C
CPAInfinitySteve
Guest
For those of you that don't know me, I'm Stephen Stepanik of CPA Infinity. I've been mailing for several years, it's how I first started making money online. It's how I made my first $100, $1,000 and so on per day.
To clear some things up right off the bat with a little Q&A.
Q: Can I download lists and mail to them?
A: According to federal law yes you can. Although according to the Terms of Service(TOS) of 99.99% of ISP's in the world it's in violation of their terms of service.
Q: When I collect emails on a website, since they entered in their information, I can email to them right since it's my website?
A: No. You can't unless you clearly state in your Privacy Policy and Terms of Service how their information will be used. If you don't let them know that they may receive additional information from you or a third party you can't legally market anything to them. Whether it be a pen from your company or a new car that's being given away - nothing can legally be marketed to them and according to all ISP's worldwide it is considered spam.
Q: What is spam?
A: Spam is Unsolicited bulk mail("UBE") or Unsolicited Commercial Email("UCE"). It basically breaks down like this -
John gave company XYZ consent for them to market products to him.
or
John didn't give company XYZ consent for them to market products to him.
Now - if John did give them consent - Company XYZ can sell of sections of the email list and whoever purchases it would be in the clear as far as mailing goes.
Q: What should be watched for when purchasing an email list?
A: Make sure that you're obtaining at minimum the following -
First name
Last name
Email
City
State
IP
Source
Timestamp
That way in case you receive a letter from your hosting company or anyone asks you for proof that John Doe at 123 Rainy Lane, Las Vegas, NV claims you spammed them, you have proof that you where given consent, it also couldn't hurt to have a printed record of the privacy policy.
Q: SMTP Server or having your own server?
A: A lot of people just associate SMTP with mailing without knowing anything about mailing in general or the protocals.
SMTP stands for Send Mail Transfer Protol, just like HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.
Now - you could technically use either one, but why you should or shouldn't use one or the other varies on how you will be using it. Let's break it down a bit to determine which one you should or shouldn't use.
SMTP
~Pros~
- Usually cheaper than a server
- Requires minimal setup
~Cons~
- Static IP
What would you use a SMTP for?
You would use a SMTP mainly for a newsletter such as the newsletter of Affiliate Fix. As far as marketing - A SMTP is usually a no-go, or I personally don't prefer it - put it that way.
Server
~Pros~
- Easily rotate IP's
- Easy Expansion and easily link servers to send out more mails faster
- Can run PHP scripts, desktop applications, pearl scripts, python scripts, etc.
- Easily update images for creatives and link to them
~Cons~
- Can be costly if you don't know what you're doing
Q: Out of all of the Email Service Providers("ESP") out there, which one is the best?
A: For marketing - I personally don't like any of them as their too costly in my opinion. I would only use an ESP for a newsletter. Reason being - If you look at MailChimp - 1,000,000 emails at about 12 million emails per month - that's sending 1/3 of the month so say about 12 days. That's leaving about 18 days on the table that you could be marketing with. They're charging you around $4,400 for that. Now if you have your own server - you can send that out for under $1,000 per month.
Now as far as ESP's do I have a favorite?
Yes, I personally like AWeber.
Q: What is "list hygiene"?
A: List Hygiene is making sure just that, list hygiene. You wouldn't go to a meeting without taking a shower, brushing your teeth, etc. just like you shouldn't send to a list without verifying the emails are valid, and to make sure they're free of spam traps.
Q: What is email validation and why do you need to do it?
Email validation isn't a requirement per-se, but it's always good to do as it keeps your IP's alive longer, because just like death - getting blacklisted is virtually impossible to avoid. Even if you're truly providing value, you will will end up on blacklists at some point, it's just a matter of when, not if.
Email Validation is verifying that an email exists, for example ILoveEmailMarketingSpamMeNow@cpainfinity.com doesn't exist - an email validation system would help you verify that.
Q: Should I use plain text or HTML for sending?
A: I personally use HTML.
If you have any of you from the fix have any questions or concerns about email marketing, feel free to let me know.
I also offer personal coaching with emailing.
To clear some things up right off the bat with a little Q&A.
Q: Can I download lists and mail to them?
A: According to federal law yes you can. Although according to the Terms of Service(TOS) of 99.99% of ISP's in the world it's in violation of their terms of service.
Q: When I collect emails on a website, since they entered in their information, I can email to them right since it's my website?
A: No. You can't unless you clearly state in your Privacy Policy and Terms of Service how their information will be used. If you don't let them know that they may receive additional information from you or a third party you can't legally market anything to them. Whether it be a pen from your company or a new car that's being given away - nothing can legally be marketed to them and according to all ISP's worldwide it is considered spam.
Q: What is spam?
A: Spam is Unsolicited bulk mail("UBE") or Unsolicited Commercial Email("UCE"). It basically breaks down like this -
John gave company XYZ consent for them to market products to him.
or
John didn't give company XYZ consent for them to market products to him.
Now - if John did give them consent - Company XYZ can sell of sections of the email list and whoever purchases it would be in the clear as far as mailing goes.
Q: What should be watched for when purchasing an email list?
A: Make sure that you're obtaining at minimum the following -
First name
Last name
City
State
IP
Source
Timestamp
That way in case you receive a letter from your hosting company or anyone asks you for proof that John Doe at 123 Rainy Lane, Las Vegas, NV claims you spammed them, you have proof that you where given consent, it also couldn't hurt to have a printed record of the privacy policy.
Q: SMTP Server or having your own server?
A: A lot of people just associate SMTP with mailing without knowing anything about mailing in general or the protocals.
SMTP stands for Send Mail Transfer Protol, just like HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.
Now - you could technically use either one, but why you should or shouldn't use one or the other varies on how you will be using it. Let's break it down a bit to determine which one you should or shouldn't use.
SMTP
~Pros~
- Usually cheaper than a server
- Requires minimal setup
~Cons~
- Static IP
What would you use a SMTP for?
You would use a SMTP mainly for a newsletter such as the newsletter of Affiliate Fix. As far as marketing - A SMTP is usually a no-go, or I personally don't prefer it - put it that way.
Server
~Pros~
- Easily rotate IP's
- Easy Expansion and easily link servers to send out more mails faster
- Can run PHP scripts, desktop applications, pearl scripts, python scripts, etc.
- Easily update images for creatives and link to them
~Cons~
- Can be costly if you don't know what you're doing
Q: Out of all of the Email Service Providers("ESP") out there, which one is the best?
A: For marketing - I personally don't like any of them as their too costly in my opinion. I would only use an ESP for a newsletter. Reason being - If you look at MailChimp - 1,000,000 emails at about 12 million emails per month - that's sending 1/3 of the month so say about 12 days. That's leaving about 18 days on the table that you could be marketing with. They're charging you around $4,400 for that. Now if you have your own server - you can send that out for under $1,000 per month.
Now as far as ESP's do I have a favorite?
Yes, I personally like AWeber.
Q: What is "list hygiene"?
A: List Hygiene is making sure just that, list hygiene. You wouldn't go to a meeting without taking a shower, brushing your teeth, etc. just like you shouldn't send to a list without verifying the emails are valid, and to make sure they're free of spam traps.
Q: What is email validation and why do you need to do it?
Email validation isn't a requirement per-se, but it's always good to do as it keeps your IP's alive longer, because just like death - getting blacklisted is virtually impossible to avoid. Even if you're truly providing value, you will will end up on blacklists at some point, it's just a matter of when, not if.
Email Validation is verifying that an email exists, for example ILoveEmailMarketingSpamMeNow@cpainfinity.com doesn't exist - an email validation system would help you verify that.
Q: Should I use plain text or HTML for sending?
A: I personally use HTML.
If you have any of you from the fix have any questions or concerns about email marketing, feel free to let me know.
I also offer personal coaching with emailing.
