Truth and Lies

Truth and Lies

by: Jim Murdoch

How low can one get? The number of encounters I have had in the few months as a network marketer with liars is astounding. Why do people need to stoop to lying in their attempt to succeed? Do they really believe that they will attract customers by using deceptive means. Hey friends, Iกve got news for you! You are the ones who have been deceived!

When I placed a single ad with the URL of my newly created autoresponder, I started to receive all sorts of strange emails to that autoresponder address. All of them said they had seen my business ad and bla bla bla. Liars! All I advertised was my autoresponder! So what was going on?

Well, I have a confession to make. About seven years ago, when I first discovered the Internet, and got my first taste of spam, I fell for it, and became a spammer myself. But not for long, as my ISP was quick to disconnect me, before I even knew what กSpamก was. Well I soon woke up.

What I had done, following instructions of course, was to download a program which กharvestedก other emails from web pages on the Net. Then I had also downloaded and used a bulk emailer. Apart from getting temporarily disconnected I also received some nasty replies. And guess what? My second attempt, which was an attempt to avoid unsolicited email sending, I used the addresses of people who had spammed me. Some of them even wrote nasty replies complaining. Hypocrites!

That was an end to my early attempts as a Networker. I gave that up quick, especially after reading about Spam and realizing how unwanted it is. I also realized that bulk email is not the way to market. Recently I have come across the term กSafe listsก. A Safe List is supposed to be a list of email addresses from people who have requested information on a business opportunity. But just how safe are these lists?

Here is how I imagine it. John requests from Mary information about her business. Mary sells Johnกs email address as part of a safe list to Tom, Dick and Harry. John now gets emails from Mary, Tom, Dick and Harry, three of which he did not request. Hence John was spammed, and Mary gets paid. Tom, Dick and Harry get a nasty spam complaint from their ISP who disconnects their account. Thanks Mary.

Amazingly 90% or more of the email coming into my mailbox is spam from people selling bulk email software, or offering some other get rich scheme. They are still using harvesting software (this is how they got my autoresponder address) and the bulk email software (this is how they emailed me) they just paid for. Sadly these are mostly the victims of the master culprits who get these poor suckers to buy into their program. Guess who gets rich, and who doesn’t?

Do you see the untruthfulness in this kind of marketing? Letกs not call it that, it is spamming. They first of all steal the email addresses. Next they sent emails to these addresses totally unsolicited. Consequently they get disconnected. But they seem to expect that. I get many emails from the same people using different email addresses to send from each time. Some, I think, even use false addresses. So the criminal intentions are there.

Here is my message to these criminal spammers: Why waste your time and money on these fruitless efforts? Why go to all that trouble just to get a bad reputation? Get into a real profit making program. There are many legitimate companies helping many people make a reasonable income. If you put all the hard work you are wasting on these deceptive programs into one of these legitimate programs, you will not only make for yourself an income, you will also have satisfaction.

If you, dear reader, are contemplating using any of those enticing offers of bulk email or email harvesting don’t do it! Losing money and ISP credibility isn’t worth it. How can you build a solid base if your customers don’t trust you? Trust is what your customers are putting in you, and trustworthiness is what you should give them. Tell them the truth, be honest and they will love you for it. And they are sure to come back and bring others with them.

About The Author

Jim Murdoch is new to network marketing. Read what he has to say about ขWhy you need your own home businessข in his autoresponder: mailto:[email protected]. His web site is at http://www.upwardpath.com?64

This article was posted on April 30, 2003

by Jim Murdoch

Bulk Email, Spam, and Email Marketing

Bulk Email, Spam, and Email Marketing

by: Steve Lillo

Excerpted from PlanetLinkกs Enews an email newsletter delivered for FREE to your computer. To subscribe, go to www.planetlink.com

This issue focuses on the effective use of email lists and bulk email for website and business promotion. Bulk email essentially consists of sending the same message to some number of recipients at the same time. Spam is characterized as sending bulk mail to recipients whom you have had no prior contact or permission.

The issue of whether or not to send Spam can be summed up in three words กdon’t do it.ก While itกs not currently illegal under Federal law, (although sending bulk nonapproved faxes is), it is generally not permitted by Internet Service Providers under their ‘terms of serviceก agreement (PlanetLinkกs terms of service can be found at http://www.planetlink.com/policy.html). Most ISPs will issue a warning on the first occurrence and cancel a clientกs service on the second. The reason for zero tolerance is that while the responsible party can literally send millions of messages almost for free, the costs associated with sending, delivering and receiving spam are incurred by the recipient whose time is spent processing unwanted mail as well as the ISPs that transport and store email. A recent European Commission report found that the world wide cost is $9.36 billion per year.

The other reasons for not sending Spam are the impact it has on the reputation of the company and the risk of interruption or cancellation of service. The other issue of importance for ISPs whose clientกs repeatedly send spam is that mail sent from their network can be blocked by other ISPs trying to stop spam from reaching their clients; potentially affecting thousands of customers. Under California Bus. & Prof. Code Section 17538.45, sending spam through a mail server based in California is illegal and allows for damages of $50 per message.

So, if we can’t send Spam, what can we us bulk email for?

Bulk email is great tool for keeping in touch with your clients and customers, sending newsletters, service messages, announcing special offers and more. It can also be used to keep in contact with prospects on an ongoing basis and is an effective sales tool for generating new business. Systems can be implemented that make it easy to send automated messages on a regular basis. Systems can also be implemented which make it easy for visitors to subscribe to your list. Subscriber management features also make it easy for you to add, delete, schedule and send messages as required.

PlanetLink can assist you in setting up an effective email list system for your business and can implement anything from a fully automated system to a manual system. For more information, call us at 4158842022 or email [email protected].

Important Tips:

Create an optin email list on your website.

Don’t buy a database of email addresses and send them bulk email this is Spam.

Spam can be reported to http://www.spamcop.net.

Collect email addresses on a กsign up sheetก at public events, trade shows and presentations. Let them know on the form that they will be added to your email list and give them a check box to confirm their participation.

If you send bulk email to your list, make it easy for them to unsubscribe.

In the bulk message that you send, remind them of how and/or why they are on your list.

Be sensitive to your list people are busy and they get lots of email.

About The Author

Steve Lillo author of Websites That Work! is the President of PlanetLink, a website design and consulting firm which specializes in creating websites which get results. They also provide their Web Rx Service for increasing the effectiveness of existing websites. PlanetLink can be reached at http://www.planetlink.com or by telephone at 4158842022.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 18, 2003

by Steve Lillo