ETD: 760 HTML Newsletters; The Answer to Stopping Spam Is in
Your Wallet; National Mail Order Association (NMOA)
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Feb 12 00:39:18 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0760 February 12, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] HTML Newsletters
[3] The Answer to Stopping Spam Is in Your Wallet
[4] National Mail Order Association (NMOA)
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
I will be in London on business the week of Feb 16-20 and will have a
couple of special reports. If anybody else would like to contribute
something that would be of interest to our readers, please do so. 1,500 -
2,500 words. And it will remain for posterity at our site.
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/Specials/index.htm
Today we have an excellent piece on HTML newsletters, which further
enforces why we won't publish in HTML.
Spam - since we can't draw and quarter them as has been suggested, we may
have an alternate solution. What do you think?
We have a profile on long-time member John Shulte and the NMOA. I had the
privilege of meeting John for breakfast when in Minneapolis last
year. NMOA is an excellent resource.
Let's hear about your business, which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site.
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form
there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this
idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know
anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] HTML Newsletters
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Often we hear from people asking to have ETD (and some of our newsletters)
published in HTML. On the Web Consultants List, Rich Kulawiec posted the
best reasons ever for not producing an HTML newsletter.
Here are some issues with producing HTML newsletters:
1. An increasing number of people are either blocking or stripping
HTML-contaminated mail at their mail gateways. Users inside the former
kind of networks will never receive the messages. Users inside the latter
will receive whatever content is left after the HTML is removed, which
might be "an empty message". Both kinds of users will thus derive a highly
negative impression of the sending entity.
2. An increasing number of people are forbidding the use of mail clients
which deal with HTML because of all the ugly security issues doing so
generates. (Especially when coupled with anti-security applications like
Outlook.) Users in this class will get a message full of HTML markup with
real content scattered in it, and will also develop a highly negative
impression of the sending entity.
3. An increasing number of antispam filters consider HTML-contaminated mail
to be suspect, at best, and spam, at worst. Note carefully please: I am
NOT saying that such filters are a good thing. I am saying that they
exist, that more of them are being released every day, and that many of
them have been rushed to market in order to cash in on the spam problem and
thus do not perform the kind of detailed analysis that they should. Users
behind these kinds of filters will either not receive the sender's
messages, or will find them in their "classified-as-spam" mail folder,
neither of which is good for the sending entity.
Note as an adjunct to this that if the HTML-contaminated message references
things like attached GIFs, or contains privacy-invading web bugs, that it
will also be scored higher by a lot of antispam filters. (Arguably, any
mail with web bugs should be rejected as clearly abusive whether or not
it's spam.)
4. Most automatic HTML markup tools (like the ones used in most mail
clients) generate hideous, wrong, bloated HTML. Messages may look VERY
different to the readers than they do to the sender, and this will also
reflect negatively on the sender.
Summary: HTML mail was, and remains, an extremely bad idea. The only
people using it are:
1. Newbies
2. Idiots
3. Spammers
Thus, the correct answer to client -- no matter how much money they're
waving -- is "no".
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[3] The Answer to Stopping Spam Is in Your Wallet
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The great thing about an e-stamp system is that if a user gets an e-mail he
or she doesn't want, the user can simply click on the opt-out button at the
bottom of the message. Unlike current arrangements, the opt-out lists will
be enforced because the system, not humans, will enforce it.
The real way to beat spammers is to make them pay. Since it costs nearly
nothing for a spammer to send out millions of e-mails, this creates
incentives to send as many messages as possible, especially because
response rates are so low. The key question then becomes how to make
spammers pay for their follies. One method is called e-stamps.
The e-stamps model works just like it sounds. In order to send mail, the
sender would have to attach an electronic stamp; corporations would pay for
stamps, and individuals would get them for free. The idea is perfect in
theory, but many have attacked it on practical grounds. How would people
get stamps, and who would run the system? Would it be hard for consumers to
use?
These questions appear to be answered by a new Silicon Valley-based company
called Goodmail Systems, which plans to implement an e-stamps-type program
through the consumer's ISP so that the transition will be seamless. One
service provider -- Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) -- already has indicated interest
in using the system, so time will tell how well it will work. In the
beginning, Goodmail says, it will set a default price of 1 U.S. cent to
enter a user's inbox.
Opting Out Through Systems
"We will introduce a new class of e-mail that addresses the root economic
causes of spam and restores e-mail to a medium consumers can rely on," said
Goodmail CEO Richard Gingras.
But what about consumers at ISPs who are not part of the stamping system?
When they attempt to send e-mail to someone on the system, a message would
come back directing them to a page where they can buy a stamp. Not a
perfect solution at first, but if the system works, most ISPs will offer
the stamps themselves.
The great thing about an e-stamp system is that if a user gets an e-mail he
or she doesn't want, the user can simply click on the opt-out button at the
bottom of the message. Unlike current arrangements, the opt-out lists will
be enforced because the system, not humans, will enforce it.
Details at...
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/32830.html
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[4] National Mail Order Association (NMOA)
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We provide information, education and business contacts for those involved
in, or wanting to be involved in, some method or form of direct marketing.
Catalogs, Internet, Infomercials, Mail Order Advertising, Direct Mail, etc.
We sell related information and research.
In general, we help 3 main types of businesses.
1. Companies that sell a product or service to the end user. We help them
become better marketers and through membership we add consumer confidence
to their company.
2. Companies that provide a service to these marketers. e.g. List brokers,
call centers, fulfillment houses, etc. We provide a connecting point for
finding new business.
3. Product Manufacturers. We help the manufacturer find new resellers for
their product(s).
The NMOA was founded in 1972.
Today the NMOA is found mostly through search engines when someone does a
search using mail order and direct marketing related terms.
The USPS also refers people to us as well as SBA offices. We are also
interviewed by business magazines and newspapers on the subject.
We also conduct the "Made in America-Hot Product Contest", which a lot of
publications write about.
You can learn about membership, publications, and research at our web site:
http://www.nmoa.org
Or, you can visit our bookstore;
http://www.nmoa.org/catalog/index.htm
John Schulte
President & Chairman
National Mail Order Association (NMOA)
2807 Polk Street NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Tel: 612-788-1673
Fax: 612-788-1147
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Links to follow
==================================================================
GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.gapent.com/
Sarbanes-Oxley 2002 http://www.sarbanes-oxley2002.com
E-Tailer's Digest http://www.etailersdigest.com
ETD Archives: http://topica.com/lists/etailer/read
Prior to 29 Dec
1999 http://etailersdigest.com/archives/index.htm
Marketing Your Web http://www.gapent.com/myweb/
Automated Press Releases http://www.automatedpr.com
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