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This must be useful for SOMETHING..?!

by SteveKarens
14 replies
Hi - first post on WF - what took me so long? Anyway - here's my first question as a total noob:

I have discovered a fairly quick and easy way to scrape business names, email addresses and phone numbers from eBay.co.uk (it doesn't work for eBay.com) based on highly targeted criteria. As an example - you can search for listings in any category that failed to sell and then pull out the business details 100 at a time. But it could be targeting almost anything.
So what can I do with it? In my (noobie) view this sounds quite powerful, and my first thought was to email business owners who had a failed listing and show them some eBay affiliate tools to help them sell better - but that failed miserably. Probably came over as spam although I had a 1% spam reporting rate on emails which I thought was not too bad. (I know there are strong views on spam, but my opinion is that just one relevant email out of the blue to an email address that is already published isn't spam, especially since in the UK it is not illegal to send unsolicited emails to businesses if they are related to the business.)

If the worst comes to the worst I suppose I could turn the script and method into a WSO but I'd rather put the sucker to work and prove it can do something useful. Any bright ideas how to get this thing to earn a living? Thanks in advance.
#ebay
  • Profile picture of the author mrmatt
    You could try selling the leads on Fiverr.
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  • Profile picture of the author Max Greenflame
    Originally Posted by SteveKarens View Post

    Hi - first post on WF - what took me so long? Anyway - here's my first question as a total noob:

    I have discovered a fairly quick and easy way to scrape business names, email addresses and phone numbers from eBay.co.uk (it doesn't work for eBay.com) based on highly targeted criteria. As an example - you can search for listings in any category that failed to sell and then pull out the business details 100 at a time. But it could be targeting almost anything.
    So what can I do with it? In my (noobie) view this sounds quite powerful, and my first thought was to email business owners who had a failed listing and show them some eBay affiliate tools to help them sell better - but that failed miserably. Probably came over as spam although I had a 1% spam reporting rate on emails which I thought was not too bad. (I know there are strong views on spam, but my opinion is that just one relevant email out of the blue to an email address that is already published isn't spam, especially since in the UK it is not illegal to send unsolicited emails to businesses if they are related to the business.)

    If the worst comes to the worst I suppose I could turn the script and method into a WSO but I'd rather put the sucker to work and prove it can do something useful. Any bright ideas how to get this thing to earn a living? Thanks in advance.
    Oh man, this is spamming, just leave it alone and don't ruin your reputation by this. Choose your niche and business model to earn money online the legal and profitable way.
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  • Profile picture of the author aurettemag
    You can always make money as affliater in that niche
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    Best WSO for Offline marketer (OFFLINE HACKING FORMULA)

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  • Profile picture of the author John J M
    Please don't sell the leads. They won't do anybody any good if they don't help you.

    Always remember: You actually want to help people online. You'll make a lot more money that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    Yeah you can sell them, Do you know scraping is part of the Can Spam act though. You can send bulk emails with a few stipulations but it forbids scraping if its against the websites tos and I don't know too many websites without a mining clause.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    Read this. Email address harvesting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    I still have a friend in prison for spamming and scraping and I really probably should be there for works I did in the past.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Originally Posted by hustlinsmoke View Post

      Ummm... I don't know about the Australian law mentioned, but the person who posted that doesn't appear to have actually read the CAN-SPAM legislation.

      For instance, it is not illegal to sell "legitimately collected" address lists, whatever they mean by that phrase. I believe it's illegal to sell lists of addresses that have unsubscribed, but that's a different story.

      Some of the info on that page is valid, some isn't, and some is very outdated.


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  • Profile picture of the author SteveKarens
    Thanks for the input and comments - much appreciated!
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  • Profile picture of the author IggyRay
    I don't think that scraping by itself is against the law - it all depends what you do with the list.

    if for example you have a website that sells Sub-Glasses. and you've harvested a list of manufacturers of Sun-Glases around the world - let's say a list of 1000 of those.

    now you begin sending 10 emails per day asking for a quote on their top selling model.

    Is it really spamming ? or is it a legit Business Development practice ? as I've said earlier - it all depends on what you do with the list
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  • Profile picture of the author IamPower
    yeah its not exactly spamming, as that is a normal procurement process. But I agree with the other comment, about not selling something that's not useful to you - but then again, it could be useful to another..
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    I read it and it states if the site forbids mining on there website then its a.felony. simple.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Originally Posted by hustlinsmoke View Post

      I read it and it states...
      I was referring to errors on the Wikipedia page you linked to.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    I know. I meant I read it on the ftc site. Here it is. There are several other places too on the ftc site that states it. CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business | BCP Business Center

    Here is the copied text.
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    Each separate email in violation of the law is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, and more than one person may be held responsible for violations. For example, both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that originated the message may be legally responsible. Email that makes misleading claims about products or services also may be subject to laws outlawing deceptive advertising, like Section 5 of the FTC Act. The CAN-SPAM Act has certain aggravated violations that may give rise to additional fines. The law provides for criminal penalties - including imprisonment - for:

    accessing someone else's computer to send spam without permission,
    using false information to register for multiple email accounts or domain names,
    relaying or retransmitting multiple spam messages through a computer to mislead others about the origin of the message,
    harvesting email addresses or generating them through a dictionary attack (the practice of sending email to addresses made up of random letters and numbers in the hope of reaching valid ones), and
    taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without permission.
    Q. Are there separate rules that apply to sexually explicit email?
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Here is the copied text.
      If you read that carefully, you'll note that the harvesting factor is only triggered if the email otherwise violates some provision of the Act. It is possible to send spam without ever violating US law.

      I wish it were not, but that's the situation at present.


      Paul
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