Healthy Homes And Body

healthyhomesandbody, strictly prohibits its Web Site owners from using spam and other forms of Internet abuse to seek referrals. Spam is defined as including, but not limited to, the following:

• Electronic mail messages addressed to a recipient with whom the initiator does not have an existing business or personal relationship or is not sent at the request of, or with the express consent of, the recipient;
• Messages posted to Usenet and message boards that are off-topic (unrelated to the topic of discussion), cross-posted to unrelated newsgroups, or posted in excessive volume;
• Solicitations posted to chat rooms, or to groups or individuals via Internet Relay Chat or "Instant Messaging" system (such as ICQ);
• Certain off-line activities that, while not considered spam, are similar in nature, including distributing flyers or leaflets on private property or where prohibited by applicable rules, regulations, or laws

We recommend that you KEEP ALL:

1. EMAIL ADDRESSES
2. SIGN UP REQUESTS
And

3. CONTACT FORMS submissions that "ask" for more information, from you. This way you have proof in case down the road anyone disputes your emailed reports and other items. SAVE them on a separate floppy disk or re-writeable CD - this way they do not load up on your memory on your hard drive AND you can keep your business organized.

WHY IS SPAM BAD?:

Spam is bad for a multitude of reasons. Unlike the "junk mail" you receive in your "snail" mailbox, electronic junk mail costs the recipients more time and money than it costs the sender. For example, AOL has said that they were receiving 1.8 million spams from Cyber Promotions per day until they got a court injunction to stop it. Many major service providers estimate that upwards of 30% of their daily email traffic is spam, costing them upwards of $1 million per month in hardware, bandwidth, and administrative costs -- equaling nearly $2 per month per user. By contrast, the spammer can use a simple dial-up account with an Internet service provider and send out more than a half-million emails per day for around $20/month.

Spam is also an unequaled time-waster. It takes time to download, sort through, and identify junk mail, and then it takes time to discard it. Assuming that it takes the typical user only 10 seconds to download, identify, and discard a message, that equates to about 5,000 hours of connect time per day spent for an ISP the size of AOL.

No other kind of advertising costs the advertiser so little and the recipient so much. The closest analogy would be auto-dialing junk phone calls to cellular users or receiving a bill from your postman for "postage due" on that month's junk mail; you can imagine how favorably that might be received.

Anti-spamming legislation has already taken affect in more than a dozen states in the U.S., and has been banned in several countries in Europe.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us BEFORE you send out emails:

ENCOURAGING PROPER NETIQUETTE:

We are quite vigorous in enforcing our anti-spam policy, we understand that many members are not well-versed in Internet "Netiquette" and the traditions, protocols, and mores of Internet usage. To encourage our site owners and all Internet users to learn more about Internet Netiquette, below is information to assist you with appropriate methods of promotion and how to avoid running afoul of Internet norms.

• DOs and DON'Ts of Promoting Your Site


• DO mention your Web site to friends and family in person, following up with an email message later that day.


• DON'T gather up random email addresses and send unsolicited messages to individuals with whom you have no ongoing relationship, otherwise you are setting yourself up for SPAM COMPLAINTS which will shut your site down


• DO include a brief mention of your Web site in an email that you were already intending to send to your friends, family members, immediate coworkers or classmates with whom you regularly communicate by email.


• DON'T send referral solicitations to friends whose email addresses you've managed to dig up but with whom you haven't spoken in years.


• DO use mailing lists or mailing services that are verified "opt-in." ("Opt-in" means that the people on the list have *specifically* requested to be on the list and are willing to receive messages of the type you are sending.)


• DON'T use mailing lists or mailing services that claim to be "opt-in" but cannot prove it. (They must be able to demonstrate that the only way people have gotten on the list is through an affirmative act on their part.)


• DO use a signature when sending messages to those you know would not mind.


• DON'T add a signature when posting in ongoing discussions in Usenet newsgroups until you have read if it is within their guidelines.


• DO join and check out Usenet newsgroups or and read their rules.


• DON'T post a referral solicitation to Usenet newsgroups, message boards, or Web-based discussion sites, EXCEPT those specifically designated in their charter or by their operators for postings of a purely commercial nature. (Even for locations where commercial messages are *explicitly* authorized, postings may still be a violation if they are excessively cross-posted or posted more frequently than necessary.)


• DO mention your Web site in holiday cards, letters, and on appropriate correspondence.


• DON'T print out flyers and stick them on car windshields or distribute them where doing so constitutes trespassing or otherwise violates applicable rules, regulations, or laws.


• DO think of new and creative ways to gain new referrals.


• DON'T act on those ideas without first considering whether they might be inappropriate or prohibited.


• (When in doubt, ASK FIRST!)

REPORT SPAM:

If you have received a SPAM EMAIL, regarding the healthyhomesandbody Web Sites, please inform us! This is in violation of our healthyhomesandbody.com Anti-Spam Policy and we will not tolerate it.

Please forward all relevant evidence to: michael@heathyhomesandbody.com and place the words "spamabuse" in the subject line.