Make It Easy For People To Contact You

I'm often surprised at how many businesses appear not to want to give out their contact information.

Just the other day I needed to get hold of someone quickly, who I've connected with online but not yet in the 'real world'. They'd contacted me via email and needed some urgent info but hadn't left their contact details, perhaps assuming that I had them.

However ...

• They didn't have their contact details in their email - a simple email signature is a great way to provide these.
  
• Their online profiles have no contact information - if you don't want them in every profile, at least have them on your website.
  
• Their website is 'under construction' so no contact details there either.

While we all want to protect our information from spammers and the less scrupulous - if you run a business you need to make it easy for people to contact you.

• Include a phone number - not just a mobile.
• Provide an email address or a contact form.

Yes, it does mean you get the occasional unwanted sales call and spam emails but from a business perspective, it's more important to be contactable and approachable - don't hide behind a wall of anonymity.

Pick up the phone

A few times recently I've been contacted by email to cancel a meeting at short notice or request an urgent piece of information needed within the next couple of hours.

Now, if I'm following my own suggestions, I won't be checking my email every few minutes and I may even be out of the office and not get to it until later. It may even be switched off for a few hours if I'm with clients or working on something.

What is it about email that it makes people forget there are other ways to communicate and use it either as the easy option or as a means of 'instant communication'? It's not! Email is far from reliable and you can't and shouldn't assume that just because you've hit send, it's immediately appeared in their inbox and they'll be reading it and responding in the next few minutes.

If it's urgent, important or time critical - pick up the phone and remember that they're timeframe and level of urgency may not be the same as yours.

Spammers Request Read Receipt

I've noticed a new quirk with spam messages coming through - they're now requesting a read receipt. Now, this isn't a problem unless your mail system is set to automatically return a read receipt - you'll be responding to spammers without even realising.

If you do have 'Always send' selected, then make sure it doesn't respond to mailing lists or alternatively set the option to 'Never send a read receipt' or 'Notify me'.

No point in letting the spammers know that they've hit a valid address, not that they won't find it anyway, somehow.

Increase In Spam

In the last few days since my website returned to normal (thank goodness), I've been deluged with spam. All the usual stuff which I usually get in small quantities on a regular basis but from the sudden increase it looks as if the spammers have found a new location from which to operate and are spamming in earnest and getting through the filters.

Anyone else seen a significant increase over the last week or so?

How To Spot An Email Scam/Chain Email

Now I know many people will already be familiar with this and most people these days can recognise a spam or junk email - especially when it mentions all those important pills that can do wonders for certain parts of the anatomy but some emails are getting better and are more difficult to spot and there are still people who fall for the more obvious, older spams doing the rounds.

I know that I don't have a bank account with Halifax or Nat West, so I can safely ignore those emails saying my account information needs to be verified but if you do just happen to have an account with the particular bank that has apparently emailed you, you might think twice and even be tempted to click on the link - particularly when they include all the logos and an apparently valid website address and it all looks very official.

Here are a few tips to spot the scams:

1. Check the status bar at the bottom of the screen (if it's switched on) when you hoover over a link in an email. It's then pretty obvious to see that the link differs from the company purporting to have sent you the email. The text might say www.halifax.co.uk but in the status bar it shows as something different. They usually include the company address but something along the lines of http://alivoo.com/www.halifax.co.uk/.... or www.halifax.cs and then a string of letters and numbers or some other spurious domain.

2. Language is usually a give-away too. The grammar or spelling will be slightly suspect. Some are worse and more obvious than others. Banks will always address you by name and will never request your log in or personal information by email. Most phishing emails address you as 'Dear Customer'.

3. Install McAfee Site Advisor - or something similar. If you happen to click on a 'phishing' email - they'll block you from going directly to the page - put up a warning message that the site is a known phishing/scam site or source of spam.

4. If ANY email says forward this all your friends - DON'T. 9 times out of 10 or 99 times out of 100 they're nothing more than a chain email, they're not going to bring you untold riches if you forward it on or bring you loads of luck in the next 24 hours or find a missing child - who was never lost in the first place. Even if it says as verified by Oprah, Bill Gates or the Wessex Constabulary or whoever ... doesn't make it any more valid.

5. If there's a file attached- don't open it unless you know the person who's sent it to you. If it's a zip file attached - it's highly likely to be a virus.

6. If in doubt about the validity of an email and it's contents, check out www.breakthechain.org or www.snopes.com for all those urban myths, chain emails that do the rounds but you may not yet have come across. Our inboxes are full enough as it is without adding to them.

Install a good virus application, use a spam filter and you'll reduce the amount that gets through in the first place.

Is Email Ruining Your Life?

Are you deluged with email?

It's becoming a big problem these days. So much so that there's a Money Programme special tonight on BBC2 at 7.00pm - Email Is Ruining My Life.

Apparently:

two million emails are sent every second; 62 per cent of us check work emails when we're at home or on holiday; and in the UK, a third of office workers suffer from "email stress". It's pretty obvious that the technology is hugely beneficial to the workforce, but paperless communication needs to be controlled (rather than having it control us).

Is email a problem for you? Do you waste time on your emails rather than actually getting on with more important work? Are you checking your email constantly throughout the day?

• My first bit of advice is to switch off the email alert so that it's not pinging or flashing at you every time an email comes into your inbox.

• Set the mailbox options to only check for new messages periodically. That way, there's less distraction wondering what's come in during the last five minutes.

• Only check your emails two or three times a day. Unless you need to respond instantly to customers as soon as an email hits your inbox (unlikely), you really only need to check your inbox a couple of times a day, morning and afternoon. Do it AFTER you've achieved your first important task of the day. That way you're less likely to get distracted early on in the day.

• Create folders and filters to organise your incoming mail - automatically sort mail into the appropriate folder by subject or sender as it comes in, so you can easily see what's important and what's not.

• When you do check emails - set aside a specific time to do this - 15-20 minutes at a time. Don't jump straight in and start responding to the first one. Take a few minutes to sort them into urgent/action, non-urgent and reading. If you can't deal with an email straight away, schedule time to deal with it later.

Plan your time for emails in the same way you plan the rest of your time and it doesn't have to ruin your life!

If you miss the programme you can always read more tips on managing your email on my website.

Just Because I'm In Your Network

... does not give you the right to send me 'junk mail' or automatically add me to your mailing list. Or does it?

I produce a monthly newsletter but I don't make a habit of automatically adding everyone to it that I happen to connect with - either online or offline. Yes, I might invite them to join and occasionally send them the latest issue if I think it will be of interest but generally I take a passive approach with my newsletter list. After all one of the issues people have is too much email. Given what I do, I'm not about to add to that by sending them something they don't want - even if it is the only one they ever need to read!

If I did take this bold step - the newsletter has a verification process, so they have to confirm they want to receive my newsletter and they always have the option to opt out at any time.

The more networking I've done, the more I've been added to people's email lists. Promotions for vehicle leasing, newsletters from solicitors, IT companies, web designers, therapists etc. Most of whom I don't even recognise the name or company. Where did they get my address from? Then I come across their name as I browse through the many forums and online groups or turn up at a networking meeting - ah, that's where they got it from.

Is it generally considered open season on your email address if you're listed on the same business directory or have 'connected' through a networking site? An invitation to freely send you unsolicited email?

I do email my business contacts list every now and then, if I have something particular I want to share or a seminar I want to promote but I always include the option to be removed from my mailing list, if they don't want to receive these in future.

Easing Back Into Work

If you're easing yourself back into work after a long break over Christmas you might be finding it hard to get focused.

You've only got three days this week, so spend a few minutes thinking about what you need to get done in this time. Don't overload yourself, after all, it's a short week.

Write a list, sort it in order of priority with the important things to be done first and then plan when you're going to get these things done. Actually plan the time out in your day. What are your main goals for this year - what do you need to get done this month to Kick Start the year? People you usually deal with may still be on holiday this week, so it's a good time to clear the decks, plan for the year and set yourself up for the coming year.

Get the email backlog cleared but don't spend all day on it. Spend the first few minutes doing a quick scan of your Inbox. Quickly delete all the spam and things you don't need to read. Pick out and flag the emails you need to respond to and if they're Important - set aside time to respond or do them first. Read my article on clearing your mail backlog.

Unless you've started with great enthusiasm, fully refreshed after your time off - you're unlikely to be hitting the ground running and be able to launch yourself straight into a full day's work. Tackle your action list in chunks. Set mini-targets and spend just thirty minutes on the first task. If you finish it in that time, move on to the next one. Every couple of hours take a break or go and do something different.

Make sure you do one thing that will 'grow' your business each day.
Make sure you do one thing each day for yourself.

If you've had a busy Christmas with the usual activity of friends and family, don't end up at the end of the next three days worn out and exhausted. Ease yourself back in gently. If you're still in holiday mode - decide just to work for half a day or a couple of hours.

If you've planned out what needs to be done, you can be more effective by doing two or three things well rather than trying to do several things half-heartedly.

Email virus hoaxes/chain emails

Do you suffer from well intentioned people who forward you hoax emails? They sound convincing which is what makes people forward them on but 99.99999% of the time it's just another hoax/chain email, there is no such virus, Bill Gates really isn't going to give you thousands of pounds/dollars.

How do I know?

First give away - the bit that says "Forward this email to all your friends, family, everyone you know." Yep - that'll just clog up the mail system. ANY email that says that, is guaranteed to be a hoax or just a classic chain email.

Second give away - the fact that some apparently reputable source (CNN, Microsoft, AOL and McAfee) have 'verified' this as being serious (yeah right). "My friend is a lawyer/works for XYZ and said this was real".

Think about it - I could write an email right now and add in a few verified sources, quote a few press articles and it would mean nothing.

If you think there might 'just' be a grain of truth (there rarely is) check out http://www.breakthechain.org or http://www.snopes.com.

It will tell you all the hoaxes that are out there, how long they've been around and variations. This one's been doing the rounds since 2002.

Or if you're really concerned, then read warning page - http://www.virtualsalt.com/warning.htm

Valid viruses will come as an attachment in an email - usually a zip file. McAfee is constantly updating their data file, so if you've got up-to-date virus software - you have got virus software haven't you? - you're pretty safe.


P.S. By all means forward THIS blog to all your friends, so that less people get taken in by these hoax/chain emails.

More Spam Than Monty Python

Well, it seems to be raining spam at the moment. Someone has obviously got hold of my online email addresses and I'm being inundated with the standard spam messages every day. Annoying but unfortunately a fact of life in these days of the internet and email addresses.

It's all basically 'selling' the same stuff although it's interesting to see the new approach that spammers take every few months. The latest seems to be validating your login id to some spurious site - Wine Lovers and Cat Lovers spring to mind. None of which I've subscribed too, although it's sometimes difficult to remember what I've signed up with.

I've also had a few recent emails supposedly from Paypal with the title 'Protect Your Identity' - just the usual phishing emails. While the more obvious 'medical' spam and emails from Banks you've never heard of is easy to recognise and ignore, some of the less obvious one's may be leading you to sites which will download malware which could enable your computer to be used to send out further spam.

Just make sure your virus and firewall software is up-to-date.

Avoid The Phishers, Scammers and Junk Mailers

Sometime ago I installed McAfee Site Advisor (it's free) and it just sits in my browser checking out the sites I visit or google and advising on the status of the sites.

Out of curiosity this morning, I clicked on a phishing email I'd just received (I normally give them the treatment they deserve and just delete them) - it's for a Halifax Account and of course I don't have one - but I just wanted to see how good and convincing the site would be requesting all my personal financial information.

I didn't even get that far, Site Advisor intervened and told me that this was a phishing site, why and what to do about it. Good for them. It's also advised me when a site I've visited has been a source of spam or unwanted junk mail.

Perhaps if more people had this or similar software installed - less people would get taken in my these emails. I'm assuming that some people still fall for these emails otherwise they'd have switched to something else.

If you ever receive an email requesting personal information - especially from a bank - however convincing it may seem, NEVER click on the link. Your bank will always address you by name. Another way to check is either manually type the web address into your browser or if you hover over the link - it will usually show something that is obviously not the correct link and takes you to a false site.

If in doubt delete it.

It's Not Me ..!

Judging by the number of 'Mail Delivery' emails I've been receiving over the last few days, it looks as if someone is using my site addressed to send out spam. I’ve got used to the usual spam messages coming through on a regular basis and most of these get filtered out by various spam filters but this time my web address has been 'spoofed'.

It seems to be an inevitable part of having a presence on the web that at some point your web address will either be on the receiving end of endless spam or become the apparent deliverer of spam. I can only hope that they’ll move on but I've been getting a steady stream over the last few days. If anyone bothers to look at the header they'll see it hasn't really come from me but I would imagine it's just another annoying piece of spam ending in their inbox. I'm just hoping that most people these days have spam filters set up, so the majority won’t have got through but to anyone else ... I can only apologise.