Living with SPAM
Sunday, December 13, 2009
by Maria
How to deal with SPAM email
SPAM is now a part of daily work and home life and there are a
couple of ways to manage it, but they have their drawbacks.
There is no magic answer that will deal with SPAM that doesn't
impact you or your customers, but here are two options:
1. Obfuscate email address within the
website.
Obfuscate means to make obscure or unclear (I had to look it
up). BUT the options available to obfuscate an email address
in a website all impose restrictions on the user experience (this
is a bad thing to do).
Two ways of obfuscating email addresses are:
Option 1. Put the email address into an image.
SPAM-bots will have a hard time scanning an image, but it
forces the user to do something more than
click.
Option 2. Another option is to use a contact us
form. I personally don't like to use contact forms when I
visit a website, and I feel this is common for many web-users.
2. Living With SPAM
If you leave your email address in your website as a clickable
link you will be spammed, but it can be managed. Anti-SPAM
software and the Junk email folder in Outlook can help you to
manage your SPAM.
Treat it as an everyday necessary chore - like changing your
underwear. You don't even think about changing your underwear
and it feels great when it's done (the consequences of not doing it
- yuck!).
Users perceive an email address as a sign of trustworthiness and
security. Providing a real email address gives your website more
credibility with potential customers - which is an invaluable,
intrinsic asset for your business.
