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>> Home Business >> *Don't Do it, Man!*
Let me start by saying that I never claimed to know it all or to be perfect. However, I did say that I tend to think "out of the box," or I try to find different, unconventional ways to solve problems. Also, sometimes I have to have a personal experience before I can believe what I read and hear from others. Needless to say, I've had a few bumps and bruises over the last 30 years.
Anyway, what you're about to read may seem a bit ridiculous and you may even wonder "What the hell is this guy thinking?"
With that said, I'll fill you in on the little experiment that I conducted this week. I was in search of some software to assist me in my group mailings when I stumbled across an ad at moneyinyourhands.com (Internet Specialists) that was too good to be true, as many are.
The ad claimed that they would sell me an opt-in list of over 11 million email addresses in addition to their bulk emailing software. This didn't sound right, but I couldn't resist temptation. I went ahead and purchased the software along with the email addresses.
*Bad idea!*
Common knowledge, testimonials and articles by reputable eMarketers tell us not to send commercial email to people unless they have opted into our specific list of e-mail addresses.
However, there are an abundance of companies out there that disregard ethical methods of list generation and resort to email extraction software that searches the Web and extracts email addresses from websites, groups, forums, etc. This process results in lists of email addresses that include people that don't want to be bothered. Some of these people will go to great lengths to make sure that they don't get ANY unsolicited commercial email (SPAM).
When I received the software and email addresses I had many reservations, so I set up a "disposable" account with an ISP, among other precautions. After I carefully wrote my ad that included a SPAM disclaimer, etc., I tested it on about a thousand people.
These people opted-in already, right? I figured I'd just send them a "Confirmation" email. If they replied and confirmed their subscription, I'd simply add them to my mailing list. If they did not reply they would not be added or get any further correspondence from me. These terms were stated very clearly in the message.
The message used during my first mailing was personalized (i.e., it included their email address inserted in a statement concerning where I got their address, at the top of the message) and asked the recipient if he or she would like to be added to the mailing list for my newsletter. By the next day, I received a few confirmations and no complaints.
"Wow, these addresses are good after all!" I thought to myself.
For the next run, I used these same confirmation style emails; however, I did not personalize the message because personalized messages take A LOT longer to send than bulk style messages.
I intended to blast the message to about 350,000 people, but by the time I reached 95,000, SPAM complaints began to arrive in my inbox. As a result, I shut down the mailing process immediately.
During the following days many complaints rolled in, as did verifications for subscriptions; however, the complaints heavily outweighed the verifications because they caused me to lose my ISP, and I was forced to forfeit the URL that I had been promoting tirelessly for months. The ISP charged me a $600 SPAM cleanup fee and many of the "plaintiffs" or "Anti-Spammers" were harassing, threatening and just downright cruel. The thought of having to read my email made me sick to my stomach.
These Anti-Spammers are ruthless. They don't care about you. They don't care about what happens to your family. They don't care about what happens to your business. They will go WAY out of their way to make sure that you are shut down for sending them ONE lousy email!
The moral to this story: Don't EVER send email that can be construed in any way as unsolicited commercial email! Big corporations and scammers may be able to get away with it, but it's just not worth the risk of tarnishing your name and/or being put out of business.
Web: www.TheRealWebHost.com
E-mail: mailto:craig@therealwebhost.com
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Craig Lilienthal is the founder of the TheRealURL Newsletter and TheRealWebHost.com website where intelligent businesses have their website hosted.
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