When you write an email to your prospects and customers, you expect it'll be delivered nicely into their inbox. But with today's ruthless spam filters, that may not be happening.

I've learned this the hard way. My seemingly innocuous word choices activated the filters which then sent my messages directly into the spam graveyard. I'm talking about phrases like:

• To get my Winning Sales Questions manual for free, just send me your SNAP Selling receipt.
• It's a real opportunity for you to get ahead of your competition.
• Click here to finish reading this article. It'll help you increase sales.

To me, they sounded fine. To a spam filter they sounded like -- well, spam.

Why? The word "winning" implies a scam. "Free" suckers people in. An "opportunity" is often a get-rich-quick scheme. "Click here" confirms the validity of your email address. "Increase sales" relates to too-good-to-be true offers.

You might be using bad words too, without even knowing it. If so, you might want to check out this Spam Words article that lists over 200 words/phrases that can get you in trouble.

Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.