Hello guys,

This topic really frustrates me and I'm just curious of your opinion.
Few days ago I launched a new site and let my marketing guy work on reciprocal links. As far as I know searching for reciprocal links is widely accepted as non Spam activity and it is very targeted, but for some reason I still managed to get four complaints about Spam.
Another really annoying thing happened few days ago, that someone posted on webhostingtalk.com, wanting to find a new host. He also made his e-mail available at the bottom, so I decided to send my information. Looking back two years ago, when I was looking for a hosting company and someone posted information I thought it was great, more selection. Well apparently this guy managed to send me an e-mail with both ******* and scumbag placed in the same sentence :mad:, and I clearly did not place anything offensive in my e-mail.

So what’s going on? Are people, that sensitive these days? As far as I see I should stop sending e-mails to anyone, because anything could be Spam is person doesn't want it. Next thing you know my friends will start complaining about me spamming them .:eek:

so in your opinion what is the limit?

Sounds like you got unlucky, but then again you would be biased I guess :) (I'm not accusing you though!)

What is spam?

Well for example i got this email..


Hello I AM CLARISSE,AN 82 YEARS OLD Italian WOMAN CLAIRVOYANT AND ASTROLOGIST,
FOR MORE THEN 40 YEARS,I HAVE HELPED PEOPLE IF TIME HAS ARRIVED FOR YOU TO CHANGE
YOUR ENTIRE WHOLE LIFE,OR HAVE ANSWERS TO WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR,PLEASE VISIT
MY WEB SITE AND HAVE YOUR SOLUTION AT HAND.


lol so so funny :D

anyway i have no idea how they got my email address so this is spam :angry:

Unsollicited commercial email seems like a good enough definition

well the defintion is not easy is that. If I apraoch a site and would like to offer them some form of partnership, whether it is for recprical links or for something real. The receiver will not know where did I get his e-mail and he might consider the e-mail to be a commercial. would that be conisdered a spam?

Say how you found there email address.

I go to a relevant site and grab their e-mail, which they make available. I find this sites through the search engine and directories, not listings

well spam by definition is:
Unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail.

ie: when you fire out a few thousand (if not million) e-mails hawking your wares with no targeting towards the end recipient. Trying to sell hosting to a webhosting company for example.

These days some people consider anything they don't want to recieve as spam, which is incorrect, and which muddies the water a great deal. I think almost anyone can tell the difference bewteen real spam, and just someone making a serious offer if they take a moment.

The best way to cold call (e-mail) anyone is to do the following.

Dear (whoever the name on the site is, or company name)

I saw your website (quote URL), or I saw your post on (quote forum/message board/cocktail napkin)

Then mention your offer, staying as relevant to their enquiry as possible (if you have more, wait till they respond, and sound interested). Don't use captials, and don't use 'sales talk'

Finish with your name, a thankyou, and send it using a legitimate business e-mail address (support@ or sales@ the domain you're mentioning)

That should make it clear that it's a personalized e-mail, rather than a bulk response. That's not spam. If they call it as such, even after requesting people contact them, then it's an issue they need to get help with, and I wouldn't worry too much.

re: return links. As most are aimed at gathering like businesses together I think your best shot is to mentioned clearly that you're in the same business so therefore aren't trying to sell your services, but rather swap links to share the same customer base.

Maybe your marketing guy was a little too 'markety' for his own good. I've often found people in marketing have a way of speaking, even in general mail that smells odd - no fault of theirs really - they're just too use to selling things at every turn. :)

Greg Moore

addition:
Just got a real spam in my inbox (more advice on the size of my manhood again) how do they know my shame!?

Never send an e-mail as priority, unless it really is. It's the best way to have me feeding spamcop lately. :)

Greg Moore

I thought of this 4 years ago and it still applies to the majority of spam. SPAM = Solicited Porno Adult Material

A really dumb thought here...maybe the person in question didn't know that you were mailing him in response to a Webhostingtalk post. Maybe he thought you were just sending an email out at random.

In any case, to avoid the situation in the future, might I recommend posting to the thread itself, rather than sending email to a potential client directly? At least this way, it can be clearly documented that the client has specifically requested information and that you're providing it in response to his request.

I got a PM from here:
"I'd love to suggest our company as a good reseller, but I can't because the post is not in an advertising forum."
Unfortunately, I didn't think I inquired anywhere about reseller hosting. (Maybe I posted a review about a past host of mine?) I will not name this person, nor, respond (favorably or unfavorably) because I am not 100% sure it is spam. I could be a mistake.
If I did enquire about a service and got PM's or emails about that service, I certainly would not look at it as spam.

I don't think link reciprocality is spam though. In fact on one of my sites, I encourage it, but I visit the site and make sure it fits my standards. (No flash intros, invasive scripting, pop up ads, MMF garbage ect.)

All I can say is if you let your marketing guy work on this, it is likely he was a bit pushy (most marketing guys are) and did not word the mail to be short and personal.
Next time ask your guy to let you look over the email(s) first, and try to pretend you are receiving this email yourself.

Originally posted by TheGAME1264
A really dumb thought here...maybe the person in question didn't know that you were mailing him in response to a Webhostingtalk post. Maybe he thought you were just sending an email out at random.

In any case, to avoid the situation in the future, might I recommend posting to the thread itself, rather than sending email to a potential client directly? At least this way, it can be clearly documented that the client has specifically requested information and that you're providing it in response to his request.

that's what I did

Originally posted by sharkman

Another really annoying thing happened few days ago, that someone posted on webhostingtalk.com, wanting to find a new host. He also made his e-mail available at the bottom, so I decided to send my information. Looking back two years ago, when I was looking for a hosting company and someone posted information I thought it was great, more selection. Well apparently this guy managed to send me an e-mail with both ******* and scumbag placed in the same sentence :mad:, and I clearly did not place anything offensive in my e-mail.

I suggest informing him in the email that you saw his request on WHT. That way hopefully he'll know that's it's not spam and that you're answering his WHT request.:)

Let’s take this even a step further. This is something that I don’t do, but I receive many. Very often I get advertisement e-mail targeted and relevant to my company. Let’s say someone is offering a server for half price (I wish) . Would you consider that Spam? . I actually enjoy this e-mails and one out of five end up being very useful and I can assue you that I didn’t get myself on any lists.

Well if that's what you did...then the other guy's at fault. And sometimes I enjoy emails selling me stuff too. My favourites are the ones that sell me female aphrodisiacs. I always feel so liberated and womanly when I get those. :)