|
BUSINESSBUILDER NEWSLETTER |
|||||
| November 8, 2003 | |||||
Published by Glenn Gordon Contact me at Feedback@BusinessBuilderNewsletter.com You are one of 1500+ BBN readers. This list is 100% Optin. If you no longer wish to remain on our list, easy directions are at the very bottom of this mailing. While it is less preferable, you may also reply to this message with an unsubscribe request, or send an email to Unsubscribe@BusinessBuilderNewsletter.com
Disclaimer: I will not knowingly run ads for products or services which
are immoral or dishonest. However, I cannot take responsibility for the
business practices of others, nor can I support any claims made in any of
these ads. I urge you to carefully evaluate any offers
you read here, as you would any other offer. Free perpetual
banner exposure. It's your turn!
Submit Your Bio Today's Thought "We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery." Samuel Smiles New Subscriber Ads We have 4700 subscribers WITHOUT calling a
Single Prospect! Opt-In List Building MEGA Course
affiLA's "Opt-In List Building MEGA Course" is for
internet marketing beginners and it gives them very Subscribers also receive 3 extremely valuable ebooks for FREE. Get Notice of the BusinessBuilder Through NewsMon - It's Free! A new way to get the
BusinessBuilder and your other favorite ezines - it's NewsMon. You start
by downloading a free application. You register for newsletters you want
to receive. Each day, the NewsMon application checks to see if there is a new issue of any of your
ezines. If so, you can click to view them online. In other words, using
Newsmon removes the email equation from ezine delivery. No email, no spam
filter problems. Go to www.newsmon.com
to get details, and after you download, sign up to receive notice of
future issues of the BusinessBuilder. Use the following address for
signing up: Still a good lead Get free information about how to secure your site, your products and your site. A Free Sample
Everybody likes free, and I'm no different. So I have added a
free sample chapter from my All About Autoresponders package. Get yours
here. Want Fresh Ebooks and
Software?
If you ever asked
yourself; "what should I do next?" with your E-business, then you MUST
take a look at the wealth of Eye-Opening advice and insight that is shared
with you in the excellent "Web Marketing Explained" Ebook here: And Remember... Today is the tomorrow you were worrying about yesterday. Here's a Tip For You Are you looking to further hone your marketing skills with
an ezine specifically about your industry? Ezine Directory Ezine Listing www.freezineweb.com Free (and not free) Resources See the full list of resources on my
site at Displaying the news on your site is one fast and easy way to encourage repeat visits. Just search these feed directories and have updated news displayed on your site by tonight: http://www.marketing-ideas.org/feeds-directory.php?I=12345&T=731512
Subscriber's Bio None this time; send me yours! Subscription Information In
case this newsletter was forwarded to you, you can subscribe by sending an
email to
or by going to See News and Comments Writing a Book? [firstname], there are techniques and approaches to writing that can take you from where you are, regardless of writing ability, to that book you want to write. I recommend that you look at this site. Are your popups banned on the Internet?
http://www.popovergenerator.com/ Power Advertising Graphics may catch the eye of your
site visitors, but the copy is what sells. But is your copy really selling?
I'll bet you will agree that your site is not selling as well as you
expected, nor as well as your products warrant. It's time you took
advantage of Power Advertising. See it at
http://www.discoverpoweradvertising.com/ Ezine Publishers If you are starting an ezine or plan to, there is a tool that you will want to look at. It is Ezine Announcer, the tool that automates all the submissions that bring you subscribers. Get it at http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?611 A New Concept
There's a new resource that you should get
familiar with. Whether you are looking for information on driving traffic,
search engine optimization, creating e-books, or whatever, you can
immediately find out what the best-selling products are for that topic. How?
Go to the ClickBank Mall. It cuts through all the hype and lists over 2000
of the top-selling products to meet your needs. Visit it at Place your ad on my new
Classified Ad page FREE I have been glad to see some
of you posting your ads. There's still lots of space! Go to Building Your List? If your e-zine list is
taking too long to build, there are others that will build it for you, and
for fr*ee.
Note You are receiving the BusinessBuilder Newsletter because you subscribed to it. However, if you don't want to receive any more issues, unfathomable as that sounds to me, follow the instructions below and you will be removed immediately.
|
Hello again. Thanks for joining us for another issue of the BusinessBuilder Newsletter. I have written a long but (I hope!) useful article that addresses some of the new laws affecting ezine publishers and opt-in email marketers in general. In doing the research to write this article, the newsletter is late and doesn't include all the features I normally have, but hope it will help you avoid some nasty consequences of non-compliance with the new regs. In this issue:
- News and Comments News and Comments
Keeping Up With New Regulations
For now, I want to confine my comments to a helpful understanding of the content and meaning of the new email laws. Read all about it below.
Mastery TV
The Power of Your Voice
LifeBuilder thoughts for today..... I invite you to send in your most thorny question or problem to be answered in the new section called Answers to your Questions. Send them to Questions@BusinessBuilderNewsletter.com Sites of Note Darryl Stewart invites you get a free Information Pack at www.yourownbusinesscenter.com Are You Meeting the New Email Laws? Running an online business is tough enough without having the rules change on you in the middle of the game, and that's what is happening with the laws that govern permission-based email marketing. A flood of new regulations - worldwide - are burdening legal marketers, while spammers continue their merry way. How did we get here? You might say email marketing is a victim of its own success. After all spam is just the result of the (illegal) utilization of an advertising medium that is cheap, easy to use, and works! Can you imagine the flood of postal mail that would hit your mailbox if printing shops suddenly offered their services for free and the U.S. Postal Service began delivering advertisements at no cost? No, I'm not suggesting that paid email is the solution to the spam problem. What I'm wanting to do here is to discuss the latest hurdles that email marketers are facing and discuss ways to protect yourself. As a subscriber, you already know I have decided that the battle to get this newsletter past spam filters wasn't worth the effort and have gone to online publishing only, sending only a brief publication notice by email. Another reason I'm glad I'm no longer sending the newsletter by email is the new laws going into effect governing emailed ezines and newsletters. Several of the newsletters I subscribe to are asking their readers to go through a re-subscription process as a way of meeting these new requirements, and undoubtedly will lose large numbers of subscribers in the process. What Laws? First you should note that there is not one law to deal with, but many laws. There are new regulations put into place by the UK, Australia and the European Union. The new EU law went into effect on October 31, 2003. Then there are laws passed by separate states in the U.S., most notably California, but also by Kansas, Arkansas and others. And of course there is no refuge in saying that you won't send email ads to Europe or Australia, since email addresses often don't betray the location of their holders. There also doesn't seem to be any likelihood of harmonization of even U.S. law, not to mention international regulations. And there will most certainly be new laws to come. So what do these new laws really say, and how can I avoid running afoul of them? Let me preface my comments by clearly stating that my suggestions should in no way be construed as legal counsel, but are merely my assessments of the requirements of these regulations. The California law, due to become effective on January 1, 2004 appears to pose the most problems for legal advertisers. It defines spam as email sent without direct consent or a pre-existing or current business relationship. But don't jump to the conclusion that your opt-in or double opt-in subscribers automatically fit that category. Let's look at these two exemptions one at a time. Direct Consent Even though 90% of your ezine may be informative articles, if its purpose is to advertise or promote, it falls under the law. And unquestionably, a solo ad fits the category also. But you can't assume that asking your subscribers to agree to receive all these types of ads leaves you clear when it comes to third party solo ads. This is because the definition of "direct consent" also requires approval to receive commercial email advertisements from a specific advertiser. I know this sounds bizarre, but we're talking California here! To meet this requirement, it appears that you will need to email a notice of advertisement linked to your solo ad, rather than the ad itself, or at least remove yourself from the role of advertiser by appropriate disclaimers accompanying the ad. Business Relationship The language of this provision of the law suggests a possible approach to the whole problem for ezine publishers. That is to make your subscribers "apply" to receive your ezine. On the application form, you would clearly state what they would be receiving, and as part of the process, require them to specifically agree to receive the types of advertisements noted above. Departing from California law, there is also a requirement to provide a toll-free number or an unsubscribe email address for opt-outs (thank you, Kansas and Arkansas!). Strictly speaking, the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your autoresponder messages doesn't meet this requirement. Protecting Yourself 1) For ezine publishers, change your subscription process to an application form, clearly stating the kind of ads you will be sending, and requiring them to click an "I Agree" type button. This type of process effectively eliminates the necessity of a double opt-in. Make sure your subscription records are backed up, offsite. And one more thing. Make sure your subscription acknowledgement contains no advertisements! I just modified my subscriber welcome message to refer subscribers to my web site for further information, where I have placed some new-subscriber special offers. Also, include an email address subscribers can use to unsubscribe, in addition to the unsubscribe link that should accompany all your email messages. What about your existing subscribers? Either require them to go through a new application-type process as described above, or change to online publishing only. Note, however, that even online-publishing only may not be totally free of hazards. That is because some interpretations of the law construe even your notice of publication to be a form of advertising, if in fact your online newsletter carries ads. However, I am inclined to believe your liability risks are small if you merely invite your subscribers to read your online ezine, and don't include any advertising in the notice itself. 2) For other types of email advertising not part of an ezine, make sure you have received unambiguous requests to send the kind of advertisements you will be promoting. This may mean something like sending inquirers to your website where they click an "I Agree" button regarding your relationship as advertiser, before you actually send them any advertisements. I realize this extra step would put you at a disadvantage relative to others who do not do so, but I predict you will see this approach or a similar one become more common as the meaning of these new laws becomes better known. And as sure as night follows day, some California residents will try out the new law by crying "Spam" regarding someone's ad they didn't specifically agree to receive. Don't wait for someone in California to choose your ad for a test case! And again, keep good records to prove the relationship you have with all who receive your ads. Include both unsubscribe links and unsubscribe email addresses with each ad. To help avoid spam complaints even when you have approval to send ads, segregate your lists so that you send ads only to the people you know are interested in that kind of product. I can't claim to have exhaustively presented the issues here, but wanted to give you a brief summary of what I have learned, so that you can get a grasp on the issues involved, and seek legal counsel as appropriate for your situation. This is an evolving environment, of course, so I will try to keep you informed when I learn about new legislation. If you want to read more, go to: California's Anti-Spam Legislation and a fine article on this topic by subscriber John Glube. Glenn Gordon This article contains 1427 words and may be freely reproduced as long as the resource information above is included. If you found the above article helpful or it has triggered some additional thoughts or suggestions, send them to me at Feedback@BusinessBuilderNewsletter.com
Your Invitation I would like to invite you to join our All About Autoresponders affiliate team. You earn 50% commission on all sales, and there's nothing like it on the net. For details, go to http://www.allaboutautoresponders.info/Affiliate/ A Final Note
Thanks for joining us. Let me know what you
think,
positive or negative, what you would like to see an article about, a gripe
you have, or whatever, to Glenn Gordon |
||||
|
Copyright (c) 2003
Glenn Gordon |
|||||
