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Validating Safety of Url's

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Today I was talking to a friend of mine who was sent a URL which pointed him to malicious website which took over his facebook account. After talking to him I quickly started searching for free web tools to check urls.

I went ahead and asked a fellow colleague @kelvinlomboy in the IT Security Field to help me identify web tools that can check the Url’s safety.

After a few minutes @kelvinlomboy provided the following link to @lennyzeltser’s blog on  “Free Online Tools for Looking Up Potentially Malicious Websites”.

As an example I choose AVG Threat Labs for my personal blog RaulColon.net. Once it has verified the website it brings the following information:

  • Current Safety of Site
  • No active Threats where reported
  • Site Popularity
  • Server Location
  • Compromised Web Pages in the last 30 days.
  • Threat Types found in the last 30 days

I personally thought it was not a great free web tool.

Next time you have a question regarding an Url feel free to check out @lennyzeltser’s list or visit AVG Threat Labs. So when in doubt feel free to use the links provided for some effective tools.

Have you found any other tools that keep you safe on the Internet that you would like to share?

Photo Credit

Stay away from the Spam Trap

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Although no reputable business would use email harvesting, list buying, or uses email addresses that did not request to be opt into their communications there are many that still decide to do so.

Spam Traps are set up at many companies to limit the traffic of spam entering.

How can your emails end up being held by the Spam Trap?

According to this article named Spam Traps 101 having poor list sources, list poisoning, and list aging can get your communications held by the spam trap.

How to Avoid  the Spam Trap?

If you want to avoid falling into the spam trap feel free to browse back to the previous article 4 Ways Of Keeping Your Email List Fresh and also follow these suggestions:

  • Avoid Words like
  • Avoid Repeated Punctuation “!” and “$”
  • Run into a Grader
  • Avoid “From” Email Addresses like “mail@” & “sales@”
  • Don’t send too often

Any other suggestions on how to stay away from the Spam Trap and keep an effective distribution list?

photo credit : pandemia

 

4 Ways Of Keeping Your Email List Fresh

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Fresh Strawberries
Some businesses forget the importance in building their email distribution list in an effective and healthy way. As part of our Effective Email Marketing posts we thought it was key to start off with the importance of the Email distribution list.

In my opinion most people fail when they don’t update their email distribution lists and make sure they are fresh.

Many companies use these lists that include old and invalid email addresses. Others decide to build their lists with practices which can be even detrimental to establishing quality relationships.

These 4 factors might be might be helpful to your effort:

    100% Opt In

    Everyone on your list should have requested to be on the list or you should have gotten permission from the recipient. Sounds pretty basic but every day I see how companies fail greatly in asking for permission.

    Keep them Clean

    Keep your list clean by Offering an Option to be removed.  The Opt Out option also improves the probability of having an engaged audience that wants to listen or read your communications. This also increases the probability of your audiences or community responding to your calls to action.

    Re-Fresh

    Have users re-confirm once a year so you can also clear out emails that people no longer use.

    Don’t Buy Lists

    Buying lists can be detrimental to your effort but can also get you into a lot of trouble. If your intentions are to reach people that are interested in what you have to say make sure you build your list up with the previous factors and stay away from buying a list.

Have other tips on keeping your Email list Effective? Feel free to Share.

Photo Credit by coolmikeol

 

Effective Email Marketing

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I constantly see so many emails from local companies that decide to include me in there email distribution list without my consent I decided to do a bit of research and outline some of the key things that should happen for your email marketing to be effective.

  • Email Distribution List
  • Stay away from the Spam Trap
  • Sweeten the Deal
  • Promise and Deliver
  • Enticing Subject Lines
  • Content that converts
  • To Navigate or Not to Navigate
  • Call to Action

In the following days I will be explaining the previous points that I think can make your email marketing effort a healthy and effective one.

If you don’t want to miss each update I recommend you to subscribe to our Newsletter to get updates via Email

How do you manage your email marketing efforts? What tools do you look for?

Photo Credit: Nick Saltmarsh