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Email Account Management

Spam 'n Virus Blast It! is divided into two sections...

• Email Account Management, where you set up and manage your individual email accounts (which are the only accounts that may receive email), and

• Whitelist Management, where you manage who is allowed to send you email.

For email to reach you, it must be sent to an existing email account and it must be from an address that's on your whitelist, unless it's sent to an account with a wormhole.

The ultimate goal is to receive only wanted email. With SVBI!, only friends and contacts know the email accounts that you create and they have a whitelisted address so they're allowed through!

SVBI! also eliminates spammers and nuisance email from non-serious visitors to your site, replaced by serious prospects who complete contact forms instead.

The result?

Near 100% elimination of spam and viruses, and near-zero "false positives."

False-positives will be reduced to a very small number of low-potential, unknown contacts (e.g., a visitor who will not take the time to complete a contact form but prefers to guess at a non-published email address, and even then will not reply to the Challenge-Response system in place).

Use this section of SVBI! to set up and manage your email accounts.

Definition of an "Email Account"

We use the term "Email Accounts" specifically to mean email addresses at your SBI! domain that are meant to receive email. These accounts can also be used to send email. Email accounts simultaneously handle two major roles...

1) Business specifics

You can create an unlimited number of email accounts for different business reasons...

• different individual names (sue@, bob@)

• different functions (sales@, prez@)

- and -

2) Spam and virus protection

It's a very simple concept. If someone sends a message to an email account that does not exist, SVBI! refuses the mail. (The old concept of a "catchall email" address is now a spam-trap, unfortunately.)

Take a few moments now to create a few email accounts, based on your own particular needs and plans. Once you create them, SVBI! handles a good part of email account management automatically (as described below), just like it does for whitelist management.

SVBI!'s Automated Account Creation

You can manually add or delete as many email accounts as you like. Beyond that, though, SVBI! keeps your list of addresses current.

It starts with the system setting up a startup default email account (created for technical reasons), which you likely will not use much. And then it scans other Solo Build It! modules to make sure that they're "in sync" with SVBI!.

First...

System Default

SBI! "starts you off" with a "default startup" email account, which starts with the first 8 letters of your domain name followed by the usual "@yourdomainname.com." SBI! creates this for technical reasons.

You may use it or ignore it, but you will not be able to modify it or delete it. The only reason we tell you about it is that you might notice it and wonder what it's for.

SVBI! also adds other addresses (@yourdomainname.com) to your list of email accounts automatically if the system requires one to complete a build process... so you will not need to remember to do it! Here they are...

1) Autoresponder Reply-to Addresses Used in Form Build It!

When you create an automated reply ("autoresponder" AKA "AR") to a form submission, it comes from a "Reply-to" address that you set (this is true for both single and sequential ARs).

SVBI! adds that Reply-to address to your list of email accounts. This permits each person who receives your autoresponder to reply to you (since the email address that s/he submitted in the form is automatically whitelisted).

Note: If you don't create one, SBI! will add your default account automatically. You cannot delete your original default account. You can, however, make another account your default. You can then use that account for your Reply-to address.

2) Reply-to addresses in Notification Emails Used in Form Build It!

When you create a Notification email in Form Build It!, it comes from a "Reply-to" address that you set. That Reply-to address is added to your list of email accounts. This permits each person who receives your notification to reply to you (since the email address at which s/he receives the notification is automatically whitelisted).

Note: If you try to delete that email account in SVBI!, you'll receive a message telling you that the account is still in use. Remove the form or change the Reply-to address in Form Build It!. You'll then be able to delete the account in SBI!.

3) Send To, CC addresses in Notification Emails Used in Form Build It!

When you create a Notification email, you can send it to a "primary" Send to address and two CC addresses. If you send any of those to an email address at your SBI! domain, SVBI! adds it to your list of email accounts. (Otherwise, you would not receive the notification that you set FBI! to send you!)

4) "Reply-to address" Used When Mailing Newsletter

You set this address up when you mail out the first issue of your opt-in newsletter. Anti-spam laws require subscribers be able to reply to a functioning email address.

Note: If you try to delete that email account in SVBI!, you'll receive a message telling you that the account is still in use. Remove the opt-in form from your pages, or change the Reply-to address in MailOut Manager. You'll then be able to delete the account in SVBI!.

5) Notification Email Used to Alert You to a Content 2.0 Submission or Comment

Any time a visitor submits content to your site through a Content 2.0 invitation, you receive a notification email. SBI! sets up that account automatically as soon as you create your first invitation.

6) Your Email Address in "My Account"

We use the email address provided by you in your "My Account" section of SBI! (accessible via the top right corner of Site Central). If that email address is "@yoursbidomainname.com," we add that address to your list of email accounts.

Strategies for Creating Email Accounts

1) Create as many email accounts as you need.

You can create an unlimited number of email accounts for your SBI! domain. This gives you total flexibility to manage your business and protect yourself against spam and viruses.

The general rule of thumb, though, is to "Keep It Simple." Create as many email addresses as you will need to run your business. SVBI! refuses all inbound email to any other address.

All set? Got your starting list of SBI! email addresses (remember, they must be @yourSBIdomainname.com addresses) that you will be using to send out and/or receive email? Great!

Click on the Create New Accounts button and follow the instructions/online help to create all the email accounts that you need. And that word "need" is important...

Create as many as you need, and no more than that. Keep it simple.

And that brings us to the second step in proper email account management...

2) Do not open doors for spam and viruses.

One of the most common errors by small business people today is to include a list of "contact email addresses" on their sites. Each of those addresses (sales@, info@, support@, etc.) invites spammers to waste your precious time by sending tons of spam to those addresses.

Some solo proprietors list as many as 20 different addresses, as if they were Microsoft. They aren't fooling anyone. But those spambots love them. They'll send spam to all of them!

So...

Do you want your visitors to contact you?

Use forms instead of email links, whenever possible...

Never put email addresses on your site. Email addresses on sites are open invitations to spammers to bombard you.

Instead, create a contact form. Contact forms...

• foil spammers

• make a professional impression upon your visitor

• store every submission in your online database

• include SVBI! in helping with your email account management

How does a form include SVBI!. Simple. The visitor submits her email address -- SVBI! adds it to your whitelist.

SVBI! also places the Reply-to address used in your autoresponder onto your list of email accounts. So a clean line of communication is open between you and your visitor... and no one else.

You'll be able to respond to inbound inquiries from your site a whole lot better if you use contact forms instead of email addresses on your site. And the benefits snowball -- as your site grows and becomes busier, spam loads would normally become overwhelming... but not with SVBI!.

Create, Edit, and Delete Email Accounts

You can add (unlimited), edit and delete email accounts in the Email Account Management section of SVBI!. You'll find more specific online help in each of these sub-sections. Don't miss how to create and use a very special kind of email account... the Wormhole!

Create New Email Accounts

Edit Email Accounts

Delete Email Accounts

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