Have you ever spent hours, upon hours, writing a great marketing e-mail, spent quality time sending that e-mail to prospects, and had very little (if any) return through sales? For new e-mail marketers, this can be very discouraging and extremely frustrating. It completely drains all hope and, if it is a first-time experience, people almost instantly quit.

When this happens, and I don't care what Oprah tells you, it IS your fault - but NOT because you're a bad writer, NOT because you are bad at creating opt-in lists, NOT even because you are terrible at selling. You may have all of these qualities and MUCH, MUCH more - But the fact still remains... If you do not format your e-mail to be spam filter friendly, your e-mail will end up in the spam box so quickly, you might as well have just printed out 100 copies of your e-mail, tossed them in a shredder, and sent them to the local landfill.

So, without further ado, here are three key things to know before sending your e-mail to be judged by spam filters:

1. Know What Spam Is Understand that spam is NOT a "sales" e-mail. Spam is unsolicited, unwanted (and often ANNOYING) bulk e-mail. If it often referred to as "UBE" - Unsolicited Bulk E-mail. As this clearly points out: If the recipient WANTS your e-mail and WANTS to know what you're selling then this is true-blue e-mail marketing and the furthest thing from "spam".

2. Format Properly AVOID spam filters by not committing the following mistakes: -Do not use sappy phrases like "You won't see this anywhere else!", or "Click here!" - Anything that READS like a gimmick will surely be spotted and trashed quickly by the spam filter, or (if for some strange reason it actually goes through) the recipient! -Using ALL CAPS IS NOT ONLY ANNOYING BUT A RED FLAG FOR SPAM! -Using bright red or green as font colors. Almost everyone loves Christmas but nearly all spam filters HATE it! -Sending little or no text and one giant image. Spam filters cannot read images so they automatically think that you're trying to do some online sleight of hand. -Sending the same message (especially a "test" message) to people with the same company e-mail address. Company's often have built in e-mail firewalls that presume you are attacking their employees with spam. -Avoid using the word "Test" in the subject line. -Avoid using sloppy HTML. This includes designing your HTML in a word processor and exporting to HTML (this is some of the most sloppy HTML you will ever see).

3. Get White-Listed Get your business e-mail address and IP address "white listed" by AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, Gmail, and all other popular e-mail providers. If your e-mail address and IP address are on the "trusted" list, the chances of your e-mail going through to more people increases dramatically. Don't forget that it is also important to white list all of your prospects you are sending e-mail to as well. Some e-mail providers can tell if the person you are sending e-mail to is on any sort of "friends list" you may have through your provider.

It is very important to understand that people HATE spam - This is a universal opinion that almost everyone shares. It is also just as important to understand that just because your e-mail may be trying to sell something to someone, that does not label it as "spam". If you are respectful, ethical, and responsible with your e-mail marketing, people will line up at your virtual inbox begging for advice and will be more than happy to buy products from you that will help them succeed.