the uncreative industry

In my last post, I spoke a little about email spam. One other thing that I have noticed about email marketers is that, on the whole, they are the least creative people I think I have seen in my life. Rather than come up with any ideas of their own, they simply regurgitate whatever they've seen from their competitors. The sales copy always looks the same. The same catch phrases that are used to sell get-rich-quick moneymaking schemes and bogus college degrees are also used to sell a diet pill. What gives?

I understand the concept behind "shotgun" marketing - that if you spray your message in a wide enough pattern, you're bound to hit something (or somebody). But even if you could get someone to actually read that spammy message, or god forbid actually open their crummy virus-infected attachment, do these marketers actually think that they're misspelled cookie-cutter copy is actually going to lead to conversions?

fighting the losing battle with spam

So I created a new email address for myself recently and my inbox was totally free from spam for a few weeks. Then, poof! - one client adds me to their "mailing list" and I suddenly start receiving sales pithes for Rolexes, Viagra and Fentraphen again. Now I could easily spend my days trying to create and tweak filters that scan my email for spam, but I find that this is a losing battle. It either becomes a weekly chore to add additional keywords and misspellings to the filter, or you end up going too vague and filtering out valid emails from customers. I could also depend on my ISP to do the filtering for me, but I have yet to discover an ISP that can successfully filter the bad from the good. The new year is a great time to switch emails. It's almost expected. I actually like to include the year in my email address. That way, if any of my contacts miss the message about my email address getting changed, they may guess the new one when they see that the year no longer matches the current year. Some might say that spammers would make the same assumption, but that would assume that email harvesters and spammers are physically viewing their email lists, which I seriously doubt.

In the end, I'm thinking that the best thing to do is to provide a specially filtered and forwarded email address for each client. It sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't really. You create a new address for each client when you first meet, and that's it. This would also make email filtering into folders a little easier.

the sign of a dying forum

It's sad but it seems like these days we cannot help but run across spam. Even if you manage to thwart it off in your own personal inbox, you're bound to still see it in forums, on websites and chat groups, and of course in your messaging boxes on the various social networking sites that are out there.

Lately, I've been noticing a flood of spam on several of the online forums that I visit. I don't know if the spammers have suddenly figured out how to get past the built-in anti-spam features of BB software, or if spammers are actually hiring live people to do their work for them instead of robots. But either way, it is a shame, and it is a sign that a forum may be on its way out.

When the moderator of a forum can't filter out the Viagra, Rolex and Anoretix weight-loss messages from the legitimate ones, it turns off subscribers to the forum. For example, if I am reading threads on a music forum, the last thing I need to see between a post about my favorite band being on tour and the latest albums being released are off-topic plugs for affiliate marketing sites, bogus college degrees, and get-rich-quick schemes.

I must admit that I do feel bad for moderators, as they certainly have their hands full. Aside from the incoming spam, they have to deal with the trolls and the vulgar members of our online communities, and apply swift justice to those looking to break the rules of netiquette. It's certainly a job I wouldn't take on without a lot of thought.

of sex shops and privacy

Of all the retail stores on the internet, stores that sell adult toys and lingerie should be sitting near the top of the list when it comes to protecting customer privacy. Unfortunately, I recently discovered just the opposite to be true. There is such a store from which I have purchased a few gifts for my wife. I won't mention the store name, but let's just say that it is named after two biblical characters - two very early biblical characters. ;)

I've made a few purchases over the years, and haven't really had any trouble with their service. Their shipping is sometimes slow, but they deliver items discreetly and their prices are competitive. We've had a couple of items that were mis-described in their store, but nothing earth-shattering (vinyl versus real leather!). Honestly, I only make purchases with them about once or twice a year, so I don't have too many experiences.

Like any other retail site, I provided a dedicated email address when I registered. I like to do this so that I can better track my email, and if I start seeing spam, I know exactly where it is coming from. A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing spam arrive in this mailbox. It was all of the typical stuff - the badly HTML-formatted messages trying to sell me Rolex watches, Viagra or Phentermine. You get the picture; certainly not store-related sale announcements (although I guess you could argue the relativity of Viagra to sex shops). None-the-less, I immediately contacted their customer service department, and after a day or so received a reply. It was a canned response apologizing for the inconvenience, with a promise to have my name removed from their future marketing lists. Gee, thanks but no thanks! Once you've sold my email address, you can't just take it back.

So, I deleted that dedicated email address and I won't order from them again. I hope it was worth whatever money they made selling their customers down river. Lame!

spammers top the list of creative email marketers

When it comes to new approaches at email marketing, let's face it...
Spammers take the cake. Hands down - no question.

From no other company will I received unique rainbow colored, word ciphered messages with letters replaced by numbers and - S P A C E D - out product descriptions (to thwart email spam filters). While it is frustrating to wade through at times (to say the least), from a visual perspective I have to admit that it is somewhat creative. I also find the dummy text (lorem ipsum, anyone?) that they sometimes include to be absolutely bizarre. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I appreciate receiving email after email about overnight college degrees, penis enlargement, Viagra, faux Rolex watches, or Hydroxycut. I'm just saying that I find it interesting that spammers are the only companies to use these silly visual techniques to try and rope in customers.

And who is clicking on these emails? Who in their right mind would assume that it is safe to follow a link on an email that replaces the letter "e" with the number "3"? Therein lies the answer as to why regular companies don't use these same marketing techniques in their valid email campaigns - if it looks like spam, even if it isn't, it will probably get ignored. Some of these scams even try to address the receiver by name, as in: "John, I just had to share this breakthrough product with you!" I suppose that if they are sending out several million of these emails at a time, there's a chance that some of the recipients will be named John, right?

These types of emails must be working for someone, at least for a minute fraction of the time. Otherwise, wouldn't we see an end to them? Or has spam become the new B2B joke, where successful profiteers create landing pages and late night paid-for-TV programs to convince others that they can make a killing in the email marketing business by buying an e-book, lists of email addresses, or mailing software from a certain self-proclaimed industry "expert" (who never made any money himself, but is now rich because he can convince you that he has)?

add sprint to the spam hitlist

Last week, I reported that I was starting to receive tons of spam to an email address that I provided to ServiceMagic. On the bright side, I am not alone. I have already received two comments from individuals who are having the same problem after registering with that site. I have since deactivated that email address.

Well, guess who sold out my email address this week? Sprint! Now, you would think that a huge company like Sprint would have more integrity. However, I am now receiving spam at (not one, but) two separate email addresses that I had created specifically for Sprint billing correspondence. One was for for a Sprint PCS cell phone that we used to have with them, and the other was for Sprint long distance billing. All of a sudden, I am seeing spam at both addresses, which I think we can assume is more than just a coincidence.

So, I'd like to send out a big "screw you" to the folks over at Sprint for selling my email addresses. Sprint used to be a reputable company to deal with. Maybe it was the merger with Nextel that shattered their integrity. None-the-less, this is why, as consumers, we are forced to create separate email addresses when dealing with immoral corporations. It's the only way to keep the erectile dysfunction spam from infiltrating our real mail. Jerks.

service magic sucks

Last year, I talked a little about my experience using a site called Service Magic. It was nice that I received a call almost immediately upon using their site, but in the end they only found one pre-screened contractor in my area. So much for them delivering multiple choices for me to pick from. None-the-less, I was willing to give them another chance and figured I would use their website again for the next big home improvement project that I didn't feel like doing myself.

HOWEVER...

I have just started receiving tons of spam at the email address I used to register with Service Magic, and considering that I created this certain email address JUST FOR Service Magic and haven't used it anywhere else, I would say that this is a pretty good indicator that they have sold my email address out to the likes of spammers. I don't see how else I would be getting spam to this dedicated email address.

Their privacy policy states: "We may share aggregated, non-personal information in any of the above situations and also with advertisers and others."

I guess that includes my email address, eh? As I've stated before, when it comes to so-called "free" services on the internet, they are rarely free. In this case, you're allowing your inbox to fill up with pharmaceutical spam and penis enlargement scams in return for someone playing the middleman between you and some contractors. What a deal...NOT!

So I have decided to change my assessment of Service Magic - they suck. I won't ever use them again, and I don't recommend them.

more spoofing tools

Recently, I discussed how annoyed I was at mail drop centers that offer reshipping services so that businesses can "spoof" their receivers (thereby rendering product refunds and returns virtually impossible). Complimenting the "spoof" mailing services are the online incorporation businesses who allow customers to incorporate their business in a state that they don't live or conduct business in. And now, we turn to the telephone for further propagation of the "spoofing" trend.

A new company called www.SpoofCard.com is offering a service in which callers can disguise their voice, set their own fake originating caller ID number, and record the conversation for later retrieval. When will it end? We used to have one of those sales call blocking services enabled on our home line and it always made me mad when a telemarketer would bypass the system and enter in a bogus number to get past it. Now, anyone can do it.

Although the site is promoting this as a "fun" thing to do, I prefer to think of it as yet another tool for identity-spoofing scum. Thanks for nothing.