by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.Com

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What I'm about to show you will increase the number of people that read your e-mail significantly. (I'm talking about legitimate opt-in or one-to-one e-mails here, not spam.)

Many e-mail clients will allow you to filter out "junk" based on a set of rules. For example, anything that starts with "ADV:" or includes such text as "this e-mail is sent in compliance with..." can be filtered out and sent directly to your trash file.

If you're like me and get tons of e-mail every day, this can be quite useful. I just don't have time to read about every time some South American pharmacy is running a special on Viagra.

The problem is that these rules are not always accurate. That is, sometimes these "junk e-mail" rules filter out important e-mail as well.

Surprisingly, these rules are not very forgiving at times. If I were to write such rules I would do so under the assumption that it is better to let some spam slip through than to erroneously filter out something important. But, we're not so lucky. Many of the junk filtering rules are valid, but others are not.

You should comb through any of the automated follow up e-mails or newsletters you send out and remove anything that might trigger a spam filter. Since some of these rules are quite arcane, it is probably best to send the e-mail to yourself and receive it with a client that has junk-filtering rules turned on. I've found that the Outlook junk filtering rules are the harshest, so you might try that. If the e-mail is not filtered, you're probably OK. If it is, play with it until the e-mail is accepted.

Here are some things to look for that you may not expect. The following will trigger junk e-mail filters in Outlook and keep your e-mail from being read:

"FREE"
When in ALL CAPS anywhere in your e-mail. You shouldn't use ALL CAPS for anything anyway, though, if you can avoid it.

"sales@anydomain"
If this is in the from address. Believe it or not!

"extra income"
When found anywhere in the message.

"for free?" or "for free!"
When found anywhere in the message. This one is really silly. I can think of quite a few uses for this phrase outside of junk e-mail...

Of course, there are quite a few other rules that will trigger junk e-mail filters, but these are ones that could easily trip you up. Just remember to test the mail yourself to make sure. Doing this will significantly increase the number of people that actually read the mail you send them.

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Article by Mark Joyner, CEO of Aesop Marketing Corporation and creator of 1001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics - a *must have* tool for anyone serious about doing business on the Internet. Do yourself a favor and check this one out today! Click Here

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