Jim Straw, Spam, and You

> He's just a spammer like the rest as far as I'm concerned. None of his
> free info is worth the time it takes to read......and I ain't buying till
> I have a great reason too!... From anyone! And as long as I'm on the
> subject of being worth reading...All these one page sales letter type web
> sites kill me. Who buys from them? There's never enough good content to
> tell you to buy what they are selling. That's why so many people get
> dissolusioned with offers....they turn out to be junk!

> Mike S.

From "Definitions and Implementation Under the CAN-SPAM Act", page 3 (available at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2005/01/050112canspamfrn.pdf):

"It (commercial email) requires a functioning return email address or similar Internet-based mechanism for recipients to use to “opt out” of receiving future commercial email messages..."

There is no requirement for an opt-out link as long as the return email address is "live". Having just sent a subscription request to Jim recently by clicking on the "Reply" button in my email client -- a request that was acted on extremely fast -- I must ask:

HAVE YOU REPLIED TO THE E-MAIL AND ASKED TO BE TAKEN OFF THE LIST?

If you have and he has not taken you off, then forward it to the FTC (the address is spam@uce.gov). They will add it to their database and use it as evidence when they prosecute. I'd also report it to the sender's ISP.

And I don't think Jim got rich by violating major pieces of legislation, so you must have opted in to the list, right? And if you opt in, regardless of what you think of the quality of the e-mail, it is not spam because spam is "Unsolicited Commercial Email" or "Unsolicited Bulk Email". In other words, if you asked for it, it isn't "unsolicited", regardless of your opinion of the content.

I'll agree -- Jim does send out a lot of stuff that I may not particularly want (some may even call it "junk"), but it is not spam. I've also discovered that Jim (and presumably his staff) are also very quick to respond to requests. And his phone number is in each of his emails -- you could probably also call to unsubscribe. Or take a road trip to Dalton, GA -- his address is also in each email!

And if you don't like sales pages, let me know and I'll set up a page where you can click on links to purchase products without sales pages! Saves me a lot of time...

Seriously, I can understand your point about long, glowing sales pages that don't really tell you a lot of detail; however, testing has proven that they sell more than, "here it is, click here and buy it" pages. That's life as a marketer on the Internet: you sometimes only get one shot to make a sale. You made another great point there, too: although the path is longer and definitely more difficult, it is much easier to make a sale after you have established a relationship with your client. And you do that by providing good content, responding to questions, and just being a good neighbor. In other words, the smart marketers are trying to sell an opt-in subscription on the first visit so that they can build a relationship with you before they ask you to pull out that credit card. And believe me, those marketers are out there.

Not too long ago, I stepped a bit over the line with a marketer (I won't mention his name). He wrote back an e-mail that said that his programmers were fixing the program as he typed the email, asked me to come back and try again -- and to try to be a bit more polite. To make a long story short, he offered me any of his products for free (I declined -- I felt too guilty) and gave me a personal email address in case I had problems in the future. Well, a big ticket item was recently released that I wanted to purchase -- and I waited a day or three to see if he was going to send out an e-mail on it. He did -- and I used his affiliate link to purchase it. So the "good guys/gals" do exist, and as you continue in this business, you'll find out real fast who they are (HINT: they're usually the ones that are willing to wait a long time for payday).

Thanks for listening,
Tom