[legitimate rant] You know who you are! Stop it! Just stop it, right now!

I use an age old marketing tactic; (yeah, it can piss some people off -- but its the nature of the beast); where I use a specific eMail address for opt-ins.

I have different levels of opt-in trust; which means, if I don't know you but you've peaked my interest enough to want what you're offering through your opt-in.. I'll pop in my trial email address.

This way, I can determine whether or not I wanna stay on your list or not without compromising my true blue email address. If the trial email address gets too inundated with crap, I can just delete it and create a new one without screwing up any of my established business operations.

So, you see how this can be effective.

My rant, however, is that its pretty obvious there are those; (no, I won't name names); that are either trading, giving away or (even worse) selling email addresses.

I know this to be fact, (and not speculation), because I KNOW who I give either of my email addresses to and I'm getting email from folks that I KNOW I don't know. Funny thing is, they're talking to me like THEY know me.

Now, I understand that marketing is marketing and its rough out here. Getting your email through is even harder; and getting harder still everyday. Yet, do not sell your soul to the demon just to make a quick buck. It will come back later to bite you in the a**.

Guaranteed.

How do you expect to build a relationship with your list(s) if you're practicing deception and (not to mention) insulting their intelligence by thinking they won't know that you were the one that gave up their info to someone they don't know????

Stop it! Just stop it, right now!!

end rant
PLP,
tecHead