Email Spam

Email Spam

Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is email spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media such as  instant messaging spam, web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, and file sharing network spam.

Email spam, known as unsolicited bulk Email, junk mail, or unsolicited commercial email, is the practice of sending unwanted e-mail messages, frequently with commercial content, in large quantities to an indiscriminate set of recipients.

An electronic message (email spam) is “spam”, if following occurred:

1. the recipient’s personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients;
2. the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent;
3. the transmission and reception of the message appears to the recipient to give a  is proportionate benefit to the sender.

Spam in e-mail (Email Spam) started to become a problem when the Internet was opened up to the general public in the mid-1990s. It grew exponentially over the following years, and today comprises some 80 to 85% of all the email in the world, by conservative estimate.

Email marketing is a method of direct marketing which is using of electronic mail (email) as a means of communicating commercial messages to an audience.

Opt-In Email Marketing

The Opt-In Email Marketing System provides ready solution for each of those hurdles listed above while retaining all the benefits of a traditional Email Marketing System.

Opt-In Email Marketing is a system whereby potential email recipients are requested to give permission that commercial emails should be forwarded to them from an online marketer. The email recipients will be requested via an opt-in form (squeeze webpage) to voluntarily fill in their names and email address in order to be added to the mail list of the online marketer. Once such request is made via the opt-in form, a confirmation link will be sent in an email to the email address filled into the opt-in form. The email will request that the recipient confirm that he or she requested to be added to the email list. If the confirmation link is not clicked by the recipient, no further emails will be sent to that particular email address. However, if the confirmation link is click, then the recipient will be added to the marketer’s email list for future correspondence.

The Opt-In Email Marketing System eliminates the issue of your emails being considered SPAM. Also, the Opt-In Email Marketing System ensures that each email sent to customers have embedded an unsubscribe link that will enable the recipient unsubscribe from the mail list. I recommend that you use an Opt-In Email Marketing System provided by a reputable company like Aweber or Getresponse. Even though the service will cost you money, it is better than getting involved in a lawsuit for unsolicited email.

Direct Email Marketing – A website provide information about definition, history, key terms and concepts of email marketing, opt-in email advertising, email spam, legal requirement of email marketing, advantages and disadvantages of email marketing, email marketing campaign, web-based email marketing service providers and email marketing software.

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 authorizes a US$11,000 penalty per violation for spamming each individual recipient. Therefore, many commercial email marketers within the United States utilize a service or special software to ensure compliance with the Act. A variety of older systems exist that do not ensure compliance with the Act. To comply with the Act’s regulation of commercial email, services typically require users to authenticate their return address and include a valid physical address, provide a one-click unsubscribe feature, and prohibit importing lists of purchased addresses that may not have given valid permission.

In addition to satisfying legal requirements, email service providers began to help customers establish and manage their own email marketing campaigns. The service providers supply email templates and general best practices, as well as methods for handling subscriptions and cancellations automatically. They also provide statistics pertaining to the number of messages received and opened, and whether the recipients clicked on any links within the messages.

The CAN-SPAM Act was recently updated with some new regulations that went into effect on July 7, 2008.

For the non-USA company, is a good practice to following practice to ensure the effectiveness and healthy development of direct email marketing;

1. Include a valid physical address in your email.
2. Do not include any false header information. Make sure the “From” and “To” routing information include the domain name from which the email message originates.
3. Do not use misleading subject lines.
4. Include an opt-out method for email recipients, provide one-click unsubscribe feature.
5. You must be able to process the opt-outs for 30 days after sending the email. You must honor the opt-out within 10 days of receiving the request. You cannot sell or transfer the email addresses of those who opt out.
6. Avoid purchase of email list that may not have given valid permission. Build your email list (database) with Opt-in methods (Opt-in Database).

Please visit  CAN-SPAM Act for more information.

Source : Legal Requirements of Email Marketing In USA

Direct Email Marketing – A website provide information about definition, history, key terms and concepts of email marketing, opt-in email advertising, email spam, legal requirement of email marketing, advantages and disadvantages of email marketing, email marketing campaign, web-based email marketing service providers and email marketing software.

History Of Email Marketing

Email is probably a necessity to you, but there was a time when there was no email! Today email is considered the backbone of all digital communications. Just like the printing press 500 years before it, email is an effective and efficient means of mass distribution. Email also provides an easy way to conduct personal one-on-one dialogue.

Email is a way of sending messages or data to other people means of computers connected together in a network. Email actually predates the Internet, and was first used as a way for users of the same computer to leave messages for each other all the way back in 1961. Ray Tomlinson is credited with creating the first network email application in the year of 1971. He initiated the use of the @ sign and the address structure that we use today (username@domainname.com). Email was used to send messages to computers on the same network, and is still used for this purpose today.

It was only in 1993 that large network service providers, such as America Online and Delphi, started to connect their proprietary email systems to the Internet. This began the large scale adoption of Internet email as a global standard. Coupled with standards that had been created in the preceding twenty years, the Internet allowed users on different networks to send each other messages.

The first email spam dates back to 1978. Spam is defined as unsolicited commercial or bulk email, and today is said to account for 80 to 85% of all email (Waters, 2008). Direct marketing has long played an integral part in marketing campaigns, but the high cost meant that only large companies were able to pursue this. However, with the growth of the Internet, and the use of email to market directly to consumers, marketers have found these costs dropping, and the effectiveness increasing. That is the born of direct email marketing.

Source : History Of Email Marketing

Common Mistakes to Avoid in HTML Email

Here are some of the most common mistakes people make when coding HTML emails:

1. Not coding “absolute paths” to their images. Remember, attaching graphics and using “relative paths” won’t work. You need to host the images on your server, then link to them in your code.

2. Using JavaScript, or ActiveX, or embedding movies. That stuff just doesn’t work in HTML email.

3. Getting over ambitious with designs. Designing HTML email isn’t the same as designing web pages. You can’t have all the CSS-positioning, DIVs, DHTML, and complex, embedded tables like you can in web pages.

4. Forgetting—or refusing—to include an opt-out link. It’s stupid and unprofessional not to allow recipients to unsubscribe from your list. Oh yeah, it’s illegal, too. Be sure to read and understand The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

5. Linking to an external CSS file. You usually put CSS code in between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags of web pages, right? But browser based email applications (like Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail) strip <HEAD> and <BODY> tags from HTML email. Embed your CSS below the <BODY> tag.

6. Letting your permission “grow cold.” If you’ve been collecting opt-ins at your website like a good email marketer, but you haven’t sent an email in several months, your subscribers have forgotten all about you. So when they receive a full blown email newsletter from you “out of the blue” they’re going to click their “this is spam button” in their email application (related blog post: Surviving the inbox whack-a-mole game). Don’t let your permission grow cold. Send occasional emails. If you’ve been collecting emails for years, and you’re only just now sending your first email to everyone, you should send a little “re-invitation” to your list. Something like, “A really long time ago, you subscribed to my email list. Well, I’ve finally got some time to start sending my really cool newsletter, and I want to make sure you still want to receive it. Click here to sign up…” At the very least, send an email and place some kind of text at the top that reminds them of where and when they opted in. People usually forget about opting-in to something after about 6 months or so.

7. Sending to a list without permission. This is the worst offense. Lots of “innocent” marketers, who “mean well” commit this heinous crime. Here are some common ways legitimate marketers can inadvertently become known as “evil spammers:”

Getting an email list from a tradeshow. “But I’m exhibiting there, and the tradeshow host said it would be okay, and when people purchased tickets, the fine print said that we could email them, and…” Nope. You’re spamming. Don’t do it. If they didn’t give you permission to email them, they didn’t opt-in to your list. If they didn’t opt-in, you’re spamming. Even if you can legally send them email marketing, those recipients are more likely to report you for spamming them. Then, you’ll get blacklisted. Plus, your company will look really slimy. Don’t do it. If a tradeshow host is collecting email addresses, then they should be doing the emailing. It’s all about permission, and setting expectations.

• Getting a list of “fellow members” from some trade organization. Just because they joined a club, and the club posted contact information so everyone could keep in touch with each other, it doesn’t mean each member gives you permission to send them newsletters and offers. If you sent them a personal greeting from your own email account, they probably wouldn’t mind. That’s what the organization’s “members list” is for. But add them to a list and send them a huge email newsletter, and you’ll be reported for spamming. Don’t do it.

• They go to events, and swap business cards. The business cards just get thrown into a “prospects” pile. Years later, they get an intern to finally type all the contact info from those cards into a database. Then, one day out of the blue, they send a big, fat email newsletter to everyone. As if they actually want to hear from you! Trust us, they don’t.

• Fish bowl of business cards. Similar to the example above, but they hold an event, and collect business cards in a fishbowl to win a “door prize.” The people who dropped their business cards into the bowl wanted the coffee t-shirt you’re giving away (plus all the fame & glory). They didn’t opt-in to your list.

8. Using a WYSIWYG to “code” your HTML. WYSIWYGs are notorious for generating absolutely horrible HTML. They insert so much junk code, it’s unbelievable. Even the ones that generate “clean” code don’t know how to “rig” things to work in email applications (like sticking your embedded CSS below the <BODY> tag). To code HTML email properly, you need to learn a little HTML. It’s really not that hard.

9. Forgetting to test. Thoroughly. When you send HTML email, you’ve really got to test it in as many email applications you can. Then you have to test on different operating systems. Then different ISPs (we’ll explain shortly). If you keep things simple, and build a rock solid, thoroughly tested template for each newsletter, you won’t have to test so much. But you should always send at least a few campaigns to yourself before sending it out to your entire list.

10. Sending nothing but a big, gigantic graphic as their HTML email. Sigh, that’s what spammers do. And since most email programs block images by default, what do you think your recipients see when (if) they open your email? Many spam filters will block your email if you don’t have a healthy balance of images and text.

Direct Email Marketing – A website provide information about definition, history, key terms and concepts of email marketing, opt-in email advertising, email spam, legal requirement of email marketing, advantages and disadvantages of email marketing, email marketing campaign, web-based email marketing service providers and email marketing software.

HTML Email

How HTML Email Works

Before you can start designing, coding, and sending HTML emails, you should know how it works and what tools you’ll need. Here’s some background information every email designer and marketer should know…

The Multipart/Alternative MIME Format

The most important thing you need to know about HTML email is that you can’t just attach an HTML file and a bunch of images to a message and hit “send.” Most of the time, your recipients’ email applications will break all the paths to your image files (because they’ll move your images into temporary folders on your hard drive). And you can’t just paste all your code into your email application, either. Most email apps send messages in “plain-text” format by default, so the HTML won’t render. Your recipients would just see all that raw source code, instead of the pretty email it’s supposed to render.

You need to send HTML email from your server in “Multipart-Alternative MIME format.”Basically, that means your mail transfer agent bundles your HTML code, PLUS a plain-text version of the message, together into one email. That way, if a recipient can’t view
your beautiful HTML email, the good-old-fashioned plain-text version of your message is auto-magically displayed. It’s kind of a nerdy gobbledy-geek thing, which is why a lot of people mess things up when they try to send HTML email themselves. You either need to program a script to send email in multipart/alternative MIME format.

Image Files in HTML Email

Embedding images and photos into messages is the number one reason people want to send HTML email. The proper way to handle images in HTML email is to host them on a web server, then “pull them in” to your HTML email, using “absolute paths” in your code. Basically, you can’t send the graphics along with your message. You host the graphics on a web server, and then the code in your HTML email downloads them whenever the message is opened.

Incidentally, this is how “open tracking” works. You place a tiny, invisible graphic into the email, and then track when it’s downloaded.  HTML email, not plain-text, and why the new email applications that block images by default (to protect your privacy) can screw up your open rate stats.

HTML Email Hosting Services

When it comes to hosting the images for your HTML email, you really need your own server to do it. Don’t try hosting images on a free “image hosting service,” because those websites often put scripts in place to prevent you from linking to them in emails (they can’t handle all the traffic). And since you really do get what you pay for, free image hosting services tend to be pretty unreliable under heavy traffic conditions. Also, spammers use free image hosting services all the time, to “cover their tracks.” If you don’t want to look like a spammer, use your own web server. If you use an email marketing service they usually come with a newsletter builder tool with image hosting capabilities built-in.

Delivering HTML Email

Many newbies make the mistake of setting up forwarding lists, or “CC’ing” copies of a message to all their customers. This causes all sorts of problems, like when a customer hits, “reply to all.” Plus, there’s no way to do any kind of individual tracking or personalization when they CC: a big group like that. Finally, it just looks so unprofessional and impersonal when recipients can see your entire list of other recipients like that.

That’s why when a direct email marketing system sends your campaign, we take your message and send it one at a time to each recipient on your list (really, really fast). Unlike your  or computer linked to your local ISP (which probably has a standard monthly bandwidth limit), email marketing vendors like us use dedicated mail servers that are capable of sending hundreds of thousands of emails (even millions, for larger vendors) per hour.

Other factors you should consider when delivering HTML email campaigns:

• If you send from your own server, your ISP may throttle your outgoing emails or shut your account down, if you send too much too fast (like more than 500 per hour). They may also shut you down if you exceed your monthly bandwidth limit. If you’ve ever sent an email campaign to a big list of recipients, and you attached a giant PDF, this has probably happened to you before.

• Email firewalls and ISPs who receive your emails don’t like receiving tons of emails from one single IP address at once (unless they normally receive tons of emails from that IP). So if you only send occasional email campaigns from your IP, you may want to throttle your delivery, or spread them across multiple IPs, to avoid accidental blocking. Email marketing services usually split your campaign up into pieces and send it out over lots of different IP addresses.

• If you send emails from your desktop email program, chances are you’re connecting through your local ISP. If you don’t have a dedicated IP address setup with your ISP,  ou’re probably sending emails from a dynamic IP address. ISPs and spam filters don’t like receiving lots of emails from a dynamic IP address, because it looks like a hijacked home computer. You should always send from a dedicated IP address, or use an email marketing vendor.

Free Internet Marketing Software for Download

Email Marketing Professional 2.0 is free email marketing software that allows you to create and send promotional emails in seconds. Seconds after installing, you will be able to send promotional ads, newsletters, coupons, and more.

Email Marketing Pro is a free email marketing software package that offers the following features:

• Create bulk email and send countless personalized emails in seconds!
• Easily Import your current customer list!
• Customizable, built-in database of unlimited groups of people!
• Automatic unsubscribe and bounce-back handling!
• Email message personalization features, such as first and last name addressing!
• Ability to authenticate to remote SMTP server!
• Easy-to-use import/export functions to import customer lists!
• HTML editor and text editor to customize email messages!
  Ability to send emails at timed intervals, to avoid server congestion or ISP limits!
• Save and reuse any bulk email campaign!
• Run reports to track unsubscribers, bounce-backs and campaign statistics.
• It’s free!

Visit Free Email Marketing Software for more information.

Email Marketing – Basic Information About Newsletter

When designing your newsletter always keep in mind the amount of time you can expect your reader to spend viewing your newsletter. Everyone today is information hungry, but always in a hurry. How you display your content within your newsletter can capitalize on this assumption.

Obviously this will depend on your business and the audience in which you are marketing, but here are three recommendations:

• Announcements: Include recent information about your company and/or products that impacts your readers. For instance, you can include a link to an upcoming tradeshow where your company will be exhibiting or perhaps a seminar that your company will be sponsoring.
• Article: Include an article that relates to your products or services and helps your readers. It is also a great idea to develop a resource library that contains additional articles and provide a link for your readers so they can find more information on similar topics.
• Case Study: Provide an example of a client who has achieved great results while using your products or services. This will help build credibility with your readers. Again, provide a link where your readers can view additional case studies.

Those are three key items to include in your newsletter. If you include these you are keeping your readers up to date on recent information about your products or services, including an article providing value on topics affecting them and by providing a case study you are proving to your readers that others are achieving success by using your products or services.

Making Your Articles Easier to Digest

Think of how we read newspapers; the same holds true for how we read material on the web. We skim headlines looking for something that interests us and only then will we begin reading an article. We also stop to view photographs and any visual cues offering greater insight as to the information held within an article. I see far too many articles within newsletters that are very long (greater than 900 words). When writing your article try to keep it at 800 words or less and break each section into smaller, easy to read blocks with bolded headlines over each section. This will encourage your reader to skim your article and stop at each section they find interesting. If you are finding it impossible to trim your article simply find a good point within 800 or fewer words and provide a link to a webpage that contains the article in its entirety.

Sharing Your Newsletter with Others

Always give your readers a reason and a means by which to share your newsletter with others. By providing valuable and relevant content to your subscribers they will be inclined to share this information with others by forwarding your newsletter. The email marketing software should provide a “Forward-to-a-Friend” feature that inserts a link within the footer of your message allowing your readers to easily forward your newsletter. The goal is to obviously reach out to as many as possible by providing valuable, relevant, timely content, and an easy way for your readers to share this information with others.

Proposed website to visit:

Direct Email Marketing – A website provide information about definition, history, key terms and concepts of email marketing, opt-in email advertising, email spam, legal requirement of email marketing, advantages and disadvantages of email marketing, email marketing campaign, web-based email marketing service providers and email marketing software.

Direct Email Marketing

Direct email marketing is a method of direct marketing which is using of electronic mail (email) as a means of communicating commercial messages to an audience. In other word, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered direct email marketing. Direct Email Marketing (Email Direct Marketing) is a marketing strategy to promote your product or service through the application of direct email communications. Direct Email Marketing represents the email you send to a customer, a prospect or public. Direct Email marketing is a tool for building relationships with both existing and potential customers.

In general direct email marketing (Email Direct Marketing) refers to:

• Sending direct promotional emails to new prospects or existing customers with the purpose to acquire or persuade new purchase or repeat purchase.
• Sending emails with the purpose to develop customer loyalty and enhance the customer relationship.
• Email sent by anyone with placing your marketing messages or advertisements in the email.

The process of direct email marketing (email direct marketing) including: 1. Generate Traffic for your website, 2. Encourage Visitors to sign up for newsletter, 3. Create and sending promotional email or newsletter, 4. Genetare sales or more traffic to your website.

Small Kitchen Design

Small Kitchen Design

As you know, the kitchen is the most frequented room in the house. And just because you have a small kitchen doesn’t mean you’ll be spending less time there – so it needs to be both functional, and comfortable. Your small kitchen design should look its best while also serving you to serve. Need ideas? Below we have some of our best free small kitchen design photos to help inspire you. Have a look at these colorful and entertaining small kitchen design pictures, and get some great ideas to turn your small kitchen space into a big hit.

To create a more spacious look for your small kitchen design the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) recommends designing more unique storage solutions, mixing natural and ambient lighting, taking advantage of more space saving appliances, and adding personalized touches.

A small kitchen design requires creativity in coming up with storage solutions. Some ideas to try include:

· Putting an island in the center of the kitchen that can provide freestanding storage that is also convenient from any spot in the kitchen.

· Using a galley kitchen design in which the cabinets and appliances line up on either side of a corridor can work out very well for a small kitchen space.

· Today’s appliance manufacturers have come up with more compact space-saving appliances make small kitchen design easier, such as refrigerators that are 24 inches deep instead of 30 inches deep, as well as appliances that can be hung underneath cabinets like microwaves.

· Other small kitchen design tricks to create an eating area in the kitchen include using a drop table or a small sized round table with two small chairs that can be tucked into a corner. Or a built-in counter along the wall with chairs to provide an eating nook.

· Another interesting challenge in small kitchen design is creating an illusion of space with under cabinet lighting or under the counter. With the proper type of lighting the kitchen can be made to appear larger and more pleasing.

· The use of light colored cabinets with glass doors.

· Installing deeper counters that can accommodate more appliances and increase work space.

· Flooring tiles can be placed on a diagonal, and in a galley style kitchen hardwood flooring can be run the length of the kitchen.

· For storage you can hang up pots and pans. This is a perfect way to free up cabinet space, and they add a certain charm and character to your small kitchen design. The insides of cabinet doors can be used to hang up everything from utensils, oven mitts, and other miscellaneous items. Pantry storage with units that go all the way to the ceiling with the upper cabinets to provide more space for seldom used items while making the lower cabinets more accessible with rollout shelves, lazy susans, and tilt-out bins.

· Install a large kitchen sink, since larger sinks are considered to be more practical than small sinks when it comes to cleaning pots and pans.

Remember most kitchens are small. When you look in kitchen design magazines you naturally notice that the kitchens featured are large and so you might think your small kitchen in inadequate. But good small kitchen design means being able to create space and incorporating ample storage facilities and being able to fit in all the necessary appliances.