What do you mean I'm spamming!?

The fact of the matter is that YOU may not think so, but I might have to treat you like a spammer unless you follow some rules. A respected Gryphyn Media client recently found itself in serious hot water over this. Use their painful lesson to your advantage.

Spam is generally "bulk unsolicited commercial email."

TRUE OR FALSE?

"Real spammers send out millions of emails. I am only sending 250 or so. It will not be considered spam."

False. There is no minimum number to be considered a "bulk" mailer. Obviously, large mailings get examined more closely. But if you send out 50 emails, and we receive spam complaints, it can be considered spam. I may not know if you are deliberately sending email, or if you have been hijacked, but a big blast of email can slow down a shared server for everyone. Be a good neighbor and use an email list management program that spreads out the mailing in smaller batches. Talk to me when you plan a big mailing. Another rule of thumb: don't use Outlook for big mailings; it's the wrong tool and will annoy your ISP.

TRUE OR FALSE?

"I have carefully assembed 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 send them email about it. If you blast out an email announcement, you are spamming. You need to contact them a few at a time and ASK them to join your newsletter list... if they don't find your offer attractive, do NOT email them again!

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 CAN-SPAM Act just went into effect. ISPs and hosts are on alert. The law is confusing and inexact; it does not exclude newsletters. The big ISPs like AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail do not care if your email has "commercial" content. They only check how big your mailing is, whether your recipients "whitelisted" you, and how many reported you as spam (fairly or not). Be extremely careful with a new domain name... you are not on ANYone's whitelist when you are new. Ask me how to get permission from people you want to email.

If we get spam alerts, or complaints from the big ISPs, they will threaten to blacklist our whole IP block. We will have no choice but to shut you down, even if your mistake was innocent. We are all part of a network, and email from our servers CAN be blocked by important carriers if we do not respond to spam complaints by taking action.

We 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.

We will be providing more details about these issues as they develop. Make sure you read the newsletters that we send.

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