Spam- An Emotional Issue

Spam -an Emotional Issue

Spam- more than just an annoyance. Why does Spam inspire so much passionate hate?

Spam is an emotional subject, just ask any computer user. In a sense, Spam is nothing more than unsolicited
direct marketing in an email version, or electronic junk mail. People dont get as fired up about junk from the
postman, so why all the emotion about Spam? To understand why this is, you need to look at peoples
relationships with their computers.

Email is a push medium, like television advertising; networks push ads to you, just as you are sending, or
pushing an email communication to a recipient . The television viewer has the remote control in hand to bypass
commercials and just surf away. Similarly, it is the email recipient who is in the drivers seat , hand on the mouse
or delete button. Whether Spam is read or not, it still considered a major annoyance for many emailers.

While both Television and email are push mediums, the difference is in the expectation. TV viewers expect advertising;
in my lifetime, its always been a part of the medium. Some creative ads even have some entertainment value. Viewers
have accustomed themselves to using commercial breaks to check on other shows or to get a snack.

With spam, the real emotional trigger is the proprietary way that people feel about their computers. They feel that their
computers are their own private domain, and that they control what they see and hear. The resistance to spam, is mostly
an emotional one; a wish to hold onto this private domain. Or at least the illusion of it. Television has had years to indoctrinate
viewers into the format that networks use. I grew up with the idea that tv has commercials- it always has.

My inbox didnt always have SPAM, and it is not a welcome intruder.

Two years ago, while researching new interactive advertising technologies for an article for SAM magazine , I came across
a company called Amicada. Their concept was to show commercials to computer users, while online and off, for which the
viewer would be rewarded. It was completely opt in, requiring a download of their software. It then initiated ongoing pop-ups
for these commercials on your computer; you could choose to delay viewing an ad, but it was guaranteed to remind you
again later.

I didnt buy the concept; personally brisled at the idea of having more pop-ups while I was online, and any pop ups while offline.
For me the rewards could not be high enough to want to participate; I assumed that the majority of people would feel the way I did.

Perhaps the internet surfing public cast their same vote. Despite significant support and backing by Unilever and some VC funding,
Amicada has joined the DotBomb graveyard. To read the SAM article: http://www.janetabachnick.com/mouse.html

The other emotional trigger of spam is the content of the emails. Items hawked are typically for enlargement of private body parts,
multi level marketing under the guise of business opportunties, viagara, and plain old pornography. It is like a snake oil salesman
having orbed into our living room uninvited, and we arent happy about the intrusion.

As spammers try to be seen and get read, over the volumes other emails flooding our inboxes, they are resorting to new, cheap
tricks, casting additional aspersions on the practice. Subject lines, like here is your statement or here is the info you requested
have gotten us to fall for it, opening an email expecting it to be something in fact we had requested, only to leave us feeling taken,
our time wasted. I havent even mentioned the time and cost factors that Spam takes up.

Now that you understand the emotional issues that people feel with regard to Spam, you can see why any email perceived as spam
reflects negatively on the sender. The message, spam me, and well never do business, ever in this lifetime. You can be perceived
as being a spammer, even if people opted in to get your message, because people forget what they sign up for online. All the more
reason you want to make sure that you are not an inadvertent spammer.

To your effective emailing ~ Jane

Stay tuned for the release of my book Are You Sending The Right Message-
Effective Email Communication for Executives and Entrepreneurs."

Reprint Permission
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears:
"Reprinted with permission from Jane Tabachnick eMarketing (Copyright, 2003, Jane Tabachnick)
If you would like more great articles like this, subscribe to our complimentary newsletter, the eMarketing Edge a
http://www.janetabachnick.com/ezine.html"

The price of spamming search engines

One of the things I am constantly asked about is why doesn't my content rich website get better placed in the search engines. I am told that they have followed all the advice about content rich pages, they have used good metatags, yet still cannot get into the top 50 never mind the top 10.

Now having content rich web pages is a must do, you can't hope to succeed on the Internet without them. It's absolutely useless putting up web pages with nothing more than banner ads for your affiliate programmes and expect to sell anything. Your prospective customer has to trust you, and normally has to return several times before they buy from you.

So if all they see is banner ads, they will just click through and buy somewhere else. What you need to do is pre-sell your affiliate merchandise, and leave the hard sell to the merchant involved.
Picture this: a customer turns up to your page from that hard earned search engine position, sees 20 banner ads for different products and an attempt to take her money on the spot. You now have one suspicious customer and their credit card clicking back to the search engine for another link.

On the next link she finds an article fairly well written about the particular subject she is looking for and in that article are links to products that can solve the problem for her. Bingo a customer who may buy, if she clicks onto that link she goes to your affiliate merchant in a decent frame of mind where you're affiliate merchant can do the hard sell and you have earned some commission.

Notice I said fairly well written, because you don't have to be a copy write genius to pre-sell your products. You don't even have to write the whole thing yourself, there's nothing wrong with taking a pre written report and changing it to suit your needs, obviously it would be polite and politically expedient to include a mention for the original author with his or her website URL. Other than that the article can include all your links inside it.

There are many sites that include free reports with full reprint rights that you can use, and indeed free e-books as well. On the hotbobs site there are a number of free reports and e-books that you can give away from your site.

Web sites come and go each day on the Internet. If you visit a web site and find it to be a great resource, show your support for that web site by giving them a link. In addition, tell your enzine subscribers about them. By supporting your favourite web sites, you can show your appreciation for all of the hours and hours of hard work that goes into developing the web site and help ensure it will be there the next time you visit. Without your support, many of your favourite web sites may not be there in the future. Now having got the arguments for content rich sites out of the way its time to address the problem with search engine placement. Nine times out of ten sites that have good content and should have ranked higher, fail to reach their higher placement because of the way they were submitted to the search engines in the first place.

Even with content, good metatags and keywords, you still have to submit properly and that means not spamming the search engines, perfectly good web sites have been penalised by the top ten engines because they submitted to many pages at one go. You must keep a record of how and when each search engine likes to be submitted to and this is different for each one. If you have a 30 page or more web site, this can be a nightmare, and so people tend to use submission software, or services depending on there budget. The top ten search engines will detect that it is a submission service and rank you lower because of it also with submission software they can detect any multiple submissions for a single website.

So what's the answer you ask: Surprisingly its new stealth submission software by Michael Campbell "search engine commando". This beautiful piece of software submits to each engine with that engines logarithms in mind and at the frequency best suited to each search engine. Even better than being undetectable by the search engines it sits on your desktop and submits in the background as you are doing other things (as long as you are connected to the net of course). You don't even have to sit for hours typing in your URL's it automatically spiders your website for all the pages and gives you the option of deleting those pages you don't want spidered. Ie: those that are password protected, or your thank you pages for clickbank.

This software was originally commissioned by Michael for his own use, but he has now made it available to the public and guess what you can even use it to create a site map so the search engines can spider your site much quicker.
Here are some of the benefits

* automates search engine submissions with the same care and attention as if you were doing it manually * amazing software plays "within" the search engine rules of one web page, per URL, per day
* spiders folders on your hard drive to find html pages, no more manual typing in URLs
* software runs on your PC, no third party service will know your submissions
or who your clients are
* expert controls let you shut off the safety switch and take total control over your domains
* tracks which page was submitted where, on what date, and what pages are next
* tracks and submits unlimited pages, across unlimited web sites and does it all automatically

With the advent of new even smarter spider software it is vital that you keep up to date with the search engine submission rules or you will be placed
in those out of the way pages where nobody but you goes looking for your site.

To find out more about this software and lots of other time saving idea's visit http://www.hotbobs.com While your there subscribe to our affiliate know-how newsletter, and join are private marketing community.

ROBERT PUDDY
webmaster@hotbobs.com
If you want automated search engine submissions with pinpoint manual accuracy, then this software is exactly what you need. http://www.targetcommerce.com/myaccount.asp?userid=2281

What Happens To The Spammer?

Sometimes it's difficult to understand why spamming is considered
one of the most vile sins on the internet. After all, what harm
does an extra email or two cause? And even if the spammer is
reported or caught, who cares? I mean, what happens to a spammer
anyway?

We've all heard people say, "well, why not just hit the delete
key?" I used to take the time to try and explain the problem to
these people, but I've since realized that there is a brand of
ignorance which cannot be penetrated by reason or logic. Now I
just nod and smile, and change the subject.

Spam would not be so bad if it was just one or two emails now and
then. Unfortunately, it's not just one person sending an
unsolicited advertisement once a month - it's hundreds or even
thousands. And the emails are virtually always regarding some
scam, a useless product or, very often, some pornographic or
money making scheme. I've received tens of thousands of spam
emails over the years, and not once has any of them ever been of
value.

I don't understand why spammers don't get the message that their
emails are unwanted. Why do they keep sending out their useless
advertisements? Do people actually purchase anything from them?
Do these people really make money?

Okay, so what happens to spammers anyway?

Your amateur spammer must feel very much like a criminal does.
You see, they must hide their identities in any number of devious
ways to prevent their ISP and web hosts from shutting them down.
New laws are being passed which make these people into real
criminals, making it even more important that they remain hidden.

1) When an ISP or web host begins receiving dozens of spam reports
on someone using their services, they will typically cancel first
and ask questions later. Thus, your average spammer is constantly
losing his hosting services and always searching for another ISP.
He has to - he keeps getting kicked out when his misdeeds is
discovered.

2) Spammers, if they can be identified, can be sued. This is
fairly rare, as it is difficult to prove actual damage, but you
can sue them and win. And if you are an ISP or host, you can
definitely get them to dig into their pockets for the resources
they wasted.

3) If a spammer annoys the wrong person, he could find himself
harassed. For example, people have been known to send back email
bombs, perform denial of service attacks or simply get phone
lines canceled.

4) If a spammer gets his domain added to any of the various
"black holes", then he may find that he cannot send email at all.

5) Depending upon how vile the material, the law can come down
upon a spammer. This is especially true with scams and
pornography of the most degraded kind.

6) Most spammers do not realize there is always a way to find out
where the email came from. It does not matter how well they
attempt to cover their tracks - they do need to make it possible
to order something and thus they can be tracked - even if it
means physically visiting their business with a search warrant.

I hope that helps clarify what happens to the spammer in the
short or long run. Spam does cause damage, and spammers,
especially the largest and worst offenders, should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law.

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets
at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to
read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your
internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.

8 Ways To Defend Yourself From False Spam Complaints

No matter how careful you are, you are always open to false spam complaints.

You can get upset or you can take more proactive measures to prepare yourself.

Don't rely on the fact that you are innocent.

Your innocence or guilt usually has no bearing on the outcome.

It's no comfort knowing you are innocent, if your site is shut down or you lose your mailing list.

There are some simple steps you can take to protect your business.

1. Find out your ISP's spam policy.

Some providers will close your account on the first complaint proven or unproven. If this is your providers policy, look for one that will take the time to investigate.

It's too late once your account has been closed.

2. Use a marketer friendly list service to host your opt in list.

Fellow marketers usually know how rampant false complaints are and won't shut down your list without hearing your side of the issue.

3. Back up your list daily.

It takes time and effort to build a solid list. Don't let it disappear overnight.

4. Make sure your web sites are hosted by services that will let you explain your side of the story, before they shut you down.

Marketers have lost sites getting 1,000 or more visitors a day, because their host reacted without warning.

5. Set up email accounts and links to be used in the resource boxes of your articles.

Some spam software will go after every link in a newsletter. It's better to lose a throwaway account than have your main accounts shut down.

6. Set up email accounts and web pages to use in ezine ads.

7. Keep back up copies of your follow up auto responder messages.

8. Never send email to someone you don't know.

Avoid those cd's offering thousands of safe addresses. They aren't safe.

You can take these simple steps and protect you business, or you can protest your innocence while your scrambling to salvage your business.

Don't be a victim. Take the bull by the horns and protect your business.

No on will do it for you.

Wishing You Success,
John Colanzi
http://www.internet-profits4u.com

John publishes the "Street Smart Marketing" newsletter. To subscribe mailto:streetsmart@rapidreply.net Don't forget to get your free email course. "7 Days To Turbo Charged Mind!" mailto:johncolanzi@freeautobot.com

Spammer in the Slammer: Jeremy Jaynes Sentenced to Nine Years

 Trust, Inc.Will other spammers take heed? Dont count on it.Jeremy Jaynes was on top of the world. By age 28, he owned a million-dollar home, a high-class restaurant, a chain of gyms and countless other toys. Yet those were only the spoils of his main line of business, which was swindling innocent people out of their money through email scams. From an unassuming house serving as his companys headquarters in Raleigh, NC, Jaynes sent an estimated ten million messages a day pitching products most recipients didn't want, amassing an estimated $24 million fortune in the process. Using aliases such as Jeremy James and Gaven Stubberfield, Jaynes spammed his way up to the 8 position on Spamhaus Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) and grossed as much as $750,000 a month, allowing him to live like a king.However, Jaynes ran head-on into an information superhighway road block when a Virginia judge sentenced him to nine years in prison for his November 2004 conviction on felony charges of using false IP addresses to send mass email advertisements (some just call it spamming). The conviction was a landmark decision, as Jaynes became the first person in the United States convicted of felony spam charges. Though his operation was based in North Carolina, Jaynes was tried in Virginia because it is home to a large number of the routers that control much of North America's Internet traffic (its also the home of AOL and a government building or two). He shouldve Used the Privacy SoftwareDuring the trial, prosecutors focused on three of Jaynes most egregious scams: software that promised to protect users' private information; a service for choosing penny stocks to invest in; and a work-from-home "FedEx refund processor" opportunity that promised $75-an-hour work but did little more than give buyers access to a website of delinquent FedEx accounts. Sound familiar? Anyone with an e-mail address has received countless messages originating from Jaynes operation. (If youre still waiting on your privacy software to show up, its probably safe to stop checking the mailbox.)Jaynes got lists of millions of email addresses through a stolen database of America Online customers. He also illegally obtained e-mail addresses of eBay users. While the prosecutors still don't know how Jaynes got access to the lists, the Associated Press reported that the AOL names matched a list of 92 million addresses that an AOL software engineer has been charged with stealing.When Jaynes operation was raided, investigators found that the house from which he ran his operation was wired with 16 T-1 lines (a large office building can get by on a single T-1 line for all its users). Investigators also entered into evidence to-do lists handwritten by Jaynes. Take a look at Jeremy Jayne's meticulously detailed lists at:* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes1.JPG* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes2.JPG* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes3.JPGGood Work if You Can Get (Away With) ItThe economics of spamming makes Jaynes decision to build a career of it understandable, though not noble. Spammers work on the law of averages, which would seem like an odd strategy considering that the average response rate for a spam message is just one-tenth of one percent. However, once you do the math even this miniscule response rate can make one very wealthy very quickly. If a spammer sends one million messages pushing a product width a $40 profit, a response rate of 0.1 percent works out to 1000 customers, or $40,000 per million messages sent. Since each message costs only fractions of a penny to send, and Jaynes was sending literally billions of messages a year, its easy to see how he pulled in $400,000 to $750,000 a month, while spending perhaps $50,000 on bandwidth and other overhead. Spammers have financial motivation to come up with innovative ways to avoid detection, and they have begun to join forces. But as spammers become savvier, the public is fighting back. Law enforcement has begun to crack down on internet criminals, like Jaynes, and corporations are taking measures to defend their inboxes using anti spam hardware. Law enforcement, coupled with the effectiveness of today's anti-spam systems, is introducing hesitation, uncertainty and fear for many would be spammers. As profitability decreases and risk of prosecution increases, many spammers will be forced to simply pack up and move on.
Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The companys flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.
 

Spammer in the Slammer: Jeremy Jaynes Sentenced to Nine Years

 Trust, Inc.Will other spammers take heed? Dont count on it.Jeremy Jaynes was on top of the world. By age 28, he owned a million-dollar home, a high-class restaurant, a chain of gyms and countless other toys. Yet those were only the spoils of his main line of business, which was swindling innocent people out of their money through email scams. From an unassuming house serving as his companys headquarters in Raleigh, NC, Jaynes sent an estimated ten million messages a day pitching products most recipients didn't want, amassing an estimated $24 million fortune in the process. Using aliases such as Jeremy James and Gaven Stubberfield, Jaynes spammed his way up to the 8 position on Spamhaus Register Of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) and grossed as much as $750,000 a month, allowing him to live like a king.However, Jaynes ran head-on into an information superhighway road block when a Virginia judge sentenced him to nine years in prison for his November 2004 conviction on felony charges of using false IP addresses to send mass email advertisements (some just call it spamming). The conviction was a landmark decision, as Jaynes became the first person in the United States convicted of felony spam charges. Though his operation was based in North Carolina, Jaynes was tried in Virginia because it is home to a large number of the routers that control much of North America's Internet traffic (its also the home of AOL and a government building or two). He shouldve Used the Privacy SoftwareDuring the trial, prosecutors focused on three of Jaynes most egregious scams: software that promised to protect users' private information; a service for choosing penny stocks to invest in; and a work-from-home "FedEx refund processor" opportunity that promised $75-an-hour work but did little more than give buyers access to a website of delinquent FedEx accounts. Sound familiar? Anyone with an e-mail address has received countless messages originating from Jaynes operation. (If youre still waiting on your privacy software to show up, its probably safe to stop checking the mailbox.)Jaynes got lists of millions of email addresses through a stolen database of America Online customers. He also illegally obtained e-mail addresses of eBay users. While the prosecutors still don't know how Jaynes got access to the lists, the Associated Press reported that the AOL names matched a list of 92 million addresses that an AOL software engineer has been charged with stealing.When Jaynes operation was raided, investigators found that the house from which he ran his operation was wired with 16 T-1 lines (a large office building can get by on a single T-1 line for all its users). Investigators also entered into evidence to-do lists handwritten by Jaynes. Take a look at Jeremy Jayne's meticulously detailed lists at:* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes1.JPG* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes2.JPG* www.ciphertrust.com/images/jaynes_notes3.JPGGood Work if You Can Get (Away With) ItThe economics of spamming makes Jaynes decision to build a career of it understandable, though not noble. Spammers work on the law of averages, which would seem like an odd strategy considering that the average response rate for a spam message is just one-tenth of one percent. However, once you do the math even this miniscule response rate can make one very wealthy very quickly. If a spammer sends one million messages pushing a product width a $40 profit, a response rate of 0.1 percent works out to 1000 customers, or $40,000 per million messages sent. Since each message costs only fractions of a penny to send, and Jaynes was sending literally billions of messages a year, its easy to see how he pulled in $400,000 to $750,000 a month, while spending perhaps $50,000 on bandwidth and other overhead. Spammers have financial motivation to come up with innovative ways to avoid detection, and they have begun to join forces. But as spammers become savvier, the public is fighting back. Law enforcement has begun to crack down on internet criminals, like Jaynes, and corporations are taking measures to defend their inboxes using anti spam hardware. Law enforcement, coupled with the effectiveness of today's anti-spam systems, is introducing hesitation, uncertainty and fear for many would be spammers. As profitability decreases and risk of prosecution increases, many spammers will be forced to simply pack up and move on.
Dr. Paul Judge is a noted scholar and entrepreneur. He is Chief Technology Officer at CipherTrust, the industry's largest provider of enterprise email security. The companys flagship product, IronMail provides a best of breed enterprise anti spam solution designed to stop spam, phishing attacks and other email-based threats. Learn more by visiting www.ciphertrust.com/products/spam_and_fraud_protection today.