What is Spam?

I am going to start of by answering the question “What is spam?” and then I am going to talk to you about a disturbing a trend on the web related to the definition of spam.

Here is the ORIGINAL definition of spam:

“Unsolicited email”

Simply stated spam is email you receive from someone that you have never agreed to receive from them.

How is the definition of spam changing?

In the first chapter of Sylvie Fortin’s ebook, “Internet Marketing Sins”, Sylvie discussed a recent report by Marketing trends about spam. Apparently the definition of spam is changing…

According to the report:

Most consumers don’t accurately comprehend the term “spam”:

• Over half of survey participants – 56% – consider marketing messages from known senders to be spam if the message is “just not interesting to me.”


• 50% of respondents consider “too frequent emails from companies I know” to be spam.


• 31% cite “emails that were once useful but aren’t relevant anymore.”

Regarding the use of the “report spam” button – the primary tool that internet service providers (ISPs) provide consumers to counter spam – nearly half of respondents (48%) provided a reason other than “did not sign up for email” for reporting an email as spam.

Respondents cited various non-permission-based reasons for hitting the spam button:

• “The email was not of interest to me” (41%).


• “I receive too much email from the sender” (25%).


• “I receive too much email from all senders” (20%).

When I first read the above survey, I was TOTALLY shocked!

Apparently, people are EXTREMELY misinformed on the meaning spam. I occasionally have people unsubscribe from my newsletter who cite the reason for leaving as “spam”. I am always dumbfounded by that response. I mean seriously…

If you sign up for a newsletter and you get the newsletter the only way you can legitimately call it spam is if you don’t know the definition of spam.

Long story short, the Internet is becoming more and more challenging for marketers. If double opt-in newsletters are being called spam, what’s next? Will blogging of any sort be called spam? Will all advertising messages be called spam? It wouldn’t surprise me at all… would it surprise you?

Is the Automated Sales Machine Real?

Occasionally, you may have come across things like “Automated Sales Machine” and “Sell While You Sleep” in someone’s sales letter copy, and it sounds too good to be true. But, is it just sales hype? Yes and no. Yes, you can set up an automated sales machine that works while you sleep, and without your input. It’s called an autoresponder.

Your email marketing service can help you collect names and email addresses, but it can also store and then automatically send pre-written messages as an autoresponder. Autoresponders automatically send emails out to those who sign up for your list once you define the intervals and the email bodies you wish to send. Those emails can contain information, affiliate links to other products you’re promoting, or other things you might want to send to your list.

They can also be used to defeat customer resistance in advance of pitching a more expensive product. You may even have seen sites which say “Sign up for my free report series” or “Sign up for a free chapter”. This is an attempt by the merchant to use an autoresponder to sell his product, and put you on his list in the meantime. Most people have to see an ad seven times or so before they respond to it, and you can help overcome that obstacle with just this technique.

Now for the “no” part. No, you’re not going to manage this instantly. Autoresponders messages, just like sales letters, have to be optimized, tracked, and tested. Once you’ve done this, then yes, you have an “Automated Sales Machine”. Until then, you have to determine:

• If anyone is joining your list in the first place, and if not, how to change that.


• If the messages are being received, and if not, how to make the spam filters happy.


• If the messages are being opened, and if not, how to fix the subject line.


• If the messages are opened, is anyone buying through them? If not, you may need to add a few more educational autoresponder messages or work your pitch.

So again, yes and no. Yes, you can have an automated sales machine with an autoresponder that will work without your input even while you sleep. No, you’re not going to have it instantly.

The Strategy Behind NOT Collecting a Free List

I’m going to throw this out to the peanut gallery, and in all fairness, I didn’t think of it. I remember reading it somewhere, and I regret I don’t remember who said this, but to paraphrase: “The only people on my list are the ones who’ve paid to be there”. It’s the strategy I’m going to use with my soon-to-be-live latest e-report launch, and here’s the reasoning behind it.

The desirable quantity in a list is its responsiveness. Therefore, the only time you should put someone on a list is when that someone has already bought something from you, (i.e. has demonstrated the capacity to be responsive to your sales pitches). This insures a higher chance they’ll buy something else from you later, because they’ve already paid money to be there now. A lower volume of names, to be sure, but more responsiveness.

I know the $7 report theory puts this to some use. You buy the report before you’re asked to for your name and email, which means the person selling it already knows the latest addition to their list will buy from them. Granted, they’re probably not going to buy a product in $97 dollar range if this happens, but other $7 products and their 100% commissions? An entire web site full of them called 7dollaroffers.com exists as nothing more than a clearinghouse for those sorts of offerings in multiple niches, giving you plenty to promote.

So, what do you think, and what are your circumstances?

• Can you get responsiveness out of your free ezine list? If so, what are you doing?


• Do you already do it this way? How’s it working out for you?


• Have another strategy you’d like to share?

Leave a comment and give me your opinion.

The Ezine Poll

Here’s a poll for those of you that publish your own ezines, like me. What’s your favorite format?

There’s more than one way to publish an ezine, and I’ve seen several of them before. Here are some of the common ones, and I’d like to hear from you.

1. Text-only: This is the one I use for my blog summary newsletter. They’re easy to make and don’t cause any real trouble with spam filters unless you’re using words like ‘Viagra’. The down side is that they’re not terribly fancy. By the way, if you do publish a scam online pharmacy newsletter, please leave the URL so I can avoid it.


2. HTML: This is the type sent by the big companies. Pretty pictures and formatting, but can cause trouble with spam filters and image blocking. You can really go to town with one of these, and would be worth it if you could get it through.


3. Summaries with link lists: I’ve seen a lot of this format lately, and used it when I’ve had articles too big or picture-loaded to send in straight text. The ezines are on a web page, and the emailings are a list of hyperlinks going to the pages there. They may include some opening text and I’ve even seen some come with tables of contents and pictures.


4. Summaries with a link: Similar to the one above, but the newsletter is all at the same link. So only one is included with the emailing.


5. List-only: You don’t publish an ezine. You just collected a list from a product you’ve sold, and periodically send out solo ads to it.


6. Something else: You don’t care about the conventions and do something completely different. If this is you, I encourage you to comment and tell me what it is because I like originality.

Don’t be shy. Tell me what your favorite ezine format is and why.

If You Want To Make Big Money Online - You Need An Email List

One of the most important things (if not THE most important thing) you should do to have a successful online business is to start an email list. Why do you need an email list?

It Has a Proven Track Record
Just about every Internet Marketer I have ever heard speak (and that’s a lot of them) has said that the single most important thing that contributed to their success is their mailing lists.

To Capture Your Target Market
Your newsletter subscribers are (or should be) your target audience. When subscribers sign up on YOUR website, it shows that they are intersted in what YOU have to say. Having a built in list of people who are interested in your perspective is a great opportunity to introduce them to products that will help them achieve their goals (and put money in your bank account). It’s a win/win situation for you and your subscribers.

E-Mail Lists Build Trust
Additionally, your newsletter subscribers are likely to trust you more than the average stale website because you have been writing to them for a while and building a relationship with them. You want to give your newsletter subscribers more than they expect. In fact, you always want to give people more than they expect—it’s the best way to build a relationship with your readers. And people are more likely to trust someone who takes the time to build a relationship.

It’s the Best Way to Keep Your Traffic
Let’s say that you get a constant stream of traffic to your website from the Search Engines. One day the Search Engines decide to stop giving your site traffic.

Will this ruin your business?

It might if you don’t have a newsletter. However, if your visitors have been giving you their email addresses via a newsletter, then all is not lost. You can still get in touch with the people on your list to let them know about changes to your site, new products, etc. You will continue to have an audience for your online business without having to pay/beg/cheat to get your traffic back.

Final Thoughts
One of the biggest mistakes I made when I started my online business is not having a newsletter for every one of my web sites.

A few months ago I signed up with AWeber because, quite frankly, it has a lot more power than using a free service like Yahoo Groups. Also, some people mistrust the reliability and confidentiality of Yahoo Groups. Additionally, using a service like AWeber makes your business look more professional. It currently costs 19.95/month, and you can have an unlimited amount of lists at this price. The price does go up if you have over 10,000 subscribers. If you have over 10,000 subscribers you should be able to afford the extra cost, because you should be making some pretty good money from your list.

You can go check out AWeber by clicking here.

I researched other services and decided AWeber was the best one for my new business project. If you don’t plan on having a lot of subscribers and you don’t plan on having multiple lists there are other services that might work better for you. Two of the most popular alternatives are Constant Contact and GetResponse. We have friends who own a local organic farm who use Constant Contact, and they seem to like the way it works. It didn’t really suit my needs, but it might suit yours. So far I really like AWeber and I don’t see myself changing services any time soon.

Internet Marketing Tips From The Web 5/4/2007 Take 2

I mentioned earlier that I read a lot of good articles this week. Well, I read so many good articles this week, that I decided to post a second group of articles for your reading enjoyment…

How to Make Money with a Video Blog: An Introduction and Guide
I haven’t read the guide that Maki talks about yet, but I can tell you from experience that this is an excellent way to make money with blogs. Like I said in the comments, “...I have been considering turning some of the blogs that I don’t have time for, into mostly video posts. I also tend to get more links to the posts with videos. I highly recommend testing this out. I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.”

Copy Is Not About Selling, It’s About Serving
Excellent post by Michel Fortin on the future of copywriting.

Should You Build a Blog or an EMail Newsletter List?
I totally agree with Chris’ conclusion in this post.

Interview with Search Engine Guide’s Jennifer Laycock
Excellent interview with some solid SEO advice.

Stay Away from In-Text Advertising
I removed Kontera ads from this blog, but I am continuing them on my other blogs for now. I might discuss this more later. Come join in on the argument (errr… discussion).

Clicking Adsense Ads
Interesting discussion on clicking Adsense ads. Do you click on them or ignore them?

Unique Content – Where to Find Topics and Ideas
Good post by Gayla on places to find topics to write about. I currently use all of them.

There were other good articles that I read this week, but between part 1 and 2 you should have plenty to read…

Free Viral Tell A Friend Script

I am just starting to catch up on my email and I noticed someone selling a viral tell-a-friend script and someone else giving the same functionality away for free. So I thought I would let you know about the free viral tell-a-friend script. It is by Scott Boulch (Death of Adsense author). You can click here to get Scott’s free viral tell-a-friend script.

I haven’t tried it, but it looks interesting. I may use it to help build my next email list.

Warning: Scott uses some colorful language when describing his tell-a-friend script.

My Internet Marketing Review of Easy Profit Auctions

While I was in Florida, I got an offer from Alex Jeffreys to take a look at Easy Profit Auctions (aff). Now, let me start this off by saying that I am not really interested in getting involved in selling products on ebay. However, after taking a look at Alex’s product, I am having serious second thoughts about that.

So here’s the deal…

Through tons of trial and error, Alex discovered a system of making money through ebay by building email lists, selling products, and selling products on the back-end to his list. His system is rather interesting and definitely worth looking at, especially if you are interested in selling ebooks and/or other products.

He also has some great audios, videos, and a private membership forum. There was one tip in his audio interview with Jason James that I would have paid at least 100 dollars for. It was something I have been wondering about for a long while.

Of all the products I have reviewed in recent times, Easy Profit Auctions hand’s down gives you the most bang for your buck. Based on other products I have bought and/or reviewed I would say that Alex should be charging around 1000 dollars for a lifetime membership, but he is only charging a one time fee of $97 dollars for a lifetime membership.

My guess is that Alex will change over to a monthly membership fee soon, because his membership site is WAY underpriced.

Normally, at this stage in my review I would tell you what I didn’t like about the product, but quite frankly I am having a hard time doing that. I guess Alex could have made more audios, and videos for the site, but since he is working on doing just that I can’t really think of a downside to Easy Profit Auctions.

Anyway, I highly recommend checking out Alex’s Easy Profit Auctions site by clicking here. I am glad I did.

Another Death of Book?

I didn’t mention the death of Adsense book when I first heard about it, because

A. I was too busy with my 9-5 job.
B. I knew Adsense wasn’t dead.

There is a new “Death of…” book out called “The Death of Internet Marketing” by Mike Filsaime.

I just downloaded the ebook and I will let you know what I think of it later in the week. If you haven’t arleady seen “The Death of Internet Marketing”, I strongly suggest you go take a look at it. It’s free and you can make money from it by getting others to download it.

The timing of it’s release is kind of interesting, because I am working on a series of posts on Affiliate Marketing. One of the posts I have almost completed is about pay per action/pay per lead affiliate programs like “The Death of Internet Marketing”.

Anyway, you can click here to go download Mike Filsaime’s free ebook now.

New Poll - What Interviews Would You Like to See?

Based on the results of my last poll, I have decided to start a new poll.

If I start doing interviews on this blog, I want to know what you would like to learn MOST from the Interviews?

1. Traffic Building
2. Internet Marketing
3. Blogging
4. Website Conversion
5. Affiliate Marketing
6. Running a Business
7. E-mail Marketing
8. Website Monetization
9. Web Design
10. Joint Ventures
11. Making Big Money Online
12. Copywriting
13. Other

Go vote and/or let me know your thoughts (especially if you choose other)...

And thanks again for participating in my previous polls!