Spam . . . Whether that word invokes the thought of a can of some gelatinous meat byproduct, or the relentless intrusion by shotgun wielding marketers, spam is a word that causes the edges of one's nose to crinkle as if slowly opening a longstanding trash can . . . In fact, the trash is invariably where most spam ends up.

Up until recently I was receiving up to 1,000 pieces of junk mail a day . . . A day!?!?! It's no wonder we are all spending so much time dealing with the mundane task of filtering these rats back into the sewers of our email programs.

Then the "ah-ha' moment struck when we realized our server had a subprogram called BoxTrapper that makes anyone whom you don't know, who wants to send you an email, reply . . . Just once . . . But reply to a message sent back asking to confirm if the sender is a real person. With that reply you are then "whitelisted' on our server and all future emails will go through without further ado.

In one day I went from 1,000 spams to exactly zero (0). I did, however, get mail from those who I knew, and a few from those who really wanted to communicate with me. Let me tell you . . . It was heaven! All of a sudden I am responding to emails and done in the same time it used to take just to filter through all of the junk . . . Awesome!!!

I'm not sure if you can activate the same program through your server, but if you are in the landscape industry and want to be kept abreast of the latest news and statistics and view some of the coolest projects on earth, you should set your email rules so that landscapearchitectWeekly is "whitelisted'.

As a company that communicates with an entire industry, we at LASN send several emails a month, some to almost all of you, and others to selected groups.

Every Tuesday landscapearchitectWeekly is sent to about 55,000 email addresses. While somewhere between 7% and 25% of those are opened and read each week, since there is so much content in that newsletter, we know that a decent percentage of these end up in the junk mail box. And that's a shame.

Editorially (if I do say so myself) the landscapearchitectWeekly e-newsletter is as good as it gets. There are about 25-30 in-depth project articles, trends and techniques, current housing statistics, laws and ordinances, new product introductions and all of it is only of interest to landscape professionals. Each item is shown with a descriptive graphic as well . . . And thus often labeled as junk . . .

When we do send out other emails it is usually either a call for editorial, a regional trade show promotion, a survey or vendor specific promotions, all of which are sent to those within a targeted geographic and/or demographic qualification.

I know that it sounds a bit like splitting hairs, but we think it is super important to only send emails, post cards, promotions and magazines to those of you who have identified yourself as someone who could benefit from the information.

Every Subscriber has access to their Personal Subscription Profile 24/7/365!
Just go to landscapearchitect.com. Under the menu item "Log-on/Sign-up' use the password on the front label of this issue and adjust your personal preferences so that the only things you receive from Landscape Communications are the things you tell us you are interested in. It only takes a minute to update your profile and set your preferences. It's absolutely free, and then it only takes a minute a week to scan the newsletter and see what's new in your industry.

Think about it, a world of no spam and only pertinent, desired emails . . . One minute a week is all we ask . . . .