| LED Digest 1742: Bayesian Filtering, Email Verification, more |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ................................................ February 5, 2004 Issue #1742 ................................................ .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Losing Filtered Email ==-- ~ Veronica Yuill "I suggest you look into any of the many products now available that use Bayesian filtering to identify spam." ~ Rod Aries "Competitive intelligence on the net is a key to helping to succeed." --== Email Address Verification ==-- ~ Ian Dickson "...make access to what they want conditional on their providing a working email address." ~ Eva Rosenberg "Just have the system send them a confirmation e-mail..." ~ Martha Retallick "I don't know of any way of verifying e-mail addresses on the fly." --== Use of Sub-domains for Rankings ==-- ~ William Ernest Waites "...the two [sub-domain] sites should be searched as separate sites that link to one another." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Viewing Source Code Disabled? ==-- ~ Abu Haider ~ Robert Barrington ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Veronica Yuill Subject: Losing email > But how do you know [your email filter] is not blocking > business mail? I just do not feel confident that filters > will let through the mail that I need to run my business. - Wanda Husick, LED 1741 Wanda, I suggest you look into any of the many products now available that use Bayesian filtering to identify spam. I use Eudora, which has it built in. Bayesian filters learn from the mail *you* get what is spam and what isn't -- they don't use brain-dead "one-size-fits-all" filters. You don't need to spend any time setting up complicated conditions to filter your mail and constantly refining them as spammers change their tactics -- just let the Bayesian filter do its work and then review the mail it's identified as spam. If anything is wrongly classified, you can mark it as "not-spam" and the filter will remember in future -- likewise, any spam that wrongly ends up in your inbox can be marked as spam and sent instantly to the junk pile. Spammers are struggling to find ways around this, but it really works, and I don't lose important mail as a result. I get about 300-400 spams a day too, and 99% of them end up in the "junk" folder without any effort on my part, while "false positives" are extremely rare. It's cut the time I spend dealing with spam down to a couple of minutes a day (just quickly scan the "Junk" folder to rescue anything that shouldn't be there). I'm a big fan of getting my computer to do tedious repetitive work that I don't want to do <g>. I highly recommend this solution to anyone drowning under the tide of spam! Regards Veronica Yuill, Moderator I-Design http://www.marketingwonk.com/lists/idesign/35363/ ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Rod Aries Subject: Losing email > I just do not feel confident that filters will let > through the mail that I need to run my business. - Wanda Husick, LED 1741 I have wrestled with this very issue... we searched a multitude of possible solutions. We wanted to know if a person that I have... a) sent a proposal to has received it? b) someone who owes me money is receiving my email demand note, but ignoring me? c) when someone opens my email, if at all? d) how long they read it for (as an indication of interest)? e) if they forwarded it to anyone else? f) if you have any links in your email, did they click on a link? Which ones? How many times? g) if I attached a Word or Excel document, did they open it? h) in what city did they open it? etc. We settled on a software solution that tells us when all the above. Here is one way we use it... in one of our businesses we send our proposals upon request. We use the program to embed the hidden mode code (it can be visible also, but I seem to enjoy the stealth mode where I can voyeur their interest in my email). Sometimes you can tell the sophistication of the recipient by factors such as which operating system (ie a Windows 95 user could be scary) they use and how long they took to open an email. Also for people who hide behind a Hotmail account, we can sometimes tell what city they are in. Here is an example of the report I receive: ------------------------ Opened at apparent address of: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Opened 11-Jan-04 at 17:00:07pm (UTC -7:00) - 42mins12secs after sending Location Marlborough, Massachusetts, United States (99% likelihood) Language of recipient's PC: en-us (English/United States) Browser used by recipient: Moz/4.0 (MSIE 6.0; Win98; Win 9x 4.90) Accepts Files browser can open: */*,i/gif, i/jpeg, i/pjpeg, ap/msword, ap/vnd.ms-powerpoint, ap/vnd.ms-excel, ap/x-gsarcade-launch, ap/x-shockwave-flash, */* Forwarded email Closed Reader closed your email at 11-Jan-04 at 17:02:23pm (UTC -7:00) - read for 2mins16secs ------------------------ As you can see the recipient is in Mass, opened my email in less than 1 hour, uses MSIE 6.0, Win98 and read my email for 2mins16secs. I also found that over the course of several days that the email was opened 5 times by the recipient reader and forwarded to two other readers. The recipient had 5 opening occasions account for 10mins 29secs total opening time. I also can see that the person it was referred to opened the email as well. This tells me that he is probably interested in the proposal I sent him. And, based on this info, I contact this person before I contact other potential clients. I emailed my accountant a complex question and then when talking to her, I mentioned that she opened my email just after lunch, but only read my email for 24 seconds, but that she did click on the link in the body of the email. She asked how I knew... and then argued about it, and then bought it as a tool for her practice. Competitive intelligence on the net is a key to helping to succeed. I have spent hours and hours testing numerous software programs that claim to do all the above, but have settled on one program (which we now resell see - http://www.clicksofthetrade.com there is a free testing period - and the commission we earn if far less than the time it took me to write this email ) - this program notifies me of all the above. Anyways, that is the culmination of a fair amount of research we did and how we resolved the problem... At your service, Rod Aries How To Internet Your Business http://www.howtointernet.com/?email ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Ian Dickson Subject: Email verification > Is there a method of verifying the email address on the fly...? - Andy Johnson, LED 1740 We think that the answer is no, you cannot. If anyone knows different, we'd love to know:-) One option that might suit you is to make access to what they want conditional on their providing a working email address. EG - "we will email you the link to the download page". That way you at least get an email address that is valid. Ian Dickson www.commkit.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Eva Rosenberg Subject: Email verification Frankly, I don't believe that's necessary. Just have the system send them a confirmation e-mail with a download address. If the e-mail doesn't go to a real address, they simply won't be able to download the software you went to so much time and expense to develop. A real customer won't mind the extra step. Someone just taking advantage of you will. It will cut down on your server drain - and you won't have to dream up ways to find , buy or develop software to ward them off. Best wishes, Eva Rosenberg, MBA, EA http://www.taxmama.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Martha Retallick Subject: Email verification Sorry, I don't know of any way of verifying e-mail addresses on the fly. I used to have a "download this e-book for free" page on one of my websites. Trouble was, I got a lot of freebie-hunters who would lie about everything, including their e-mail, just to get my e-book. So, I took down that page. And my server logs show that people STILL try to go there! If I were to do the above again, I would find some way of pre-qualifying website visitors, and only send my free information to the hottest of prospects. Martha Retallick "The Passionate Postcarder" http://www.passionatepostcarder.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: William Ernest Waites Subject: Sub-domain rankings > If I link one domain to another like they > are part of the same website will I run afoul? - Wand Husick, LED 1741 Having done this, I believe it is possible to achieve without encountering the enmity of the search engine. It is critical to have enough difference between the sites that they are not perceived as mirror sites. It also helps to have the second site hosted by a different ISP. And it helps to have the "Whois" reflect a different registered holder. Under the above circumstances, the two sites should be searched as simply separate sites that link to one another. No different than reciprocal links between you and another company related to your business. BTW, do you currently have a high position in the search engines that you would jeopardize? If not, what is the risk? William Ernest Waites Eyewriter ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Abu Haider Subject: Viewing source > For some reason I can no longer view HTML > source code in either Outlook or Explorer. - Charles Hiatt, LED 1739 > This is usually due to your browser cache being full. - Bryan W. Shea, LED 1740 The actual problem is with the size of the local cache. IE6 by default allocates a very large storage for temporary internet files. If you reduce this to about 15MB, the problem will go away. Abu Haider ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Robert Barrington Subject: Viewing source Use Mozilla. Robert Barrington ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth which it prevents you from achieving." - Russell Green |
