Why should freelance writers check their spam folders?
There’s one obvious answer: sometimes a legitimate e-mail gets dumped there.
The Great Freelance Writing Project Sitting in My Spam Folder
So I’m scanning my spam folder a couple of months ago and –bam! – I see “possible project with *specific company name*.” Well, it turns out that the specific company is a higher education textbook publisher I’ve done many a project for over the last 15 years.
And the sender of the e-mail? She’s an independent developmental editor hired by that company to manage a project, and she needed freelance higher education writers like me.
The project was interesting and it paid well. We quickly worked out the details and I was off and running.
Plus there’s a strong possibility of more work with her in the future.
How To Scan Your Spam Folder
There is one key technique that will save you a lot of time: only look at the titles of the e-mails. The titles are enough to let you know whether or not a particular e-mail may have been inappropriately booted into your spam folder.
I skim down very quickly (a very useful speed-reading technique), with just light level of attention. I instinctively know what could be a real message and what could be fake.
Definitely do not look at the names of the senders. Many will sound vaguely familiar. Hmmm… Laura Peterson — didn’t I go to high school with her?
How Often Should You Check Your Spam Folder?
I check mine once a day, twice tops. Don’t let it be something you check every couple of hours; that will just distract you from your freelance writing projects and marketing activities.
I get maybe 30 spam a day in my main Yahoo mail account, and 5-10 in my Gmail account (although the Nigerians recently found my Gmail address, so that daily count is rising).
And There Could Be Other Important Things in There
Yes, I found an important work e-mail from an editor, but I’ve also found e-mails from friends, and even information from my own WordPress blogs (like comment notifications). You want to read these, of course, but you also want to mark them as “not spam” so e-mail from those people (or your own blog) goes into your inbox.
Key Caveat
Inevitably you’ll occasionally check a spam e-mail, perhaps because you think it could be legit or perhaps because you think it might be funny.
Important: don’t click on links in spam! Just clicking the link could load a nasty virus onto your computer.
Often the bad guys will try to trick you into thinking a link is legit. You can see the true link by hovering over it with your pointer, but unless you’re really savvy about web addresses you can still be fooled.
Your Take
Do you check your spam folder? Have you ever found anything important in there? Any advice to share?
You know some wannabe-Nigerians, too? I’ve not heard from any of my long lost relatives over “there” in a long time. I guess they gave up on me when I refused all their gracious offers, via Hotmail, to donate millions of dollars to me if I’d only be so kind as to give them all my personal banking information.
Somehow I’ve been blessed on my Gmail account as I rarely get spam there – maybe one spam item every three months, and even then, it’s not classic spam but just something from someone I actually know and maybe they used a different email address than usual so they ended up in there. I can’t miss it, either, as it shows up boldly letting me know there is a message in that folder.
My old Hotmail address, however, is rife with spam, and so I weaned away from that account and rarely check it anymore.
Mail clients, including Gmail and Yahoo, will show you how many e-mails are in your spam folder. I actually find that more legit e-mail gets incorrectly booted into spam by Gmail than by Yahoo.
You are fortunate that your Gmail account is relatively spam free. However, it’s likely that it will eventually be discovered and then sold in large lists to various spammers.
John,
Despite technological improvements over the years, we’ve yet to get beyond spam creeping it’s way into in boxes. I also check mine fairly frequently; typically every other day.
What amazes me however, is how many times my Yahoo emil will put mail for regular contacts into my spam folder, often for no apparent reason. I’m just starting to ramp my freelance business back up again, though, and still looking for the profitable freelance project hiding in my spam folder. Maybe today’s the day…….
Steve, I also see legit e-mail going into my spam folder for both my Gmail and Yahoo accounts, although it’s more common at Gmail.
I suggest you check your spam folder once or twice a day, just in case there’s a time-sensitive e-mail there. Often times when an editor is looking for a writer, she’s in a hurry and has contacted several people.
Hi John, I tried clicking the speed reading link but got a “Page not found” error message. I’d love to get more savvy at speed reading techniques–it’d really help me be more productive!
Thanks for pointing that out Judy. I just fixed the link.
And FYI, there’s a “Search Productive Writers” box in the sidebar to the right if you ever want to look for posts on a specific subject.
Thanks for the post, John. It’s good advice and something I never do. Of course I’m not going to miss any job opportunities (probably) but I might miss other important things. I’ll check my spam folder now.
All kinds of important e-mails can get sent to your spam folder, including e-mails from old friends or e-mails having to do with important financial accounts.
It’s always worth checking!
Hi, John.
I use a program called Mailwasher Pro to check my email. It runs in the background, checking email about every 20 minutes or so. When I open it I can see the header information. Clicking on one will give me the plain text version of the email. Those I don’t want to download are marked for deletion and that can be set automatically.
Bogus links can be determined in the text only view.
Once deleted files are “washed,” I can download the rest to my Outlook email on my computer.
The free version only works with one email account. The paid Pro version accepts multiple accounts.
The program can be viewed at the Firetrust website.
Steve
Maurer Copywriting
Mailwasher sounds like a good program for people who use Outlook.
I used a very old version of Outlook many, many moons ago, but I’ve been with Yahoo for 13 years and Gmail for 3 or so years.
Yes, it only works with a computer-based email client, but will check both Internet email (POP account) and IMAP.
You know, I’ve got a gmail account and a hotmail one too, the difference between the spam rates is incredible, if I had a penny for all the spam I get in my hotmail account I’d be a millionaire by now! You’re so right about them tricking you with their wonderful phrases and words that make you think the link is legit.
I also wonder how much the age of the email account matters and how public it is. My yahoo email address — the one with the most spam — is on several websites, which makes it easy for spammers to scrape. I’ve also had it for 13 years.
John, you’re so right! As usual! I check my spam box or folder every day or two… much longer than that and it’s too hard to check – to much stuff. I read the subject line that’s displayed. And I too have caught both job offers and important communications. Good article.
Anne, you’re smart to just read the subject lines, even though many of them aren’t G rated.
And even though I sometimes go a week with nothing real in my spam folder, what does occasionally turn up in there is often quite important.
It is really important to check spam folder for legit emails but sometimes spammers and scammers also pose as legit companies. We must be careful when checking them. Just like what John said, hover your mouse pointer over the links to identify if it is coming from reliable sources.
Just imagine the hidden treasures lurking in your spam folder. I have Gmail and am very pleased with the way it filters spam.
You can set preferences in your mail client to only accept e-mails if they have your name in the title. It has worked very well for me so far.
I didn’t know that it was possible to only accept e-mails with certain text, like my name.
I do know that most of the e-mail in my inbox, including from editors contacting me about projects, don’t contain my name.
I don’t think too many people check their spam folders, instead just trusting that the spam filter will only stop genuine junk from getting to their inbox. You make some great points, though. It’s definitely worth a few extra minutes here and there to skim your spam folder – even if you only ever come across one important email.
thanks for the tips.
I going to start checking more often. I miss a ton of important stuff by not checking or just deleting.
sw