Internet Content Filtering

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A common problem with filters is the fact that they are
a one-size-fits all solution to SPAM. The rules are concrete
and only change based on input from updates from the Anti-spam
service.

SPAM changes too quickly to make that method effective.
Additionally, what is SPAM to you may not be to someone else.
That is where Bayesian filters come in.

They are very effective at eliminating SPAM and have
very low false-positive rates for their users.

Bayesian filters are based on Bayesian logic, a branch
of logic named for Thomas Bayes, an eighteenth century
Mathematician.

This type of logic applies to decision making by
determining the probability of a certain event based on the
history of past events.

Using this as a model seemed a logical step for SPAM
filtering. If you can predict what SPAM will look like now
based on what is has looked like in the past, you are halfway to
the solution.

To finish solving the problem, Bayesian filters were
developed to be dynamic and continue to be effective as the SPAM
changes.

Bayesian filters are content based. They look for
characteristics in each email that you receive and calculate the
probability of it actually being SPAM.

These characteristics are generally words in the content
and the header file information that each email contains. They
can also include common SPAM HTML code, word pairs, phrases, and
the location of a phrase in the body of the email.

Typical words in SPAM would be “Free” and “Win”, while
“humility” would probably not appear. The filter begins with a
50% neutral score for the email, and then adds points for SPAM
characteristics.

Likewise, deductions are made for non-SPAM characteristics
present. The total score is calculated and then action is taken
based on its likelihood of being SPAM.

The filter does not assume that all arriving email is
bad, rather that all email is neutral and should be considered
equally.

Bayesian filters are better than traditional content
scoring filters in that they are trained by you to recognize
your email.

A doctor, for example, might have many emails
legitimately using the word “Viagra”. A traditional content
scoring filter would probably shoot that email to the SPAM
folder, or delete it.

This would result in a high false-positive rate for the
doctor, even if you don’t want Viagra emails. The filter will
build a list based on the doctors email use and corrections to
incorrectly marked email.

The initial training period may be a little time consuming,
but once complete offers a tailored solution to SPAM
control for each user.

In addition to protecting the good email, the filter makes
it difficult for Spammers to trick as every filter will have
individual requirements.

That being said, Spammers do have a few weapons in their
arsenal to attempt to circumvent Bayesian filters. The easiest
would be to create SPAM that looks like an everyday letter.

This would remove their ability to use typical marketing
techniques and so is not as likely with normal commercial email.
For the purveyors of fraud, however, this would be easier.

Spammers could also so weight a message with a common
good word, or distort the bad ones, that it becomes scored as
neutral or lower and get through.

Once correctly marked as SPAM by you, though, the filter
will adjust and not be fooled again. This automation and
ability of the software to grow as you and SPAM change over time
is key to the significance of these types of filters.

Widespread use of good Bayesian filters will not only
eliminate SPAM on your end, but would reduce the practice of
Spamming altogether. If they cannot get the mail through, they
are just wasting their time.

About the Author

Debbie Hamstead is the webmaster of http://www.StompingOutSPAM.com
Offering a comprehensive Quick Start Guide to keeping SPAM out
of your inbox. She also manages http://www.nichesites4profit.com

Learn How to Protect Your Family from the Worst of the Web!

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A
whole bunch of ezines you send to your subscribers are being
trashed. Filtering software has been spreading like wildfire
from ISP to ISP. The decisions these programs make are beyond
your control. The question is, “Are you out of business?”
1049 words; 6.2K
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Thanks for listening!

Bob
_______________________________

SPAM FILTERS ARE CRIPPLING EZINES
By Bob McElwain

The growing use of software to filter incoming email to
an ISP has added an unanswerable question: How many subscribers
receive your ezine? For several years now, I’ve ignored
subscriber list totals. The data is fuzzy when you look
at numbers held, numbers not delivered, and so forth. I track
only the number of successful deliveries. However, this number
is now much less meaningful.

Many (most?) ISPs have installed email filters to block spam
and that other stuff I can’t mention for fear of being blocked.
If those filters bounced back to the mailing service, the
addresses could be eliminated. Most are only trashed into the
big black hole of cyberspace. So there’s no telling how many
don’t get through.

Some are bounced back to me personally. Unfortunately, no
email address is provided, so I can’t remove it from my list.
I get a particular hoot out of this, when they’ve blocked my
newsletter, calling it spam. I wonder what they’re calling
the stuff they send to me.

Moral Irresponsibility In Action

Such software is a great example of irresponsibility in
action. And the lack of ethics and morality of which we see
far too much. The ‘gods’ (programmers?) have decreed we’re
at the mercy of computer algorithms which are primitive at best.

Analyzing the meaning of a statement in English with a
computer is still in its infancy, even though many powerful
minds have been working at it for many years. Current
software assumes related problems have been resolved, which
is absurd.

Here’s What Has Happened To Me

Beginning in November in 2001, I began to notice a fall off
in responses to “STAT News.” Both to ads, and comments emailed
to me. I didn’t pay much attention at first, for things like
this fluctuate.

But I did check seriously in December. Definitely down in
both areas. During January and February, I was pretty much out
of things due to some heavy surgery. I didn’t really get back
up to speed until March. By then, the downtrend in the response
rate over November last year was very noticeable. Certainly in
excess of 15% by any measure.

Blocking Software To The Rescue?

By March, it was also clear spam blocking software was the
current rage. I believe this accounts for the drop in response
I have seen. Here’s why.

Email response to the newsletter dropped by the same
percentage as ad response. I track ad response accurately with
software. So the only place for error in making this statement
is in misjudging email response. My answer to that was to check
trash and count. The percentages were almost identical,
although there’s not enough data to be certain.

If only ad response had dropped off, I’d have decided I
needed new ads. But when both dropped by the same percentage,
I had to charge it off to the spam filters.

An Up Close And Personal Experience

My ISP installed a filtering package along about April of
this year. I was “automatically” enrolled. This meant I got
to visit the site and look at the blocked mail. Much more
time consuming than doing so in my mailing program. Curious,
however, I let it run for a time.

Surprise! Over a 9 day period, I found almost 30 messages
from acquaintances, friends, peers, visitors, and subscribers
blocked. Beyond notifying them that it happened, I was
completely unable to say why. My hunch was, and remains,
inadequate computing routines. Or inadequate programmers
creating them.

When I’d had enough, I turned the filters off. Guess I
should be thankful I had that option. Shoot, some folks that
mean a lot to me, only write a couple times a year. And I sure
don’t want to miss these messages.

Another List

I maintain a mailing list of people to whom I send my
articles each week. In one mailing, about half a dozen were
sent back to me from AOL. Reason: Invalid DNS pointers.
Gee. I wonder how visitors are reaching my site.

As mentioned, most of the mail filtered out is simply
trashed. So there’s no way to get a handle on this problem.
I’d willingly delete email addresses, if they were returned to
me. But if these packages wanted to play fair, they’d bounce
to my mail list server. But being fair is not their objective.

Alternatives

Many have decided to send only a brief message that points
to a URL for an HTML version of the ezine. This won’t work for
all subscribers. Many don’t want to move from handling email
to jump onto the Web. Page views will demonstrate wether or
not this is so for you.

Another plan is to refer to an autoresponder for a copy of
the current issue. I don’t see how this helps, for the content
mailed will have to get through the same filter your newsletter
would have faced directly.

Further, both ideas fail when the filtering catches
something in the headers it doesn’t like. As with AOL claiming
my DNS pointers were flawed. Or a blacklisted IP address. How
to beat such happenings is totally beyond me.

A Possible Maybe

I know many don’t like attachments, but here’s a thought.
Send a message which has no content. Just identify the
newsletter in the subject field by name. (It has been suggested
we use our full name in the From field, but I’ve been doing this
routinely.)

Let the message contain only the URL to your HTML version.
And include a .TXT version as an attachment. A click will load
it to an editor on most systems. Again, though, if the
“obscene” content is in the header, the message won’t go
through.

My Plan

I see no better alternative than to continue to grow my list
and mail to it. I’ll simply have to factor in a number for
those arbitrarily trashed. If those into this kind of thing
come up with a number, my hunch is that it will be about 25%.

When I adjust my email and ad response by 25%, the numbers
agree with those in pervious years. Not fact, of course. But
suggestive.

Whatever this number proves to be, I’ll live with it.
And seek to be content with the percentage delivered.

About the Author

Bob McElwain, author of “Your Path To Success” and
“Secrets To A Really Successful Website.” For
info, see

Learn How to Protect Your Family from the Worst of the Web!

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There are some things that you can do to make your online experience a little bit easier. There are some ways to keep spam from ruining your day. Spam filters are one of those things.

Spam filters are an extremely successful way of managing or stopping unwanted emails, but occasionally they can work too well. While they can act very vigorously to keep your inbox from receiving spam, they can also prevent you from getting many of your wanted emails as well.

Some of the worst filter based systems for blocking spam are provided by your very own ISP. This can be a huge problem since these types of spam filters do not let you control which emails you can let through.

Essentially, these spam filters look for usual keywords and phrases like guaranteed, free, buy and so on. Once these systems recognize those key words, it will automatically prevent those senders from sending you emails again. That can be very frustrating if such a keyword is used by your friend or family member to describe the reason they are emailing you in the first place.

If you plan to use this type of method for spam prevention, you should get the type of spam filter that allows you to control what content is allowed and what should be deleted.

Do not be fooled by the “smarter filters” that are coming on the market since while they do get smarter over time and work especially well at preventing spam, they are very difficult for the average internet user to set up and use on a regular basis. So if you are not particularly tech-savvy, you should avoid these systems.

About the author:

Visit Stop Spam Center for the latest news and information about how to block spam.

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Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

The importance of RSS for marketing can no longer be disputed, but do we really understand all the benefits RSS brings to us as marketers, or really understand why we need to use it to get closer to our customers?

WHAT RSS WILL DO FOR YOU AS A MARKETER?

a] Get your content delivered without fail to all of your subscribers.

E-mail delivery rates are dropping, spam is everywhere and it’s getting increasingly difficult to get our marketing content read by our subscribers, prospects and customers. RSS is the way out.

b] Increase your web traffic and your online visibility.

With more and more sites competing for business every day, you need to do everything in your power to increase your online traffic, and RSS will help you get an upper edge.

c] RSS enables you to easily get your content published on dozens and dozens of other sites.

d] It will serve as a platform for ad sales,

e] It will provide advertising opportunities to promote your own business

f] It will help you get more content for your site without you having to write a single word.

WHY YOU NEED RSS, FROM THE END-USER POINT OF VIEW?

a] People want to receive content in a controlled environment where they are in-charge, not the publisher.

b] Delivering content using e-mail is becoming increasingly difficult, due to blacklists, spam filters and over excessive amounts of e-mail in your recipients’ mailboxes.

c] RSS allows you to deliver content beyond your e-zine, giving you more content delivery opportunities.

d] RSS is a natural tool for content syndication, which means easily and instantly delivering your content to hundreds of other content sources, thus creating additional exposure.

e] When using RSS to deliver all of your web site content updates, RSS will actually increase your web site traffic, thus giving your promotional messages more exposure.

f] People are afraid of subscribing to e-mail lists, which makes getting new subscribers difficult; RSS is a whole different story.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

Either as an end-user or as business person, content delivery should be one of your top informational concerns.

a] As an end-user you cannot function properly without having relevant access to the information you need. Content delivery mechanisms affect your ability to access this information.

b] As a business person you must understand that your business success, among other things, depends on information, and in large on your ability to deliver it. Without the proper content delivery vehicles you cannot get content in-front of your target audiences, at least not in a relevant fashion.

RSS answers the needs of both.

About the author:

Learn how to take full marketing advantage of RSS and get all the knowledge and how-to information for implementing RSS in your marketing mix, from direct marketing, PR, e-commerce and online publishing to SEO, traffic generation and so on. FREE guide available for immediate download, too. Click here now: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/book/