Stomping Out Spam

Spam is an ongoing problem with any email account, but many people with their own websites are suddenly placed in the position of needing to fight spam on their own. A good web host, however, will provide you with options that should make it pretty painless for you. When I ran my own web hosting company, spam accounted for nearly 80% of all incoming emails. We successfully stopped most of it, but it took a lot of work.

There are a few options that your web hosting provider may offer for fighting spam. If you see any of these names, you can probably rest assured that they help you keep your inbox clean. Some of the software solutions include Spam Assassin, SpamHaus, and Barracuda. There are others, but these are commonly known and accepted as being good anti-spam solutions.

There are other important things you can do to lessen the possibility of spam harvesting. One is to make sure your email address is not directly listed or linked on your website. If you want your site visitors to contact you, use a contact form script or the contact form that comes with your content management system. If you must list your email address, consider using an image instead of text. This will make it more difficult for spam bots to scoop it up and pass it around to spammers. With a little diligence and forethought, you can have a relatively spam-free inbox.

Photo: Flickr