Re: domain name list

From: Brad Jensen <brad_at_elstore.com>
Date: Wed 02 Aug 2000 11:22:31 -0500

JIM REARDON <jim_at_amusive.com> WROTE:
> 5) What your doing is unethical, wrong, rude, and all
> sorts of synonyms relating to the fact that you
> shouldn't be doing it.

That is just plain silly.

Pay for an opt-in list and suddenly you are a saint? I
don't like the ads I get on egroups lists etc, but I've
learned to ignore them.

I hate the car dealer ads that shout at me from my
favorite oldies station, but I like the free radio.

All advertising is rude. Period. If it doesn't
interrupt your attention, it isn't doing its job.

Pretending that opt-in ads are less disruptive or less
rude than other ads is hogwash. They are just more
tolerated, and hopefully more targeted. And oh yeah,
they make the consultants and ad agencies money.

I heard people quoting 30 cents a name for opt-in
contacts one time, and it sounds like the banner ad
hysteria all over again. What's the justification for
such astronomical rates? Comparison to direct mail.
Competition is still low and hype is high. It's the
tulip frenzy all over again.

If my carrier unplugged me for sending commercial
email, I would sue the ever loving life out of him.
Restrain of trade, RICO, interfering in a commercial
transaction, conspiracy to deprive me of my civil
rights.

It would make a nice class action.

We will always have the anti-commercial self-righteous
internet vigilantes with us. God bless them. They are
hypocrites and pharisees. Anti-authoritarian
authoritarian control freeks.

Reader's Digest can't only advertise to people who
really want to buy Reader's Digest. You make a
reasonable effort to narrow your focus to likely
purchasers, and then you educate them about your offer.
That's advertising.

Matt Drudge put a banner ad on his own site for his
new, not-yet-published book, and it went to number one
on Amazon in two days.

There is nothing unethical about unsolicited email, any
more than unsolicited regular mail. It's just that it
has been done so badly that it annoys everyone.

On another note, 'Email Archive for Commercial Users'
tells me my message is not clear. It's an email archive
server, rather than an archive for the individual email
user's machine. One email archive serves an entire
domain.

I get about $10 in direct mail pieces in my mailbox
every day. I'd much rather get those in email, since I
don't have time to read them in snail mail form. The
advertisers spend $3,000 a year trying to get my
attenion- because I spend several million a year.
Sometimes they get my attention - if there is a web
address on the package, so I can find out quickly for
myself.

Thanks for your suggestions of opt-in lists. I do think
your technique for approaching potential clients could
use some work.

Brad Jensen brad_at_elstore.com
President
Electronic Storage Corporation Tulsa OK USA
918-664-7276
LaserVault Report Retrieval & Data Mining
www.Laservault.com




Received on Wed Aug 02 2000 - 11:22:31 CDT