Message from discussion
Questions About Mass Mailing
From: RASM...@prodigy.com (John Swegan)
Subject: Questions About Mass Mailing
Date: 1998/02/11
Message-ID: <6bs1rq$1lta$1@newssvr04-int.news.prodigy.com>
X-Deja-AN: 324074690
Distribution: world
X-Auth-User: 000000000/cb1cd5cbcbd0b903
X-Post-Time: 11 Feb 1998 11:25:46 GMT
Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY
X-Problems-To: ab...@prodigy.net
Newsgroups: alt.spam
I won't beat around the bush: I've been offered a position as an advisor
for a company that plans to utilize the internet for mass mailings to
market their products.
I know, I know : BOO!!! HISS !!! KILL THE SPAMMER!!!<G>
The reason I'm bringing this up here is because, unlike some companies
that use this method, I would prefer doing this in a more ethical manner.
I'm looking for constructive criticism, suggestions on how to improve on
the mass mailing program, and how not to upset a potential customer more
than necessary. I know I'll end up getting spammed, or flamed, to who
laid the rail because I'm using my real e-mail address, but that can't be
helped. Flames will be ignored, as I have yet to learn any new cuss words
from them or even a good insult. (How many times will someone advise me
to perform what, until actually seeing a photograph of it, I thought was
a physically impossible method of self reproduction... and I'm not
talking about cloning here!)
Regardless, I'm here for information to best see how to utilize the
internet to get my employer's message across with the least amount of
hassle to the client. While the easiest answer I can receive from any one
here is that I shouldn't spam at all, that, unfortunately, is not an
option. I've been rightsized out of two organizations already, and my
savings is shot. Unemployment doesn't cut it, and no, I don't have an
extravagant lifestyle. I don't even have a credit card!
What I'm going to do is throw out to you the basic outline of the mass
mailing plan, so that you can see that I do have an understanding of
what's going on in cyberspace and the ethics behind everything that's
being done.
Item one: Unfortunately, I don't see a way around this, but the return
address would have to be different from the actual originating address.
Regardless of how ethical we try to be, there will always be a few self-
righteous people who will try to spam that mailbox to crash the server.
What I'm looking at is the return address being the one for removal of
the name from the list. Unfortunately, this would cause the spammers
themselves to put a burden on people who would just simply have their
names removed.
My question on this item... should there be a message in the letters that
says not to do that, as you could prevent others from removing their
names from the list, or would this be a given?
Item Two: The Subject line. I believe in keeping things honest. I hate it
when I get spammed with false subject headers. I actually got one that
said my dad told the writer to forward the message on. Since my dad's
been dead since 1971, I don't see how that could be possable. For the
subject line, I intend to use something like the following:
Subject: COMMERCIAL MESSAGE - COMPUTER PRODUCTS.
or whatever products that the boss is selling. They said they had others
interested in pushing their products, too, but I'll know more about that
later.
My reasoning for this is simple: It tells you upfront that it's a spam
and what it's about. If you're interested in computer products, you may
want to read it: if not, there's always the delete key. Yes, it's an
intrusion, but less of an intrusion of your life than you would get from
the telephone solicitors or people who knock and your door to show you
salvation.
Item Three: The "BLIND CC." This stands for blind "carbon copies" or
multiple names... similar to the regular CC you see on most e-mail
programs. What this will do is guarantee that you won't have 1000 other
names downloaded before you even get the message. Some folks still pay
their ISP by the minute or data transfered. One person I worked with last
year recieved a letter from a gent in the UK complaining that it took him
over 20 minutes to download the letter because of the large list of e-
mail addresses attached. The gent was paying on the timer. (I know,
that's a good reason in itself to not mass mail, but see above)
The Blind CC will eliminate that problem of large lists being sent out
with every mailing.
Item Four: Keeping the message short! I don't expect to have any message
longer than 150 words, including removal instructions. An example of such
a message may be something like:
======================================================
COMPANYNAME SUPER SPECIALS
ACME WIDGETS:
Regularly $15, but until March 31, 1998 only $5.95
GENERIC THINGIES:
Regularly $100, only $54.95 thru March 31, 1998....
For more information, or to order,
visit the COMPANYNAME website at
http://www.companyname.com/
To have your name removed from this list, just
hit "REPLY" and change the subject header to "remove".
======================================================
Of course, the company would HAVE to have a virtual catalog website first,
but this is, again, so that only people interested would go after the
information, and the disinterested could get on with their lives.
Of course, this is only the mass mailing portion. Next we have the news
groups.
Let's go to the history of newsgroups: Pre SPAMford Wallace days. If a
person posted a note that he or she was selling a dohickey, they'd get
flamed for putting a commercial on the net. Post SPAMford, well, I don't
have to explain what's happened to spamming there! There isn't a day goes
by that someone doesn't cross post a message about this or that get rich
quick scheme or is selling some totally unrelated product. (I've seen
posts for burial plots in alt.humor, fer cryin' out loud)
The way we see this is to post ON TOPIC (Believe it or not, that's what
I'm doing here) Regardless of the length of the note (this one is so long
because I'm looking for constructive feedback to gauge how close I am to
meeting the needs of the public at large and my employers) I've been
doing this for some time off of my internet account (not my online
account) pushing my personal webpage: The Church Of SPAM at http://www.
grapevinenet.com/swiggy. (Blatent Plug) I have an elaborate sig file I
use that I use, and discover that a few on topic posts here and there
actually increase the traffic flow. This was important when I had a
company called COMMONWEALTH running banner ads on my page. Since they
changed the program, however, I've removed them because it wasn't worth
it. I Earned less than 8 bucks for a year's worth of carrying their
banners. But I still want to build the traffic for any future advertisers
to tap me on the shoulder.
Getting back on topic, though, the usenet groups will be used for posting
on topic messages with the "commercial" message as a part of the sig file.
You might see a message that has a sig file like this
======================
Sincerely,
Joe Blow
Sales Rep - COMPANYNAME
http://www.companyname.com'
Doohickey special during March: $25
Visit our website for info!
=====================
Possably an ASCII art picture to go with it, but non-intrusive
advertising.
Anyway, I'm lobbing the ball in your court. I look forward to your
opinions and suggestions.
John N! Swegan
http://www.grapevinenet.com/swiggy
Warren Ohio and the WWW!
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