It is glaringly apparent to anyone using email for any purpose that email delivery has seriously deteriorated. Today you're lucky if you can get a message through to friends and family. By the same token, you are lucky to find a message you really want in your Inbox.

In the midst of ISP filters, mailbox filters and ill-programmed 'terminator type' programs, you can count yourself fortunate if you do receive email you want.

As an ezine publisher it was obvious that it was time to take look at alternative delivery methods. California has taken a tough stand against senders of unsolicited mail as has the U.K. Whether they will be able to enforce these laws is another matter.

The abuse of a once effective tool was never really addressed at a time when it could have made a significant difference. Too much time was wasted on creating 'eliminator tools' instead of addressing the real problem. If my Inbox is any indication, it seems that the only people sending mail today are the ones who created the problem in the first place.

Even the publishers who send a note telling you where the latest issue can be found online are still relying on email to deliver that message.

Go ahead - enter a search in Google or your favorite search engine for 'email is dead'. It will prove very enlightening. You'll see many people have made the choice to utilize other methods such as RSS feeds or weblogs to deliver their content. If you haven't taken the time to keep up with what is happening to date, you better start today because this directly affects your business.

We've all heard the expression 'the value is in the list'. What most people fail to understand is a good list has nothing to do with the numbers. It has to do with the responsiveness of that list. How much of that list ends up in the cyberspace garbage heap every time you send to it? This is costing you in time, money as well as a serious loss of your marketing ability.

eMail was an effective tool. Due to the amount of abuse occurring on a daily basis, this is no longer true. The crap you didn't ask for keeps arriving in your Inbox while you have to take extra steps to ensure your message gets to your audience using silly tactics such as masking words so they don't trip the filters. eMail has virtually destroyed our interaction with subscribers.

Can email be salvaged? I don't think so. Salvage is defined as recovery, reclamation or retrieval. As a verb it means save, rescue, retrieve, recover or restore. It's too late for email. While tools such as RSS feeds, weblogs or even chat mediums are a step in the right direction, they don't address the overall needs of most publishers today. And that is being able to reach out to your readers with two-way communication.

Some people are afraid of new technology while others believe rss feeds and weblogs don't go far enough in their ability to reach and interact with their subscribers.

This is where Quikonnex truly shines. As well as being a media- rich (straight text, html, audio and video) content management system, it provides the publisher and subscriber with several ways to communicate and interact without the use of email. With Quikonnex you don't have to concern yourself with any of the 'techie stuff' because the creators have ensured that it's simple to use regardless of your technical abilities. Quikonnex offers easy two-way communication with your readers and visitors in both a private or public medium. And best of all, Quikonnex can be operated from your desktop. You can be publishing in minutes after being set up. It's absolutely safe and it's easy to use.

The subscriber is back in charge of their subscription while the publisher can get back to publishing. Everybody wins.

We have a responsibility to our subscribers to inform them when major changes occur on the Internet. It's important to the success of your business to understand when it's time to implement those changes. Especially when that change will be good for them too.

It's time to take a stand. No More eMail.

Lois publishes KIT (Keeping In Touch) a weekly ezine with straight forward articles, helpful hints and suggestions, interaction with subscribers and more. Easy to subscribe: KIT Special report Email Is Dead - Get Over It can be downloaded here: NoMail.zip

This article may be used in your ezine or published on your website as long as the resource box is included and the links are live. A notice of it's use may be sent to me at: Lois Thank you.

Word Count: 764