Here's the inside information and things YOU can do!

Unwanted e-mail, SPAM or junk mail, whatever we call it, it's a problem for us all. Every day, companies are creating ways to collect e-mail addresses. They are valuable! Addresses can be sold or used to target market to us. I don't need to refinance. I'm happy buying my prescriptions at my local pharmacy. In short:

I just want to read email that's important to me!

If you feel the same, help us all reduce junk mail by doing some of the things below.

Here's some of the ways e-mail lists are created and what you can do to stop yours from being added:

1. Some web sites require you to enter your e-mail address to get information, play a game or participate in a service they offer. By doing that, you are adding your name to a list. The site does whatever it wants with that list, including selling it to those who send junk mail.
Your action: only sign on to web sites with which you or friends are familiar. A popular way to avoid getting on these lists is to have 2 e-mail addresses, one used only for testing. Think of it as your junk mail address! When you sign on to a suspect site, use your junk e-mail address. Check the mail box every so often for a couple of weeks. If the box is full, BINGO! There's a good chance the junk came from that site. This is very effective and completely within your control.

2. Joining any kind of group puts your e-mail address on the line too. Choose carefully. Again, using a test e-mail address is a good idea.

3. When you get e-mail from unknown senders, just delete it. Do not open it. If you read it, you may unsuspectingly send a signal that your e-mail address is actively used. This confirms to the sending party that you are a real person. Bottom line, you're likely to get more junk mail from the same list.

4. Try to avoid sending mail that has been forwarded to, or received from many people. Here's why: If you want to send the same e-mail to 5 people and you copy each of them, each person gets a copy of all 5 e-mail addresses. Now, 25 e-mail addresses have traversed the internet. If you want to send an e-mail to several people, it's better to copy the mail and send it separately. Sometimes you want the others being copied to know who else is getting the mail. That's a useful e-mail feature, just do it when necessary. This considerably reduces the amount of e-mail addresses being sent over the internet. Less e-mail addresses sent, means less chances for them to be seen. Make sense?

Now the big one!
5. One of the most popular ways to gather e-mail addresses is from web pages. If you have a web site, you want to make it easy for visitors to send you email. Problem is, when you have a regular "e-mail me" button, you are at risk. Why? There are hundreds of small programs that go around the internet. Let's call them internet robots. They read each web page. Yes, eventually every page on the internet is read by these robots. Their only mission; find and record any e-mail address on any web page. Eventually they find yours.

Here's where we can help you in a big way!
By participating in our protected mail service, you will be protected from the internet robots who scour each web page for email addresses. You will still get all the mail from your web site. Plus it will be sent as "Protected mail" when you look in your mailbox. This way, you'll know it's real e-mail that came from your site. Seeing protected mail in the subject line helps prevent you from accidentally deleting it with junk that still comes from other sources. Now, you can use e-mail to help you build your business without worry of getting on more junk mail lists!

This service is included free of charge (a one time $5 set up fee applies per e-mail address) in all hosting plans offered through ProtectedPage.
If you need to keep your existing host, Protected Page e-mail is only $19.95 per year + $5 set up per email address.