Have you ever heard the saying" If you don't get read, you're dead?" This most certainly applies to internet marketing as it pertains specifically to email marketing. The number one enemy to getting your marketing message read by email is something you have very little control over. SPAM! Here are some statistics you may not be ware of.

- A survey commissioned by McAfee states that 49% of Americans spend more than 40 minutes per week deleting spam, with 14% reporting they spend as much as three and a half hours a week -- or 7.5 days per year -- on this task. The McAfee Americans and spam Survey was conducted from June 6 through June 16, 2003 by Equation Research.

- According to the National Technology Readiness Survey and Maryland's business school, the average time spent per day deleting spam messages is 2.8 minutes.

- Nearly 80 percent of e-mails sent worldwide are spam, and research has shown that junk communications can cost billions - and not just because companies have to buy extra computer capacity to cope with the influx of e-mails.

- The time employees spend deleting junk e-mail costs companies nearly $22 billion a year, according to a recent survey.

- A random telephone survey of 1,000 adults by the National Technology Readiness Survey produced by Rockbridge Associates Inc. and the University of Maryland's Center for Excellence in Service revealed that 75 percent of Internet users receive spam daily. The average number of spam messages received per day is 18.5 and the average time spent each day deleting them is 2.8 minutes.

So what does this mean to a person who is trying to make money on the internet and wants to use email marketing as one of their ways to do that?

- It all starts with developing a relationship with your reader. You want to have all of your email messages only going out to people who request it. This means they are opt-in subscribers. Don't buy lead lists and do not bulk email.

- In the From: portion of your email always keep it the same. Either your name or the name of your business or newsletter if you publish one

- Have a heading the subject line that makes your subscribers want to read your message.

- Keep your messages short and interesting. Always provide value.

- Lastly do not over mail. There is nothing more irritating and will cause you to lose subscribers than mailing, and mailing, and mailing, several times a day, or even several times a week.

You cannot change the world when it comes to email spam. What you can do is increase the odds of getting your messages read and not creating your own internet marketing death.