Time to Talk Turkey About Spam (Huh?)

See what happens when you don’t send in any copywriting question! Happy Thanksgiving, friends ...

For many, it’s a break from work and school ... a time to gather with family and friends ... football heaven ... an excuse to eat all that great food – you’ve got to be a turkey not to love Thanksgiving! :-) Here’s wishing all of my American cohorts a most spectacular holiday. Thanksgiving happens to be my personal favorite for a number of reasons ...

First and foremost, it’s universal. You don’t have to be Native American or a Pilgrim or anything else. Everybody gets to participate! It’s also a time of reflection ... a time to stop and appreciate both the spiritual and the material ... to acknowledge how lucky we are to be at home when others are across the world putting their lives on the line for our freedom.

Most importantly, though, it’s a chance to eat fresh turkey instead of that yucky canned Spam, which brings us to today’s topic! Yes, you guessed it, today we’re gonna talk turkey about the subject of Internet spam. (How that for a segue – cool eh?).

S-P-A-M. Use it with a capital “S,” and you’ve got a can of Hormel spiced Ham (mystery meat as we called it back in childhood). Keep the word all lower case and you’ve got a whole other definition ... s-p-a-m. It’s the most used 4 letter word on the web formally defined as: 1) “Junk email; unwanted email; unsolicited email sent to you by an individual or company you have had no previous dealings with.” 2) Many copies of the same commercial messages posted to multiple online forums and newsgroups without regard to the relevance of the message to the members of that forum.”

It is impossible to have an email address and not get spammed. If my source is correct, the first recorded incident of spam email goes back 25 years – to a time even before the Internet was called the “Internet.” It wasn’t until years after that the name “spam” came along and credit for that goes to – would you believe – a Monty Python skit! Stick with ProfitSpace friends and you will learn all kinds of amazing things!

Okay, time to get serious again. Have you noticed that your inbox is getting filled faster lately? The fact of the matter is that spam has gotten out of control and we’re all literally paying the price in the time we spend on sorting through our email (not to mention higher rates from our ISP providers). The time may have finally come when anti-spam legislation will be passed in the United States. A total of seven anti-spam bills have hit congress since last January, one of which is now close to a floor vote. So what happens to all the legitimate mailers out there. What happens to you and me?

The more you think about it, the more complicated it gets. What is spam to you anyway -- yes, you personally? Is it unwanted information on weight control ... cosmetics ... pharmaceuticals ... pornography. Or maybe it’s an ezine you didn’t subscribe to ... or did you? However do we ultimately define spam anyway? I have heard so many stories about legitimate mailers who get nailed by somebody who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and forgets that he/she signed up. Do these people realize that, with one complaint, they can actually shut an Internet business down?

What’s to become of us? Is running a business online going to become the impossible dream? What do we do about our overflowing inboxes? How do we protect our Internet businesses from spam accusations? Are we all doomed? Oh no ... it smells like my turkey is burning. I’ve got to run! More on spam next week – how to stop it ... filtering software ... opt-in email.

Phyllis Schwartz is a longtime copywriter with a career background in Direct Mail and Promotional Advertising. Whether you need a sales letter for your home page, keyword optimized web content, articles, emails or direct mail copy, Phyllis is the one to call.For a full menu of copywriting services go to BetterCopywriting.com.

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