You sure did a good impression of somebody who was doing OK! (and how I got my spam under control)

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about, because for at least two years, I didn't even bother to *try* to check my email! I just left it there until it overflowed and got dumped.

Can you IMAGINE how many sales that has probably cost me? And how much credibility??

(I confess, it was a stupid solution to a horrible problem, but I had to earn a living and teach the kids, and I just couldn't face it; if not for this board, my web site would have crashed and burned.)

Here's how I've gotten my email and spam under control:

> Right now, my web hosting account is setup to deep-six any message that is
> not routable. In other words, if I don't specifically have a POP account,
> alias, or forwarder setup, the message gets dumped and I never see it.

That's mistake #1, IMHO: The problem with letting anyone but you dump your email is that something important could slip through the cracks (yeah, like nothing important slipped through my cracks in two years, BWAHAHAHAHA!).

> This eliminates all the nasty spammers who send email to 1@mauder.com,
> 2@mauder.com, 3@mauder.com, 123@mauder.com, etc, etc, etc....

Thats mistake #2, IMHO: I had tons of email addresses on my sites so I could pre-sort my mail here, there, and everywhere, and so I could keep track of where the email was coming from, etc.

That meant I got maybe 32 copies of a single spam, and it was killing me.

I have eliminated all but Lesley at friendsinbusiness dot com (written as a link of course). I am doing all my pre-sorting by filling in the subject when the link is clicked (such as "put me on the mailing list" or "send me whatever").

The rest of the emails just go to that one address with whatever subject the person wants to type in and I have to dealwith that, but.....

That has eliminated TRUCKLOADS of the stuff!!

I'm still getting spam for many of the old addresses because they were on every list in the universe... but it has cut way WAY back (only about 1,000 a day now!), and like the hundreds of junk faxes I used to get, I know it will eventually fizzle out and all my spam will come to the one address (and this being a good thing, one has to ask, "How low have we sunk?")

Another possibility is using only ONE address and shrinking it. (I was using shrinkmylink, but they were shut down; you might be able to use tinyurl, but I've decided not to in case something happens to their site too. I prefer not to rely on anyone but myself.)

Anyhoo...

> MailWasher
> always crashed my system, so I got a refund on that...

It didn't crash mine, but it shuts itself off after checking about 5 messages, so it's useless (and I haven't gotten a refund).

> How does Pegasus help with your spam problem? Isn't that just a free email
> client?

Yup, and it's been a lot of work -- but no more than MailWasher really, except I can't blacklist.

I have made a "probably junk" folder.

I have made a few other folders to presort the emails with a pre-typed subject.

I have made dozens and dozens of one- and two-word filters. I also painstakingly entered all those little foreign characters. And I filter out email to all the addresses I am no longer using (I'm sure I'm missing the occasional legitimate email this way, but you have to cut the cord somewhere).

The vast majority are automatically deleted (you can't go wrong deleting "cialis" and "rolex" and "teen babes"). The ones that are "iffy" go into "probably junk" and I look at them when the spirit moves me (and sometimes I just dump them, but at least I have the option of looking).

Now, when I download 500 emails, I end up with maybe 50 in my "new mail" folder. With one click I sort them by subject, and it takes seconds to roll through and delete almost all of them. If you aren't sure about one, just delete the pile above it, and the one you're on will show in the preview window (you don't have to open it) and you're on a roll again.

I am very, very pleased with this system.

I haven't set it up for FFAT or CCHELL yet because I'm hoping I can figure out how to import my filters, but so far no luck.

If I haven't said it, I use a separate copy of Pegasus for each web site, and another one for my Cox.net mail.

> Thanks for the encouragement by the way... I'm surprised and honored to be
> considered a "fixture" in your mind. However, my website has
> sputtered around for what seems like years and hasn't really become
> anything I'm proud of yet.

You sure put on a good show :-)

> to get clear on my goals and decide what direction I really want to take
> things online.

SUCH A PROBLEM!! I have the same one, and it's why I've been talking about turning this into a living for years and years and YEARS but have never gotten close.

I thought the final step would be dumping my transcription business, but then I moved and continued transcribing (the only difference being that I was working for the lady who used to work for me, and I no longer had to deal with all the junk that went with it).

Well now the transcribing is gone -- and so is our house and our dinner if I don't turn this around NOW. I've talked about "need" and "panic" before, but there was always the typing so the panic may have been real, but the need wasn't.

It's very real now.

Sure, it's still out there -- I could go to work for another transcription company tomorrow if I wanted to -- but I DO NOT WANT TO. That's why I'm taking one to two months completely away from transcribing and risking the farm to try to make a go of the internet businesses.

I have no savings -- only two months' mortgage money because I was never paid on time for my typing, which suddenly seems like a good thing, yuk yuk yuk.

If I fail, I am in serious, SERIOUS trouble from which we might never recover.

> I never focus on any one thing long enough to MAKE it
> successful.

Well I don't have adult ADD (my husband does and it's hell, but I digress).

What I do have are WAY too many ideas and WAY too many directions to go. The internet is overwhelming. I think the difference between us and the "successful" people is that they know how to channel all this information and we don't.

Out of necessity, my days of drifting are over. I'm making a plan and sticking to it. I'm writing the usual huge, multi-volume plan/list (I have to do it, the list calms me down) -- but once it's written, I'm putting it away. I'm taking ONE STEP AT A TIME -- that's ALL that goes on my list -- and when it's done, I'll go back to where I hid the rest of the list and fetch the next ONE thing. It's the only way I can do it.

Why don't you try that, Dave Mauder??

Let's do it together!!

Let's show 'em we can FINALLY get it right, okay???

I desperately need some accountability. (I knew that about losing weight so I'm planning a blog on FFAT -- but it never occurred to me that it might help me build my internet income too.)

I think I'm going to start a blog on this site to record my steps (and confess my transgressions, like the 2-1/2 hours I wasted last night when my daughter, enthralled with her new goldfish in the little aquarium she got for Christmas, said, "Mommy, do fish pee?" and I said, "I'll look it up" and the rest is history).

Do you want to blog with me?

We can do it here. We can keep each other on track -- and if it's interesting enough for anyone else to read, our Board Buddies can keep both of us on track. If nobody else reads it, just the two of us can keep each other on track.

????????

Luv,

MaaMaw