I started to post some information about spam filters, but it got so long I just decided to make it an article on the site: Is Your Spam Filter Costing You Money?  I have noticed that a lot of people have some pretty harsh settings on their spam filter that is probably causing them to miss legitimate e-mails from potential clients. 

It seems Earthlink has a spam setting that refuses ALL incoming e-mails if they are not in the recipient's address book or on a special "white list".  Earthlink isn't the only ISP offering this, but it seems to be the most used.

When an e-mail is received from a sender who has not been pre-approved the e-mail is temporarily blocked and the sender gets an auto-reply asking them to fill out a form to be added to the recipient's approved list. Out of 5,000 e-mails that we sent to those listed in our directory, several hundred were apparently blocked by this anti-spam setting.  We are attempting to have all of the directory information verified and those that do not update or verify their information run the risk of being removed.  We are not going to take the time to fill out all of those pesky forms.  If we aren't going to... are your clients? Or, potentially new clients contacting you for the first time?

I suspect many people may not even know that they have this set up.  They are probably unaware that they aren't receiving the e-mails.  All they know is they aren't getting any more spam.  However, they are probably missing a lot of legitimate e-mails too.

So... I wrote a basic article explaining various spam filters and how they work.  You have to understand that if you are using e-mail to conduct business. Otherwise, if may be costing you money!

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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