A normal healthy PreTeen girl, constantly bending boundaries and following urges. I remember this simple lesson in early life. One day I went into my parents bedroom and this sparkling banknote spoke to me on a bedside table. I immediately imagine eating all the sweets I was able to swallow from the nearby shop…which I […]
A normal healthy PreTeen girl, constantly bending boundaries and following urges. I remember this simple lesson in early life. One day I went into my parents bedroom and this sparkling banknote spoke to me on a bedside table.
I immediately imagine eating all the sweets I was able to swallow from the nearby shop…which I sneakily did! Later, my Mum pulled my ears off for being a thief and going to look in her bedroom when and where I was not supposed to go without explicit consent.
By this time, I could only listen to my rebellious full of naturally imbalanced hormones mind cursing:
You meen person, that was a TRAP, you put it there for me to find it and take it!!!
Mum carried on telling me she had taken it from my piggy bank, which had all my savings towards that doll I had been wishing for all year.
She was going to by it for me giving the rest of the money herself, but forgot the note when she put it down to get something from the wardrobe before leaving to take the train in a rush! Now, I would have to save it all by myself after spending a third of the target rotting my teeth…
What are spam traps?
Now, Mum did not set up a trap for me, but beware that ISPs and Blocklist Providers do!
Spamtraps are just regular email addresses created (or converted) with the single purpose of hiding and pointing out whoever finds them as spammers.
Types of Spam Traps
In reality, there are two possible distinct type of spamtraps: pristine and recycled.
Pristine spam traps
Pristine are email addresses created and placed hiding in documents/pages/blogs publicly available, but not easily found by regular direct human interaction. These addresses showing up in your DB, will label you a spammer for harvesting contacts.
Recycled spam traps
On the other side, recycled spamtraps are abandoned email accounts which have now been converted into traps and will flag you mainly as an “uncleaned” DB manager.
Now, you can imagine what these labels might do to your Reputation as a sender, right?
Harvesting means, no consent and uncleaned means no engagement (the same as no interest). What can I do about it – you’re thinking…
How to avoid spam traps
Basic rules of thumb are:
- # Build and use only your own DBs
# Pull out all contacts resulting in bounce immediately
# Validate any new contacts and ideally, send a subscription confirmation (Double Opt-In) before any further communications
# Stop sendings now or at least, gradually delay sendings to contacts with no interaction (no engagement – opens and/or clicks) until, eventually ceasing any communication with them.
We have a plan now…so, go and clean up your act, please!