I hate spam emails and I need your help

Please help me… send you… my weekly email messages and stay out of spam detention. I hate spam email.

Sending you a simple weekly email, to alert you about my newest blog post, is getting difficult. I will outline how you can help me send my email later.

Let me explain the problem

I have been told numerous times that subscribers either get my email in their spam folder or don’t get my message at all, because somehow the messages were blocked. Maybe, somehow, some computer on the internet has (may have) decided that my weekly email messages are spam. Not all of them of course, maybe only a few, but how would I know? Maybe only half of them get through? With your help maybe I can find out how big the problem might be. Your actions will not only tell me how big the problem is but will also be the fix for the problem.

How do I know that there is a problem?

A few of you have subscribed numerous times. Almost daily my subscriber list turns up repeat subscriptions. I first thought it might be my fault or maybe that the person may have forgotten that they subscribed. Now I am suspicious that even though they may have subscribed, my weekly emails don’t get through to them, so they think that I didn’t include them on the email list.

Non-human subscribers?

I am also suspicious that I may have non-human subscribers. No not dogs, but rather, perhaps some of my subscribers are computers. The internet is a strange place. I also told you about deleting about twenty spam comments every day. Most of them are not written in English. I am certain that some (perhaps most) of these comments are not human.

Some of my “statistics” indicate that most of my emails are making it to my subscribers. Each week I get a jump in hits on the new article after I send out the weekly email. Then people click on the link and my views of the new article show an immediate increase. This means that I have very faithful subscribers who are interested in our stories. Most spam emails never get opened and these spammers would be envious to have such success. Legitimate email marketers would also be envious of my success.

Perhaps I am worried about the wrong thing. Most of my stories are very successful and I get to connect with new people every day. I am proud of the results and humbled by the success.

No more spam email

Thankfully, with good reason, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo block emails that are spam. My inbox proves every day, that they let people, I have never heard of, send me plenty of garbage, that I don’t care about.

I never want to be a spammer but sending a normal email is getting tricky especially since I don’t know what I am doing. My emails are only sent to subscribers. Even when I get a comment, I ask before I put them on the email list.

Google is watching

It sounds creepy. If you are on the internet then Google is watching what you do. It is just a fact that we live with. Google knows if you are naughty or nice. Unlike Santa however, Google doesn’t care much about that. Or maybe they do care, but are doing a good job hiding their agenda to rule the world. Creepy.

Spam triggers

As you know my emails are sent from my Gmail account. I can’t even describe Gmail in an email about them because Google thinks that the words in my description of them include spammy words. If you put too many spammy words in a message then it gets blocked.

As you probably know I have nothing to S..e..L! I misspelled the word intentionally and included the dots because it is a spam-filter-sensitive word.  If you have any doubts, here is a search on Google for spam filter words. I don’t intentionally include these words in my articles let alone my emails.

Google also thinks that short emails with pictures and links are a spam indicator. That is what I do!!! Am I doomed?

Google even thinks that emails that are long are spammy. The bold text is spammy. Too many colors… spammy.

What can you do to help me?  

• Please open my emails (promptly). If you don’t open the email then Google thinks that the email was spam. Remember Google is watching.
• Please reply to my emails!!! In the email. If I get the reply (assuming Google doesn’t think the reply is spam) then I will know that I am sending an email to a real person. I will then reply to your email and this creates a conversation. I will love it and Google will like it.  You don’t have to say much, even “thanks” is enough to establish the conversation. You don’t have to reply to every email but let me know you are human and this will help a lot. If you reply you won’t get more email “alerts” from me, just an occasional conversation.
• When you reply, then I will put your reply in the comments, if it seems appropriate…especially if it is witty.
• Click on the link in the email. Google thinks if you engage with the email, then it must be a real person responding to the email. Computers could also do this so it isn’t as good as replying but it is the reason I send the email in the first place.
• Put my email address in your contact list. Sometimes this doesn’t work but it is worth a try.
• If you know something about this email stuff, please let me know. The entire purpose of my blog is to help people. I assume that you will assist me. I will love it. 
• This next suggestion causes me some pain. If you don’t want my weekly emails, then reply and tell me and I will remove you from the email list.  I will be sorry to see you leave but, it will shorten my list and I won’t like it but Google will. 
• Don’t filter my emails to your spam folder. Just ask and I will remove your email address from the list. When an email is put in the spam folder it is a signal that the person sending it is a spammer.
• Put my email address on your safe list. (I don’t know how you can do this — every email program is different). 
• If you find my emails in your spam folder, please move them to your inbox and mark them as safe. 

How can you help me with my blog?

• Hang around a while before you click away. Google thinks the information isn’t valuable if you click away after a few seconds. If you hang around, then Google thinks that you like it.
• Click on the links in my blog. Here is one of my previous funny posts about spam. Humor from Spam

What I will do?

• If I don’t get some indication that you want to be included in the subscriber list, then I will gradually exclude you from future emails. This will be painful.  (This does not apply to family members; you are on the list forever. The only way for you to get off the list is to eliminate your email account.) 
• If I get rejected emails from your server (it happens multiple times every week) then I will take you off the email list.
• I am probably going to merge your first names and maybe other first names into my email messages. I will put the other first names in a thank you message. This will ensure that all of my emails are not exactly the same. Even though this is trickery, it is easy to accomplish, during the sending process Google seems to like it. It will probably work until it doesn’t work.
• I will also exclude people with suspicious names or email addresses.  xtrahary.m.4.3.2.1.x.y.z@los.ru (who does that)?  Spammers! Yes, I get multiple subscribers with crazy unusable email addresses.

About Facebook

As a side note, I love that some of you also follow us on Facebook.  Facebook has its issues, including the one that even if you follow, they don’t always send you to my page every time I post something. 

The fact is, Facebook only sends followers to posts less than 30% of the time. This of course is a guess and applies to every “following” on Facebook, not just me.  Thus, my emails are more reliable alerts to our newest stories than following us on Facebook. 

I never focused on Facebook because Facebook owns and controls everything on Facebook. They can delete everything without notice or reason. I am glad my subscriber list is much bigger than my Facebook followers list. Still, I appreciate all my Facebook followers.

Here is how you can help me communicate with you on Facebook.

• If you only follow on Facebook, please also subscribe to the blog so I can include you in my weekly email. 
• If you subscribe to the blog, please also follow us on Facebook. All three of us will like that (me, Facebook, and Google). 
• When you see us on Facebook and there is a link… follow it. Even if you have already seen the pretty pictures in that story before. All three of us will like that (me, Facebook, and Google). 

What can you do to protect yourself from spam?

One of the things that I do is try to get all my spam emails into one separate account. I use that email address for things like campground reservations and other stuff that I need to do. Everybody wants an email address and some of the people that take it don’t treat it with respect. Some even sell it. This is something that I won’t do with your email address. It is between me and you.

Don’t unsubscribe to spammer emails; this tells the spammer that you are a live body and it won’t work spammers don’t play by the rules here is an article from Google that teaches you how to block spam emails. Block or unsubscribe from emails

Thank you for all your support it is very encouraging.   

Here is the mandatory bear picture.

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About our links

As you know, our blog income is zero – this allows us to be independent and just tell the truth.  We do not get income or commissions. No, we don’t make paid endorsements.  We don’t (usually) make recommendations; instead, we will tell you what we like (or dislike). The links are only provided as a quick reference to help our readers.

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About Comments

We love seeing your comments but they are not automatic. I get about twenty spam comments every day and thus I have to turn off automatic comments. I read and then publish every comment personally to protect the blog and keep it on the subject and real. So what this means for you is that you will not see your comment right after you hit submit. Sorry for the delay in publishing your comments. Please know that we love hearing from you.