PART II "Email In The Crosshairs: Felony Fines and Jail Time!"
by Larry Umlor Optin-Listbuilders.com
"STOP being a creature of habit!"
Remember in the opening quote in PART I we said "you have
to be willing to step out of your comfort zone?" If you
don't do it now, then you might as well pick a guru, any
guru, and mail them your wallet, credit cards and bank
account number.
They're going to keep milking you until there's nothing
left anyway.
At least this way you can save yourself the aggravation.
Why put yourself through the hell...
Why put yourself through the hell of being nickel and dimed
to death? Why keep holding on to the illusion that all the
things that haven't worked before will somehow work now
because "some guru said?" Just send it all to them and be
done with it.
Or you could step out of that dead-end comfort zone and
beat them at their own game for once.
In PART II of "Email In The Crosshairs: Felony Fines and Jail Time!"
we go into more detail about the problems email marketers
face now and new problems they'll be facing in the very near
future.
Let's look at the three main problems you face with email
marketing:
ISP's Filtering Your Messages
SPA*M complaints
Government Intervention and Control
AOL is a prime example of the trouble with ISP's taking
it upon themselves to filter email... although they're
not alone in this.
Building an arbitrary list of filtered words, supposedly,
to protect their customers is nothing short of an intrusive
Big Brother mentality at best and dishonest at worst.
When your email, sent to AOL or any ISP, is blocked, they
immediately save on bandwidth.
Simply put, they save money by not delivering your message...
whether it's an offer, a follow up on a purchase or technical
support makes no difference to the filters. Use a filtered
word and your message simply vanishes into cyber space.
It doesn't matter if the email was requested or not. They
decide what's acceptable for their 'flock' to receive, see
and read.
Neither you nor your customer has a say... they decide, period!
Speaking of AOL, they now parse messages for URL links that
they deem unacceptable. That's right. AOL is now using robots
to read through messages for URLs that they won't accept.
They won't accept! Who do they think they are? Orwell was 20yrs
off but, it was a pretty damned good guess. Welcome to 1984!
SPAM... Breakfast of Champions.
Show me the corporate giant or guru who didn't use mass
emailing, now called spam, to get where they are today.
When you're through wracking your brain, name one who isn't
on the bandwagon to stop it now that they're sitting in the
cat bird seat.
What are the results of this, their newest crusade..? fines,
felonies and jail time for would be competitors, that's what.
Who doesn't understand the inherent danger to your business
from one single SPA*M complaint? Someone forgets they asked
for your email... bang, you're dead.
A subscriber doesn't see your unsubscribe link in your ezine...
or is too lazy to scroll all the way to the bottom of your
newsletter or email to use it, and, bang you're dead!
A server goes down for an hour during your mailing to your
opt-in list and resends your message several times...
you just became a spamme*r... bang, you're dead!
And oddly enough, professional spammers, hopping from server
to server just keep on getting their email past the filters.
Ask yourself, "how much real spam have Excite, Yahoo and all
the rest stopped from getting to your inbox? Ho much spam has
your ISP really protected you from? The answer is "not much
if any!" Like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps on coming.
Good job Big Brother.
Last, but certainly not least, is Government Intervention and
Control.
There isn't an aspect of life that some bureaucrat or
agency doesn't contemplate getting their hooks in to.
Whether it's the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the
car you drive or where and how you live, there is a control
freak waiting to tell you how you would be happier if only
you give them the right... or sleep while they steal the
right.
Now don't take this the wrong way. Government does have
a legitimate role to play in watching out for the general
welfare and safety of it's citizens. The problem is when
so many nameless and faceless do gooders [over 2,000,000
government employees at last count] try to control every
aspect of our lives.
And consider, too, that they don't have a very impressive
track record of successes to draw on. Their club handed
attempts usually end up making the problem worse in the
long run. Government attempts to control email will be no
different.
Suppression lists will lead to nothing less than the creation
of another industry. With the FTC taking advice on solutions
to spam from entrenched corporate giants, it should be
obvious that this is their intention. No one with a vested
[spelled money] interest in email wants to really change
any thing. They simply want a bigger say in how the pie
gets divided.
The only ones who will get hurt will be small businesses,
powerless to fight the new system and individuals who, when
it's all said and done, will do what we've historically done
for the past century... namely beg the government to move in
and save us.
This is not said lightly. Mark these words and watch carefully
what happens over the next year or so... Spam will only worsen,
the government will be openly criticized, by the very same people
controlling the process now... the conversation will seem to change
from "not if, but when" will the government take stronger action.
The idea of a fee or email tax will become part of the very fabric
of this staged discussion.
If they say we are demanding stronger protections... If they say
what we're talking about is impossing fees on email... If they say
the discussion has gone in this direction, then we will simply
believe it must be true.
And meanwhile, the powers that be, the real voices behind this
discussion, disguised as "WE", will provide yet another round
of even higher priced solutions and services and even greater
government controls. Think that will solve the Spam problem?
Think again. The process has too many supporters... to many
folks with a vested interest.
Bang.. you're dead!
In PART III of "Email In The Crosshairs: Felony Fines and Jail Time!"
we'll look at some of the actions already being taken and how you can
avoid fines, felonies and jail time, implementing a simple, cost free
solution that no one wants you to know about.
LIKE TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
Feel free, or pass it on to a friend. Just be sure to include this:
Larry Umlor is a co-author of Optin-Listbuilder Ezine and co-founder
of Optin-Listbuilders.com © 2003-2004 Optin-ListBuilders
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article, simply follow this link and leave a message:
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