• Intro
  
• Featured Article - Email Woes - Sharla Price
  
• The Office Corner
  
• Fr~e Stuff
  
• Subscriber Feedback
  
• Grammar Question of the Month: Capitalization: Family Titles
  
• Claudia Slate's Tech Tips: - When Relatives Get a New Computer
  
• Tech Corner
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Trivia
  
• Word of the Month: Antimacassar
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  

* Ken Evoy recently released a new tool that allows you to send your email to see how it is scored by Spam Assassin. I learned that I just ran it and got a 3.9 score on this ezine, along with other tips to make future issues more acceptable.

This tool also tells what generates points -- so you can fix some of them before you send your email and it gets trapped in the filters. I heard about this from Paul Myers of Talkbiz.com.
Click here for your test: makethat-spamcheck@sitesell.net

NOTE: You must type the word TEST (in capital letters) as the first word in the subject line in order to get the response.

* We don't yet have our book winner, but will announce it in the February issue.

ISPs and web hosts are definitely getting tough on sp`m. Be careful where your online articles get published! If your articles are published in an e-zine that was built with a questionable mailing list, you might have some trouble with your web host.

Example: let's suppose that XYZ e-zine is going to showcase your great article about Virtual Assistance. To promote your business, you've included your email and website address at the article's end. The e-zine goes out, and somebody reports the e-zine as sp~m.

Surprise! You might just get an email from your web or email host that you are violating their terms of service, even though you didn't send out the e-zine.

Here's why: automated sp`m reporting tools like SpamCop will search through a spam-reported email for any listed email addresses and website URLs. If your email and/or website are listed, SpamCop will look up your host and send an automated email. Your host may choose to take action or not.

More and more web hosts see this activity as contributing to the sp`m problem and are reserving the right to shut down web sites and/or email accounts without notice.

I'm not sure how tough the web hosts actually are, but it is good to know that many reserve the right to be tough in their terms of service. Imagine how difficult it could be to defend yourself when it's not even your mailing list!

So what can you do to help save the headache of dealing with this potential mess?

• Be careful where your articles get published!
• Ask how the subscriber base was built, and think twice if the e-zine adds subscribers without permission.
• Look for e-zines with a double opt-in feature (once an email address is entered on a site, the site should send an email asking the recipient to reply to enable the subscription). At least with double opt-in, you can be reasonably certain that the subscribers ASKED to be on the list and will probably not report the e-zine as sp`m.

Sharla Price

1. THE MOST USEFUL WEBSITES FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATORS: offered by Bovée & Thill LLC.
http://www.leadingtexts.com/instructor_resources.php

2. CALENDAR SITES: Some of my IVAA colleagues (www.ivaa.org) recently listed their favorite sites for holidays and other observances:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/36/stIpAch1.html
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=2003&country=1
http://www.world-calendar.com/
http://www.lib.ci.tucson.az.us/bkmkspub/holidays.htm

Thanks, Andrea Pixley (www.andreapixley.com), Elsie Lee (www.elix.com.sg), and Sandi Thomas (http://www.vaproservices.com/).

3. WALL STREET JOURNAL STARTUP JOURNAL FOR ENTREPRENEURS: comes from the editorial resources of The Wall Street Journal, as well as WSJ.com, industry experts and Startup Journal's editorial team.
http://www.startupjournal.com/

FR~E BOOK! Subscribers are eligible to sign up to win a fr~e copy of "The Home Office and Small Business Answer Book: Solutions to the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Starting and Running Home Offices and Small Businesses" by Janet Attard a Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, or Allan Wyatt's book, Word 2002 Beginner's Guidebook. http://www.vitalnews.com/wordtips/ Sign up once a month at http://www.ossweb.com/freebook.html - Winners announced here!

I just wanted to thank you for the Communication Expressway that finds its way into my inbox every month. I love the articles and links that you provide, especially in The Writer's Corner and the Recommendations sections. I am already looking for the next issue!!!

Sheryl Michilli, GVA - Kaisana Administrative Support
"Virtually anywhere, virtually anytime!"
email: smichilli@kaisana.net - website: http://www.kaisana.net

Q. When do I capitalize words like "mother" and "father?

A. The Gregg Reference Manual says to capitalize such words when they stand alone or are followed by a personal name. Examples: I'll ask Mother and Dad and Aunt Jane.

You don't capitalize family titles when they're preceded by a possessive (my, your, his, her, our, and their, etc.), and simply describe a family relationship. Examples: I'll ask my mother. Do you think your brother John will join us? My dad agrees.

Do capitalize words like uncle, aunt, or cousin when they form a unit together with the first name, even when they're preceded by a possessive. Example: My Aunt Jane.

If you have a friend or relative who received a new computer for Christmas – and maybe they have not had one (and their own access to the Internet) before, you may want to head over to Lockergnome www.lockergnome.com/issues/daily/20021217.html and print out Chris Pirillo's list of tips for new users.

If they have cable or satellite TV, you may want to show them how to find Tech TV (www.techtv.com). Tell them about the wisdom of keeping a computer journal and suggest they record everything they download and install.

Whatever you do, please tell them about Anti-virus software, and make sure they know how to get the updated virus definitions. Tell them they will have to purchase a subscription renewal once a year unless they're using a free program like Grisoft's AVG. And that they only need one anti-virus program. Two is not better.

Besides advising about how ISPs limit the total amount of mail you can have stored in your InBox on their servers, a good friend will educate them about NEVER, EVER responding to spam, regardless of how great the offer seems to be. And how to get a throw-away email address for signing up for stuff on the net.

This may be a situation where a "little white lie" about the horrible things that can happen to you if you do – even when the company being advertised is reputable – will save us all hours upon hours of time in the months and years ahead. Face it, spammers just sit there waiting for every new crop of unsuspecting victims to start signing up for every free offer on every site they visit. You will not have to stray far from the truth to make it pretty scary!

Claudia Slate - Dakota Technics
clslate@dakotatechnics.com
http://www.dakotatechnics.com
Defining the Data Your Business Depends On

1. CONVERT ME: Converts Weight and Mass; Distance and Length; Capacity and Volume; Area; Speed; Temperature; Time; Pressure; Energy, Work, Torque; Power; Circular Measure; and Computer Storage.
http://www.convert-me.com/en/

2. COLOR SCHEMER: Automatic Color Schemer. Only works in IE 4+.
http://www.colorschemer.com/online/

1. BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS: Focusing on the UK.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SMilne6/bksl.htm

2. ACTION TALES: Want to have your book published in ebook format and sold for you on the Web? Bob McElwain has a site you may want to visit!
http://actiontales.com/

3. WORD SPY: Devoted to recently coined words, existing words that have enjoyed a recent renaissance, and older words that are being used in new ways.
http://www.wordspy.com/

1. THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT: by John Godfrey Saxe.
http://www.wordfocus.com/word-act-blindmen.html

2. ANYTHING LEFTHANDED ONLINE: For left-handed people and left-handed products.
http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/

3. BRENDAN'S ON-LINE ANAGRAM GENERATOR: Takes a word or phrase and creates other English words. My name became: JUDD OVER FLY JUDD LEVY FRO - JUDD LOVE FRY - JUDD LEVY FOR JUDD ROVE FLY - JUDD VERY FLO - FOLD JUDY REV
http://www.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/anagrams.html

A cover to protect the back or arms of furniture. Read more about this word at http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/a4etym.htm. And My mother recently gave me some beautiful antique crocheted antimacassars and they're in use on a recliner and a loveseat. Shades of the past!

1. BUSINESS NAME & TAG LINE GENERATOR: Do you have trouble trying to figure out how to create a good sig/tag line? Marcia Yudkin has some ideas. Lots of marketing "before and after" articles and samples. She's a keeper.
http://www.yudkin.com/generate.htm

2. CALENDARS THROUGH THE AGES: The Christian calendar (Gregorian calendar) is based on the motion of the earth around the sun, while the months have no connection with the motion of the moon. The Islamic calendar is based on the motion of the moon, while the year has no connection with the motion of the earth around the sun. The Jewish calendar combines both, in that its years are linked to the motion of the earth around the sun, and its months are linked to the motion of the moon. See examples of all three, and further explanations.
http://webexhibits.org/calendars/year.html

3. FROOGLE GOOGLE AND GOOGLE VIEWER: Frugal Google is Google's new price comparison search engine, while Google Viewer displays your search results in a continuous scrolling slide show.
http://froogle.google.com/
http://labs.google.com/gviewer.html

* Happy new year! May I recommend two online educational resources that offer courses on software, the Internet, writing, programming, business organization, and more: Virtual University (http://www.vu.org) and LVS Online (http://www.lvsonline.com). The tuition is reasonable, and most of the time you come away from a course a winner.

* Two online educational resource that a member of the Freelance Listserv mentions (specifically for writers).

Absolute University: http://www.absolutewrite.com/classes/Conner/treks.htm
Writers college: http://www.writerscollege.com.

Need editing for any type of books, e-mail letters, sales letters, press releases, or text on your website? Or need a site analysis?

Email me at copyediting-help-needed@ossweb.com - if I can't do it, I'll find someone who can. More at http://www.ossweb.com/m3.html

ARCHIVES FOR ALL COMMUNICATION EXPRESSWAY ISSUES
http://www.ossweb.com/ezine-archive-index.html

Questions, comments, recommendations?
Contact Judy Vorfeld at www.ossweb.com.contact.html

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