Online Marketing: Spamming | What is Spam? | Statistics About Spam | How to Avoid Spam Emails

Email Spam

Return to the index of frequently asked questions about online marketing. View more about New Zealand's anti-spam legislation.

What is Email Spam?

Back in the late 1940s, spam was considered to be a staple part of the post-war diet. Fair enough, but that was (so) last century and now we've moved on to another dish, a dish best served not at all - email spam. Nowadays, spam - the junky email variety - tends to get delivered to inboxes on regular basis, but without the nutritional benefits of its namesake. Email spam is all that email from companies (or web entities) that you've never heard of offering things you don't want or need. You may be receiving spam because these companies are scrubbing the web for email addresses and found yours on a chatroom, website, customer list, newsgroup, or by way of a virus.

Avoiding The Whiff of Spam

Although it's almost impossible to be completely rid of spam, these tips can help thin out that gloop clogging up your communication arteries.

  • Only submit your email address to select websites.
  • Always check to see if a website has a privacy policy with regard to use of your email address.
  • Check the wording carefully next to permission tick-boxes.
  • Use a secondary email address (made up of an imaginary name) for online forms, subscriptions, forums, chat rooms and blogs.
  • Do not respond to spam emails, just consign them to the flames.
  • Never publish your email address on your website, use contact forms with captcha security code.
  • Set up spam or junk filtering on your email account.

Glossary

If these terms sound like a foreign language to you, please don't stew about it. You can refer to the (easy-to-understand) glossary of terms for more information.

Store Them Away

If you want to keep any pages tucked away in your online pantry of goodies, simply bookmark the relevant page in your browser by clicking:

  • 'Favourites' (if you're using Internet Explorer/IE)
  • 'Bookmarks' (if you're using Firefox).

"Easy-to-understand information about spamming and how to avoid spam emails supplied by Stephanie Kendall, search engine marketer, writer and editor."