I Like My Spam Fried
  Written By Titmowse

My Dad worked his way through college as a fry cook. Every once in a while, he would prepare cool treats for us kids and watching him do it was fascinating to me. He could fry an egg to perfection and he was a master at Southern comfort foods. His specialty was fried baloney sandwiches in Worchester sauce. He also turned me onto fried Spam sandwiches.

It's true. I like fried Spam sandwiches on white bread with mayonnaise. I don't love them to the point where I have a regular stock of Spam cans on my shelves. In fact, it's been a couple of years since I even bought the stuff. Nonetheless, every once in a while, I buy one of the little square tins, take it home, slice it up, fry it and put it on toasted white bread with a little mayo and pepper. I like fried Spam and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

What I do not like is Spam in my e-mail.

When people first experience the Internet, they are delighted with everything about it. Every Flash animation, every spinning graphic and yes, even every Spam is exciting. Soon, that thrill of new technology wears off and as the junk mail rolls in, the net becomes less and less fun. People hate Spam and adult webmasters hate it with a burning passion. I hate it, you hate it and nothing is greater than our desire to get rid of it.

As a new adult webmaster, you may have noticed that your inbox gets more Spam than ever before. How does this happen? Are you doing something wrong? Have you somehow managed to reveal your e-mail addy without your knowledge? Will you ever be free of those damnable unwanted missives flooding your mail server? Is there anything you can do to stop Spam?

The reality is you will probably never eliminate spam completely. E-mail spammers are clever and persistent little buggers who always seem to be one step ahead of the game. Truth be told, spam works. Just like telemarketing, for every one hundred who reject the sales pitch of telephone sellers, the 101st person buys the promoted product. You may send every Spam directly to your trash bin, but some people bite the bait, believe the sales copy and willingly purchase. Spammers and telemarketers deal in volume. They contact as many individuals as possible and eventually the odds favor their efforts. As long as people buy, Spam will continue. You can vastly reduce the amount of Spam you receive but you will probably never abolish it entirely. You can however, pare down the amount of Spam to practically none and here are some ways to do it:

Know Your Spam
When you receive an e-mail you don't like in your inbox, that doesn't necessarily mean you've been spammed. When you sign up for stuff on the Internet, you make an agreement with the provider of that service. Most of the time, the agreement involves you receiving promotional e-mails from the provider and their associates. For instance if you sign up to an adult sponsor program or content provider, you agree to receive their e-mail newsletter. This type of agreement is referred to a "opting in". You will encounter this opting in when you submit galleries to TGPs and sites to Top Lists. You may not care for the influx of newsletters filling your inbox but do not confuse them with Spam. You may even find that if you decide to choose to remove yourself from these e-mail lists, you harm your chances for future reception of services.

Be Selective With Your Address
Whether it's posted on your site or you include it in a message board profile, the e-mail address you reveal on publicly accessed pages will garner a box full of Spam. Spammers have robot spiders that search the web day and night for e-mail addresses on web pages. Adult sites and webmaster message boards are their favorite places to look. Since you will probably have to post your e-mail address on such places (especially on your own adult page) then you will probably want to set up an e-mail address especially for spam. A webmail account is great for this.

Filters Filters Filters
Your e-mail reader software has the capability to block spam. When you get a spam in your inbox, you can use the filter system of your program to block further missives from any sender. For instance, Outlook Express allows you to select the offending e-mail and then choose the BLOCK SENDER option from the program's Message menu. You can use more definitive filters to block certain words in subject lines or names in sender's addresses. Look for the term "FILTER" in your e-mail software's HELP files.

Spam Blocking Software
There are many reliable and affordable software programs to deal with Spam. Some of them go as far as to report the senders you deem to be spammers to the proper legal authorities.

Spam isn't for everybody. While there are a few (like me) who like the taste of the canned stuff, practically none of us like the kind that comes to our inboxes. Of course, when we don't like the luncheon meat, we avoid it by not buying it. When we don't want the e-mail kind, we have to work at getting rid of it. It's not fair but little in this world is ever fair.