Electronic Mail - Words to Avoid in E-Mail Messages

SUMMARY: When sending e-mail, there may be some words you should avoid that can label your e-mail as spam.

In today's world where 80%, 90%, or higher of all electronic mail is spam, many people, companies, and organizations employ the use of e-mail filters. These can help reduce the deluge of spam to a mere trickle.

While spam filters use a variety of techniques to determine which e-mail is unsolicited, containing malware links, etc., one popular technique is the scanning of e-mail subjects or messages themselves for various keywords and phrases. The more a particular e-mail message uses these words or phrases, the greater the chance the e-mail is spam and may be either automatically deleted or moved to a 'spam' folder.

Unfortunately, it is entirely possible that you may accidentally use some of these words in your own messages, whether they are personal or legitimate business e-mail. Thus, here are a few words you may wish to avoid in your e-mail communications. Note that this is not by any means an exhaustive list since each spam filter uses its own rules and keywords:

* aging
* and more
* dear friend
* free
* guarantee
* important
* lottery
* medicine
* mortgage
* pharmacy
* pill
* property
* rates
* urgent