Saturday, MasterCard blamed a vendor of ALL credit card
providers called CardSystems Solutions, Inc., a third-party
processor of payment card data, as the source of loss of 40
million consumers credit card information.

As is pointed out by several newspaper and web articles over
the last few weeks, each recapping long lists of financial
information data breaches, something’s gotta give before we
entirely lose trust in financial institutions, data brokers
and credit bureaus. How much privacy loss can we take
without acting?

These types of data loss were very likely common and have
very probably been going on for a very long time. The
difference is that now, THEY ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO DISCLOSE
THOSE LOSSES - not just in California, but in many states.
National disclosure laws on data security breaches are being
considered in Congress.

I suggest that these breaches of data security all came to
light due to the California law requiring disclosure from
companies suffering hacking loss or leaks or social
engineering or crooked employees or organized crime rings
posing as “legitimate” customers. All of the above have been
given as reasons for security lapses or poor security
policies.

About three years ago, a friend told me his paycheck deposit
to Bank of America went missing from account records after
he took his check to the bank on Friday. By Monday, Bank of
America was in the news claiming a computer glitch had
disappeared the entire day’s deposits. I mumbled to myself,
“I’ll bet that was a hack and that hacker just made a huge
offshore banking deposit with B of A depositors’ money.”

But we didn’t find out why it happened in that particular
case because there was no disclosure law in place at the
time. Now we have disclosure laws that mandate notice of
security breaches. Now suddenly - huge financial services
hacks and devious criminal social engineering outfits posing
as legitimate customers and apparently “innocent” losses by
transport companies of backup tapes begin to come to light.

This spate of data loss incidents is proof of the need for
corporate “sunshine laws” that make public notice mandatory
of those data losses that threaten customer information.

Who is going to lose here - the public, the corporations,
the criminals, or the government? I’d prefer that the bad
guys get the shaft and take down crooked company insiders
that either facilitate data loss by underfunding security
and encryption or participate in data theft or loss in any
form - even if that participation is security negligence.

Financial companies and data brokers have been covering up
the losses and keeping quiet about hacks so as not to worry
or frighten their customers. But that practice is
essentially ended now that they must notify the public and
disclose those losses instead of hushing them up.

Keeping the breaches hidden from public view is bad practice
as it maintains the status quo. Disclosure will facilitate
internal corporate lockdowns on the data and all access to
it. Disclosure will educate the public to the lack of
security and danger to the sensitive information we all
provide rather casually and routinely to businesses.

As the following link to a silicon.com story suggests, we
cannot take much more of this lack of regard to privacy and
must lock down financially sensitive data securely and must
begin to hold data brokers, bureaus and handlers VERY
accountable.

<http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39131279,00.htm>

Insist to your elected representatives that your financial
data be locked down, encrypted and guarded by those
entrusted with storing, transporting and using it. Since our
financial, medical and legal lives are increasingly being
housed in digital form and transmitted between data centers
of multiple handlers - we need to know it is secure. We also
need to know when that security has been breached and our
data compromised or lost.

Thieves are becoming more aware of the ease with which they
can find and access financial data. Hacking is not the
source of the greatest losses.

Organized crime has easily found their way into our
financial records by simply paying for it by posing as
“legitimate” business customers of information brokers such
as ChoicePoint and Lexis/Nexis. Any business can buy
financial and credit information from those information
bureaus and credit reporting agencies by meeting rather lax
requirements for “need to know” that data.

As long as it is possible to purchase our sensitive data
from brokers and bureaus, organized crime will
“legitimately” buy it from those sources, then ruin our
credit by selling that information at a higher price in
identity theft schemes.

Since disclosure laws have come into effect, those breaches
have been made public, credit cards cancelled before losses
can occur and credit reports monitored to watch for
suspicious activity. The bad guys activities are squelched
because we are made aware of the possibility our information
has been compromised.

Not all blame can go to financial institutions and data
brokers. Protect your own private data by protecting your
computer records at home, in the office, on your laptop and
in your PDA by using basic keyword security and locking down
files. Use built in encryption on your operating system and
your home network to keep data secure. Then be certain to
clear that sensitive data off the computer when you sell it
or throw it away.

Data security is something we all need to take seriously and
the corporate breaches are dramatic illustrations of how
important it has become to build digital fortresses around
our critical financial, legal and medical information.

Mike Banks Valentine is a privacy advocate and blogs about
privacy issues at PrivacyNotes.com
You can read more about identity theft issues at:
Publish101

Contact MikeValentine for Search Engine Optimization
http://www.seoptimism.com

In the last few weeks, adding feeds to My Yahoo has been next to
impossible. Here’s a solution that worked for me with a
feedburner feed.

Why Won’t It Add My Feed

If you have a blog, adding it to My Yahoo via a feed is a fairly
standard option. To do this, you simply accessed your My Yahoo
page, clicked “add content”, click “add RSS by url” and then
entered your feed. At least it used to be that way.

For the last few weeks, the add content provision for My Yahoo
has developed a glitch. Following the above steps simply no
longer works. Instead, My Yahoo will show you a preview of your
feed, but refuses to actually add it to the My Yahoo page. Why
is it My Yahoo will show you a preview, but not add the feed?
This realization is followed by an combination of the following:
banging head on the desk…rebooting computer…throwing
computer…

Feedburner Solution for My Yahoo

Last night, I was able to add
http://feeds.feedburner.com/BtrTaxRelief to My Yahoo through
feedburner.com. Here’s how I did it.

First, log into and pull up a My Yahoo page. Next, pull up
feedburner.com in a second window. Log in to your account. In
the resulting page, you should see a clickable title for your
feed. To the immediate left of the title is an “xml” link in
light grey. Click it to open a new window.

In the resulting window, you will see a light blue box followed
by your feed. In the blue box near the bottom, you should see a
“My Yahoo” button. Click it.

At this point, your My Yahoo add content page should appear with
a preview of how the page will look in My Yahoo. This will be
the same preview you were shown when trying to add the feed the
traditional way. Go ahead and click the “add content” button on
the top right of the page. You should see a page showing the
preview and a message that it has been added.

Once you’ve done this, it takes up to 10 minutes for the feeds
to appear on My Yahoo. I can’t promise this will work for
everyone, but I was able to add three feeds last night.

Good Luck!

If you want to be able to read RSS feeds then you are going to need an RSS reader. The types of RSS reader that are available to you come in two flavours. There is the desktop RSS reader and there are the online or web RSS readers.

Choosing your RSS readers need not be a difficult task, to be quite honest most RSS reader software performs much the same task. It downloads the RSS file and parses it into a readable format for you. Rather than trying to ram this or that product down your throat I am going to tell you what to look for in an RSS reader and share my personal preference.

Now I think the first and most important feature you will look for in your reader is price. Lets face it most of the software out there today is free so a fee based solution had better be outstanding. One free solution I did try but did not like, just my preference is Amphtadesk. This run from your desktop but displays the feeds as a webpage. This offering is open source and runs cross platform.

Another feature you need to look for is ease of use. You don’t want to spend hours trying to figure out how subscribe to a feed. Again this is going to be your own preference as everyone has their own abilities. I would suggest that if you can’t subscribe to a feed after a few minutes then you are probably using the wrong software for you.

A feature you will need in your RSS reader is the ability to import and export your OPML file. This is a file that holds all of your RSS feed subscription addresses, just like a list of email addresses. You will probably try several RSS readers over time before you settle on one you like. Without OPML you will have to manually subscribe to all of your feeds if you change your RSS reader.

Speed is of the essence. The more feeds you subscribe to the longer it will take to download them. I have used one desktop based RSS reader that took fifteen minutes at each update to download and parse the feeds. If your RSS reader turns out to be slow, dump it, there are plenty more out there.

I went through this process a while back and went through dozens of RSS readers. I finally settled on Bloglines, a web based RSS reader. There are other web based RSS readers out there, here is a list of RSS readers that I know of. I chose Bloglines as it was fast and easy to use and continues to work well for me.

You can find out more about RSS at Newsniche and how it can help you.

A friend of mine received a chilling email message from his ISP the other day. Someone had reported him as sending SPAM and the ISP warned that an additional SPAM complaint would result in losing his hosting service - period. No ifs, ands or buts!

The ISP just took the word of the person filing the complaint as gospel, even though my friend had the email subscription notification where this person, or someone posing as them, had subscribed.

My friend sent me a copy of the subscription notification. And sure enough, there it was as plain as day… it contained the date, time and the subscription IP address of the person making the Spam allegation. Unfortunately, all this evidence fell on deaf ISP ears.

This little incident firms my conviction that a federal CAN- SPAM law might not be a bad idea after all. Without it, persons alleging Spam, like the one above, may be able to sue under State law. And that’s where the nightmare begins…

Oh sure, the person will most likely end up losing the case but here’s the typical situation. The “injured party” files a lawsuit and the ISP immediately shuts off service to the publisher. And guess what, the publisher is immediately out of business even though she/he is sitting there with evidence that the allegation is totally groundless. Talk about scary! And if you think this scenario can’t happen to you - think again.

The erroneous reporting of Spam has become wide-spread and has gotten even easier. Don’t like a company or their products? Just accuse them of spam. Do it a couple of times in one week and, guess what, they’re off line - period.

AOL and Yahoo owners can simply click a button and report anything they feel like as Spam - with no consequence whatsoever if the allegation is totally baseless. The “This is Spam button” has replaced the delete key as “the” answer for some folks. And I’ll bet you’d have a hard time tracking down whomever made the initial AOL or Yahoo Spam complaint as well.

Time to Get Tough

There are several proactive steps you can take to protect yourself against baseless Spam allegations. Admittedly, there is nothing you can do to stop someone bound and determined to damage your reputation and business if they have a mind to do so. You can, however, certainly minimize the risk of this happening to you. But you do have to be proactive.

I recommend that you add a legal notice to your subscription Thank You page and also to every ezine newsletter issue that you send out. Something along the lines of the following…

“The subscriber agrees, by accepting this email newsletter subscription, to indemnify the publisher against false accusations of spam to include, but not limited to, payment of all damages, loss of web hosting fees and services, all damages for loss of business and goodwill, and any and all fees or fines that may be imposed against the publisher by any federal, state, local authority or civilian business entity as a result of the false spam accusation.”

Add the paragraph above, or something similar, just above your ezine unsubscribe link.

The reason I think this is a powerful solution is because it establishes a contract between the publisher and the subscriber. And contract law is pretty much the same in all jurisdictions when it comes to breach of contract.

Please note that what I have provided you is for guidance and informational purposes only and should not be construed as practicing law. Do check with your local attorney to make sure that this statement will suffice in your jurisdiction. But I think you get the idea.

Is this concept new? Hardly, jl Scott of the iCOP organization thought of this over two years ago. Will it scare some of your subscribers off? You bet it will. But guess what…

The people it scares off are exactly the people you DON’T want on your list anyway. They most likely have the itchy moronic fingers or the “I’ve had a bad day let’s accuse someone of Spam and get them shut down” folks that you don’t want to have anything do to with anyway.

Listen, perhaps it’s just me, but I wouldn’t be fazed in the least if I saw such a caveat on an ezine I really wanted to sign up for. Would you? I only want people on my list who are responsible and willing to accept the consequences of their actions. People who, if they mistakenly accuse me of Spam and got my business erroneously shut down, would face up to their responsibility and pay for the damage they caused. I don’t want a Spam Nazi on my list who is too lazy to hit the delete key. No thanks!

Rough? Yes, but that’s the reality of doing business on the Internet today.

Other Options Available

Paul Hancox of UpYourMarketing.com has just released a brilliant report that outlines several other steps any prudent publisher online should take to protect themselves and their online business. It’s called “The ePublishers Survival Kit - How to Minimize Spam Complaints and Defend Yourself Against False Spam Accusations.”

http://www.writersnest.com/spampro.zip

The report is in pdf format so MAC and WIN users alike can access the information. Combine these recommendations with those in Paul’s report and you’ll pretty much be covered.

Final thoughts. I don’t have to remind you of how hard you worked to build your online business. Protect yourself and minimize the risk of having it suddenly shut down by following the recommendations here and in Paul’s free report.

While you can’t stop malicious Spam complaints 100%, taking proactive steps now can go a long way to making sure your business remains safe and viable. Believe me, that’ll make you sleep much better at night!

About The Author

Malacka - Copyright 2003

http://www.writersnest.com

Stuff that Really Works to Make You Money Online!

http://www.hot-matches.com

http://www.dog-training-at-home.com

Feel free to distribute this article so long as it remains unedited and the resource box is included.

Everyone knows what a blog is right? Not! How about RSS? These recently new and increasingly popular web technologies are taking off and becoming good ways for you to communicate with your customers and prospects.

Blog is short for web log and became popular during the 2004 Presidential Election as blog writers all over the world opined and investigated both the president and John Kerry. There are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs out there. Many are just people, or even kids, who want to express their opinion on a particular topic. Some blogs are from reporters who go into more detail about their stories than TV, radio or newspaper allows. You can find blogs on just about any topic. They are basically online diaries.

RSS has evolved to stand for Really Simple Syndication which makes for an easy way to publish your blog or other content to those who want to see it. Content comes to your desktop via a program called an RSS reader. It’s very similar to email and as a matter of fact there is a free program called RSS Popper that is an add-in to Outlook that puts these RSS feeds right into your email client. The difference is that YOU pick which items you want unlike someone just sending you every email they can think of.

Combined, these technologies give you a way to communicate. New product? Describe it in your blog and everyone who picks up the feed knows about it instantly. I recently put together a step by step series of posts on how to construct a basic business plan on my blog at: http://shamrockbusinesscoaching.blogspot.com and post there once per day about topics that may be of interest to the small business owner. You can either go to the blog every day and read the latest post or get an RSS reader and paste in the URL from my feed and get the daily post on your computer. See how this works? It’s becoming more popular every day and I suggest that you download a free RSS reader, find a few blogs that you like and test it out. Then think about how your business can utilize this wonderful technology.

Mike Shannon is the owner of Shamrock Business Coaching, a coaching practice that helps business owners increase profits. You can visit Shamrock Business Coaching on the web at: http://www.ShamrockCoaching.com

The nightmare of identity theft strikes an estimated 750,000 people every year. How can you keep from being one of them? While there is no guarantee that you won’t become a victim, there are some steps you can take to decrease the risk and protect yourself.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, some everyday tips to protecting your personal information include:

• Not giving out your personal information to a stranger over the phone, the Internet, or through the mail. Your Social Security number (SSN), phone number and address, credit card or bank account numbers, and drivers’ license number can be used by criminals to assume your identity. Unless you know the person you are communicating with or have invited them to contact you, do not answer any question that makes you uncomfortable. Identity thieves can pose successfully as agents from banks, credit card companies, Internet service providers, utility companies, or government offices. If someone calls claiming to represent a legitimate organization, confirm this by calling the customer service number listed on your statement or bill.

• Finding out how your personal information will be used and if you have the option to keep the details confidential when providing this data to a legitimate organization, for example, when filling out an application. Ask if the organization has a method of securing your information and if they plan to share it with other companies or individuals.

• Always monitoring the balances on your checking, savings, or other financial accounts. Keep an eye out for unexplained charges or withdrawals made without your permission. Carefully reading your monthly bank and credit card statements, then checking the amounts against your check register or other record-keeping method could catch a thief in the act of assuming your identity and spending your hard-earned money.

• Keeping track of your billing cycles. If your credit card statement doesn’t arrive at its usual time, this could signal an address change by an identity thief.

• Being cautious handling your mail and even your trash. Place outgoing mail in a post office collection box or at the post office instead of leaving it out on your mailbox. Bring the mail inside promptly every day, and when planning to be out of town, enlist the help of a friend or neighbor to do the same. A thief can sift through your garbage in search of sensitive information. Shred all charge receipts, credit offers and applications, insurance or physician’s statements, checks and bank statements, and discarded credit cards.

• Storing your Social Security card someplace other than your purse or wallet. Provide your SSN only when necessary, and ask to substitute another number if your state uses your SSN on your drivers’ license.

• Carrying only the credit or debit cards you need. Leave other identifying cards at home.

In addition to the everyday precautions that can minimize your risk, there are some other actions you can take to improve your safety:

• Safeguard the information on your computer by updating your virus protection plan on a regular basis, using a firewall to keep hackers from accessing your files, and deleting any personal information on your computer before you dispose of it using a “wipe” utility program that clears the hard drive. Never download a file from someone you don’t know, and do not open e-mails from an unfamiliar sender; doing so could expose your computer to a virus. Finally, when submitting personal information over the Internet, look for the “lock” icon on the status bar to know that your browser is secure.

• Use passwords for your bank, credit card, and phone accounts. Try to think of a unique number that you can remember other than your birth date, your mother’s maiden name, the last four digits of your SSN, or a series of numbers in order, e.g. 1-2-3-4.

• Find a safe place for your purse or wallet while you’re at work. Ask about the policy your office has for securing your personal information, such as who has access to it, where it is stored, and how it is disposed of when you leave.

• Every year, order a copy of your credit report from the three different credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Check for the accuracy of each and correct any discrepancies. You may be charged for the report, but the savings you receive in peace of mind is well worth the fee.

• Clean up any credit damage as soon as you possibly can. Errors in reporting alone happen often, some estimates are as high as 62% of the information on a credit report may be inaccurate. That doesn’t even begin to cover situations such as identity theft which is a serious problem on the rise in the U.S. You can consult a Credit Damage expert if you suspect that your credit has been accessed or used in any way without your permission. That includes companies running a simple inquiry without you saying they can. For more information on what an expert witness can do for you, go to http://www.creditdamage.com

When it comes to protecting your good name and your hard-earned money, a little caution goes a long way.

Cathy Taylor is a marketing consultant with over 25 years experience. She specializes in internet marketing, strategy and plan development, as well as management of communications and public relations programs for small business sectors. She can be reached at Creative Communications: creative-com@cox.net or by visiting
http://www.creditdamage.com or http://www.internet-marketing-small-business.com

Protect your identity today and you may not have to repair the damage a thief could wreak on your finances and your credit tomorrow.

Would-be thieves and scammers are as devious as ever, employing whatever low- or high-tech methods at their disposal to steal consumers’ vital personal information, money and credit.

There are a lot of things you can do to protect your personal information; your social security number, bank account information, credit or debit card numbers and even online passwords. A bit of prevention today will save you a lot of hassle in the future.

The most vital piece of information that you must protect is your social security number. For the most part, your nine digit social security number is your identity. A thief holding your social security number could potentially assume your identity, max out your credit and commit other crimes in your name. Your life could be devastated for years to come.

Don’t ever let anyone see your social security number unless it’s absolutely necessary! A number of banks of other businesses will use your social security number as an ID number. Doing so is actually against the law but the law is rarely, if ever, enforced. You may be able to get your driver’s license number used as an alternate ID number, depending on the rules and regulations of the particular company you are dealing with.

If you have to provide your social security or a credit or debit card number to a company you do business with, find out exactly what the company does to protect your information from prying eyes. Beware of companies that don’t have stringent security procedures in place to protect your vital information. If your information is easily accessible to any employee, a dishonest employee could easily steal your information and use it against you.

Online, you may be at even further risk in the growing world of eCommerce. Make sure any Web site you may do business with employs 128-bit encryption and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols to protect your credit or debit card numbers. Also, a good software or hardware firewall, up-to-date antivirus and antispyware software is recommended to further protect the account data that may be stored within your computer.

The strongest security in the world won’t prevent people from seeing your information if you are careless, however. Any hard copies of your sensitive information, including statements and various account documents, should be either locked away in a safe or shredded immediately. A thief rummaging through your garbage may be able to find your information very easily if you don’t destroy any vital documents before dumping them.

Thieves often don’t even have to root through garbage to get your vital information. All they really have to do is keep a watchful eye on you. If you use a debit or credit card in public, make sure nobody is standing too close to you when you swipe your card. A thief hiding in plain sight may be intent on seeing your card number without your knowledge.

If you have to sign a credit card receipt your credit card number will likely be reprinted on the receipt. In most cases the first 12 of the 16 digits comprising your credit card number will be blacked out. If not, you are allowed by law to black out the first 12 numbers in person. Don’t let any uninformed cashier deny you your legal right to protect your account numbers.

Protection from identity theft begins with you. The steps you take today can keep your credit and your financial future from falling into the wrong hands.

© cashbuzz.com

John Campbell is the writer and editor of CashBuzz, A financial portal for the rest of us. Check out cashbuzz.com for the latest articles on money management and tips and tricks that can help improve your finances. This article may be reprinted on your Web site if the copyright, author information and active link are included.

GMail SPAM filter is fighting a losing battle. I am doing some ANTI-SPAM testing. For the past 4 months I have been very public with my Gmail email address, signing up for newsletters, using it on forms, and sharing it publicly on forums, blogs, and discussion boards. I expected to get SPAMMED to death, that’s exactly what’s beginning to happen. Everyday, I receive about 20 junk emails. I know that is small, but for someone who is use to never seeing SPAM in their inbox, it’s a quite bit.

I did this sort of testing, once before with Yahoo! Mail, and I took the time to get rid of all my SPAM (from coming into the inbox). I’ll share my secret.

1. First, you should have 3 email addresses; (@.hotmail, @.yahoo, @.gmail). These 3 email addresses should represent your public (personal) email address, your business email address, and your spam catcher). Remember the less you publicly use your email address, the less SPAM you’ll have.

2. If you wish to use your public or business email address, each site you travel to, (which you plan or must share your email address) you should check the site Privacy Policy. You don’t have to study the policy, but finger through it and see what their policy is about sharing your information. If the policy doesn’t have this clause or the site doesn’t have a Privacy Policy (visibly linked) then be skeptical and assume this site plans to share your information. Many sites claim to be legit and have a privacy policy in place, but through the backdoor they sell your information, so never put all trust into the privacy policy, just make good judgment. The best thing about managing your SPAM is that you can speculate how someone got your email address, because your amount of SPAM is down to a minimum and you are securely managing your email address. Any place you need to enter your email address and you feel skeptical about using your public or business email address then you should enter your spam catcher email.

3. Your public (personal) email address should be used for public trusted sources, such as: on forums, discussion boards which you frequent. You should use this address only on sites which you trust and visit on a day-to-day or occasional basis. Your public email address should be used for sign-up forms (only sites you want information from). Your public email address should also be used to subscribe to newsletters which you initiate. Your public (personal) email address should be your most commonly used email address for basic day-to-day communication. This is the email address you should share with family, friends, and co-workers.

4. Your business email address should be used for business contacts. In fact, your business email should NOT be a free email address, it should be an email address with your company, your website, or your business name (example: @.yourcompanyname.com). If you don’t have a company, business, or website then use a free email address and make this your email address for professional purposes, such as putting this email on your resume, etc. This should be for extremely trusted sources. You should only share your business email address with individuals you connect with one-on-one on a professional or business level. Example: You shouldn’t share this email address with the customer service staff of a company, but you should share this email address with the CEO of the company. This is your exclusive email address. In some instances you may share your business email address with the customer service staff, but the source should be trusted and you should make good judgment. Example: If the company plans to send you sensitive information via email, like money market account information. Your business email can be used for signing up at sites which you will use your credit card and is a highly respectable and honest site, world renown. This email should only be used with those whom you trust with your information and trust will not share or send you advertisements. You should only use this email address to get company related information or information which directly affects you or your business on a consumer or business level. You should NEVER publish your business email address on any website, forum, discussion board, or any other publicly available media.

5. Your spam catcher email address is the email address you should use at any time you feel skeptical, when you don’t trust a site, or when a site doesn’t provide you information that you wish to receive. Many sites have products, programs, or services which you want, but to register or to move forward you must enter an email address (and most of the time the email address must be valid and confirmed), therefore you should have a spam catcher email address, for non-trusted sources. Using your spam catcher email address you could easily register at any site while using a valid email address, which you can log into and confirm the authenticity of the email addresses.

6. Use the ‘Report Spam’ feature of your email client. Most online and now even software (local install) email clients have a ‘Report Spam’ feature which blocks the delivery of future mail from the sender. It is important to make good use of this feature, because it will help keep your inbox free of unwanted mail. The only email addresses you are worried about receiving spam from is your personal email address and business email address, the spam catcher email address should not be an account you log into daily, you should only log into your spam catcher email address to confirm an email. At this point you shouldn’t receive any spam into your business email address account, if you followed the steps above, but if you do then make sure you use the ‘Report Spam’ feature so you can block future delivery. Use the ‘Report Spam’ feature immediately when you receive spam so there is no delay and to be sure you don’t miss a spam message. In your personal email address account you will probably receive spam messages or unwanted mail, if you do then make sure you use the ‘Report Spam’ feature each time you receive a piece of unwanted mail, within a few months and good email address management (following the steps above) you should never or rarely see any spam coming into your inbox.

If you receive any mail into your inbox, then make sure you use the “Report Spam” feature within the email client. This should soon eliminate any mail you do not wish to have. Following the steps above is imperative to getting a good clean inbox. Managing your email address is ultimately your responsibility and you should know who you share your information with. Most people use only one email address for all their communication, this technique is not the best option. You should use at least 3 email addresses adhering to the steps above. You can simply log into one account, your personal email address or your business email address and just have the email from the other forwarded to the account you log into most. You can also send email from the account under either your personal or business email address. Setting up forwarders and multiple sender accounts is not a hard task in the 3 major online email clients. For some additional steps may need to be taken, like with Yahoo! you must have a paid account to forward your email, but from Gmail you can automatically forward your email where you like for FREE. So, if you forward your Gmail email to your Yahoo! account and setup multiple accounts within your Yahoo! Account then you are in good shape. Use the Hotmail account as your spam catcher. This is just a thought, but you can set it up any way you like, its your preference. Currently, I have a paid Yahoo! account and I use my Yahoo! account as my business email address. I use my Gmail account as my personal email, and I use my Hotmail account as my spam catcher. My Yahoo! mail is forwarded directly to my Gmail account, and I have a sender account setup in my Gmail account, which will send mail as my Yahoo! email address. I use Gmail Notify and know instantly whenever I receive new mail from either my public (personal) or business email address. I rarely log into my Hotmail account, only to confirm an email or just to login so my account doesn’t close. This proactive approach has kept my inbox clean for years and now I’m sure it will help you with your fight against SPAM!

This article is in association with Journal Home which host blogs for authoring and managing.

Ant Onaf is an accomplished webmaster, internet marketer, content writer, and IT consultant. His ingeniuty, dedication, and overall passion for the internet and technology has made him an monumental icon on the World Wide Web. Visit his blog Ant Onaf Internet & Technology Blog (www.antonaf.com)

RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is the talk around the net these days because of its many benefits. However many people are not really clear exactly what RSS is?
Here is a definition of what RSS(Real Simple Syndication) “IS” in plain English for those of you who are NEW to it and for those of you who are still a little bit confused about it and its uses.

RSS is an Acronym. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”. RSS content is delivered through RSS feeds. These are simple files structured in a specific way. [A type of xml] The XML file is the format used for distributing YOUR news headlines via the Web, which is known as “Syndication”.

RSS files (which are also called RSS feeds or channels) simply contain a list of items. Usually, each item contains a title, summary, and a link to a URL. RSS files look a lot like HTML code. . It is up to the user to use this information in any way that he wants.

“RSS” is simply a technology that distributes YOUR information (whatever it might be — ex. Articles, Special Offers, Product Reviews, Resource Announcements) by syndicating it across the net.

An RSS Feed is the way that your information or content can be delivered instantly to the desktop of a subscriber, by passing email and email filters.

This “Syndication” is where the TRUE power of RSS is unleashed, getting your message or information across the web in an INSTANT to websites, your subscribers and/or readers.

There are 2 main components of a RSS feed.

• Channel: A channel is the total collection of items you wish to highlight in your site. There is exactly one channel per RSS file.

• Item: Item is a single thing you wish to highlight from your site. There is at least one, but no more than 15 items per channel. But it is better to limit to 6 items per channel.

For example – you may create a RSS feed about all articles on your web site. That is, articles covering different topics in one RSS feed.

Then the channel will contain information about the feed (“Read articles on various subjects”), the location (web site address or URL) and a short description of the content you have written about.

There will be multiple items in the RSS Feed. Each item will have information about one article (the title, author, category, short description and the URL where the article may be found).

In general, anything that you publish frequently can be offered as an RSS feed.

Soon, you will find online retailers and other catalog companies also offering RSS feeds of their product range.

To increase your web presence, promote your online business, and increase web traffic
you should invest in providing an RSS feed for your blog or website . In this way you will be able to distribute your information to a vast and fast-growing community of users, who are more interested in knowing about your topic. In general, people who write articles or publish newsletters benefit the most. Most blog software allows you to offer RSS feed of the blog posts. You can also offer your press releases through an RSS feed.

Once you have set up your RSS feed you need to submit it to the many RSS feed Directories and submission site available to increase your exposure. Good examples of these are FeedForAll and Technorati. Do a search for RSS submission sites in a search engine and you will find many places to gain great exposure for your RSS feeds.

It is important to submit your RSS feeds to as many submission sites as possible. To do this manually is quite time consuming and labour intensive. I would recommend automating this process investing in RSS submission software such as RSS Announcer.

It is worthwhile looking seriously at RSS technology as it is an impressive tool to use to significantly benefit you in your internet marketing and website exposure.

For more information on RSS visit http://www.sendrssfeeds.com and get your copy of a free e book “The A-Z about RSS and How It Can Make You Money”

And why should I care?

Good questions. First, here’s why you should care.

Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the situation.

You don’t have to reveal your email address. If you want to stop receiving content, you don’t have to request to be “taken off the list.”

One click, and poof… the subscription is gone.

Plus, since there’s no email address involved, there’s no way a publisher can sell, rent or give away the means to contact you.

That’s right… no more spam, viruses, phishing, or identity theft. And best of all, no reason to put yourself at the mercy of the publisher’s intentions.

You won’t need to suffer through the legalese in the privacy policy (if there is one) looking for loopholes that will send you deeper into inbox hell. No more setting up dummy Hotmail accounts “just in case.”

Again, if you don’t like the content, you can make it disappear as fast as you can change a TV channel. With just one click.

Pretty cool, huh?

That is cool! Umm… What the heck is RSS?

Alright! Now we’re ready to get to that part.

RSS is a simply an Internet technology standard that allows busy people to receive updates to web-based content of interest.

You might have figured that much out by now. But basically, that’s the essence of an RSS feed – you subscribe and then receive new content automatically in your feed reader.

What the heck is a feed reader?

You may already be using a form of feed reader, and not even realize it. If you use personalized home page services like My Yahoo or My MSN, you’ve got RSS capabilities built in. That’s how syndicated content like news, weather and stock quotes appears on your personal page. You can also add content from any blog or other site that uses RSS to provide updates.

Other web-based tools are primarily dedicated to feed reading only. One of the most popular web-based feed readers at this point is Bloglines, and it’s also free and easy to get started with.

If you use the Firefox browser, you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function. The next version of Internet Explorer will add this feature as well.

Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers. These function somewhat like an email program for feeds. Examples include Newsgator and Feed Demon.

If it sounds complicated, it’s really not. And things will get even easier when the next version of Outlook integrates feed-reading capabilities. So, you’ll have the same convenience that email subscriptions offered in the old days, without any of the terrible consequences of giving out your email address to potentially unscrupulous characters.

Sounds good. So how do I subscribe to a Feed?

First of all, look for the subscription or feed options (some bloggers make this difficult for some odd reason). You might see a variety of buttons (amusingly called chicklets).

If the site you want to subscribe to uses FeedBurner to aid in the subscription process (like many popular sites do), you’ll likely see the standard RSS icon, which takes you to a page that will give you an array of the most popular feed readers so you can select yours, and you’ll go from there. Just look around for an orange button and click on it.

Sometimes there will be a chicklet for your particular reader right on the blog that will take you to the appropriate subscription page. You may see buttons for My Yahoo, Google, Feedburner and Bloglines (among others).

Finally, you may also see little orange buttons that say XML or RSS. Often these chicklets will take you to a page that looks like code gibberish. In this case, you simply cut and paste the page URL from your browser window and manually paste it into your feed reader subscription box.

Hopefully this last method will soon disappear, never to be seen again.

In summary: RSS solves BIG problems.

So there you have it… RSS is being adopted at a phenomenal rate, because it’s a good thing for everyone.

The benefit to readers is obvious. And it’s good for publishers too, because we want to make sure that people feel comfortable subscribing, and that our message is not nuked by an overzealous spam filter.

Spend just a little bit of time getting familiar with feeds, and your online experience will get a lot better.

Brian teaches web copywriting strategies for selling with blogs and RSS at Copyblogger.