6-12-2002 MarketingTrendz Edition

"If you can't convince them, confuse them."
Harry S. Truman--

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The OnLine Exchange E-ZINE...
"MarketingTrendz" Edition
http://www.marketingtrendz.com
ISSN: 1528-3992
(c)Online Exchange...June 12, 2002
circulation: 30,000+
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This EDITION of THE ONLINE EXCHANGE E-Zine
is SPONSORED BY Our TopStars:
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The OnLine Exchange is a Free Publication
of MarketingTrendz. We are an award winning,
top rated ezine, providing valuable marketing
information and services to businesses and individuals
who are seeking online opportunities and
anyone interested in enhancing their business operations.
-Our Focus: To bring you cost effective marketing strategies
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Please, forward this ezine to all your friends
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IN THIS ISSUE:
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1. Featured Article - Buried Under a Mountain of Spam

2. "TOP Pick" Classified Ads

3. Humor Exchange - Laugh Alittle/Laugh Alot

4. COOL Biz Site - Business Nation

5. IMPORTANT E-Zine Advertising Information

6. HOT Biz Tip - Special Characters

7. A Word From The Editor

8. MarketingTrendz Resources & Services

9. OnLine Exchange Information Data

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1.) FEATURED ARTICLE
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Buried Under a Mountain of Spam
by Michael Southon
=====================================


For years I didn't worry much about spam.

But lately it's got out of control. Over half of my email
is now spam, and it's growing by the week.

Spam is now such a problem that I know people who have
had to close down their domain name. This article offers
some tips on how to avoid being buried under a mountain
of spam.

---------------------------------------------
How Do They Get Your Address?
---------------------------------------------

In the old days, spammers got their addresses mainly from
Newsgroups - if you didn't post to Newsgroups, you were
reasonably safe. But they're now using a much more
efficient method to build their lists - email harvesters.

Email harvesters are robots that roam the Internet
collecting email addresses from web pages. Examples are
EmailSiphon, Cherry Picker, Web Weasel, Web Bandit and
Email Wolf, to name just a few.

How can you protect yourself from email harvesters?

By 'munging' (mung = 'mash until no good') or cloaking your
email address.

There are many ways of munging your address - the easiest
technique is to use HTML code for the punctuation in your
email address (instead of symbols).

For the colon after mailto use : and for the @ symbol
use @ and for the period use .

With this method, my email address would become:
mailto:msouthon@freezineweb.com

Your email address will appear exactly as it did before,
and it will still be 'clickable', but email harvesters will
ignore it and move on.

There are also JavaScript's that you can insert into your
web page that will make your email address visible to
humans but invisible to harvesting programs. Here's one
that works very well:
http://pointlessprocess.com/JavaScripts/anti-spam.htm

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How To Fight Spam
----------------------------

The most important thing is never, ever, reply to spam.

Most spam contains an innocent-looking 'remove me' email
address. Do not use it. Here's why:

Spammers typically buy a CD containing a million or so
email addresses, but they have no idea how many of those
addresses are active. So before beginning their marketing
campaign in earnest, they send out a 'test message' to the
entire list.

The test message contains an email address for removing
yourself. When you reply to that address, it confirms to
the spammer that your address is active and therefore worth
spamming.

Worse still, the spammer may be distilling from that CD a
list of confirmed active addresses that he will then sell
to another spammer.

The key to dealing with spam is to report it to a 3rd
party: (1) the affiliate program that the spammer is
advertising, (2) the spammer's web host, or (3) the ISP the
spammer used to connect to the Internet.

When you report spam to a 3rd party, remember to be polite
- they didn't send the spam and they're probably just as
anti-spam as you are.

(1) Reporting to Affiliate Programs

Many spammers are affiliates advertising someone else's
products or services. So look for a website address that
contains an affiliate link, something like this:
www.affiliateprogramdomain/841526

Then just send an email to the affiliate program
(abuse@affiliateprogramdomain.com), informing them that
you are receiving spam from one of their affiliates.

Most affiliate programs have zero tolerance for spamming
and will remove an affiliate spammer without warning.

Now, affiliate spammers don't want you to see their
affiliate link, so many of them send their email as HTML.
All you see in the message are the words 'Click Here and
Order Now'.

But in your browser just click on 'View Source Code' and
search for the letters 'http'. That will take you to the
spammer's affiliate link.

(2) Reporting to Web Hosts

If the spam doesn't contain an affiliate link, its likely
that it is coming from the owner of the domain name. In
that case you'll have to report it to the spammer's web
host or their ISP.

To make a report to the spammer's web host just go to
Whois, the directory of registered domain names:
http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois

Type in the spammer's domain (the website address that
appears in the spam) together with the extension (.com,
.org, .net etc).

The host for that domain will usually be listed as the
Technical Contact in the Whois record and there will be an
email address for contacting them.

(3) Reporting to ISPs

To report a spammer to his Internet Service Provider,
you'll have to look at the spam's 'extended headers'.

Extended headers show the servers that the message passed
through in order to get to you. The instructions for
viewing extended headers will vary depending on what email
client you are using.

=> In Pegasus Mail, open the offending message and then
        right-click and choose 'Show raw message data'.

=> In Eudora Light, click on 'Tools' in the top menu bar,
        and then 'Options', and then select the checkbox option
        that says 'Show all headers (even the ugly ones)' and
        click OK.

=> In Outlook Express, open the offending message, select
        'Properties' from the File menu and then click the
        'Details' tab.

Reading and understanding extended headers is quite a
detailed subject. Here's an excellent free tutorial on how
to decipher extended headers:
http://www.doughnut.demon.co.uk/SpamTracking101.html

As an alternative to these reporting techniques, you could
use a web-based spam reporting service such as SpamCop
(www.spamcop.net). SpamCop deciphers the spam's message
headers and traces the mail back to its source.

However, SpamCop is known to generate complaints about
innocent third parties, and as a result, many system
administrators ignore complaints received from SpamCop.

There is one kind of spam that the techniques in this
article probably won't help you with: spam from China.

This is the most peculiar spam you're ever likely to
receive. For example I regularly get messages from a
certain ChenHua of the China-Lutong mechanical company
asking me if I would like to order hydraulic heads for
the VE distributor pump.

Spam is not an issue in China so it's unlikely you would
stop the spammer by reporting him to a 3rd party. However,
while doing the research for this article I came across a
web page that offers a very ingenious (though rather
severe) solution to Chinese spam.

The Chinese government recently ordered all ISPs in China
to start monitoring email for subversive phrases. This
anti-spammer replies to Chinese spam with a message that
includes subversive phrases, such as "weapons and
ammunition", "Falung Gong" and "Free Tibet".

But I don't recommend you do this - the Chinese spammer
could end up spending years in a forced labor camp. Even
the worst spammer in the world doesn't deserve that.

Good luck in your fight against spam!

© 2002 by Michael Southon

--------------------------------------------------------
Michael Southon is the author of the popular new eBook
'Ezine Writer!' Discover how to dramatically increase your
Traffic and Sales, starting today: http://www.ezine-writer.com/
Join his twice-monthly 'e-Profit Tips Newsletter':
mailto:ept-subscribe@freezineweb.com
---------------------------------------------------------

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________________

............

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3.) Humor Exchange - Laugh Alittle/Laugh Alot
            -YOU DESERVE IT-

How To Know If You Were A Bad Kid

Your parents throw a "Going away to college party"
.........after you leave.

You put at least three teachers into retirement.

Your parents lecture or ground you in advance
in order to save time.

You have to hitch a ride home from school.

Your parents move without telling you.

Half the animals buried in your backyard
weren't dead when you buried them.

Your principal has your home phone on special.

Your principal has your name, address,
and other school related information on
a rubber stamp to save time when writing
up your referral sheet.

You spend more time in detention than
in regular class.

You teacher tells you that you will get
an automatic "A" if you promise not to
come to school.

You make your teacher cry more than twice.

The wooden paddle in the teacher's
desk is shaped like your butt.

When every sport played at school is
considered a contact sport whenever
you play, especially golf and baseball.

Your name is frequently brought up a
P.T.A. meetings, along with the words
"fight", "knives" and "weed eater".

You are the frequent subject in other
people's therapy.

_____________________________________________________

4.) COOL-BIZ SITE
________________

Business Nation

Business Nation is a Business Directory site with a whole
bunch of information for businesses and even specific
local information for your area.

<http://www.businessnation.com/localinfo/>

______________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________

6.) HOT BIZ TIP
__________

"Special Characters"

==============================================

Add special characters to enliven your communications, such
as email, with ease. Just follow these simple steps, and use
whatever code you desire. It's a very cool way to create a stir
amongst your friends. "Hey, how'd you do that?!" It's a secret,
of course. <smile>

Special characters are created by pressing certain number
combinations on the numeric keyboard in conjunction with the
Alt key. For example, holding down Alt and pressing "0169"
(without the quotes) will yield the copyright symbol: ©.

The symbol is not created until you've pressed the last
numeric key! So, while holding down the Alt key, press zero,
one, six, nine, and voila! You'll see the copyright symbol "©"
appear.

I'm going to give you a whole list of characters to play with
and their codes in just a minute. First, one more interesting
point.

If you select a font other than Arial, Courier New, or Times
New Roman, you'll get even more options. You may have
noticed there are two additional fonts in Windows that are
kind of interesting. "Wingdings" and "Symbol." Let's say you're
using Word or WordPerfect. Change the font to Wingdings.
Then type the codes, and you'll see a totally new way of
expressing yourself.

The code is called the "ANSI character set" by techies. ANSI
stands for American National Standards Institute. Yea, it's
exciting stuff!

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7.) WORD FROM THE EDITOR
_________________

We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the
Online Exchange E-zine.
We would like to welcome all of our New Subscribers.

Baseball is now over for my 6 year old.
By the way...his team won, came in 3rd place
in the league, and are now the Division C Champions
of Broward County. It was a very exciting season.
Well, now that 5 nights a week of baseball is over,
my son tells me he is bored. What's next? So,
last week we started him with Karate. I never saw
him so excited. He just loves it. My motives for
letting him try this is not as most would think.
I want him to learn Karate in order to learn
coordination, discipline, and to become more
aggressive in sports. He is far from a trouble maker
or a bully. In fact, he is too nice at times.
I don't want him to learn violence and I am not
in it for him to learn to defend himself. He
is 6 years old. At this age there is not much
to defend! Extracurricular activities with a
child is very important. It expands their minds
and teaches them various aspects of life. Plus,
what would my life be like if I were to relax
more than twice a week?

And now onto alittle business here....

Don't forget about our:
ALL NEW "Advertisement FREE", SCAMINATOR REPORT.
The information we researched over the past 30 days
would astound you! I just cannot believe how many
scams there are out there. They are all coming out
of the woodwork. I thought I have heard everything,
until I began researching scams. The amount of
hours that is put into researching scams is just
unbelievable. There are just SO many. I really
must encourage you all to subscribe to The Scaminator
Report. The information will SHOCK YOU! If you want
a Sneak Peak on what the June Issue provides, you can
do so at:
http://www.marketingtrendz.com/scaminator/sneakpeak.htm

You can also file a complaint at:
http://www.marketingtrendz.com/scaminator/complaintform.htm

Until Next Time!

Best Regards,
Debbie Solomon
editor@marketingtrendz.com

______________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________

9.) ONLINE EXCHANGE INFORMATION DATA
_____________________

PRIVACY POLICY -

ONLY subscribers who have personally and voluntarily
subscribed to this Ezine will Receive it. We are 100% Opt-In.
We will NEVER provide our subscriber list to ANYONE.
We respect the privacy of our readers.

_________________

CONTACT INFORMATION -

Editor: Debbie Solomon
Publisher: Sara Hardy
http://www.marketingtrendz.com

MarketingTrendz
1640 West Sandpiper Circle
Pembroke Pines, FL 33026

editor@marketingtrendz.com

_________________

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