Why Use Opt-In Lists If Spam Is So Cheap?

You've probably received a ton of e-mail from spammers on how they'll sell you a million "fresh" e-mail addresses for only $19.95. When opt-in lists are costing $150 to $400 per thousand, why not go the spam route? To explain, let me start with a definition.

What is Spam?

"Spam is unsolicited e-mail (or news postings) pushing a point. Be it an ad for a used PC, or an urge to vote on a proposition; if you didn't ask for it, didn't sign up on a mailing list related to it, and didn't leave your e-mail address on a web form asking for more information on it, it's spam!" -- Mail-Net.com StopSpam FAQ (www.mall-net.com/spamfaq.html)

I think that sums it up quite nicely. Unfortunately spamming isn't all that difficult. 

How Spammers Spam

Wannabe spammers can purchase lists of millions of "fresh" e-mail addresses for under $100. Incipient spammers can purchase software robots for $100 to $500 that creep over the Internet, searching for keywords on webpages, and then sucking up any hapless e-mail addresses that appear thereon. Some e-mail extractor programs prowl websites looking for a list of the POP e-mail boxes or aliases on that site, and then vacuum those unsuspecting victims into their torture chambers. As an online business, I've found that any e-mail address I have ever used on a website for any purpose has been "harvested" for spam. It's pretty easy for me to tell who is legitimate and who isn't since I know which address I use to sign up for more information.

Spammers are parasites on the legitimate use of the Internet. For this reason any e-mail address or website used in connection with a spam message is subject to rabid attacks by anti-spammers who succeed in shutting down the e-mail accounts and websites of naive spammers. But spammer scumbags strike back by going to "bulk-mail friendly," off-shore ISPs and web hosting services that guarantee that a site won't be shut down during a spam campaign -- and charge high rates for this protection. Spammers have learned not to use their own e-mail addresses for return addresses -- most replies go to "free" addresses such as Yahoo.com or Bigfoot.com. No wonder those companies are struggling with the overload.

Fraud Is Necessary to Spam "Success"

But to succeed, spammers have to get through the filters set up by ISPs and individuals to protect themselves from unwanted e-mails. This involves both fraud and trickery. For under $1000, spammers can purchase sophisticated desktop e-mail sending programs that introduce random characters into subject lines, return addresses, as well as To and From fields so that filters are tricked into seeing them as unique messages. For example, the subject line "Now is the Time #6BE4" or the From: address "A29hWAPre@mail.bds-bern.cn" introduce random letters and characters to cloak the repetitive nature of this e-mail deluge. E-mail headers are altered in order to subvert the e-mail system and protect the identity of the senders. Such an e-mail sending program can be set to switch to a different mailserver after a preset number of messages in order to avoid tripping spam alarms.

Subject lines are often used that have nothing at all to do with the content of the message. They often consist of out-and-out lies or gross exaggerations. For example, maybe you've received these messages:

• Information about your password
• re: winner confirmation
• re: travel confirmation
• Women will be attracted to you
• Make a six-figure income this year

How many e-mails have you received that begin, "This is not spam...."?

Small Companies, Small People

I used to think that large sleazy corporations generated a lot of spam.  I no longer think so. Big companies have too much to lose. Established companies can't afford lawsuits and public anger. Legitimate businesses operate on trust and respect. Spammers have no respect and violate trust with every e-mail they send.

I am now convinced that the vast majority of spammers are one-man operations that "invest" several hundred dollars in software tools to harvest e-mail addresses and then send them out every night. These desktop spam purveyors pump out tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of unwanted e-mails a night from one little man (women would never do such a thing!) in one little operation in one small self-serving, abusive attempt to become rich.

Lots of small business spam because they don't know any better, then reel under the deluge of complaints, flames, and closed accounts. Most quit spamming at that point. But lying and fraud are essential to spamming success. So if you want to be a successful spammer, then a liar and a fraud is what you must become. You may have thought of spam as the poor man's way to market -- objectionable but benign. If so, you are terribly naive.

Why Thinking People Object to Spam

There are four main reasons why spam is morally and ethically wrong, and increasingly becoming the target of legislation.

1. Cost-shifting

Bulk postal mail must be paid for by the mailer. Even though bulk postal mailers don't pay first class rates, they do pay their way for the infrastructure needed to deliver their pieces. But spammers shift the cost of delivery to you, the recipient. AOL, Earthlink, and other ISPs have raised their monthly rates. Why? Because they are besieged with millions and billions of unwanted e-mails to deliver -- addressed to you by spammers. It taxes their resources. AOL reported that of an estimated 30 million e-mail messages each day, about 30% was spam. Don't kid yourself. Spam increases your ISP's costs to process, store, and deliver e-mail, requiring greater expenditures on computers, disk drives, memory, routers, and expensive Internet connectivity. Your ISP has to pass that cost on to you or go out of business. You are paying for spam in higher rates, and spammers aren't paying their fair share. They're shifting the cost to you -- without your explicit permission. Cost shifting is stealing others' resources against their will in order to accomplish the spammer's goals. Spam is time theft and resource theft. Spammers are nothing more or less than thieves stealing from the Internet economy.

2. Fraud

I've outlined above the lies and fraud required to get spam past filters and to trick recipients. A business that has to rely on fraud is a fraudulent business and should be shut down for the public good.

3. Displacement of Normal E-Mail

Spam is destroying the usefulness and effectiveness of e-mail as a communication tool. Abuse spawns protection. The US Anti-Junk-Fax Law protected businesses against reams of office supply ads pouring from their fax machines. Perhaps that law needs to be amended to extend to e-mail. If we want fax to be available and faxes to be read, they must be protected against abuse. The same is true of e-mail. I personally have to spend precious minutes of each day to delete the hundreds of spam messages that get by my filters. It takes me longer to get to the legitimate e-mail that I need to respond to. I have less time to carry out my business because normal e-mail business communication is displaced and subverted by unrequested, unwanted junk.

4. Permission

CAUCE, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (www.cauce.org), argues,

"Your e-mail address is not the public domain! It is yours, you paid for it, and you should have control over what it is used for. If you wish to receive tons of unsolicited advertisements, you should be able to. But you shouldn't be forced to suffer the flood unless and until you actually request it. This is the heart of the 'Opt In' approach supported by CAUCE."

Permission involves respect for the customer's desires. When we do objectionable things to a person without his permission we show profound disrespect for him. That's no way to treat a customer! That's no way to run a business!

"I Can't Afford Not To Spam," you say?

"But I can't afford those high opt-in list prices," you say. "If I want to reach my prospects affordably I am forced to spam."

My response: Baloney!

I know many marketers who believe there is only one bottom line -- profit. I've seen marketers write disgusting, overstated hype in order to sucker people into make a decision that is wrong for them. Some of those marketers publicly proclaim that they make hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, millions of dollars per year. So what? Since when does profit justify deceit? To spam requires fraud, sticking others with your own expenses, causing others disruption and time-wasting activity, and necessitates gross disrespect of your potential customers. So what if you make a temporary profit? Money shouldn't corrupt you that so you'll surrender your integrity and decency to gain it!

Maybe I'm the one who is naive. But I strongly believe that if we treat others the way we would like to be treated, we will succeed. Oh, your success may not come instantly. Your rewards probably won't come tomorrow or the next day. But they will come and you will ultimately succeed.

I believe in a God of love and justice who created us in his own image. Yes, we are marred and fallen. But the core of love and justice remains. That is why I believe that love and justice will strike a responding cord inside the human heart of a potential customer. That's why honesty, even when it might undermine an immediate sale, will create a loyal friend who will buy later and send others to do business with an honest person.

Is that too religious for you? Too philosophical? I've been told that religion and business don't mix. But I believe that unless we DO mix them, we can end up with a Money as god, people as means to an end, and godless materialism and godless capitalism as an oppressive weight on our society.

If your business requires you to lie to your fellow human beings, to misrepresent your products, or to rely on suckers to throw their money your way, then resign. Quit. Get out of it.

Okay, enough of that.

Why use opt-in lists if spam is so cheap? Because spam requires you to compromise your integrity. That's why. And no amount of money is enough to justify that.

But don't think you're the only one who can't afford to pay $150 to $400 CPM for opt-in lists. I can't either. My business model won't support those costs. So I have to be innovative and entrepreneurial in order to succeed ethically.

You and I are not locked into one means of earning money via the Internet or one marketing approach. There are thousands of legitimate, people-serving ways to succeed in business on the Internet. If one approach can't succeed ethically, try another. Depending upon your gifts and abilities, your interests and skills, your creativity and chutzpah, you can succeed wonderfully -- without spamming or deceit or fraud.

The Internet opens up to you and me a wonderful marketplace with an immense reach and power -- a great opportunity for us to do good for our families as well as for our fellow man. I choose to use this Internet medium with integrity and encourage you to do the same. We'll all be better off for it.

You'll find articles and resources on spam in the Web Marketing Info Center. www.wilsonweb.com/cat/cat.cfm?page=1&subcat=me_Spam

(Note: Spam® is a registered trademark of the Hormel Foods Corporation, and a time-honored canned meat product. This name stuck to unsolicited commercial e-mail (abbreviated UCE) probably due to the "canned" nature of the messages.)