No matter what you sell or who your customers are, or whether you have a website or not, you can make a lot of money with permission-based e-mail marketing.

First of all, if you plan sending spam, you seriously need to go get a brain transplant! Spammers are threatening to destroy the livelihoods of genuine online marketers. If ever you spam me, be prepared for a VERY nasty shock... I'm mean, and I'm bad, and I know EXACTLY how to hurt you the worst. (My methods are unorthodox, but THEY WORK!).

The reason I just said that (apart from the fact it made me feel better ) is because everybody's definition of spam is different and we'll be looking at those definitions in just a moment.

But first it's important to really understand WHY spam will turn your Internet business into a joke business, and why your reputation will be a bad one.

Only two or three years ago, the consequences of spamming were no more than a mild reprimand from your ISP, or a rude letter from the recipient of your unwanted mail.

Now, over 50% of all e-mail is spam and, frankly, it's threatening to totally strangle the whole network. In fact, research has shown that spam will cost US businesses alone, over $10 billion this year (now try and convince me that spam is harmless!).

Out of pure necessity, the Internet community is now taking measures against spam. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are working closely with antispam organizations to filter all incoming e-mail by blocking messages that contain particular words or phrases (like "free" or "MLM,") and banning ALL e-mails from the domains and IP addresses of known spammers.

This means that if you are labelled as a spammer, even accidentally or unfairly, as much as 50% of your e-mail may be "filtered" and never reach your subscribers.

You can't afford to make those sorts of mistakes.

If your e-mail is blocked by ISPs, you can forget all about making money from e-mail marketing. It's as simple as that!

So, knowing how to get (and maintain) a clean bill of health is one of the VITAL lessons if you are to make a success of this very lucrative market. and that is why this chapter is here, right at the beginning of the book.

What is spam?

Everybody's definition of spam is different. There are extremists on both sides. Supporters of spamcop.com (and other such power-hungry, dictatorial web sites) will insist that an opt-in isn't an opt-in unless someone has requested to be subscribed to your list by writing you a personal letter, sending it registered mail, then writing you twice more telling you they really mean it, and finishing off with a hand-painted Birthday card every year!

Oh, and even then, they're free to change their mind retrospectively and accuse you of spamming them if you so much as think about sending them an email.

At the other end of the divide are the morons who believe that, if you have an email address, they're entitled to spam the hell out of you and steal bandwidth from everybody on the net.

Personally, I don't support either of those views!

My own definition of opt-in marketing is mail sent to people who have given you permission to contact them via email.

They are people who have given you permission to contact them on a particular subject or range of subjects. Hence the name, "permission-based" email marketing.

The people on your opt-in list should only be there if they actually want to be there. If someone hasn't directly requested information from your company or purchased your products, they should not be on your list.

That's why I dislike people who join safelists, or complete a web form for more information, just to get you to send them an email, then fire back all guns blazing with a deluge of garbage. Their claim is that you contacted them first so they have the right to respond in any way they want and as often as they want for evermore.

Don't be fooled by their pleas of innocence - THEY ARE SPAMMERS!

Again, on the other side of the spectrum are the equally moronic surfers who submit their name and email address through a web form (often to get a free supply of condoms or shopping coupons or something). They don't give a damn what boxes they click in order to get their freebies, and so you end up with, on the face of it, an opt-in subscriber who is, in fact, a dumbo who will fill in anything for free. Trouble is, dumbo usually has an active account at spamcop.com and gets his kicks from reporting everybody (except the free condom company!)

Isthat

nical?   Believe it or not, it's not. I come across both types of cretins on a regular basis (and I know that cretin #2 went for the free condoms because I also get a record or which website they were on when they subscribed! ) As an e-mail marketer, you are also obliged to remember what your subscribers subscribed to. If you have been sending them a newsletter on scuba diving, then suddenly decide to go into the 'adult' business, don't kid yourself that you have people's permission to send them pornographic material - YOU DON'T. By most people's definition (including mine), this would qualify as spam. So you can understand that the definition of spam varies widely. In fact, you might be surprised to know that, despite my heavy-handed anti-spam tactics, I am fairly moderate about how you define spam. For me, somebody who's filled out a web form and asked for information about the subject which I am promoting is NOT being spammed, even if they can't remember doing it. (I don't remember the moment of my birth, but I'm sure I was there!) If I have their IP Address and the Computer-recorded Date/Time Stamp, I believe I am on safe ground, and 90% of Internet users would agree with me. It's only the 5% who lie at each extreme (but they make up a vociferous 10%) who make life miserable for the rest of us. It is these 10% (both spammers and professional complainers) who have forced ISPs out of business and who have closed down thousands of hard-working, innocent businesses. The Bull Free Zone will guide you on the right path and make sure that your business complies with the correct ethics for conducting an Online Marketing presence. Remember that this site is part of the E-trust-E network. (Click Here to see what this entails) So let's do a quick re-cap... During this Step you should now have a better understanding of: Lead Captures Autoresponders Permission eMailing Headlines for your emails Spam We're closing in on the final step which is all about methods of driving traffic to your new site, which is your shop window, which is your business. You can have the greatest looking site in the world but if nobody knows where you are it all counts for nothing. To begin to Step 5 (How to Drive Traffic to Your Site) - Click Here	Options    Print this page    Bookmark page
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