Why an opt-out opt-in doesn’t really work
17 August 2011
I recently heard from some friends about Penton Media sending an email asking people to subscribe to third-party email. They didn’t like being required to opt-out to avoid getting an email that wasn’t requested in the first place, even if there had been a warning given that the email was coming. Spamhaus agreed with those
Oral arguments in e360 v. Spamhaus
9 June 2011
There were oral arguments yesterday in David Linhardt’s longshot of a lawsuit against Spamhaus. You can listen to the MP3 here. My impressions are that e360 is likely toast. In fact, I think that there is some chance, after hearing Judge Pozner refer to the damages case put on by e360 and its attorneys as “grotesque,”
Partial bulking & other warning shots
23 March 2011
This morning, I got a question about some, but not all, of a mailing going into the bulk folder at a large ISP. “What does it mean when they do that? What should we do?” Most think sending mail to the bulk folder is an “all or nothing” proposition. They know there is a problem
Number 11 is a nice place to be
15 March 2011
Sometimes we can get too close to something. So close, in fact, that we take comments the wrong way so that they become insults that they were never intended to be. A couple of years ago, a member of the postmaster staff at a large, North American ISP said to a group of ESP people:
An average email user responds
17 November 2010
As I mentioned in my last post, I asked my dad to have a look at Gretchen Scheiman’s MediaPost Email Insider post. Gretchen Scheiman, Does Permission Need To Be Explicit?, MediaPost Email Insider (2010), https://web.archive.org/web/20210227121402/http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/139590/ (last visited May 31, 2024). My dad is a baby boomer and, I think, is a relatively normal email user.
Bigger Is Not Always Better
9 November 2010
Delivery professionals have told clients for years that a bigger list is not always better. We have been telling people that mailing people for the sake of mailing people is not a winning strategy. We have advocated mailing to engaged subscribers while letting the deadwood disappear. For years, we have suffered (not so) silently as
Somebody hasn’t read all of the CAN-SPAM Act
4 November 2010
Today’s big news appears to be a couple of lawsuits filed by Holomaxx Technologies. One was filed against Yahoo and Cisco, and the other against Microsoft and Return Path. In both, Holomaxx makes some statements that indicate it doesn’t have a firm grasp of the CAN-SPAM Act. Here’s a snippet: While it may be true
You call it “Appending,” they call it “Epending,” I call it “Evil”
1 November 2010
It’s been a long week and you’re relaxing at the local watering hole. Someone comes over and strikes up a conversation with you and the two of you end up spending the next hour together. Nothing happens and you are okay with that. Perhaps they weren’t really your type, but when they asked for your
Inertia Is Not Email Marketing
1 July 2010
The people at AlchemyWorx published an article titled “Getting real about inactive subscribers.” AlchemyWorx, Getting Real About Inactive Subscribers, AlchemyWorx (2010), https://web.archive.org/web/20100707102154/http://www.alchemyworx.com/e/getting-real-about-inactive-subscribers%20%20 (last visited May 29, 2024). I can only say that it is a “feel good” article. The entire point of the post seems to be to help email marketers feel good about inertia.