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Friday, February 29, 2008

*&%$#@* Your Email Got Trashed

With a little imagination and a bit of a potty mouth, it shouldn't be too hard to think of what the "Seven Dirty Words" might be in George Carlin's infamous 197s stand-up comedy routine.

SubscriberMail offers up a different set of words, not ones that the Federal Communications Commission might have an issue with, but rather those that email junk filters might flag and not deliver to inboxes. The Lisle, Ill.-based email marketing services and technology company issued a white paper, titled "The Seven Dirty Words you can't say in subject lines; plus 100 others."

Among the words that make the black list were pretty obvious ones that you likely have seen in your own junk folder:

  • Eliminate dept
  • Free, or FREE, or maybe Free access, free gift, free info and free instant
  • Any words having to do with sex, pornography, cures or medication; and more specifically, Cialis (though nonprofits probably don't have to worry about putting that last one in an email subject line)

Other words might not be as obvious, or they might be more frequently used by nonprofits:

  • Undisclosed recipient
  • Text that has gaps, or numerical digits at the end
  • Multi level marketing

For a complete list of the dirty words to avoid in subject lines, visit: http://www.subscribermail.com/white_papers/seven_dirty_words/
-Mark Hrywna

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