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After visiting my friend Dave Cotrell's forum about the cough that can kill you ( http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShowPost.aspx?PostID=313418 ), I got to thinking about all of the email that floats around, and how some people can get caught up in someone elses spam.
This is something I've tried to educate my family and friends on...
When you send out email to multiple recipients, DO NOT CC (carbon copy) everyone. When you CC everyone in your address book, every single person who receives your email has now been given access to everyone elses email address. You have given your whole list of people the private contact information of each person you CC'd that message to.
Think of it like giving out someone's phone number without permission. I am sure that you are not freely giving out Aunt Sally's phone number to just anyone, so should you not be giving out email addresses either.
To avoid making others' email addresses public, send the message BC, or Blind Copy. That hides all of the email addresses from each recipient. Then use an alternate email address of your own, as the TO: address. That protects everyone on your personal mailing lst.
NEVER USE THE FORWARD FUNCTION, unless you are reporting abuse to an ISP, or PayPal. If you want to pass something along to one or more people, copy and paste the message you want to pass on, into a new email message, and BC everyone you want to send it to. This protects your list members, AND it gets rid of all of the previous forwarding information.
Never open attachments, no matter who they come from, unless you can scan them with your own AVP first.
The problem with email attachments is that they are easily hijacked while in transit. You may not be aware of this, but you email message does not go straight from your mailbox to the intended party. Email messages make pit stops along the way, much the same way snail mail stops at multiple post offices along the way to your mail box. During this travel, attachments can be infected. This is also a good reason why you shouldn't send attachments either. Even if your attachment is virus free when it leaves your mail client, there is no guarantee that it will remain pure. If your email message arrives and has become infected, and isn't scanned first by the recipient, your friend could end up with a nasty and blame you for giving it to them.
If you are the type that passes along every funny thing you receive, you may be driving your friends crazy! I know that I do not have time to read a mailbox full of cute quips and daily funnies. Most people who are online as business people don't either.
You can think, well if they don't have time to read them, they can just delete them. But, guess what? That takes (wastes) time too.
Along those lines, here is another something to think about... How much of your own time do you waste sending these things to others? Wouldn't you be better off spending that time working your business?
If you were required to pay postage, like with snail mail, I bet you'd never send a single one. That would be like clipping the comics from the Sunday paper, copying it and mailing it to everyone you know at .39c a pop.
It is easy to abuse something that is free, and be blinded to that abuse because of your own feelings of good intentions.
Do you send advertisements to your family and friends? If you're like the average person, you probably don't. So why do so many people think it is okay to send advertisements to people on their friends list here?
Personally, I joined this community to get to know people, not to have an additional stream of spam in my mailbox. I'd like to learn about the different businesses that everyone here is involved in, but in a conversational setting, not by receiving classified ads and sales letters.
When you send me an ad to my email address, whether it is directly sent, or through the ALP mailer, all that tells me is that you're not interested in being my friend, you're just trying to sell me something. That is no way to network. Network marketing is not about sending sales pitches, it is about establishing relationships, and allowing someone to ask about your business.
My Two cents...
Trina
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