I was being buried alive by spammers. I have to say I've come to dislike them very very much. They are the maggots of the Internet.

Any one else feel this way?

I was getting over 125 spams a day and it was getting worst. I found a new website that I would like to recommend to anyone having a spam problem. It is more a concept than a technical breakthrough, and in ways it is related to PPC (that's why I posted here).

The way I set it up, I require every email address not on my approved list to be "challenged"(a user can easily upload all their email addresses to their approved list) . A challenge is an email back to the sender. It offers them a choice. 1)They can open an account with the service provider and make a payment (which I determine the price of) to get their email delivered or, 2)if they are a human they can enter a squiggly to get their email delivered.

What this means is that new human contacts can still get through but the automated ones can't. Of the human contacts, if they are legitimate business they probably are doing some type of paid advertising such as pay per click already and they get a chance to send an email to an interested party for a price they would have paid to a ppc outfit anyway. if the human contact is a spammer they might decide to enter the squiggly. Well, ok so it gets through but there is a simple step on the incoming email. If I want to add the person to my approved list then one click and they are there. If I do nothing they are back to square one. Or I can block them outright.

The url of the website is boxbe.com. I am very very satisfied with it.

But there is more. I believe they will be adding the ability for an advertiser to select categories to send email to, similar to keywords in PPC. So an advertiser will be able to send emails to interested persons for a fee. I believe their system requires a person opens the email because at the root of it, Boxbe works a deal with all its email customers that Boxbe will give them 75% of the income.

The similarities with PPC are many. Obviously, click fraud can enter in. Some of the email recipients (brain dead ones anyway) might sit there every day just opening emails to ekk out a meager subsistence but I doubt if many do.

A calculation of the return on investment is crucial for an advertiser to do for both PPC and this email program. A conversion rate (how many emails to a sale) must be determined for both, etc etc.

So this Boxbe thing not only provides anti spam it doubles as an advertising platform. Feedback welcomed. (ps I am not affiliated with Boxbe, just a happy user).http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/...ewthread&f=64#
Smile

I am too. It's amazing, the people that can find your e-mail. I'm sick of all these emails designed to scam and get your money. It's also amazing some of the people fall for them. The most deceptive are the phishing emails that try to get your bank account information.

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Michael Stazko
Frisco TX Real Estate
McKinney TX Real Estate
North Texas Real Estate

Just think how I feel. I must get 25 a day trying to help me extend my pen|$, and I dont even have one.

25 a day! That's chickenfeed lol. Give it time. No, I'm not wishing that on anybody. Boxbe intercepted 500 for me in one week. I still get about ten new ones a day. I have to chuckle though because every new domain they set up costs them money. They'll run out eventually. And they must be spoofing my approved addresses when they get in and that takes labor. I think my spam battle is won.http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/...ote=1&p=85351#
Smile

I get hundreds of spam a day, just 25 or so that will help me enhance something I dont have Between the spam blocker at earthlink and Spam Bully on Outlook, I actually have very few spam that reach my inbox.

Boxbe is my first experience with a spam blocker so maybe it isn't as innovative as I thought. My problem with spam blockers is mostly theory and perception.

If I understand correctly how they work, you can set the filter as tight or as loose as you want. Set it too loose and the spam gets in; set it too tight and legitimate email gets blocked. It seems like either way you lose. Boxbe has set up a middle layer of defense that basically allows some of the blocked ones a second chance. To a user, it's just a one time couple of clicks and entry of a squiggly code. Not a major inconvenience to a first time contact.

A second option at this middle layer is that the user can send a challenge and basically say to a spammer "look, I might be interested in what you're offering but I don't want to waste my time with worseless junk. If you think your product is that likely to help me that you are willing to back it up with a little bit of cash, I'll take a look at it and get a little for my time. If your product isn't worth a few cents investment to get the message to me, well then youknow the value of your product better than I do".

It seems the big difference is antispam software is anti business but Boxbe seems more pro-business. At least with it the business gets a chance.

Do any of the other spam programs have such an innovation?

My approach is that you have to appear to be open for business. My internet presence is important to me and the past few years has generated 3-3.5M in sales per year. Everybody gets spam, even your clients. My ISP(earthlink) has a spam blocker that filters out "known spam", Spam Bully works with Outlook, which is what I use vs a web based mailbox, and learns who is in my address book and sets up white lists and black lists. I mean there are still things that get through until it gets trained against something new, but works pretty well. I'm just against having clients or potential clients be challanged and have to respond. Suck it up, and show that you are upen for business

My spam email counts are down to less than a dozen per day, of all types and for four different email addresses, and after some training on what I consider spam, my GoDaddy email catches and sends 99% of those to its spam folder. Most of the spam I do get (and it gets filtered out) is solicitations from real estate web site companies, SEO scammers and RE lead generation companies, who probably get my email address from the state RE licensee database.

The key: Two years ago I stopped putting my email address on my web sites and in forum posts in plain text, and always use an email form for user inquiries. Users who register get my email address in an initial "thank you for registering" email, and can reply to that directly.

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Ron Goodman, GRI, REALTOR®
Prudential Colorado Real Estate
Denver Colorado Real Estate and Homes for Sale,
AdWords PPC Consulting and Support for REALTORS®
Hobby: Goodman Family History and Genealogy

from RonnieG - "The key: Two years ago I stopped putting my email address on my web sites and in forum posts in plain text, and always use an email form for user inquiries."

I think you hit the nail on the head. I've been seeing that too about using a form and maybe that is how and where this Boxbe thing can fit in like another type of PPC advertising?

Just for food for thought type thing I put a non-working example of a form that could incorporate Boxbe into it at www.realestate-synergy.com/mock_feedback.php

I placed a series of different versions of bylines as possible examples but I am sure there are a lot more that could be refined from these coarse examples. What do you think? Could Boxbe be another form of Pay Per Click?

Now that was funny, thanks.

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