The recent rash of spamming is a real irritant. Yet I understand why some are tempted to do it. Of all the methods of selling items over the internet, none is more effective than emailing your message to a customer. All of the other methods require the customer to look for or stumble across your offer. With email your message is right in front of your potential customer and many will look it over. This has generated a blatant disregard for many folks not wanting to receive unsolicited emails.
Solutions I see discussed include stronger legislation, some ISP’s banning certain email domain names, and very strong legal action against spammers. I also read regularly about firms whose internet service providers do close them down. I hear regularly from internet marketers who go out of their way to shut down spammers – launching massive campaigns. Fortunately – I am not on the receiving end or their efforts because I try to market responsibly.
Here are a few suggestions I wanted to offer my readers who want to get their offers before more customers without breaking any rules or creating any ill-will.
The first suggestion- that I use with considerable success – is getting your own free classifieds ad site. There are several firms that will set you up free with a site on their servers. They make their money with links on the site leading to their products, banners, etc. The script for the site I use allows you to send a thank you note to anyone who posts to your site. This note can be changed any time and I change mine regularly. This thank you note should naturally mentions a product or two that you feature. Or at least a signature file that lists your webpage URL. To see the page I use, place your free classified ad and even sign up for your own page, visit my site at: http://rodweb.localweb.com/classads/sites/rich.htm I promote my site heavily and as a result send out several thousand emails per month with my pitch.
A second suggestion, using the same strategy is to set up a free for all links page that sends a thank you note/pitch. Link-o-matic recently modified their script to do just this. They are at http://www.linkomatic.com Before this recent change, it costed anywhere from $25 to $300 for this same service. The fact that folks paid up to $300 per year for this service shows the value of getting your message in front of customers who implicitly give you permission to do so. (The script on my free for all page, and my classifieds page indicates that I will send an email thank you).
With this second suggestion, you do need an ISP that gives you cgi access. The classified ads site (first suggestion) is on the server of the firm which created the script. Most of your providers of free web pages does not allow cgi access. Two exceptions are Hypermart and Web Quarry. Their addresses are http://www.hypermart.net and http:///www.webquarry.com/cgi-bin/webrefer.cgi?wquser=williec The last part of the address above just tells them that I sent you. I have had sites operating on both their servers. Most paid hosts also allow cgi access. There mare lots of good paid hosts out there. Just look around and find one that offers what you are looking for. I use Virtualisys http://www.virtualisys.com/vr/wcrawfor I am also a reseller for their program which pays me a steady monthly commission from any customers that sign up through my sites.
The third method I use to send email to prospects without spamming is I join opt-in lists. These are list that you join and agree to allow list members to send you their offers. You are also allowed to buy the list, usually at 2 to 10 cents per name. Members of the list sign other up and when their recruits buy the list they earn a commission. They get good names to mail to and a chance to earn money too. If you would like specific recommendations in this category email me, as opt-in lists providers change frequently, and I see new ones popping up daily as others go out of business for various reasons.
I am aware of a problem that one such opt-in list had in the past. Some over zealous list members were signing others up without permission. When these folks showed up as opt-in members and began receiving lots of unsolicited email they complained – LOUDLY. This cause one very responsible and successful opt-in list to have to find another ISP and to rewrite their program to prevent this problem from happening again. Despite this potential problem, you get some very good names to email your offers to – with their permission – for only pennies each.
A fourth and final method I recommend is to join one of the discussion list offered through services such as One List or Listbot. Their addresses are : http://www.onelist.com and http://www.listbot.com At either of these sites you can join or create your own list/discussion group. Many of these groups invite you to email your offers to the list. Others only invite discussion, but you can include you signature file and still generate lots of traffic.
With all of these methods out there for ethically getting your offers directly in front of prospects there is never a good reason to spam. It gives the industry a tarnished image and causes lots of folks to set up filters excluding whole domain names. Lots of struggling small businesses are consequenlty hurt, and don’t survive to eventually become your customers!
Willie Crawford has been teaching Internet marketing for
over 9 years. Take advantage of his uncanny insights and
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