Use spam checkers for ezine copy and pitches

Your ezine might be packed with free content and do excellent job promoting your expertise.

But it’s worthless if it ends up in the recipient’s spam folder, or in one of several other spam traps that have been set by Internet service providers.

That’s why it’s worth the extra time to run your ezine or important email you’re sending, like pitches to bloggers and journalists, through a spam-checker. Ditto for emailed press releases. Just one little innocent-looking word or phrase can send your email into a big black hole.

Here are four spam checkers:

EzineCheck is very easy to use but flags fewer words than some others.

SpamCheck will give you a report within seconds, but make sure you follow the directions exactly.

Lyris’ content checker gives you your score within seconds, and then emails you a list of offending words that need to be removed from the newsletter. This is the service I use, and I wish they were a little more specific when flagging words and phrases. Sometimes it isn’t apparent what they’re objecting to.    

Kick-start Cart, the shopping cart I use, has a built-in spam checker but it doesn’t seem to be as strict as some of the others.  (If you’re in the market for a shopping cart, check out the free ebook Internet Cash Machines: How to Pick a Shopping Cart System That Makes You Money.)

During the teleseminar I conducted a few years ago on “How to Turn Your Ezine into a Cash Machine,” I mentioned that run my ezine through two spam checkers: the one from Lyris and the one from Kick-start Cart, just to play it safe.