<b>Will the word "free" send me to spam?</b>

<b>Will the word "free" send me to spam?</b>

You've probably heard that certain words like "free" or "buy now" trigger spam filters. Mostly that's an old myth. Modern filters care far more about who you are than which words you use.

Reputation beats vocabulary. A trusted sender can say "free" all day; an unknown sender gets filtered no matter how careful the words.

— Step 1: Stop obsessing over banned-word lists. They're outdated.
— Step 2: ✅ Focus instead on the real signals: do people open you, reply to you, and rarely mark you as spam?
— Step 3: One word habit that does still hurt: avoid ALL CAPS and rows of !!! — they read as shouty, low-effort mail.

Why it matters: chasing word myths wastes time you should spend earning engagement.

Homework: write a subject line you were afraid to send. It's probably fine.

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