"SPAM And The Art Of Marketing Maintenance..."

Written by Roger J. Burke


Here is my latest article. It may be freely used in ezines, on websites or in e-books, as long asrepparttar Resource Box is left intact.

I would appreciate notification of where it was used, and if possible, a copy ofrepparttar 132814 ezine or newsletter that it was used in. Please send notification mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com

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I detest SPAM, but there's an awful lot of it going aroundrepparttar 132815 Net, as you know. Co-incidentally, there's an awful lot of another-four-letter-word-that-starts-with-S going around with it (just so there's no mis-understandings, I'm talking about porn)!

If you don't know what SPAM is, most Netizens would maybe say "any unsolicited commercial email". Others, more strident, would say "any email I didn't want", which sort of begsrepparttar 132816 question, doesn't it?

Now, it (almost) goes with saying that unsolicited, bulk, commercial email is - to put it delicately - a pain inrepparttar 132817 posterior. We've all been getting a lot of it already through our regular, bricks-and-mortar mailbox for years, so why should we have to put up with it overrepparttar 132818 Net?

Well,repparttar 132819 short answer is, of course, we don't! What do you do now withrepparttar 132820 SPAM in your real mail-box? So...do likewise withrepparttar 132821 electronic variety and leave it at that: problem gone.

Not "solved" of course, just gone - until next time. And, that gets pretty tedious and annoying, right? Right...

Enterrepparttar 132822 anti-SPAM legislators.

And, quite properly too. However, granted that there should be, and must be, some form of penalties applied to repeated offenders (offline and online), still I think we have to be careful - to use a fractured phrase - not to crackrepparttar 132823 egg thatrepparttar 132824 golden goose laid!

Picture this: You operate a successful bakery and are doing alright. You don't have a website yet, your profits are good and you're holding your own againstrepparttar 132825 competition in town. There you are, busily gettingrepparttar 132826 next batch of muffins intorepparttar 132827 oven and this guy walks into your store. Happily, you put down baking tray, take off your baker's hat, and turn to what you think isrepparttar 132828 next customer.

Only, he isn't.

Instead, after politely introducing himself and establishing his credentials asrepparttar 132829 new kid onrepparttar 132830 block fromrepparttar 132831 Better Baking Soda Company, he then calmly tells you that he can improve your profits by 25% if you use his fantastic new baking soda.

Are you going to start throwing week-old muffins at him, for havingrepparttar 132832 audacity to interrupt your work? Or, knowing what your costs are, vis-a-visrepparttar 132833 whole baking process, are you going to stop and think for a bit - and then start throwingrepparttar 132834 muffins, but only maybe? ;-) Onrepparttar 132835 other hand, maybe your business isn't doing too well, or you want to do better. Instead of throwing those muffins, maybe you should think about how you can make them last longer?

That's a very simple scenario, but one that is repeated thousands of time, every day, in all forms of business. Indeed, it's how many businesses must operate, being those types that sell only to other businesses. And, one ofrepparttar 132836 most important tools of business is marketing, its proper operation and its effective maintenance.

Caught In the Cross-Fire of the Spam War

Written by Bill Platt


LET THERE BE LIGHT: To understand this story, we must return torepparttar beginning --- September 5th, 2001. One of my associates had placed a free ad in a newsletter that she had just subscribed to. For that effort, she was accused of spam! Mind yourepparttar 132812 person filingrepparttar 132813 complaint was notrepparttar 132814 editor ofrepparttar 132815 newsletter, but rather a subscriber ofrepparttar 132816 newsletter.

The man was frustrated because he was having difficulty getting unsubscribed fromrepparttar 132817 newsletter, so he filed a complaint against everyone who was listed inrepparttar 132818 body ofrepparttar 132819 message, rather than justrepparttar 132820 list owner. It was his frustration, anger and ignorance that fueled this nasty little affair.

My friend lives in a very small town in Canada that has only one ISP. The Upline Provider forrepparttar 132821 local ISP was demanding her account to be turned off permanently because of this accusation which was later dropped. The local ISP stood their ground on behalf of their customer --- my friend --- though this action could have seriously hampered their ability to provide their customers with Internet access.

Even in dropping his claim against my friend,repparttar 132822 person who filedrepparttar 132823 complaint insisted that my friend was somehow still responsible for his inability to unsubscribe fromrepparttar 132824 newsletter in question!

The person who filed this complaint was using a system designed by programmer Julian Haight to combat spam email called SpamCops.net.

INTO THE PIT: In my original copy written September 10th, I had comparedrepparttar 132825 tactics ofrepparttar 132826 few diehard SpamCop anti-spammers torepparttar 132827 tactics of a terrorist.

Inrepparttar 132828 wake of September 11th, it did not seem appropriate to refer torepparttar 132829 SpamCop fanatics as terrorists. However closely repparttar 132830 tactics used byrepparttar 132831 SpamCop fanatics coincides withrepparttar 132832 tactics used byrepparttar 132833 al-Qaida terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden, SpamCop does not resort to murder.

Due to SpamCop.net's unwillingness to provide a real person contact forrepparttar 132834 resolution of complaints, I was forced to turn to their discussion board to findrepparttar 132835 resolution I was seeking --- a resolution, which byrepparttar 132836 way, was never found.

My major complaint was that for someone to file against another simply because their email address or website appeared in someone else's ezine was improper.

Many members had knee jerk reactions to my questioning their system from within their inner sanctum. Many resorted to name calling and angry retort until a list administrator called them down. Afterrepparttar 132837 list administrator directly addressed their inappropriate comments, I received three open apologies from members ofrepparttar 132838 group.

PUBLISHERS BEWARE. Overrepparttar 132839 course ofrepparttar 132840 next few days, I watched their discussions. I was appalled to learn that many of them put email addresses in circulation just so that they can torment others with spam accusations.

As an owner of several discussion lists and newsletters, I now make it a standard policy to bar participation in my groups by someone sporting a SpamCop.net email address.

I had tried to observe their group with an open mind, as I too find spam mail to be annoying. I receive nearly 50 pieces a day from four to five people, who send merepparttar 132841 same ads day after day. What is really annoying is they sendrepparttar 132842 spam to my autoresponders with a fake address, so I get another 50 messages a day telling me that I used an invalid email address in my autoresponder message. All have spidered my website to getrepparttar 132843 email addresses.

A SPAMCOP SPEAKS. In all fairness, I was leaning towards a semi-favorable opinion ofrepparttar 132844 SpamCop program until "Jerry" lashed out.

In his message, Jerry told me things which will just make you want to explode in frustration.

He said ofrepparttar 132845 innocent who get caught inrepparttar 132846 cross-fire ofrepparttar 132847 spam wars: "They should stay home."

He went on to say, "it is far better for thousands of innocents to burn in Hell than one spammer prevail."

And, "Truth, Justice, andrepparttar 132848 American Way - or lack thereof - is irrelevant. Spammers must believe there are no loopholes, no gray areas, thatrepparttar 132849 righteous will be sacrificed (in vast numbers if need be) in order to expungerepparttar 132850 evildoers."

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