Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods available - if done correctly. With the recent wave of email viruses going around, people are becoming more reluctant to open email from strangers, including me.

With that in mind, here are some highly effective methods to get your advertisement, that you worked so hard on, sent straight to my trash folder:

- If your email address looks like gibberish or appears to be coded as in x748cJhb@adomain.com, cBGtTnfP@anydomain.com, jt12355@anydomain.com, or 68340224@anydomain.com, I don't know you - TRASH!

- If your email address is friend@anydomain.com or addressed to friend@mydomain.com, I don't have any friends by the name of "Friend" and my name is "Edward" so I don't know you and you obviously don't know me. - TRASH!

- If your email subject begins with "ADV", or "URGENT" or Re: to a subject I never sent - TRASH! I'll take my chances not reading those "urgent" emails.

Ok, your ad has initially made it pass my "trigger-happy" delete finger and didn't get tossed immediately in the trash. Good deal, but still not there yet. Here's how to get your ad tossed in the trash after it's been opened but still not read:

- If your email requires me to write you via "snail mail" or call you (long distance at that!) to be removed from your list - TRASH! I don't want anything to do with you if I have to spend money to request removal from a list I shouldn't have been on in the first place.

- If your email begins with "Thank you for sending information on your money making opportunity, now look at mine…" - TRASH! If I'm a responsible emailer, I KNOW who I sent information to. If I can't remember, I must be a spammer.

- If anywhere in your email, you have a statement that begins with "This email is not spam…" - TRASH! If you have to say it, then it's spam!

- If anywhere in your email, you have the statement that's similar to "Under Bill s.1618 TITLE III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this letter cannot be considered spam…" - TRASH! Again, if you have to say it, then it's spam! Do your research. The bill never passed. Also, last time I checked, U.S. laws don't apply to other countries.

- If anywhere in your email, you promise that I can lots of money with little or no work - TRASH! Don't insult my intelligence.

There you have it. Eight effective techniques to NOT get your email advertisement read. Use them wisely and best of luck!