ALL ABOUT SPAM

ALL ABOUT SPAM

Introduction

Let us consider the following questions:

• What is spam?
• Why is Spam prohibited?
• What are effective alternatives to find marketing and sales leads on the Internet?
• How do I avoid spamming?
•  What do I do not to be intimidated by the many different sources of spam rules and definitions?
• What is meant by common sense and rules of thumb to avoid spam?
• How do I maintain an aggressive Internet marketing program without spam?

Stay out of trouble: Avoid Unsolicited Bulk e-Mail

When you start a new Internet business venture you will hear numerous things of what not to do.

You need to know how to avoid trouble while learning and applying the principles doing business on the Internet.

And you can get into serious trouble by sending spam, also known as unsolicited bulk e-mail.

What Is Spam?

There are many definitions of spam.

The Spamhaus Project defines an electronic message as "spam" if

•  the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients; and
•  the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent.

But the most general definition of "spam" is the sending of e-mail that is both bulk and unsolicited.

Why ban unsolicited e-mails?

E-mail has traditionally been for communicating, not for advertising. Unsolicited commercial e-mail is not only annoying but also without restriction and in sufficient quantity, it has the capacity to render your e-mail completely useless and shut down your e-mail server.

Unlike snail mail, e-mail can be sent in tremendous bulk with very little effort and very little cost—which would surely result in thousands of messages a day from thousands of sources were it not prohibited. Since many people break the no-spam rules and send it out anyway, we have all had some taste of what e-mail would be like if spam were not prohibited. Spam understandably makes people angry.

Consequences for spammers

When Internet spam victims get angry, they report spammers for malpractice to the relevant authorities. Serious consequences, such as losing Internet service or even facing civil and criminal penalties, await spammers who are caught spamming. Needless to say, you want to make sure that you never spam!

The Internet covers the entire world. There are many different laws in many different jurisdictions pertaining to spam. Plus, losing your Internet service or having your domain blocked due to spam is a matter of contract that varies from provider to provider, each having its own specific rules about spam in its "Acceptable Use Policy." So, how can you possibly avoid spam when there are so many different rules and regulations? The answer is to use your common sense.

The Rules Of Thumb

Here are the basic guidelines for avoiding unintentionally spamming your potential customers and team members:

1.       Never use e-mail for advertising with one, and only one, exception: when you work from a clear "opt-in" list.

2.       When advertising with e-mail from a "opt-in" list, always supply a working "opt-out" or “unsubscribe” mechanism.

3.       Never annoy anyone with any kind of e-mail.

4.       Never mislead anyone (in either the opt-in process or in the e-mail subject header).

Let us look at these “rules” individually.

Rule of Thumb 1: Never use e-mail for advertising unless you have a clear "opt-in" event.

Again, e-mail is for communicating, not for advertising. The same is generally true of instant messaging, Your own Website (or another's site - with permission) is the only Internet resource where advertising is generally acceptable. Many marketers are resistant to this, but the sooner you accept this simple truth, the better off you will be. There are many effective ways to use Websites to market on the Internet. These techniques often involve using the one exception to the e-mail rule—the "opt-in" exception—as part of the process. But, the process begins with a Web page, whether that Web page is yours or another's with your ad on it.

The spam rules usually refer to e-mail. If the e-mail has been "solicited," it is not considered spam. Also, if the e-mail is not "commercial," it is generally not considered spam.

How do you know whether e-mail has been "solicited"?

Common sense: E-mail is not spam if it has been requested or consented to or if permission has been granted to send it to a particular recipient.

There are two kinds of consent: express and implied.

• Express consent is where someone communicates directly to you permission to send an e-mail. Examples of express consent are when someone types in their e-mail address on a form on your Web page requesting more information or sends you an e-mail in response to an ad.
• Implied consent (1) occurs when someone performs some act from which permission can be inferred. An example of implied consent is when someone posts a URL on your FFA page or takes advantage of some other free resource you are offering. (Be careful here, though, the extent of implied consent is very limited.)
• Implied consent (2) also arises in many instances where you have a pre-existing relationship with someone.

Ultimately, the question of whether implied consent exists is a question of fact to be decided based on all of the circumstances of a particular situation.

• Your opinion as the one accused of spam is not the opinion that matters.
• The opinion that matters is the opinion of the relevant authorities who will decide whether you are guilty of spamming.

Opting In

When someone fills out a form or accepts a free service, this is generally referred to as "opting in." That is, they have opted to accept an e-mail from you.

• When we use the term "opted," we are referring to the same concept as "consent" or "permission" discussed above.
• Another example of an opt-in is via an opt-in e-mail list.
• If the list's creator allows, and the hosting service allows, ads may be acceptable on the list.
• The people who subscribe to the list are deemed to have "opt-in" to receive commercial e-mails sent through the list. (Note that the extent of this implied consent is only for e-mail sent through the list. If you send the list members e-mail directly, rather than through the list, you will be spamming.)
• If you are accused of spamming, you will need to be able to clearly establish a documented opt-in event to justify the e-mail. The e-mail you sent must also be within the scope of the opt-in, or you will be guilty of spamming.

So, the bottom line is that e-mail is NOT a tool you can rely on to generate leads or new customers. Rather, e-mail is a tool that can only be used in conjunction with some other resource through which an opt-in can first be established.

• However tempting it is to buy a CD of over a million e-mail addresses and blast your ad out to them, do not do it. You will be spamming if you do.

Rule of Thumb 2: Always supply an opt-out (unsubscribe) mechanism

Even when you have a clear opt-in event you must include an opt-out (unsubscribe) mechanism in the e-mail.

• You must give the recipient the option of communicating with you that your e-mail is no longer welcome.
• The mechanism you use must work to get that communication to you in a timely manner 
• You must immediately obey the opt-out request.
• Opt-out mechanisms are generally of two types.
• One is a line in the e-mail that states that one can reply to the e-mail or send an e-mail to another stated address, putting "REMOVE" or “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the subject heading.
• The other common opt-out mechanism is to supply a URL in the e-mail, which if clicked on, will automatically remove someone from your mailing list.
• Either one is fine—as long as it works.

Beware of the Unscrupulous

A belief commonly held among Internet users is that opt-out mechanisms are untrustworthy.

• It is often advised that the process is used by unscrupulous marketers to confirm that you have a working e-mail address, which they will use for further spamming rather than to remove you from the list.
• Therefore, any mistake or negligence with your opt-out mechanism will immediately put you under a cloud of suspicion.

Honour Opt-Out Requests

Make sure that you timely and carefully attend to your opt-out requests. An opt-out request must be immediately honoured.

·         Despite what many ill-informed people believe and say, you should know that it only takes one "no" anywhere in the process to void all prior expressions of consent.

·         There is no way to trap anyone into being forced to receive e-mail from you.

·         Nothing they do prevents them from opting out at any later point.

The Opt-Out/Opt-In List Dilemma

A challenging situation for opt-outs is the opt-in mail list. You send your mail to the list and the list then forwards it to the other members on the list.

• Often you will be sent a request to remove from one of the other members, but you do not have the capacity to remove them from the list.
• In opt-in e-mail list situations, you should always include a statement in your e-mail advising the recipients that the e-mail is being sent through a particular e-mail list and that they must remove themselves from the list to opt-out of the e-mail.
•  Give them the name of the list and the opt-out address.

Rule of Thumb 3: Never annoy anyone with any kind of e-mail

With respect to the grey areas, it helps to remember that you will never get in trouble if no one ever accuses you of spamming.

• If you never annoy anyone, no one should ever be motivated to report you.
• If you treat others as you would have them treat you, you are not likely to annoy them.
• Because some people have thin skin, however, and will be annoyed where you would not be, using the Golden Rule is by no means foolproof.
• It helps to think in terms of what annoys the average person, but to be safe, you need to think in terms of what annoys the overly sensitive person as well.

Internet Marketing is NOT a War Game

Many aggressive marketers approach Internet marketing as a kind of war game. They want to kill your e-mail or your ad and strike you repeatedly with theirs. E-mail autoresponders are usually the weapon of choice in these war games.

Example One:

• I place an ad a Classifieds Website Page. I receive an e-mail that says, "Responding to your ad." The content of the e-mail clearly reveals that the sender knows nothing of my ad and could not care less.
• He only wants to put his ad in my face, using some aspects of my add to use me as a potential candidate for his opportunity.
• Then when I, in ignorance, respond to his e-mail and point out that I am not interested in his opportunity, I would immediately receive an autoresponse message with even more information about his opportunity.
•  Also, in the process of responding, I would have gotten myself added to his e-mail list so that I would receive more info every week about this opportunity in which I have no interest.
• No matter how hard I search, I can find no way to actually opt-out from his list. All I can do is report the nuisance for spamming.

Example Two:

People who join the opt-in lists are hooked up on an autoresponder account with which they joined the list.

• Even though every single one of these lists prohibits using autoresponders, they are quite commonly used anyway.
• When you send your e-mail to the list, you immediately get back autoresponses from hundreds of the members of the list.
• They will never read the list nor your e-mail, but they will stack the list with their ads and then, on top of that, will autorespond to yours sent from the list.
• Such tactics are absurd, ridiculous, ineffective, annoying, and unlawful.
• People get away with these practices only because they are technically clever enough to hide their identities and make it so time consuming to track them down that most victims will not waste the time to do it.

Rather be a subtle spam specialists.

If you take care to always make sure that your e-mail is pleasant, you will not only be less likely to be accused of spamming, but you will more effectively develop relationships which is the key to any successful marketing.

• You should take pains to be polite and sincere in all your e-mail correspondence.
• You need to provide some way for people who read your e-mail to directly respond to you where you will actually read their response.

Only use e-mail autoresponders in the most controlled of situations and use them with great care. In fact, there are really only two situations I know of where an auto-responder is appropriate.

• Where someone fills out a form on your Web page and you need to confirm that the e-mail address they supplied is a valid e-mail address.
• When you host Free-for-All (FFA) pages. Websites created FFA pages as a way of attracting visitors to their sites.

Auto-responders should rarely, if ever, be triggered by an incoming e-mail in my opinion. The only exception would be form submissions. While automation is a goal for some tasks and is being made more and more possible by the Internet, communication should be personal, not automated.

Do not annoy people with your Internet marketing,

• whether through automation,
• insincerity,
• rudeness, or  
• misleading tactics.

Rule of Thumb 4: Never mislead anyone

Being bothered by correspondence one did not ask for and does not want is something that annoys most everyone.

Another thing that annoys the heck out of the average person is being misled. What most people want is good, solid, honest information about what they have expressed an interest in and no more.

People become annoyed when they are misled. If they request one type of information and get another, they feel used. This factor comes into play, among other places, in choosing a subject header for e-mail that you do choose to send.

• If the email heading reads "$100 deposited into your bank account tomorrow—no strings attached, no obligation, it’s FREE money," and then the body of the e-mail mentions nothing about a free $100, but proceeds to offer products or services for sale, the email recipient has been grossly misled. The email reader will understandably be annoyed.
• There are marketing gurus  that recommend using subject headings that will get people to read the e-mail regardless of whether the subject has anything to do with the actual product or service on offer. Nothing could be worse advice! Such misleading tactics are unethical, dishonest, immoral, often illegal, and are guaranteed to annoy the recipient of the e-mail. Don’t do it.
•  Another 100% sure way to annoy a potential client, encouraging them to report you for spam, is to mislead them about the type of information they are requesting.
• If you have a Web page which collects e-mail addresses to send more info about an interesting subject, but you send entirely different correspondence from what they expected, you will certainly have trouble.
• Honesty is more than just morality, it is good business practice. You do not want to start any relationship with a client, customer, or affiliate by dishonest correspondence.
•  "Trust" is the most important factor in any business relationship.

So, it is very important in both the opt-in event and the subject header of e-mail to be very honest and straight-forward about the information that will be in the body of the e-mail. To do otherwise, can only make people mad and get you in trouble.

There Are Many Effective Internet Marketing Techniques That Do Not Involve Spam

A common response to the spam rules is to throw up one’s hands and say "It's too complicated and too risky, why bother with Internet marketing?"

The answer to that question is that Internet marketing is a powerful, yet inexpensive tool that can be used by people of few resources other than a will to succeed in obtaining financial success.

More about that in subsequent articles.

                                                

Marketing and Selling on Internet

Marketing on the Internet

Marketing on the Internet involves Online Advertising to reach out to Potential Customers. It requires creativity like designing, development and technical aspects like marketing and advertising.

Different facets of Internet Marketing includes:

• Affiliate Marketing,
• eMail Marketing,
• Search Engine Marketing,
• Interactive Advertising
• Sales,
• Public relations,
• Information management, and
• Customer service.

Ever since the advent of Internet, it is widely used for all kind of purposes. Among the advantages of Internet, some helps in doing business, shopping, etc. from the comfort of the house. According to a research, a quarter of the Internet users shop on-line. It has contributed significantly to the global grow of Electronic Commerce. Internet Marketing is a substantial part of Electronic Commerce. 

Direct Marketing Techniques

Direct Marketing Techniques like radio and television commercials, mails, and newsletters are the inspirations for Internet Marketing, which involves Direct Response Marketing Strategies and is rapidly growing.

Internet Marketing Business Models

Business-to-Business, also known as B2B, and Business-to-Consumer, also known as B2C, are the two Business Models to which Internet Marketing can be linked.

• B2C companies were the first to start when Internet Marketing originated. They are companies that sell directly to the customers.
• B2B companies are meant to do business with each other.

Internet Marketing Websites

Websites built for Internet Marketing are slightly different than others.

• There are Peer-to-Peer Modeled Websites which are used to exchange products and services between each other.

• Another is Name-Your-Price, where the customers have to specify their price range that they can spend and select products that fall in that price range.
• www.Priceline.com is an example of such a website.

• Find-The-Best-Price Model, where customers can find the lowest prices. Is another model.

• www.Amazon.com is a website which is based on this approach
• Last are Online Auctions sites, where items are bid.
• www.Ebay.com and www.tripleclicks.com/indexAuctions.php are examples

The companies who use Internet Marketing are at an advantage. They don’t need to put in huge amounts of energy and time in Internet Marketing like other traditional methods. With the help of only few resources national and international markets can be reached.

Because of very low investment, even small businesses are turning to Online Marketing. Websites and Blogs have been developed for this purpose.

• Internet Marketing is advantageous in the sense that the data is easily available on the Internet.
• Newsletters can be directly sent to customers and if it doesn’t contain the information they are looking for, they can search for information about the product online, make a decision and purchase it online itself.

One of the factors that hinder the growth of Online Marketing is delayed loading of the page.

• The web pages that take a lot of time to download test the patience of the consumer.
• To add to that, if the businesses design complex web pages with lots of graphics and animations, it will slow down the speed even more.
• Another minus point of online marketing is that the customers cannot feel, taste, smell or try products in order to make a good decision.
• To over come this, some of the online stores have created liberal return policies with the help of which the customer satisfaction is guaranteed.

The Biggest Threat

Another biggest threat of online shopping is identity theft.

Paying online using credit cards, e-checks are susceptible to hackers and information can be stolen and used.

Many hackers and websites have been caught who were involved in buying and selling of personal information.

Most of the websites have taken measures and incorporated good security on their websites.

• One of the best methods is encryption.
• When the data is being transferred between two computers; there is a possibility of a hacker intercepting it.
• So the data is changed by applying some encryption algorithm and is sent through the network and upon receiving, the decryption algorithm is applied to bring back the data to its original form.

 The Internet for all businesses

Online selling is influencing all kinds of businesses like banking, advertising, music, etc. Instead of going to a store for buying cassettes and CDs, music can be bought online.

Bank transactions like depositing, withdrawing, transferring funds, and paying bills are all performed online. Astronomical amounts of money is  invested every year in online advertising alone. 

Why not you?

Get your act together and you can claim a share of that online gold mine; however small it may be.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a derivative of Internet Marketing where the advertisement publisher gets paid for every customer or sales provided by him.

Basic Approach

Affiliate Marketing is the basic approach for all other Internet Marketing Strategies. With this form of marketing, affiliate management companies, in-house affiliate managers and third party vendors are effectively utilized to use of:

·         E-mail Marketing,

·         Search Engine Marketing,

·         RRS Capturing. and

·         Display Advertising

for the success of the product.

Web Traffic

The Web Traffic can be traced with the help of a third party or own Affiliate Programs. A lot of work is involved in this process. The invention of complex algorithms and advance security have made it safer for doing business and shopping online. This even led to the better scrutinizing of the terms and conditions by the merchants.

More Opportunities = More Competition

Affiliate Marketing became more profitable with the opening of more opportunities but at the same time it also increased the competition in marketing.

High-Level Marketing Skills Invested

Due to this pressure in-house Affiliate Programs for merchants became a thing of the past and were replaced by out-sourced programs. The companies that offered this service have expert Affiliate and Network Program Managers who have various Affiliate Program Management techniques.  These Affiliate Networks have publishers associated with them who help them with the advertising part.

Origin

Affiliate Marketing was started by www.cdnow.com who had music oriented websites. They placed list of music albums on their site and they paid others if they put those links in their websites when a visitor bought their album through their site. The first company to link with www.cdnow.com was Geffen Records.

Two months later, Amazon was offered by a woman that she would sell Amazon’s books on her website and she should be paid a certain percentage in return if she sold Amazon’s books through her site. They liked the idea and started the Amazon Associates Program. It was more of a commission program where they received a commission if a visitor clicked their links and banners on other’s site and bought anything through it.

Growth

Since its invention, the Affiliate Network has been adopted by various businesses like travel, education, telecom, mobile, gaming, personal finance, retail, and subscription sites, the most common being adult and gambling sectors.

Compensation

The Compensation Methods used are:

• Cost per Sale (CPS);
• Cost per Action (CPA);
• Cost per Mile (CPM); and
• Cost per Click (CPC).

The first two are the more famous methods today. This is because in CPM and CPC, the visitor which turns up on a particular website might not be the targeted audience and a click would be enough to generate commission. CPS and CPA have a compulsion that the visitor not only clicks on the link but also buys something or signs up for some service after it which proves that he is among the targeted audience. Only in the above case the Affiliate gets paid. So the Affiliate should try to send as much Targeted Traffic as possible to the advertiser in order to increase his/her returns.

Affiliate Marketing = Performance Marketing

For this reason Affiliate Marketing is also known as Performance Marketing because it totally depends on the performance of the Affiliate. The Affiliate Team can be differentiated from a sales team from the nature of their jobs. The job of the Affiliate Team is to drag Targeted Traffic to a point and from that point it’s the job of the sales team to influence the visitor to buy the product or the service.

This is a very effective kind of method because the money is being paid only when results have been achieved. The publisher incurs all the cost except that of initial setup and development of the program, which is incurred by the merchant. Many businesses give credit to this method of marketing for their success.