subject: 4 Ways to Avoid Getting Caught in a Spam Filter [print this page] 4 Ways to Avoid Getting Caught in a Spam Filter
Getting caught in a spam or bulk mail filter is not a good way to make money online! While this may seem obvious, many marketers forget how easy it is to get caught in the bulk mail filter. People won't read mail that they don't know they have. After all, how often do you search your bulk mail folder in hopes of finding something good to read? Here are some tips to make sure you get read. Get your prospects to whitelist your email address. "Whitelisting" refers to letting an email program know to accept mail from a certain sender. Of course you want to let your prospects know to whitelist you! You should always tell your prospect to whitelist your email address on the squeeze page. You can do this either before or after the opt-in form. Many internet marketers choose to put this after the form, saving the space above for the list's pitch. You can also include a whitelist reminder after they've opted in. Sending them to a page, after they choose to opt in, that tells how to whitelist an email address on the most popular email systems (Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail--AOL doesn't hurt either) is a good idea. If you want to make sure and give your prospect a reason to whitelist your address, make your bonuses (whatever you are giving away in exchange for his or her email; you are giving something, right?) available only by special link sent via email. However, don't put attachments on the email. An attachment can be just the thing that sends your email flying into the spam box, when combined with sales-y words and phrases. If you have something to give to the people on your list, make it available via link. As you might imagine, many mail filters are suspicious of most any attachment, due to the number of viruses, worms, spyware, etc. that float around on the web. Adding an attachment to your emails just adds a level of suspicion that is entirely unnecessary. Professional autoresponders such as Getresponse will often hide the link with their own code, for any who have security concerns using this method. Don't use the word "free". This is pretty much an automatic free ticket to destination: spam folder nowadays. Some people get around this by using "fr*ee" or "f*ee" in the body of the emails. In fact, several marketers do this from time to time. But you're not likely to ever see something like this in the subject line. This leads us to our next point: Be careful with your subject line. Money-related niches are always in danger of having their emails caught in a spam filter. If you use words or phrases like this in your e-mail subject line: Investment Sales Selling Bonus Free, Fr*ee, Fr*e, etc. Cash Paid Winner You have won Then it's a good bet your email will go straight into the bulk mail folder. Keep these four simple things in mind, and you'll be a lot more likely to get read, which means you're a lot more likely to make more money!
