Re: [epub] Second Opinions

["Kay" <kay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Kay" <kay@smutcollectors.com>

This morning I opened the mail to find this from Azam Corey:
>>>The "Mega Mailing List Builder" was set up by Chad Wyatt and
works on a multi-level referral system. The idea is that through
promoting the system you can build your own opt-in mailist in a
short space of time.

According to Chad, if you refer 7 people and they refer 7, and so
on down through 5 levels, you can quickly build a subscriber list
of 20,000 members. To take part you need only agree to be added
to the lists of 5 participants above you.<<<

I would like to respond to this, hopefully without sounding irritated.

In the first place, if you find the "right" people, yes, Multi-Level
Marketing (MLM) works.  If it didn't, Amway would be out of business,
Tupperware wouldn't have parties in Florida, and every chain letter would
have died out ages ago.

My aunt is a perfect example of the "right" person for general things.  But
she's wrong for adding to a list like this.  Especially for targeted lists,
you must be careful who you send to.

If I get a list of 20,000 absolutely valid email addresses, and I send out
my publication to them expecting 90% to unsubscribe because they are not in
my target market, then I am guilty of spam.  If I get a list of 20,000
targeted names, and send an OFFER for my publication, I would be more likely
to be surprised if 90% of them did NOT unsubscribe.

Referral projects seem to cause more spam.  I have recently opened in my
emails about 30 of the same message from different people, all of them
wanting me to sign up under them, and I just have to sign up 2 more.  I
don't know these folks, I don't respond to their "call this number to be
removed" lines, and while it's becoming annoying to have my business email
address full of "junk mail", it's still just as easy for me to hit my delete
key, rather than do anything else with these folks.

Don't I sound like a good address to send to?  Yup, I sure do.  It's why
this address is most likely on every marketer's CD-ROM full of "Valid
E-mail" listings - just because I haven't fought back yet.

But I'm a little different.  I am a targeted marketer.  I don't want my
information going out to everyone.  And I'm not going to ask my mailing list
to give me emails of their friends - because my list is specific.

If I get enough "bad" email from unknowns, I will most likely close down the
address and get a new one.  What I do want to get are the "good" mailings -
those that mean something to me, to my market.  And even some of that comes
in the form of Unsolicited Commercial Email.

Downlines and referring of friends, etc - to me, it sounds like the easy way
out.  Once again, I have to go back to something my dad told me years ago -
"There isn't a magic button, you simply have to do the work".  I didn't like
his comment then, I don't really like it now, but he's right.

Set up a website, advertise that site - through mailing lists that you are
already on that have folks who would WANT your product - send the URL to the
search engines, start a little newsletter with the 5 or 10 names you already
have, and ask folks to visit that site within your newsletter, and have a
place where people who WANT to get your product can sign up for it - on your
website.

Broken record?  You bet.

I'm tired of hearing about a lot of these programs, tried one of them and
had nothing but computer troubles for my efforts - no payment, just a system
that kept crashing.  Shame, too - 'cause it was one of the few things I
really liked.

But I don't want to be in someone's referral list without my permission, and
I'm not sending out enough emails to get other folks to do the same.  If I
want a product, I'll search it out on the web myself, and sign up on my own.
I'm a big girl now, and while I may be taking Dad's words to heart, I don't
have to call him for permission to do things anymore - and believe me, if I
added him to a letter like that, he'd be on the phone to me with the worst
chewing-out ever.  (He'd probably disown me, too, depending on the letter I
sent!)

Azam, don't do it.  It sounds good, but you'll end up with the email
addresses of those who want to spam for their own products, not those truly
interested in hearing about your product.

Brian, feel free to cut whatever you like from this, and thanks for letting
me rant a little - hopefully I've been rational.

Debi Kay, Owner
Mastered ideas and Smut Collector's Heaven

http://www.m-ideas.com
If it's on your computer, we can help.
http://www.smutcollectors.com
I'm not the webmaster, but between the 4 guys and me, it's better that I
run the business of the site - they are always so busy looking at pictures!.



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