Successful Email Marketing - To Spam or Not to Spam, That is the Question

You've likely heard many stories of individuals making big money with Internet email marketing. One primary problem with these stories is isolating the truth from the fiction. For many new aspiring Internet marketers, working from home making a decent income is the ultimate dream job. The question here is; "How do I find my new customers and present my sales message to them through email in an acceptable manner that will result in a sale?"

Let's cut to the chase and outline what does work and what doesn't. But first, you need to know the basic two types of email marketing.

They are:

"SPAM" - The term for unsolicited email, the practice of sending a person an email without their permission. Generally, SPAM refers to commercial email, often sent in bulk to a large number of recipients, intended to sell something, not just a contact to a specific individual.

"Opt-In" - The term used by Internet marketers for solicited commercial email, the practice of sending a person email with their permission. This is also referred to as "legitimate marketing."
Tip! This article was provide courtesy of Spam-Site.com where you can learn lots more about spam blocking software and utilities.

The argument

Spammers argue that most people don't object to receiving "commercial snail-mail" at home sent through the postal service, so why should they object to receiving it through electronic email. Also, if they send out enough SPAM, they are likely to make it worth their while making a reasonable amount of sales. The old theory, of throwing enough mud on the wall, some is bound to stick. Is this a reality, and what are the facts?

Opt-In marketers feel Spammers are ruining the online marketplace by regularly irritating potential online buyers through Spam instead of creating goodwill through permission marketing. The hatred against Spam is making it difficult for legitimate marketers through new restrictive regulations and increasingly more unreceptive potential buyers.

Commercial snail-mail Vs. Email

Snail-mail is the term used by Internet users for physical mail sent through the Postal Service. Email is the term for mail sent electronically over the Internet. Snail-mail postage is paid for by the sender and easily identified by the recipient as "junk mail" so it often can be immediately disposed of without the need to read. It cost the receiver nothing to receive and little time to review. Because it is still unsolicited mail, the sender may receive requests to remove the recipient from the mailing list. I've even had one individual send me a brick with one of my prepaid post cards glued to it, even though it wasn't unsolicited. You just don't create the level of animosity and problems with snail-mail, you can do with email. Here's why.
Tip! Spammers are not mentally challenged, as their spelling would have them appear. They spell words incorrectly on purpose to get around the various spam blocking devices in your email and on your server.

Email has a unique set of problems not generally associated with snail-mail. The receiver must pay to receive it. How? By paying for Internet access and the time required to download and review the email. And, Internet viruses often enter computer through emails, especially attachments. I've replaced two hard drives resulting from viruses even though I use the best virus protection software and a firewall.

Spammers send out an enormous amount of irritating email. I receive about 100+ spams per day, even though I keep adding them to my "junk Email" blocking list. It takes a lot of time to download them, review their content, and finally send them to my junk email filter. Daily my virus protection software warns me about viruses attempting to break into my computer.

Needless to say, people get VERY irritated when receiving spam and the vast majority wouldn't consider making a purchase from a Spammer, though they would from someone they found online and became interested in their product or service. Spammers can create great animosity against their company and even have Internet services terminated. The world class Spammers setup and close their Internet services almost daily. Sure, they can make some sales, but do you feel irritating 99% of their potential buyers is the best approach? These people are only after the fast buck and have no consideration for other people. There is a better way!
Tip! Having a host that provides exceptional Spam blocking services is a must these days. Webmasters and business owners can find their domain email particularly at risk to Spam as their email addresses may be freely available on their websites for both humans, and so-called 'spambots' to find.

The right approach

I feel it's obvious from this brief overview that spamming is not the correct approach to email marketing. Building a potential customer Opt-In email list can be done once you know the insider techniques. It's not instant like purchasing an email Spam mailing list, and is a lot of work. But your goal should be to build a reputable company online, with repeat customers, just as a brick-and-mortar (a physical off-line store) business does.

Don't feel discouraged, believing it will take months and years to start making a good income online through online email marketing. It can be done in just a matter of days depending on your approach. If you control your own quality product, like an e-book targeted to a specific niche market, you may get existing marketers already having large mailing list interested in offering it to their customers for a share of the profits. This is called a JV (Joint Venture). Their sales can be tracked automatically with new low cost affiliate marketing software or an online service. In some cases, their commissions can even be made automatically and even you will receive your check from the payment service.
Tip! Now the problem I have with spam blocking software is that I must configure it to filter out certain email types, categories and words. I happen to use Outlook 2003.

New low cost software and services can completely automate your email marketing program. You can be a non-technically oriented person, barely understanding how the Internet works and still make vast profits once you know the "tricks of the trade." It's really easier to make a good profit by doing things right from the beginning, than to try the so called spamming shortcut and find yourself overwhelmed with a world of problems.
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Your objective should be to ultimately develop either a powerful JV group marketing your personal products, develop your own massive mailing list of Opt-In subscribers to your own newsletter or to periodic marketing updates, or a combination of both. By learning which software to obtain, how to use it, and how to secure free email and website marketing materials, you can save an enormous amount of time, money and especially frustration. There are courses available to effectively walk you step-by-step through the correct process.
How to block SPAM bots? Encode HTML of your web pages, making them visible by web browser only

This non-spam approach can help you gain a quality group of Opt-In individuals eager to purchase your products and refer their friends and associates to you. This is the long-term credible approach to building a solid company and enabling you to fulfill your goal for attaining your dream business. Learn the correct approach through a free subscription to Maverick's "Marketing Tips" newsletter.

Subscribe to the Free "Maverick Tips" Newsletter at http"//mavericktips.com or email stanford@stanfordtc.com

A weekly support newsletter for the TV Show and online Radio show, "The Maverick Entrepreneur," Hosted by "Maverick" (aka Bob Dean Stanford), targeting home businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs.

It presents cutting edge, state of the art small business marketing tips, insider information, quality low cost solutions and resources. The newsletter is entertaining, educational, and uniquely informative presenting many "Tricks of the Trade."

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Stop Spam: How To Escape The Spam Hell-Hole

If you're anything like me, you're pretty sick of it, and just want it to stop. What? Spam, of course. This article gives you a solution to radically, and quickly, reduce the amount of spam messages you receive to a bare minimum.

Personally, I get hundreds of unsolicited spam emails every single day, inviting me to enlarge this, reduce that, pay off my debt with another debt (how does that work?)... you know the type.

I'm also subscribed to dozens of ezines as part of continuing research and keeping my 'finger on the pulse' - and apart from those that stand out from the crowd and offer really valuable information, I've mostly forgotten which ones I'm subscribed to, and which ones are unsolicited.

The danger is of course that by clicking the unsubscribe link on pure spam messages, you're often just confirming your existence to the spammer. So unless I'm really sure it's a genuine unsubscribe link, I steer well clear, which of course doesn't help my email levels.

The issue is really about email messages I want to read, versus those I don't - and what to do with those that I don't want to read.

Sorting through them manually would take hours every day, which for most people is clearly impractical - so I looked for solutions that would help me out, and came across one that works very well for me.

As a result, I now get just a few relevant emails that I actually want, or need, to read, ready and waiting for me in my Inbox - with the rest already deleted off in my 'Deleted' folder.

So, what's the solution?

The secret is to use Artificial Intelligence. No, not robots and sci-fi warriors, but the artificial intelligence of your very own PC. Sounds crazy? No, it's very real, and very effective.

In fact, it's your very own Spam-Sniffing Cyber-Pet, that stops spam in its tracks - you don't have to feed, water or walk it, you just need to spend a bit of time training it to distinguish between the messages you do, and don't, want to read.

It can take a couple hours at first, and then you'll start noticing your spam dropping rapidly. Take a few minutes a day for a week or so, and I can practically guarantee your spam will have dropped by 98-99%. That's what I call an excellent investment of your time.
Tip! Having a host that provides exceptional Spam blocking services is a must these days. Webmasters and business owners can find their domain email particularly at risk to Spam as their email addresses may be freely available on their websites for both humans, and so-called 'spambots' to find.

After that, you'll only need to spend a few minutes every now and again to keep your Spam-Sniffer's training up to date. For example, if you get a message in the wrong place, just tell your Cyber-Pet, and it should filter it correctly next time.

Most of the time, this filtering is over 95% accurate - the more consistently you train it, the higher this accuracy level is. In fact, I can now go weeks without doing a thing - and my spam levels stay the same, i.e. exceedingly low.

The good news is that this solution is one-hundred percent free, and works on pretty much any operating system. According to New Scientist magazine, it "...does a wonderful job".

All you need is a modicum of technical knowledge to set it up, and the patience to let it work its magic on your Inbox.
Tip! Third, consider installing a spam blocking software on your computer or company network. There are a variety of spam blocking applications on the market that range in price from free to a hundred bucks.

Here's the URL: http://popfile.sourceforge.net/.

It's a free download, and for once, after months of using it, there doesn't seem to be any sort of 'catch'.

What's more, it's literally saved me hundreds of hours over the past year, and is well worth the small investment of time and effort up front.

About The Author

Steve Shaw is the developer of PopUpMaster Pro, which allows you to add unblockable popups to your web site quickly and easily, specifically designed to sign up subscribers to your list, and fast. => http://popupmaster.com.

Steve has been marketing full-time online since March 2002, developing software products and systems for e-marketing, including PopUpMaster Pro, the Click Bank Toolkit, and most recently, the free list building system at ListInferno.com.