Email Marketing Scams
Most internet marketing campaigns rely heavily on email for quick results. Unfortunately it is hard to get by a quality mailing list and the effort to build one can easily lead to lawsuits and any kind of undesirable side effects. Therefore safelists seem an obvious choice for many Internet Marketers to promote their products and services.
Safelists thrive for the most part on false promises that each member will drive unlimited income by submitting to them. They also con the unwary into thinking their ads will be avidly viewed and their sites be gladly visited. Most safelists and similar sites can only marginally come close to making any sort of guaranteed visits. They mostly run a credit-based system that awards viewers credits when they visit other member sites. Once they reach a certain credit threshold they can send themselves out their own promotions.
Other variants of such sites only say you won’t be accused of spamming by other members in the safelist. In both cases, the member must have a valid e-mail account to stay a member.
Two major problems arise from scams like that:
- The sheer volume of e-mails coming to the member’s e-mail box. Many e-mail box services will simply start filtering them out, thus eliminating any possibility of them being viewed.
- Nobody has actually the time to read each email that comes into their box. Many e-mails will simply be mass deleted even in credit-based schemes.
How many people actually take the time to read your e-mails and view your site with any real intention of buying? Just remember that safelist members are trying to promote their products instead of buying from someone else. And no matter how well-devises a system is it can still not guarantee any sales. If you consider all that, why would you still want to waste your time? If you are likely to make any money here, it will be far from what other proven methods of promotion can earn you.
Ironically these types of scams will continue to grow and multiply. Why? They promote their hype and people believe it and join them. They then refer still others who also believe the hype. They may even make some money on commissions that may, or may not, be offered. The only real winners are the list owners themselves who can offer their members additional credits to their members or upgraded memberships.
In reality, the only responsive list for an Internet Marketer can only be one that is generated by legitimate means. For example, starting a newsletter or through the use of lead generating squeeze pages and, most importantly, by using the proper tools to assess conformity to Can-Spam laws and thereby avoid any legal or other problems.
