Be Aware Of "OUR IN-HOUSE non-spam E-MAIL ADDRESSES!" Sites!

Copyright 2001 By Tatiana Velitchkov

How easily can you get accused of SPAM? Believe me, quit easily.

Recently I went looking for companies providing e-mail lists.

I wanted to be sure that the companies are not SCAM, the lists SPAM free, and that sending my message would not hurt me, my reputation, and my company of course. It was a two day search.

Finally I found a company, that looked good to me. They were claiming to be in business for many years. The lists for sale the company provides were e-mail lists, postal addresses, and lists containing fax numbers. The prices were good, meaning cheap. So I purchased 3,000 e-mail addresses. $15 per 1000, a total of $45.

Why did I do it, or better to ask, why did I needed those addresses? The answer is quite simple. The opt-in lists that I am using are giving me less response with every day that passes by. I use quite a few, and have spent lot's of money to purchase my self in. The responses were disappointing. So I needed new lists.

I started looking around for other opt-in lists, but they are not that many, most of them I am using already. On the other side, companies that offer to send your e-mails as solo ads, are asking such a high prices. For example,$495, $695, or even $895 and higher. Solo ads in the biggest eZines also ask very high prices. On the FAQ page of the company were guide lines how to use the e-mail lists. I made sure to follow everything. I must say that the company sent me 3075 addresses instead of the 3000 I purchased. They also promised to compensate me with new addresses for all *bounced* e-mail addresses that could be on the list they sent me.

So I made my e-mail ad and took the first 220 addresses and sent it out. 30 of the 220 came back as bounced. And the next morning my shock was enormous, when I found an e-mail of ABUSE. The guy was simply informing me, that the same e-mail was sent to my ISP.

I could not believe my eyes. I did follow all the guide lines that the company provided me with. There was a script on my e-mail, asking for replying with REMOVE in the subject line, if the person did not want to receive any messages from my company in the future.

This particular guy though, did not use the REMOVE. No, he simply sent a message to my ISP, telling them that I was ABUSING my e-mail address by SPAMMING others on the net. Less than 24 hours later, without any warning my ISP cut me off.

There I was. Shocked, filled with disbelief, not knowing what to do next. In the time between sending the first 220 e-mails, and receiving the ABUSE e-mail from that guy, I already sent the rest of the e-mails. I did not want to think what will happen if one, or few more of the people that were receiving my message would accuse me of SPAM. For my relief it did not happen again.

I did send a message to the company where I purchased the list from explaining to them that I was accused of SPAM. That I think they were not making it CLEAR to customers like my self, that using their lists, we could get accused of SPAM by every one on the net. That the only ones that could use this lists were the people of the company, and not the people they were selling the lists to. Plus, that I did not want to receive from them over the 600 e-mail addresses that bounced, because I was frightened to use them. That I would like my money back as well.

The response to my e-mail came. In their e-mail the company was explaining to me, that they do not have *money back guarantee*. That they will compensate me with 600 e-mail addresses that came back as bounced. Not a single word about the accident that happened to me of being accused of SPAM.

I wrote back telling them to keep their addresses, because I did not intend to use them, even if they send them to me. That they have to re-write their web copy, and warn the people about the consequences that could happen to people using their e-mail lists. No response from the company any more. I told them that I will write about the accident, and about them, the company.

So my fellow entrepreneurs, BE AWARE of every company selling e-mail lists! Sending messages to this lists is CONSIDERED AS SPAM! Even if the company is telling you that the lists are SPAM FREE, do not buy them. The company which is selling them is the only one that can use this lists without being accused of SPAM. No one else. The company I was talking about above can be found under this URL: http://dpcpress.com/mailing_lists.html

Tatiana Velitchkov

================================================

Tatiana is the President of the Fortunes Inc. For as much as we know The Fortunes Inc. represents the only business on the Internet that provides such amounts of traffic in such a short spans of time, and for outrageously affordable prices. Advertise! http://www.Guaranteed-Hits.net

================================================