Here’s a scenario we’ve probably all experienced:  you craft a well-worded business email message, fire it off to the recipient, and then you get no response at all.  You may even wait a couple days.  Finally you call the person, only to discover your message had been placed in their junk box, identified as spam.

We’ve all had that happen, right?

As spam continues to be a growing problem, spam filters are working overtime to stay ahead of the curve–or at least play catch up.  And that can sometimes lead to periods where honest-to-goodness business emails get falsely labeled as spam.

We get asked all the time how one can go about ensuring their messages are delivered properly and not sent to junk folders, and the truth is that there’s no way to guarantee an email message’s delivery.  However, there are several things you can be mindful of that can help cut down on your emails being falsely accused.

Here now is the Keystone list of tips and tricks to help avoid seeing your messages incorrectly identified as spam:

• Don’t send spam. A bit of an obvious start, I know, but make sure you’re not sending spam messages.
• Don’t send “forwards.” Everyone has that one crazy uncle who keeps sending email forwards–you know those chain-type emails that suggest you “send this to everyone you know right now”?  Yeah, don’t send those.  Many are harmless, such as the cute-animal pictures I get from my mother every week.  But a lot of users are annoyed by such messages, and choose to mark them as unwanted spam.  Once enough recipients declare the message as spam, then you have a problem.
• Watch the number of CC’s. Putting 1000 email addresses in the CC line is one of the biggest red flags you can raise about the contents of your message.  Most spammers send their garbage to huge numbers of recipients, and many still use the rudimentary method of multiple CC’s.  Professional (and legal) email marketing programs are super cheap, and there are a ton of options to choose from.  These programs send messages one at a time, instead of en masse, and help you clear this major hurdle in your efforts to not be spam.
• Use a professional email domain. Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts are great for personal email.  They’re free and super easy to use.  But they’re not for businesses.  Buy a domain name (they’re pretty cheap these days) and set up your office email on that domain.  Hotmail, Yahoo, and other free web-mail accounts are much more likely to be blocked as spam.
• Avoid common spam words. What are the spam messages you receive usually about?  Medications, gambling, mortgage rates… right?   Avoid using these words in your message and subject lines whenever possible.  Avoid using similar or related terms.  Many spam filters are based on content, and using these “danger words” can get your message sent to the junk folder faster than you can say “cheap prescription drugs.”  Tough break for you mortgage lenders, I guess.  Just seems to be a topic the spammers are fond of.
• Avoid overdoing punctuation and capitalization. Even though you’re really excited about your message, try and avoid using 15 exclamation points in the first paragraph.  And don’t use all caps either.  These are common things the spammers do to try and grab attention, so you’re only making yourself look more shady.
• Follow the legal guidelines. There are rules and regulations, set forth by Congress, that govern what email marketing messages need to do to avoid being spam.  So once you’re finally on board with the concept of using email marketing instead of just mass-forwarding something to all your clients, you need to pay attention to these rules.  Mostly they dictate who you can send messages to and what that message needs to look like.  You have to obtain email addresses through your normal course of doing business–you can’t just send your marketing to anyone you like.  You also have to have a physical street address in the footer of email marketing messages.  These rules are crucial to follow; once one of your recipients reports your messages as being in violation of spam laws, you’re toast.
• Use multiple email addresses. Use a business email for business needs, and keep a separate email account for personal use.  Then you can use the personal account to send pretty Grand Canyon photos to your entire extended family and not risk the business account being labeled as spam.
• Know your domain’s email users. If you work with Bob, and both you and Bob have work emails at your business’ domain name (for example, bob@mybusiness.com), then make sure you’re all in the loop on what is and is not acceptable email use.  If Bob ignores the rules and sends a message about Texas Hold ‘Em Poker to a thousand people in the CC line… he’s probably going to be flagged as spam.  Then, future messages from other users on that same domain (like you, for instance) will also see an increase in messages labeled as spam.  Guilt by association.  So make sure your company has uniform email policies that everyone in the office is following.
• Get white-listed with crucial business partners. White-listing is the process of telling the spam filter which email addresses you definitely want to receive mail from no matter what they contain.  If you have partnerships with other businesses–people you’re sending email to on a regular or daily basis–make sure you have them white-list your email address.  White-listing will override most of the above-mentioned common spam identification methods and ensure your emails always get through to that person.

So there you go.  There will always be exceptions, of course.  Spam-blocking is an always-evolving endeavor, and the filters are changing and improving their methods all the time.  But by following these simple rules and guidelines, you’ll see fewer of your messages go to the recipient’s spam filter.  Good luck, and happy emailing!

Customers and friends,

On Friday, October 10th, our website hosting server suffered a malicious attack. Initially, fewer than 25% of the sites we host were affected. Since the attack, we’ve been busy cleaning up the residual effects.

On Wednesday, October 15th, just as it appeared things were returning to normal, Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) began performing erratically. A few sites that previously had escaped the problems described were not available. Some of the sites we had finally repaired would not start. Later in the evening, IIS went into a tailspin and has performed erratically ever since.

We have most sites up and running. There are exceptions and we’re working to resolve them.

Currently, we are confident that all data on the server is still safe and will work once we’ve restored the operation of the server. We utilize a system that makes multiple copies of our/your data each day, so we’re able to go back to older copies that existed before problems began. 

At the moment, we’re implementing our disaster recovery plan and hope to have your site (and all others) running normally as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience during this difficult time. If you have a question, please feel free to email me and I’ll respond as quickly as possible. Otherwise, continue to come back to this page for updates.

In the meantime, we’ve setup an FAQ page to answer some of the questions we know you’ll have. Additionally, we will send out updates via email. Click here to join the update list.

Thank you for your patience and loyalty to us. We truly appreciate it.

All the best,
Eric Jackson
Managing Partner

A new study shows that using Google, Yahoo, and other online search engines is actually quite good for your brain.  Who knew?

They basically tested search-savvy people versus folks who aren’t all that Internet-inclined, and found that the savvier users had twice as much “neural activation.”  That’s a fancy way of saying their brain was more stimulated.

So, presumably, the more you use search engines… the more that use will trigger brain activity.  If you’re scared of search engines and the Internet in general, then using them doesn’t do much for your mind.

And here I thought they were going to say that Googling makes you smarter because of all the great information you can access via search engines.  Shows you what I know.  Guess I need to Google more.

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Newsflash:  some schoolchildren cheat on their tests.

I know, I know… we thought we’d beaten cheating by banning cell phones during class, right?  Well, just because you take the tech away during the test doesn’t mean they aren’t using tech to help beat that exam.

Apparently it’s quite the craze for teens to share cheating techniques through YouTube videos.  See this example… or this one.

Both of those examples look like more effort than simply studying, but what do I know?

There are countless others on the video-sharing site.  While it may be tempting to panic and decry the decay of civilization over the fact that “Youtube is helping children cheat,” think about it this way:  teachers now have a handy database of video demonstrations on all the latest cheating methods they should watch out for.  If I’m a middle school or high school teacher… this news is the best thing I’ve heard in years.  I now have an insider’s perspective.

It’s just another example of these rapidly-emerging technologies impacting our day-to-day lives in unexpected ways.  Students have been crafting clever ways to cheat for hundreds of years, and they will be doing so for another hundred.  Thanks to the open and neutral nature of the web, though, this new wrinkle means teachers are learning right along with prospective cheaters.

In honor of their 10th anniversary, Google has released a fun little nugget:  their search engine as it was in 2001.

The logo is the 2001 version.  And the search results are the same as they were in January 2001.  Try searching something recent like “Palin” or “Wii” or “iPhone.”

Oh, and Google partnered with the Internet Archive (also known as the Way Back Machine) to make all the links point to the actual 2001 versions of the web page.  So you can search by brand name using this thing and see what major companies’ websites looked like 7 years ago.

It’s terribly fun seeing how far we’ve come and how much has become commonplace that simply wasn’t on the radar back then.

I don’t think this will last forever, so enjoy it while you can.