The Wages of Spam
November 1, 1998
Half the spam I get is from vendors of "bulk e-mail" software,
offering to set me up as a spammer too. Golly, if you can send
an ad to 5 million addresses for $19.95, how can you lose? Well,
you've already lost your $19.95, and you're all set to lose your ISP,
half your customers, and your soul to boot!
Have you ever tried to send email to 5 million people at a time?
Even if your mail server could handle it, it would take hours to
send the messages out. Of course, long before then, the folks at
your ISP would shut you down, and even cancel your account if you
were unrepentant. Real spammers use roundabout ways of sending mail,
forging IP addresses, etc, so they're hard to trace, and manage to
stay one step ahead of the anti-spam patrol.
Let's say you do get your 5 million out. About 4 million of those
will be bad addresses, so get ready to receive 4 million bouncers.
Now sort out the positive responses (there must be a few) from the
bounced messages and the indignant "Take me off your list!" flames.
A cost-effective marketing tool? Not likely, especially when you
consider the risk involved. If you're branded as a spammer, you can
be barred from sending mail to AOL, Mindspring and other large ISPs.
"Bulk Email Works!" claim the sellers of bulk email software. It may
work for them, but for anyone trying to build a business on the Internet,
it's bad news. Don't be tempted.
You want to promote your site, but you don't want to waste
money and time on snake oil. The bottom line is not to be too
trusting. Educate yourself about which promotion methods, and which
promotion-related products and services, are reputable, and can
document results. Alas, even the process of learning about Web site
promotion can be an expensive lesson for the unwary webmaster. An
acquaintance of mine recently paid $19.95 to download an "incredible
Web site promotion tool," which turned out to be basically a list of
search engine URLs. Useful information indeed, but it could have been
had free from any of several Web sites.
There are millions of sites and mailing lists devoted to Web site
promotion, but many are sleazy backrooms frequented by the
get-rich-quick crowd. Some of the good ones are:
Charlie Morris
is the Managing Editor of The
Web Developer's Journal,
and also does freelance Internet consulting work.
Melvin's Cool Links Page
Step Right Up!
Step Right Up: Web Promotion Resources
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