Spam is the abuse of electronic communications media by means of bulk mailing or messaging that is unsolicited by the receiving party. Most spam is commercial, oftentimes for products that are less than above par. Spam is a method of advertisement that costs very little to the sender but one that can cost the recipients and service providers substantially.

There are numerous types of spam, the most prominent of which (and most costly) is that of email spam. Other types of spam include: Usenet spam, search engine spamming (e.g., keyword spamming), instant messaging spam, mobile phone spamming (text spamming), forum spamming, and fax spamming.

The term “spam” itself emerged in the 80’s and referred to techniques utilized by unscrupulous users of the bulletin board systems and multi-user domains (BSSs and MUDs) to prevent other users from utilizing the system by entering “SPAM” an innumerable number of times so that the other users were scrolled off screen. This then evolved into raids on “competing” chatrooms whereby the users of one chatroom would apply the above technique until the users of another chatroom until the authorized users would exit due to the interference.

Spamming continued to evolve into bulk repetitive postings on the Usenet systems and then, in 1993, the word took on its present connotation and usage. Though, it wasn’t until 1995 that commercial bulk spamming by means of email would begin in earnest as it continues today.

Spamming is a very costly enterprise, however, not so much so for the spammer himself but, ultimately, for the end users and the ISPs. Spam uses up system resources that are designated for a specific amount of data transfer. For example, if a server is designated to handle 10,000 messages per hour and the ISP must process 10,000 legitimate messages plus 10,000 spam messages, then another server must be utilized. In this example, the costs of operating as an ISP would double and thus the end user’s service fees would no doubt increase as well. Spam drives up market service prices substantially.

Not only is spam costly in the economic sense but in the temporal as well. It takes time for the end user to sift through bulk mailings to determine just what is solicited and what is unsolicited. Not to mention the time spent in concocting spam countermeasures (along with the significant costs involved in this as well).

As an Internet marketer, you should avoid spamming and even the appearance of spamming at all costs. Spamming is, ultimately, very bad for business. We all know how annoying it can be to sit down with your morning coffee to check your email, only to open up an inbox full of annoying, junk, and unsolicited advertisements. Think about how inconvenient it is for you to have to read through these bulk mailings to make sure that no legitimate messages are among them and then having to delete them all- not very pleasant. You never want your contact with your customers to be an annoyance to them. If you are in communication with them, it should only be because they have requested it (and preferably more than once).

Today there are organizations that keep up with email tagged as “spam” and place the senders of these spam messages on blacklists. You never want to find yourself on one of these blacklists or it will severely limit your marketing. Severely.

There are ways to avoid such blacklisting and to keep your contact with your customers above par. The absolute best way is to utilize permission-based marketing, most specifically, opt-in (preferably double opt-in) marketing. For example, with opt-in email, your customers sign-up or confirm that they wish to receive mailings from you.

Similarly, an opt-out (or “unsubscribe”) provides the customer with the opportunity to be removed from your mailing list if they should so desire. An opt-in and opt-out should be provided with each communication shared with your customers.

As well, when a customer subscribes to, say, a free newsletter, it is imperative that all content sent to that particular customer pertain to the subject that the customer subscribed to initially. Any other content may be viewed as spam.

Not only should the white hat Internet marketer avoid spam because it is ultimately bad for business, in certain cases, it is also illegal. For example, much of spam is related to pornographic materials. If such a spam email were to be delivered to the email account of a child, the spammer could face stiff penalties. Of course white hat Internet marketers don’t stoop to such tactics to begin with, but this is something to be aware of. The laws related to communications of all type, especially spam, are changing daily. Marketer, beware!

In December of 2003, the President of the United States signed into law the nation’s first set of standards regarding email marketing (read: spam) referred to as the Can-Spam Act. Can-Spam stands for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act. Essentially, this law allows unsolicited email marketing within certain parameters. The parameters being that each marketing email contains: an opportunity for opting out of future mailings; a legitimate subject heading; the physical mailing address of the sender; and, for adult marketing, a clear label that the content refers to such.

The Can-Spam Act was not embraced by anti-spammers, on the contrary and for obvious reasons. In fact, it was instantly dubbed by opponents as the “Yes, You Can Spam Act.” Though there have been lawsuits regarding violations of the Act, it has overall been difficult to enforce and unscrupulous “marketers” have managed to work around it. This has frustrated anti-spam proponents and the average end user, to say the least.

There are several things that you, as an internet marketer, can (and should) do to minimize the possibility of your electronic contact with your customers being misconstrued as spam. First of all, use a real email address (one issued by your ISP) and not a disposable one. This will help you to avoid being blacklisted (though it isn’t foolproof as some domain names are abused by spammers more than others and the domains themselves may be placed on a list). You should always use a reputable service provider.

As well, if you utilize an autoresponder in your marketing, it would be prudent to check up on the reputation of the company providing the service as it is often the case that autoresponders utilize only one to a couple of IP addresses. If the autoresponder is flagged for spamming (advertently or not), your communications with your customers will be flagged and likely blacklisted as well. As with your ISP, always use a reputable autoresponder service.

It is recommended, before going with a new ISP or autoresponder service that you check them out with one of the many online spam tracking services.

Spam is a serious problem and a costly one at that. With no sign of slowing down, spammers will continue to bombard end users of the various digital communications media, always seemingly one step ahead of the safeguards implemented to prevent and deter spam. This makes things more difficult for the white hat Internet marketer, but not impossible. Wear your white hat with pride and market utilizing an anti-spam marketing strategy such as permission-based marketing discussed above. Your customers will thank you for it and your credibility (and profits!) will soar.

Related posts:

1. What is Permission Based Internet Marketing?