
137. Transfer Money
138. Travel Insurance
139. True Poker
140. Ultimate Bet
141. University Degrees Online
142. Video Conferencing
143. Vioxx
144. Viop
145. Wagering
146. Web Host
147. Web Poker
148. Weight Loss
149. Wild Poker
150. Win At Poker
151. Windstar Cruise
152. Work At Home
153. World Championship Poker
154. World Poker Championship
155. World Poker Tour
156. World Series Of Poker
157. World Series Poker
158. Wrongful Death
159. Yellow Page Advertising
160. Zero Roulette

You can get part 1 at my website: http://www.extra-income-ideas.com/articles.html or my AdSense Money E-Book: http://www.bye925.com/adm

Copywrite © Kenneth Echie.

About the author:
Kenneth Echie updates the latest extra income ideas at http://www.extra-income-ideas.com

In the meantime, what can we do about it. Well, I am not going to tell you that there is a perfect solution that will stop all spam, but what I will tell you is that there is a way to reduce the problem and manage it effectively using the 7 steps outlined below.

Step #1: Get Your Own Domain Name

Fighting spam effectively starts with getting your own domain name. For example if your name is Andy Williams, you would purchase a domain name called andywilliams.com, which is of course already owned by the famous singer. This has some unique advantages over using an ISP given domain name or a webmail service such as Hotmail or Gmail. It also has some minor disadvantages. Let’s examine these.

One major advantage is that you control the entire email address. You could create emails addresses like andy@andywilliams.com, info@andywilliams.com, sales@andywilliams.com and so on. This is in stark contract to an ISP assigned name like andywilliams@comcast.net. If you wanted another one, you’d have to open up another account or pay extra for each additional ISP assigned address. If you ever decided to switch ISP’s, you would lose that email address and have to start over using a new one, and inform everyone you communicated with about it – a very messy proposition.

Many get around this problem by getting a Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail account which you can access from anywhere as long as you have internet access. These types of email accounts definitely have a place in your email toolchest, but do not suffice as your primary personal email address. One reason is that you do not have access to your email messages and address books when you are not online, like during a long flight. Anotehr drawback is that they do not allow you to export the online address books making portability very tedious.

I prefer owning my own domain name which I call my permanent email address. I will always have this email address as long as I renew this domain name every year. The cost of registering a domain name varies from $4 to $8 per year for most common ones. This is a small price to pay for the advantages it brings you.

The one minor disadvantage of owning your own domain name is that you need to manage it yourself, or have someone do it for you. This in my opinion is far outweighed by the advantages mentioned above.

Step #2: Create Private Email Adresses

A private email address is one that nobody but your inner circle knows about. Every person that you give your personal email address to is someone that you trust and want to receive email from.

Setup one private email address for every person who is going to need to receive messages. This could be you and 5 other members of your family or 12 employees that work for you. This part is quite straightforward, you simply login to your email control panel and create new accounts for each email address that is going to be used to receive email.

Step #3: Create Public Email Addresses As Aliases

A public email address is generally known to the public. It can be specific like andyw@andywilliams.com or generic like receptionist@andywilliams.com.

A public email address is created as an email alias. An email alias is not a real email address, but an address that gets redirected to a real email address. For example, you setup receptionist@andywilliams.com as an alias that redirects to mary@andywilliams.com. Whenever some sends an email to receptionist@andywilliams.com, it will end up in Mary’s inbox. If you change receptionists, you simple modify the redirect for a very elegant solution. You can then publish this public email address on a website, in a brochure, on print advertising, business cards etc. without giving away your personal email address and without having to make much changes if Mary leaves and a new receptionist is hired. This is a huge benefit and maintains your privacy as well as those of others you have created email adresses for.

How does this help with spam, you ask? By using email aliases in a smart fashion, you could very easily shut down any spam that starts coming in. Let’s examine how this can be done.

Step #4: Setup the Default or Catch-all Email Address

Your email control panel will have something called a “default address” or it is also sometimes called a “catch-all address”. This is a valid email address that all unresolved emails go to. If you set this up to be your personal email address for example, then you will receive all emails that are addressed to “anything”@andywilliams.com, this includes sales@andywilliams.com, joe@andywilliams.com, andrew@andywilliams.com etc. Herein lies the secret to combat spam.

Step #5: Create Specific Named Public Email Addresses As And When Required

When you are forced to register on a website where you want to get some information from, you are usually asked for a valid email address. Well guess what, you now have an unlimited supply of valid email adresses. I usually use a specific format when registering at websites – it is “websitename”@andywilliams.com. So if I am registering at a website called www.get-rich-quick.com, I would use the address get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com as my valid email address. When the site sends me an email, it gets redirected to my personal email or whatever the default or catch-all address is.

Step #6: Send Spam Back To Where It Came From, If Possible

Here comes the real bonus, if you subsequently start receiving spam addressed to none other than get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com, you simple create an email alias for get-rich-quick@andywilliams.com and redirect the email back to exactly where it came from, for example georg-bush@get-rick-quick.com. You will then never get another email from anyone using that email address ever again. This is cool and is my favourite part. Bear in mind that spammers usually send email from an address that is not their own, so if you see an address like noreply@get-rick-quick.com, then you would redirect it somewhere else, for example a Hotmail address that you setup just for redirection purposes. Please exercise some discretion here because spammers often use the email addresses of real people and we don’t want these innocent people getting redirected email.

Step #7: Be Diligent In The Ongoing Management Of Your Domain

If you do this diligently for each website where you register by identifying the website name, you will very quickly know which websites are selling email addresses and which ones honor their promise not to share your information. ALl this while, nobody by your personal inner circle knows your private email address.

A real-life example in my case: I use a specific email alias for my Paypal account which nobody but Paypal knows. I have never ever received spam on this address, but I have received hundreds of spam messages on other email aliases that I have created. All of these emails supposedly come from Paypal and address me as “Dear Valued Paypal Member” or something similar, warning me that my account is going to be closed or suspended unless I click on their link and update my credit card information.

I hope that I have given you some food for thought on how to manage the ever growing spam problem by protecting yourself by taking some initiative and getting your own domain name. The added benefit is that you now have a permanent email address no matter where you choose to live or which ISP you use to connect to the internet.

There are many other ways to fight spam which I will perhaps address future articles.

About the author:
Balraj Dhaliwal is an Internet Consultant for BSD Register. He helps customers with whatever they need to achieve their goals. BSD Register is well respected and liked by its customers because of its no nonsense simple approach to getting things done.

Can you prove it’s yours? Can you get it back?

The sex.com story

One morning, Gary Kremen woke up to find that the domain name sex.com, which he’d registered in 1994, had changed hands and was registered to ex-convict Stephen Michael Cohen. In 1995, Cohen had allegedly written a fake letter with a forged signature to Network Solutions, the registrar. He stated in that letter that control of sex.com was to be turned over to him.

In 2000, the court found the letter to be fraudulent and ruled that sex.com was to be returned to Kremen. Cohen was ordered to pay $65 million in punitive damages and for lost revenue. He never paid it, however, fleeing the US instead.

The story continued with charges against Network Solutions for mismanagement of sex.com. A lower court ruled in 2000 that Network Solutions was not accountable for its negligence in handling the domain. A domain name was not tangible property, according to the judge. In 2003, the US Appeals Court ruled that Kremen did have property rights to the domain. The following year, Kremen reached a settlement with VeriSign, the owner of Network Solutions. While the amount was undisclosed, it was rumored to be over $15 million.

Domains and ICANN

It’s doubtful that any other domain has the value of sex.com. Our domains are valuable to us, though, and we want them to be protected. If they are stolen, we don’t want to spend years fighting to get them back.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) was created in 1998 to help manage domain names, among other responsibilities. At the ICANN website, we read that ICANN “…is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet…and to developing policy appropriate to its mission….”

Developed in 2004, ICANN’s Registrar Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP) provides detailed steps for registrars to follow if a domain transfer is disputed. Registrars aren’t obligated to follow this policy, and it doesn’t guarantee resolution to domain transfer disputes. However, it provides a suggested policy for registrars to help reach resolutions when domain disputes arise.

Domain theft and ICANN

What should you do if you discover that someone has hijacked your domain name?

First, contact the registrar where you had the domain registered. With evidence that you didn’t authorize the domain to be transferred to another person, that registrar should take the necessary steps to try to return the domain to you.

Unfortunately, some registrars aren’t inclined to make the effort to do this, particularly (but not necessarily) those with a lower profit margin per domain.

If the registrar for your domain won’t take action on your behalf, go to the gaining registrar with your case. This registrar; the one where your domain is now registered; may or may not want to look into the situation, but you can try your luck with it.

According to ICANN’s TDRP, registrars should “… first of all attempt to resolve the problem among the Registrars involved in the dispute….” If they aren’t successful, they should then file a dispute with ICANN.

In this ICANN April 2005 report, the suggestion was made (on page 5) to make the dispute resolution process accessible to registrants. At this time, though, if neither registrar will work to help you or will take the issue to ICANN, the ICANN dispute resolution process isn’t available to you.

Although ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy is intended for disputes over trademarked domains, some registrants have used it to try to get hijacked domains back. You can file a complaint via one of ICANN’s Approved Providers for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Domains and the courts

The legal route that sex.com registrant Gary Kremen took is open to you as well. Look for a lawyer in the country of the domain registrar who has experience handling domain name disputes.

At this point, you need to weigh the value of your domain with the costs involved in getting it back. The value of sex.com made the legal battle financially worthwhile for Kremen, but many of us would have to stop at this point.

Protecting your domain

Nothing you can do can guarantee that your domain won’t be hijacked. However, you can take a number of precautions to greatly reduce the chances of it happening. For tips on protecting your domain, see the article Information Highwaymen and Your Domain here: http://articles.websitesource.com/information_highwaymen.shtml .

About the author:
Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

Here are two ways to register a domain name for free and some reasons why you might not want to.

1. You Must Have Your Own Top Level Domain (TLD) Name

Your business website should definitely have its own top level domain (TLD) name. This means a name like yourcompany.com. It doesn’t mean a subdomain of someone else’s domain name, such as yourcompany.someisp.net.

Sometimes persons hesitate to register a proper domain name because of cost, lack of knowledge, or indecision. However, paying the nominal fee charged by the domain registrar for your own domain name can reap rich dividends.

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or Internet address like (ignoring the http part) someisp.net/hosting-accounts/yourco/, or yourcompany.someisp.net, just doesn’t look as professional as yourcompany.com. It might be free (as in included with your web space) but it just doesn’t cut it.

Consider: If you put your URL on your letterheads, business cards, signs, et cetera, which Internet address looks more professional?

If you mention your URL on your radio advertising or to a customer over the phone, which one will be easier to remember?

As well, what if your web host goes out of business or you decide that you want to change to another provider. Now, you need to notify everyone that you have now changed to yourcompany.someotherisp.net. You will also need to change all your stationery, signs, and advertising to reflect the change.

On the other hand, the domain name yourcompany.com, could be transferred from one web host to another simply by informing your domain name registrar of the change.

So, to avoid losing business and incurring unnecessary additional costs, be sure you have your own top level domain name.

2. Should You Get a Free Top Level Domain?

It is possible to get a free top level domain from Dot TK (@www.dot.tk). (You may also get paid dot tk (.tk) domains from them.) However, there can be disadvantages to using a free top level domain name.

Here are some of the restrictions noted on the Dot TK website.

You may register no more than three free domain names.

The ownership of the free domain remains with Dot TK. This means that you can’t sell it. (Of course, if you pay for the domain you do own it and can transfer it to a new owner.)

Also, if you don’t have 25 visitors come to your home page within a ninety day period, your free domain name registration is cancelled.

You need to have existing web content somewhere so that your dot tk name can be forwarded to it.

There may well be other disadvantages.

Apparently, Dot TK uses frames to show your website. This being the case, you may have issues with navigation (bookmarking or finding specific pages) and search engine friendliness.

Therefore, for serious business use, consider carefully the true cost of free domain names.

About the author:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years. For more information about domain names and other
Work at Home Small Business Ideas

By installing software in your PC, you can hide your IP address. Anonymous surfing of the web will enable you to safeguard your Internet privacy. There is nothing illegal in hiding your IP address, for the proper reasons. If you have any doubt regarding this you can always consult your legal advisor. The legal advisor can guide you about the matter.

An IP address changer can help you change your IP address when you are surfing online. The tools of IP address changer will let you change your IP address anytime by routing your Internet traffic through an overseas server. The tool has drop down box that enables the user to choose an IP address from one of the countries mentioned in the box. Hiding your IP address is the best option to protect your self from any kind of fraud.

Hiding your IP address also enables you to protect your computer from spyware. Spyware is the software that monitors the activities of the user of a computer. Some webmasters and software producers offer free downloads for your computer. Most of the free downloads are embedded with spyware. After you complete the download, the spyware gets installed in your computer and your activities can be monitored.

Hiding your IP address also gives you freedom from the constantly bombarding pop up ads in your computer. Whenever you enter a website, you will be flooded by the pop up ads. Constant flooding of the pop up ads in the computer can be very irritating and disturbing for the user. The efficiency of the computer also gets diminished due to this. Your computer can stop functioning when you have an urgent piece of work to do. Hiding your IP address will protect you from such situation.

The main advantage of hiding your IP address is that you are protected from any website that wants to monitor your online habits and activities. Hiding the IP address also makes sure that you do not receive any junk or bulk emails in your inbox. Good software for hiding your IP address will keep your computer safe from the hackers. If the software has the ability to support frequent IP address change, the chances of protecting your privacy increases.

You can also use the web-based email to send anonymous email to people. This can sometimes be necessary for your work. Your IP address is meant for your personal use and nobody has the right to misuse this without your permission.

About the author:
Author – MattGarrett http://www.GhostSurf-Pro.com

The particular tool that I am referring to is called MailWasher. It is a tool that I cannot do without. I’ve been using it for about 2 years now and my running totals shows that 72% of emails received are automatically deleted by Mailwasher. For more product information on Mailwasher, please visit: www.BSDRegister.com/products/mailwasher

Mailwasher is a piece of software that works at the source i.e. it connects directly to your inbox on the server and takes care of emails there. This is very different to using email filters in your email software for example Outlook or Thunderbird. The major difference is that Mailwasher wipes out emails on the email server so that you never have to download them. Having a filter in Outlook would mean that the email has to first be downloaded onto your computer and then examined and dealt with accordingly. For those messages spreading viruses, this could well pose a threat.

Mailwasher is easy to setup and takes a few minutes. There is a 30-day free trial of the software so that you can have ample time to decide if it is working for you. Initially, I started setting up my own spam filters and was having some success, but then I stumbled upon a link on the company’s website that pointed to a link where an avid user was offering his filters for free. I downloaded those and installed them and have never look back. The amount of spam that was identified started to steadily increase until the 72% level that it is at today. This means that on average, 3 of every 10 eamils I receive are legitimate and are allowed through by Mailwasher. The rest are deleted at the source and I don’t have to spend time downloading them. This is a big deal if you are using dialup access to the Internet.

There are many controls within the software. You can specify emails be deleted automatically without your knowledge or you could have the program mark them for deletion but let you glance at them just in case. This is useful initially until you get a good feel for it. There are many other options that fall in between these. The good thing is that they are all on one screen.

There is a concept of a blacklist and a whitelist. You can import all of your address book from Outlook with a couple of clicks and from other email programs as well. These go into what is called a whitelist. Mailwasher will allow all emails through that are on the whitelist. It will mark or automatically delete all those that are on the blacklist. Adding or removing someone from either list is a very simple point and click exercise.

Mailwasher also allows the setting up of legitimate filters. These are methods of specifying an email as legitimate. For example, if you identify all emails coming from your company domain name as being legitimate, then all messages from your coworkers will be allowed through without you having to specify each person. This is achieved using a wildcard setting such as “*@youworkdomain.com”. This can also be used to blacklist an entire domain such that all messages are immediately marked for deletion or automatically deleted depending on your settings.

MailWasher is an independent program and does not interfere with your email software. It sits in the system tray and does its work diligently. In my case, it checks my inbox every 10 minutes and does a cleanout. I have my email software setup to only retrieve messages when I instruct it to so that MailWasher has the most opportunity to do it’s work.

Mailwasher also has more advanced controls, one of them being something known as “Origin of Spam”. There are servers on the internet which list known spam addresses. When you receive a message from one of these addresses, it is automatically marked as spam and deleted without your filters even being invoked. This is a remarkable system and comes free with MailWasher. A whopping 14% of emails that I get are identified in this manner and automatically deleted.

MailWasher is an indispensable tool in my email arsenal. If spam is a problem for you, it could do likewise for you. Download your free trial today and use it for 30 days. If you like it, you only pay $37 which in my book is a small price to pay for so much time saved everyday.

About the author:
Balraj Dhaliwal is an Internet Consultant for BSD Register, a well respected and liked domain and hosting provider because of its no nonsense simple approach to getting things done. Visit BSD Register athttp://www.BSDRegister.com

The word “server” sounds scary and because of this many people think only a professional hosting company can host a website. This is not true. A server is nothing more than software that runs in the background listening to requests from “clients.” The client in our case is an internet browser, like Internet Explorer.

How do you get a web server? Most Windows operating sytems come with a web server that just needs to be installed. There are also web servers than can be downloaded for free, like Apache. I’m not going to go over how to do this. In this article I’ll discuss the concepts and what’s needed to get your web server up and running and serving your site to the public after it’s been installed. Every web server is different but the concepts are the same. By
going over the general concepts that are true for any web server, you’ll know what to look for regardless of the software you are using.

Like I mentioned before, a server is just software that runs in the background. A web server is a server that listens to requests from internet browsers for a specific page, finds that page in the computer it is running on and then sends it to the browser that requested it. Keeping this in mind, can you believe there are actually just two things you need to do to have your web server configured?

1) Tell your web server where to find your web site. Your website probably consists of multiple pages. You need to tell the web server the path of the folder where you keep
your pages. For example, when someone types www.yourdomain.com/main.html, the server will look in the folder where all your pages live, and look for file main.html.

2) Tell your web server about your default page. This is the page that is displayed when someone types www.yourdomain.com in their browser without specifying a page. The web server already has some default page names like “index.html” so if you have a page with this name
it will be displayed by default when no document is specified in the request. You may also add some more default file names to your web server. If you don’t want to name your file “index.html” you can tell your web server that your default page’s name is “mainpage.htm.”

This is basically all there is to configuring your web server. Actually, there is more, but these two steps will allow your web server to start serving your website. Of course, there is also more to hosting your website from home, like getting a domain name, dealing with your router if you have one, but these topics are beyond the scope of this article. I hope I’ve convinced you of how easy it is to set up a web server, which happens to be the most important step to hosting your website from home.

About the author:
For detailed information on how to host your website from home please visit “Setting up a Web Server” where you can learn all the aspects of running your own web server and getting your own domain name.

The first factor to consider when choosing a web hosting company is how much space they will give you for your account. If you merely want a single page on the Internet with little or no graphics, you can get by with purchasing an account with the smallest amount of space available. However, if you are planning to create a full e-commerce site with multiple pages and order forms, you will need to make sure you have enough server space to support your entire operation.

Before you sign your web-hosting contract, you will first have to choose and purchase a domain name. Though many of the names you might want are already taken, you can often find one that suits your needs, especially if you get creative with it. For instance, if your business is called Cards For You and that domain name is already taken, you might consider choosing More Cards For You or Cards For You Today. The possibilities are endless, and with a little thought you will be able to think of a snappy domain name.

You can often purchase a domain name through your web hosting company, or you can purchase it through a private domain name retailer. These companies are very easy to find. Often times, if you type the domain name you want into a search engine, a domain name seller will pop up if the name is not already taken. You can purchase a domain name for a year at a time, or for several years, depending on how much you want to invest at the get-go.

Once you have a domain name, you will of course have to create a website to put on the Internet. There are many do-it-yourself web design programs that are fairly user friendly. Software like FrontPage makes web design a cut and paste, fill in the blank soft of affair. However, if you would like a more professional look, you can use programs like Dreamweaver or Image Ready to make your sites. There are always freelance web designers looking for work who are ready to take on your cause if you are not savvy enough to do it yourself.

Web hosting companies give passwords to allow you access your space on their servers. You can upload files and pages using their own interface programs, or you can utilize the upload tools built in to your web design program. Once you upload a page, it is important to make sure it looks correct on a variety of different web browsers. Because each browser interprets information differently, you may run into trouble if you build a site while only previewing it in Internet Explorer. There are often compatibility issues between Safari and Mozilla browsers that distort site tables and images.

However, once you work out the kinks and create an excellent site, all you have to do is pay your web hosting bills, and your site will be available for the whole world to see. Web hosting companies usually offer options regarding payment plans. You can pay for a year at a time, or you can monthly or quarterly to maintain your place on the World Wide Web.

About the author:
Sintilia Miecevole has many years experience on the internet. Be sure to visithttp://www.ritzyhosting.comfor expert information on hosting, providers, host finders, resources, reviews, reliability and much more.

When it comes to netiquette (Network Etiquette), it’s not as easy to control how others perceive us, and yet it’s even more important. Why? Because what you write and how you use email can affect whether your email gets delivered, read, or responded to – and what that response is! In addition, there are numerous “technology traps” that are easy to fall into. Have you ever seen someone accidentally send an angry or sensitive response to a huge group of people by using the ”Reply All” key?

And before you say to yourself “I already know” and stop reading this article, realize that every single one of us could benefit from a few simple reminders on the proper use of email, not just from a personal view but also from a business standpoint. If you’re doing business on the internet – and using email to communicate with your customers – then this article is a must read for you! You may already know many of these tips, but even the most experienced user will find a few rules you were not aware of or have fallen into the habit of breaking.

Think, write, and think again.
Email is a static, one-way channel – unlike live communication, there’s no way to get immediate feedback (from facial expressions or voice responses) to know if we are being effective or even understood. So think twice before hitting the send key. Is there ANY chance that the recipient might misinterpret what you want them to understand? Do your thoughts come across as abrupt or angry? Could this email accidentally affect your reputation? The hastily written word may lack feelings and the true emotion you intended. You might be smiling as you type, but your note could come across as sarcastic or mean-spirited. Remember – there’s a person on the other end, not just a computer.

Use a meaningful subject line.
This is the first thing your reader will see, so use the space to help them understand the contents of the email even before they open it. Using the same rule from above, type in a subject that relates to the message you’re sending, rather than leaving the subject blank. Without a subject line your note will probably be seen as another piece of junk mail – not everyone will recognize who you are just from your email address. Many internet service providers (ISP’s) filter out suspicious looking email, and a blank subject is a big red flag. Also, try to avoid generic words like “Hi” or “Check This Out” to avoid having the recipients spam or virus software delete your message!

The beginning, and the end.
Always use a salutation, even if it’s short. Start your message with “Hi”, or “Hello”, or “Dear”, whatever works best for the intended recipient, and whatever reflects your personality. Think about this: when you call someone on the telephone, don’t you say “Hello” before telling them what you want? Email messages should be no different. At a minimum, address the email to the person.

Don’t forget the end of your message too! Always sign your messages with your name, and say “Thank You”, or “Sincerely”, or something else appropriate. You can even setup a signature in your email program that will automatically display your information at the bottom of every email message you send. For directions, use your email programs help file and do a search for signature.

Protect your recipient’s identity – use “To:”, “CC:” and “BC:” properly.
There are a few simple netiquette rules for using the address fields in email.

If your email is being sent to just one person or email address, place it in the “To:” field. This should be the person who is responsible for sending you a reply.

When your email is being sent to more than one person and all the recipients truly need to know who else is receiving it, put all the addresses in the “CC:” field.

For email sent to multiple recipients who have no real reason to know the names and email addresses of everyone else to whom it is being sent, put all the addresses in the “BCC:” field.

(Some email software requires at least one address to be placed in the “To:” field. Put your own email address in the “To:” section if this is required.)

By default, not every email program has the BCC field available for viewing. If you cannot see the Bcc field in your program, check your programs help file for directions.

Give memory a helping hand.
When replying to emails, include a copy of the prior notes you’ve traded with the person on the topic, don’t just send a new one. I may receive 50 emails a day that need a reply and it’s not always possible to remember every single ‘conversation’ with every single person. Please don’t make your reader go looking through their ‘sent items’ folder or email ‘recycle bin’ to refresh their memory!

Use the ‘Read Receipt’ sparingly.
In some cases, it’s crucial for both parties to know that a message was received. However, in normal day-to-day activities you should not request a read receipt for every single message you send. It’s annoying to the recipient to have to click that pop up box every time they get your email. And it is an invasion of privacy. Don’t forget – just because they have received it doesn’t mean they have necessarily read it, so receiving a read receipt doesn’t actually prove anything other than that the message was received. And for day to day communications, is that really necessary?

URGENT!
The boy who cried wolf. Do not send all your messages as URGENT, or HIGH PRIORITY. If your recipients keep receiving messages marked that way, then eventually the red exclamation point loses it’s effectiveness – except to reinforce how important YOU think you are. Reserve these messages for those that are of utmost importance!

Avoid special formatting.
For your day-to-day messages, don’t use colored email backgrounds, colored fonts, special fonts, images or other “pretty” type of formatting to your messages. Keep them clean – this makes it easier for the intended recipient to read them and reply. It’s best to send messages in plain text to ensure everyone will be able to read them, since not everyone has their email set to receive html emails. You would be amazed at how bad your note may look to someone viewing their email on a handheld device or an older computer. By keeping your emails clean, they will also load much faster for the recipient!

Don’t SHOUT!
If you type in all capital letters, your reader will see this as yelling, or they will think that you were just too lazy to use proper text formatting. It’s also hard on the eyes – did you know that it takes longer to read something written in all caps than it does to read something that is properly formatted?

Proof, spell-check, and use proper formatting.
Poor writing skills are a direct reflection on you! And the reader never forgets the person who writes an undecipherable message. Spell checking will prevent most misspelled words, but you should always proof your email in case you’ve written the incorrect word (that was spelled correctly). For example, month and moth, where and were, all look correct to a spell-check program. Use proper capitalization, punctuation and formatting. Break your paragraphs when the subject changes, or if they become too long. Don’t use excessive formatting (too much bold, too many exclamation points and question marks, etc.) Too much of anything will make your message harder to read. You want to make your message easily readable, as well as understandable. Proofread it to ensure it make sense, and never assume the reader knows what you mean, always spell it out for them. The time it takes to proof and spell check is minimal compared to the lasting impression you will make if you don’t take the time.

Take the time to send a reply.
Even when someone emails you something that doesn’t need a direct response, follow up with them in a timely manner just to let them know you received their message. It’s amazing how often people will ask for advice, and not even reply with a short “Thank you” when they receive their answer. A simple message telling the sender is sufficient. And this lets them know you did receive it, that it didn’t just get stuck in cyberspace somewhere.

If they didn’t request it, don’t send it!
No matter what you think may be acceptable, you cannot email someone about your product/service without their permission. Unless they request that you send them an email, or you have previously done business with them, then it is illegal to send them an email, period. Any recipient can easily forward your email to their ISP and report you for sending unsolicited email messages (SPAM).

This report would result in the immediate removal of all your websites/email address from most servers. You would then join a list of “prohibited senders” meaning that servers would not allow any messages attached to your domain name to be received by their customers – the people you are sending your messages to.

You might be thinking, “but I get emails every day about products/services that I didn’t request information about.” Sending unsolicited email messages (SPAM), is kind of like speeding. Lot’s of people do it, but it is against the law, and no matter how long you may get away with it, you are bound to get caught!

Compress, Compress, Compress!
If you are sending an email with several large attachments, it is often better to send them in a few separate emails, so that you don’t send a document that is too large to even open. Or, you can try compressing your messages into a zipped file. It doesn’t reduce the size of images or pictures very much, but it works great for text, spreadsheet and program files. This is very easy to do, and will make your file size much smaller, and make the recipient much happier. Check out www.winzip.com (for those on pc).

Hoaxes as helpful hints.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do not forward everything that gets sent to you. We’ve all seen them – the chain-letter emails that promise if you forward to x number of people you’ll get paid, or you’ll win something, or you will be lucky forever. It’s all a hoax, a scam, and the only result is huge numbers of email transmissions that slow down servers all across the country. If you receive one of these emails from a friend, reply to them (in a very nice way) and explain to them why this isn’t true, or ask them to stop forwarding them to you.

Virus, or virus advice?
Many viruses are spread by email masquerading as warnings about – a virus! If someone forwards you a virus warning, which usually contains instructions for removing a virus from your computer… check google.com for that virus BEFORE doing anything. Chances are, it’s also a hoax, and if you do remove that “bad file” from your computer, you’re actually removing a necessary component crucial to your system!

Wow, that was a lot of information to take in at one time, but I congratulate you for sticking it out and reading the entire article. Please share it with your family, friends and colleagues.

About the author:
Angela Nielsen is President of NIC Media Group, an award-winning web development company located in San Diego, California. To find out more about Angela Nielsen, and NIC Media, visit http://www.nicmedia.comor call them direct at 888 NIC Media. Copyright 2005 by Angela Nielsen and NIC Media Group