Are YOU Guilty of Cloak and Dagger Marketing? Stop Wasti
I know you have seen the statistic that over 90% of those
attempting to build an online business or income will fail.
It is a statistic that is not hard to believe when I scan
the hundreds of emails I get everyday. Why does someone
hide their identity in their email marketing program?
Here are a couple of the biggest lies I see when I scan
the subjects or initial paragraphs of my email everyday - -
"This is not spam since you are either on my mailing list
because we corresponded in the past, you sent me a
previous email or you posted at my site."
"We want to join your program! Thanks for sending the
information on your program, please take a look at ours!"
"We Love Your Site!"
"You Have A New Member"
And there are many more similar come ons that are used.
When I take a closer look at the address it was sent to,
I note it is one of my autoresponder addresses! Then I
notice that there are four more messages in my email
with the same subject and from the same mailer. They are
addressed to four other autoresponders that I maintain.
I currently have about 30 autoresponders working around
the clock with various sales literature and free information
and they are all subject to getting these anonymous
messages.
Others are sent to it to me at email addresses that are use
specific, addresses like support@homebizlink.com, or
sales@homebizlink.com. These are addresses that are never
used for promotion or marketing activities. They are normally
used to control incoming requests and information. The only
place they would get these type addresses would be at our
web site.
So I didn't correspond before, I am not on your mailing
list, and I didn't post at your site. Nor did I send my
program to you for your review. I just don't use
autoresponders in that manner. You have to request the
information from the autoresponder yourself.
There is only one way they would have gotten those
addresses on their mailing list. They harvested or
extracted them from my site using some type of bulk mail
software that automatically goes around to sites,
stripping and stealing the email addresses.
I particularly get a kick out of the ones that say "we
just visited your site at..." and the next word is a
hyperlink that is supposed to be our site but it is a
link to some site we have never heard of. Sounds like
their bulk email program screwed up!
And of course, if you try the removal address that is
listed at the end of some of the documents, there is a
99% chance your removal message will bounce back because
it is false too.
About two weeks ago we received a group of sales messages
that really didn't say specifically what they were for.
They all came to our various autoresponder addresses so
we had a pretty good idea they were from a fictitious
address. Their request was to submit your name, address
and telephone number for additional information and you
were to email it to them at an email address in the message.
So we filled it out (with fictitious info) and returned
it. It bounced right back. I don't understand why anyone
would send out a mailing and use a fictitious address
even for the information they were requesting. Dah!
I don't know of anything you can currently do to restrict
someone from harvesting all the email addresses you might
be using other than some of the new encryption software.
So basically you have to live with it. Luckily if you're
using a program like Eudora Pro, you can set up filters
to control the flow of some of this garbage.
You can send me all the covert messages and sales
propositions you want, I will never even check one of
them out. It may be one of the most enticing offers I
have ever seen, and it will go in the trash folder. If
I am going to do business with someone, I want to know
that you are above board and I am not going to be
associated with someone that may possibly get ME a
bad reputation due to their bad mailing habits.
In a lot of instances, it isn't the new marketer's
fault, he or she is all enthused about starting a
business and making some good money. It is the hype
sellers and bulk email pushers who sell them a bill of
goods. The individual purchases one of these disks of
100,000 HOT email addresses and a stealth bulk mailing
software program and are off to make a million dollars!
But they soon find out that they don't even make enough
to cover their expenses. Then they become one of those
statistics I mentioned at the beginning.
Don't get sucked in by the hype! There are plenty of places
on the web where you can ask questions and get pretty
honest answers that might save you a great deal of money
and embarrassment. Visit forums, discussion boards, subscribe
to newsletters like this one. Get to know the Net before
you jump in! Don't start out by operating your business
in a covert manner using false addresses, lies, and intrusive
marketing programs. You will lose in the long run!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Reinbold, Owner & creator of The Entrepreneur's Home
Business Link publishes a free weekly email newsletter
"Home Income Quarterly E-dition" which is dedicated to
assisting online marketers and entrepreneur. For a free
subscription just mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com or
visit his site at http://www.homebizlink.com