Re: Email Press Releases

From: Adrian Cooper <adrian_at_cooper.net>
Date: Tue 30 Nov 1999 22:57:29 -0000

KAREN DILLON WROTE:
> I'm a small business and I want to send e-mail press
> releases to relevant (and select) sites, ad agencies
> and industry pundits so that I can promote my
> site, our new features and (as appropriate) encourage
> ad sales. So how do I do this so that it's not spam?

WAYNE BROWNING WROTE:
> You can not, in my opinion,what you propose. It is the
> very definition of the word spam, isn't it? What you
> are attempting is to send unrequested advertising i.e
> spam. What you need to do is learn how to advertise by
> forming associations with other sites, buying banner
> ads, advertising off-line and yes, have a bugdget to
> gain a foothold. Build a site, make it worthy by adding
> value added content , list on the search engines barter
> with other sites but please stay out of my email
> folder!! You do not have the right, whether you like it
> personally or not. Do it to the wrong party and you
> mind as well kiss your site, business good bye.

Yes - that is absolutely right!

In anti-spam circles we call the process of taking
action against a person, organisation and ALL Internet
networks and services associated with a spamming
incident "LART'ing". Lart stands for "Luser Attitude
Readjustment Tool" - it is the cyber equivalent of a
baseball bat :-)

The fact is - if you do send spam, or any unsolicited
email etc., not only will your own business take the
consequences, but also the Internet service and
backbone providers as well - and believe me when I tell
you that Internet service providers don't forgive or
forget the backlash from an unsolicited email incident
- it makes getting re-connected somewhat difficult.

The anti-spam community are an *extremely* powerful
group of people consisting of many well known and
influential network and Internet service and resource
providers and facilitators, and anything goes in the
fight against unsolicited email of all types. If you
want a high profile example - look what happened to
Sanford Wallace and Cyberpromotions.

Please don't be tempted to approach Internet marketing
in anything other than a totally acceptable and ethical
way - otherwise it will have the opposite effect and
then some for sure.

Adrian Cooper.



Received on Tue Nov 30 1999 - 16:57:29 CST