|
Of
course not. You are not spamming. Or are you?
The
fact of the matter is that you may not think you’re
a spammer, but I might have to treat you like one unless
you follow some rules. Two respected Gryphyn Media clients
recently found themselves in serious hot water over this.
We were able to solve their particular problems, but not
every spam story will have a happy ending.
Spam
is generally defined as "bulk unsolicited commercial
email" or UCE.
TRUE
OR FALSE?
"Real spammers send out millions of emails. I am
sending only 250. It will not be considered spam."
False.
There is no minimum number of recipients for you to be considered
a "bulk" mailer. Obviously, large mailings get
examined more closely. But if you send out 50 e-mails, and
we receive spam complaints, your e-mail will be investigated
as spam.
The
first CAN-SPAM lawsuit has been filed in California. It
was triggered by only 100 emails for a reputable website,
sent by their marketing firm. The penalty could be $10,000.
Be
careful if you do need to send a large mailing. A big blast
of email can slow down a shared server for everyone. If
you have a list containing more than 250 addresses, be a
good neighbor and use an email list management program that
spreads out the mailing across smaller batches. Talk to
me when you plan a big mailing. Another tip: Don't use Outlook
for big mailings; it's the wrong tool and will annoy your
Internet access provider.
TRUE
OR FALSE?
"I have carefully assembled a list of people in
my industry who would want to know what I am telling them.
It is news, not spam."
False.
The key word here is "solicited." They did not
ask for the mail. You do not have their permission to decide
what they need to know and write to them about it. If you
blast out an email announcement, you are spamming. You need
find new ways to *ask* them to join your newsletter list...if
they don't find your offer attractive, never email them.
Type "build
an opt-in list" into Google... tutorials galore.
TRUE OR FALSE?
"I am not a marketing business. I am sending out
email to my own contacts. No one will come after me for
that."
False.
The recent federal CAN-SPAM Act went into effect
January 1st. ISPs and hosts are on alert. The law is
confusing and inexact. It can be argued that any
email from a business domain is commercial. The big ISPs
like AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail only check how big your mailing
is, whether your recipients "whitelisted" you,
and how many reported you as a spammer, fairly or not. A
whitelist is an email recipient's list of people
who are specifically permitted to send them email. Exercise
caution when you have a new domain name; you are not in
any whitelist or address book.
If
I get spam alerts, or complaints from the big ISPs, they
will threaten to block email to major ISP from all of our
servers unless I take action. I will have no choice but
to permanently suspend your hosting account.
I
must act to protect everyone on the server. You must
become literate about email and spam issues. Or you may
be considered part of the problem that plagues us all.
|
