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CAN-SPAM law still Rumbling (part
1 of 2)
I hear it every day in my News Alerts; CAN SPAM can Spam?
We all know the answer to that. But the most misunderstood
point about the CAN-SPAM act is that it is not intended
to STOP Spam. It is intended to *control* it.
The very nature of the official title gave us it's biggest
hint: "Controlling the assault of non-solicited pornography
and marketing."
I hate to say it, but the writing is on the wall. Controlling
first, charging money second! We will all remember the
days when we could send email for free. Just thank your
lucky stars (I thank mine) that it hasn't happened yet.
So what is happening in the wake of CAN-SPAM?
Lots!
I am going to cover this in two emails. The one today
is focused on what we are seeing in terms of Spam Filtering,
the second one (that you will get tomorrow) is focused
on the legalities of it and what is coming up in the interpretation.
I will also give you three resources that will help you
understand the law more and/or help you know what you
need to to stay clean.
So lets get into it.
I don't know if you have noticed, but the filtering is
getting stronger. Seems like the major ISPs have dialed
it up a notch. My emails are even getting blocked by certain
ISPs (to my total dismay of course) and I am studying
what is causing the recent upswing.
I made a mistake in my first response to this Bill. I
thought it would further separate us opt-in marketers
from the spammers. (opt-in being we get permission to
email, spammers being folks who use software tools to
gather email addresses and/or email to folks they have
no relationship with in MASSIVE quantity) (no judgement,
just what is)
But, once again, to my dismay, it hasn't!
It has added to the confusion. As everyone now is either
complying to the law or creating the illusion of complying,
we are all looking alike.
SurfControl's (the Spam Filter guys in Scotts Valley,
California) CEO puts it best, "While some spam is
very obvious, it's getting tougher to identify the legitimate
e-mail marketers from the really bad actors who continue
to send spam that appears legal," said Larson.
So, what do we do?
We sure don't stop sending email. Email has proven time
and time again to be one of the most effective marketing
tools.
We sure don't stop asking for email addresses. We need
those to send our opt-in emails too.
And we sure don't stop complying with the law, (which
really were the standards most of us were using anyway,
so no big deal)
The only thing we really can do is, stay tuned and continue
to keep our emails squeaky as clean as we can. Those of
you who still aren't checking your email content for trigger
words and phrases have no business to complain that your
emails are not getting through the Spam Filters. This
is the best and most efficient way to combat the Spam
Filters.
OK, here is the shameless plug...
The easiest and most up-to-date Spam Content Checker on
the net is my very own email optimization system called
e-filtrate. Click the link below to start checking your
emails NOW. This is a no-brainer if you are sending *any*
amount of email.
http://www.e-filtrate.com/salesletter2.html
End of plug ;)
So what is next?
The dust will settle, and the differences once again will
become more apparent to the filters. The clean opt-in
emails will mostly get through while the spammed or un-cleaned
opt-in ones will mostly not.
In the meantime, I am looking under all the covers to
keep on top of what is triggering and what is not.
And like I said before, stay tuned. More to come tomorrow!
With Respect,
Dori Friend
http://www.e-filtrate.com
dori/at/e-filtrate.com
209-274-6363
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This article may be reprinted in any form, and in any
context with credited byline and link. ;)
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