[epub] Newsletter Open-rate tracking

[Ravi Jayagopal <Ravi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello epub'ers!

Here's some full-bodied draft beer for those of you
visiting the "pub" this weekend :-)

-> Sometime back there was a thread about tracking the
open rate of newsletters.

Actually, it is possible - or some of it is possible -
using what are called as "web bugs" or "web beacons".

Simply put, web bugs, or web beacons are 1x1 pixel
(of 1 pixel width and 1 pixel height) images, or something
that "looks" like a reference to an image, while it may be
actually referring to a web script or program.

In fact, though they use the IMG tag (HTML), they
rarely if ever refer to an actual image - not at all like
the "spacer.gif" types!

Because they are 1x1 pixel in size, they are practically
invisible. But the image or the program they "request"
can actually be used to collect an amazing amount of
information about your reader/viewer/subscriber.

For instance, your web bug may look like this:
<IMG SRC="http://somesite.com/tracking.php?subscriber=Joe@Subscriber.com">

If you can program your newsletters to be created
dynamically with a web bug such as the one above
containing the email address of each subscriber
(something like mail merge), then a tracking program,
you can track not only how many times your newsletter
was previewed - they don't even have to be opened -
but also which of your subscribers are reading your
newsletters.

But beware, web bugs are the center of a huge privacy issue.
So, make sure you do your homework correctly on the potential
legal implications.

Doing a search on "web bugs" or "web beacons" on Google.com
will give you a lot of related links and sites if you need
more information about how they work or the resulting privacy
issues.

You probably don't know this, but many hi-tech spammers
are on to this technology, and are able to easily
validate your email address even if all you do is just
preview the email in your "preview" pane in email
clients like MS Outlook or Eudora!

So, you might want to rethink whether you truly need
to preview messages before reading them - especially
if you get a lot of spam.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend drink.

Cheers! And drive safely ;-)

Regards and have a great weekend,

Ravi Jayagopal
"STOP THIEF!", you can say!
Stop those bloody pirates who steal your
ebooks, your PDF files, and your bandwidth.
http://www.WebmasterInABox.net/download_protector.html



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