Will spam kill email marketing?

While all that may indeed happen, we want to make a few predictions of our own here. We predict that SPAM filters and solutions will become more and more powerful, and that the majority of SPAMMERS will be closed down.

Already there are some fairly useful tools on the market, and they are getting better. One of the best things you can use right now are the filters in your email program. Netscape and Outlook Express both have them. You simply set filters for words in the body or subject of the email that you want to reject. Any email that comes in with those words will go straight to the trash.

Of course, the P*O*R*-NO and other Spammer types try every trick in the book to get past filters. You can get rid of about 90% of it with your email filters though. As you spot new SPAM tricks like P#O#R#N#O in the subject, just add that to your email program filters.

You can also filter out any email from certain senders or domains. Play with the filters in your email program and you should master the options in no time.

Filters on the mail servers don't seem to be as great right now. They seem to either filter out everything - even email you want - or nothing at all. If much filtering on the server is done, it slows the already-bogged-down machines to a crawl. As faster mail servers with better filters emerge, the situation should improve.

Coding your email address on your web pages will cut down on the spam you receive. There are simple programs that can do this for you. This keeps your email addresses from being harvested from your sites by spamware, and then sold to every spammer in the world.

We also predict that stiffer fines and penalties will be imposed on SPAM, and that presidents soon are set as a few spammers are caught and prosecuted. Will this stop spam? Has it stopped theft or fraud? It may slow spam down.

If you have ideas on how to combat the spam problem, now is the time to make yourself known. Fortunes will be made by savvy 'netpreneurs who come up with viable solutions.

Our best guess is that spammers will continue to spam, and legitimate email marketers will find ways to market with email. The good news for legitimate marketers is that ethical forms of email marketing such as solo ads, and building your own opt-in list are still working well. So go with the flow until you see that they are no longer effective. Your list may be extremely valuable to you for years to come. Just Please don't spam anyone and add to the problem!