No way to ensure new domain stays free of junk mail
When we set up our company in 1997, we didn't think much about the internet address. We just came up with something short and catchy for which, inevitably, it was impossible to get a dotcom, or any other URL address.
Seven years after setting up our business, we are moving office, and have decided to migrate our web and e-mail address to a slightly better name.
Obviously, if we were changing the name of our company we would either think of a new word, or put two together that hadn't been put together before. But as it is we can't change the name of our company as we're very well known regionally now.
Is there any way to avoid spam? Although I use Mac OSX Mail to filter out the junk, my junk mail folder gets about 100 a day. Is it a matter of avoiding certain websites like eBay, or should we hide our identity when surfing? Now that we are getting 'clean' e-mail addresses, we were wondering if there's any way to keep them clean.
How can we get our unimaginatively named new website into search engines?
Peter Millward
Drum Music Limited
Causeway Bay
It is a good policy to teach staff to think twice before giving their e-mail addresses to websites, and never to reply to junk mail. Sadly, spam will eventually reach any address you publish, irrespective of where the address appears. You can try using disposable addresses for use on certain websites, but it can be difficult to keep track of these addresses.
There are two ways to handle spam: do it yourself at the client end or have it done at the server end, usually by your internet service provider.
Most ISPs in Hong Kong today offer a service for a small fee that will kill spam before you get it. As you say, you are now using Apple's Junk mail filter in OSX and it seems to be working. I know several people who use it and are happy with it. There are similar spam or junk mail filters for most mail clients.
The problem with mail filters is quite simple: You could be getting legitimate messages that are classified as 'junk' and dealt with accordingly. Most of these systems allow you to have a look before deleting. This is tedious, but it depends on how important it is to you to be able to get unsolicited e-mail messages. I have always been sceptical about anything automated: you never know what it is doing.
If you think you may lose business because of a badly set up spam filter, you will have to keep your existing system. If all the spam goes into the Junk folder, it is easier than having to do it yourself.
As for getting your site noticed, there are several things you may want to do. I see that you use a lot of Flash on the opening page, with very little text. You may want to reconsider this. If you pepper the home page with lots of words that describe your music and business, you have a better chance of being noticed. Look at searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/index.php as well. It has a lot of info on submitting your site to search engines.
