The Word "FREE" in Emails

JoMo

15 years ago

Because the word "free" sends up red flags for spam filters.

-joel

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1077605].message }}

mikeyman120 15 years ago

Originally Posted by JoMo

Because the word "free" sends up red flags for spam filters.

-joel

ANd there it is.
- Thanks
Signature

Free Squeeze Page Software Make Professional Mobile Responsive Squeeze Pages - Get It Free Now Before It Goes Back On Sale For $37
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078292].message }}

Adrian Jock

15 years ago

Originally Posted by SRLee

I have been wondering, why is it that almost everyone that sends an email that has the word "Free" in it separates the whole word?

Some examples: FR.EE, FRE'E, F.REE and so on.

Because they think that this is a professional way of avoiding the spam filters :rolleyes:

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1077611].message }}

SRLee

15 years ago

Oh now I get it...

What other words can be used to express the term "free" more professionally rather than doing this?

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1077619].message }}

Adrian Jock 15 years ago

Originally Posted by SRLee

Oh now I get it...

What other words can be used to express the term "free" more professionally rather than doing this?

1) When there is a problem => use synonyms that are not penalized themselves. You don't know a synonym? Use the dictionary. You still don't find any synonym? Re-phrase the expression or a bigger part of the sentence.

2) We are talking about a myth here. It is not true that any "free" is penalized by spam filters. (for example, "FREE" in subject lines is penalized, and even "F.R.E.E." is penalized, and so on)
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1077641].message }}

CDarklock

15 years ago

Originally Posted by SRLee

I have been wondering, why is it that almost everyone that sends an email that has the word "Free" in it separates the whole word?

Because they think their email is so close to being spam, using the word "free" will kick them over the edge and send them hurtling into the spam filter.

Which kind of says something.

Thanks

Signature

"The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1077723].message }}

Rob Anderson

15 years ago

i had a similar thread a few weeks ago. and got the same answers...

BUT because of the fact that i was noticing it, i see that almost every e mail has free in it somewhere, and i would think that the spam filters do not care at all.

i think things change faster around here than people habits do.
rob

Thanks

Signature

Just good marketing advice - Business ideas

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1077794].message }}

Will Edwards

15 years ago

IMHO the use of f.ree fre.ee fr,ee etc is more likely - not less - to trigger spam filters!

Will

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1077875].message }}

SeanSupplee

15 years ago

Aweber does an awesome job of this its one of the reasons I use them. Anything such as Free or any number over 100% sends up flags I am sure there are others but when I am done writing up an email it lets me know what flags where set up and if it would be blocked by spam filters

Thanks

Signature

Sean Supplee -Expert Insight of an Affiliate Marketer (Blog)

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078047].message }}

Gary McCaffrey

15 years ago

If I'm going to use the word 'free' I just use it. As mentioned trying to obfuscate it looks way more spammy.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078120].message }}

jasonl70

15 years ago

I had a website with 'free' in the domain name. My emails contained the word in the "from", "subject", as well as the body. (I use aweber).

I saw no noticable difference in deliverability when I moved my site to a new domain (about 6 months ago), and dropped the word 'free' from everything.

With that experience in mind, I do not concern myself with this.

Thanks

Signature

-Jason

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078128].message }}

jasonl70

15 years ago

And I agree with Gary - trying to 'hide' the word REALLY looks bad.

Thanks

Signature

-Jason

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078133].message }}

Ron Douglas

15 years ago

I always use Aweber's spam assassin score as a barometer. I find that the word free doesn't really make a difference in the score.

Free is actually a common word and has other meanings besides just $0. For example -
"free to choose" or "finally I'm free." It doesn't really make sense for the spam filters to block that word on it's own.

Thanks

Signature

Ron Douglas, MBA, CFA, NY Times Best Selling Author, Making Money Online Since 2001

FREE Internet Marketing Tips | Secret Recipes | Nantucket | Buy Non-IM Solo Ads

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078147].message }}

B3n

15 years ago

Edit edit edit

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078202].message }}

JustinPremick

15 years ago

What these guys said.

Originally Posted by ezine ads

Because they think that this is a professional way of avoiding the spam filters :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by CDarklock

Because they think their email is so close to being spam, using the word "free" will kick them over the edge and send them hurtling into the spam filter.

Which kind of says something.

Originally Posted by Rob Anderson

i think things change faster around here than people habits do.

Originally Posted by Will Edwards

IMHO the use of f.ree fre.ee fr,ee etc is more likely - not less - to trigger spam filters!

Originally Posted by Gary McCaffrey

If I'm going to use the word 'free' I just use it. As mentioned trying to obfuscate it looks way more spammy.

Originally Posted by jasonl70

And I agree with Gary - trying to 'hide' the word REALLY looks bad.

Content filters nowadays are far more sophisticated than
"hey, this email says Free, we have to block it!"

I mean, what if you wrote an email about a rally for a Free Tibet?

And as far as obfuscating Free, i.e. F*ree, etc... do you really
think that AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, etc. haven't seen it all by
now? C'mon. They have some crazy smart people in charge of their
email delivery teams and a lot of resources to throw at the problem.
You're fooling nobody with that stuff, and making yourself look like
a spammer to both ISPs and your subscribers.

Say what you want to say to subscribers the way you want to say
it. The majority of the time you'll be fine as long as your emails
aren't generating complaints.

And if they are generating complaints... that's not really a content
filtering problem, you know?

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078238].message }}

CDarklock 15 years ago

Originally Posted by JustinPremick

I mean, what if you wrote an email about a rally for a Free Tibet?

Tibet, my arse: FREE KEVIN!
- Thanks
Signature

"The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079062].message }}

Adrian Jock

15 years ago

Originally Posted by .Ben.

The short answer is because they are idiots.

Even Aweber said that you shouldn't do this (see Punctuation Reputation) but one person once said that the word 'free' triggers spam filters and all the parrots have then repeated it constantly over the years... without testing themselves...

Ditto

There are so many parrots who call themselves internet marketers or newsletter publishers!

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079777].message }}

Peggy Baron

15 years ago

I get plenty of emails with FREE in the header and in the content and they get through just fine.

If you don't want to use the word free, you can use "no cost" or some other expression to mean the same thing.

Peggy

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078254].message }}

Free PLR

15 years ago

SR

As Justin says, the spam filters are much more sophisticated nowadays. The word "free" at one time would have been one of the factors clocked by the spam filters. However provided the rest of your email was reasonably fine, even that would not have caused a problem.

Nowadays, at least according to Aweber's spam check, the word "free" makes absolutely no difference. As was said earlier there can be different meanings of the word free. Not only that but there is nothing illegitimate in sending free offers and the spam filters have woken up to that.

They are more likely to penalize you for distorting the word in order to attempt to get round them. So unless you are actually sending spam you generally will not have a problem.

Joe Bradley

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Free Private Label Rights | Low Cost Webhosting | Unlimited Webhosting Service

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078472].message }}

midasman09 Banned 15 years ago

Because VIDEO is "The Way To Sell Stuff...Nowadays"....here's a way I've found to "get around the Spam Filters" and yet...get your point across.

Connect the 2 words; FREE and VIDEO! "FreeVideo Reveals" How To....!

By connecting the 2 words I "get past the filters".

Sometimes I connect all 3 words, "FreeVideoReveals....."!

Midas Man
- [ 1 ] Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078516].message }}

CmdrStidd

15 years ago

I actually have written an email handling rule for my software that searches for any variations of free that are an attempt to "hide" it from spam filters and to send those emails straight to the trash. It saves me so much time and I have gone from close to 1000 emails a day down to maybe 200 a day. Those I can search for other factors until I have only those messages that are truly meaningful to me.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078519].message }}

Steve Baker

15 years ago

We've tested both ways, using "free" and also breaking it up and found no difference in deliverability or spam reports, but there's always more then one way to be right.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078568].message }}

oneplusone

15 years ago

The only way you can find out is to test.

Personally, I've never noticed any problem when using the word "free" repeatedly in e-mails with regards to deliverability etc

Thanks

Signature

'If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.' Vincent Van Gogh.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1078716].message }}

SRLee

15 years ago

Oh...

I do agree that manipulating the word looks unprofessional. But people just do it, even some high-level IMers. But they occasionally send out high quality freebies, so I don't really bother.

And thanks for everyone's answer!

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079013].message }}

dking88

15 years ago

Free moves up the spam rating (number) in your autoresponder... separating the F.Ree make's it not "free" anymore if that make's sense!

David

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079091].message }}

acedalright

15 years ago

I've seen writers go as far as to write spam as S.p.a.m in blog posts, because they fear the google gods donna lika tha spamma

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079198].message }}

xc-mikey

15 years ago

Wouldn't the spam filters just have picked up on fr.ee (or any derivation thereof) and adjusted their code. By doing so you've almost made it easier for the filters to pick it up based on the pattern.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079309].message }}

mavischan

15 years ago

Originally Posted by SRLee

Hello Warriors,

I have been wondering, why is it that almost everyone that sends an email that has the word "Free" in it separates the whole word?

Some examples: FR.EE, FRE'E, F.REE and so on.

I'm quite curious about this, thanks for all answers!

Regards,
Shaun

FR.EE, FRE'E or F.REE has same meaning as FREE but the only different is FREE can trigger rejection by spam filter.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079371].message }}

Dave777

15 years ago

Just for your info...

Should You Use the Word "Free" in Email Subject Lines? | The Starshot Blog

Dave

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079395].message }}

Cutthroat

15 years ago

I got an email from Stephen Pierce and it had Fr.ee over and over again and I wondered that it must be because of spam.

Then I noticed the links went to his domain name: fr.ee

He has one of them "hacked" domain names

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079786].message }}

Adrian Jock

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Cutthroat

I got an email from Stephen Pierce and it had Fr.ee over and over again and I wondered that it must be because of spam.

Then I noticed the links went to his domain name: fr.ee

fr.ee doesn't seem to be Stephen's domain name. Check once again!

Adrian

P.S. There is another explanation: GMAIL (and not only) makes fr.ee clickable, irrespective who writes fr.ee and irrespective of sender's intention LOL Make a test and see!

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079792].message }}

Cutthroat

15 years ago

Oh well then he is promoting the site then. I got an email from him on 10th titled:

FRE.E? My $997 Mon.ey Making Skills Training? Open Now And See If Qualify...

And near the bottom is this sentence:

If you missed it, you can still get totally fr.ee
access to it right here, right now

The fr.ee is a hyperlink to Fr.ee

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079808].message }}

Adrian Jock

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Cutthroat

Oh well then he is promoting the site then. I got an email from him on 10th titled:

FRE.E? My $997 Mon.ey Making Skills Training? Open Now And See If Qualify...

And near the bottom is this sentence:

If you missed it, you can still get totally fr.ee
access to it right here, right now

The fr.ee is a hyperlink to Fr.ee

Read the P.S. I just added to my previous post

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079813].message }}

Cutthroat

15 years ago

LOL, fr.ee site gets free traffic from Gmail

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079847].message }}

Adrian Jock 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Cutthroat

LOL, fr.ee site gets free traffic from Gmail

The owner seems not to know it. That page doesn't have any content. Not even some AdSense ... LOL
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1079882].message }}

Lady Carole

13 years ago

Outside of "Free Tibet!" I wish not to see any kind of free in the subject of emails. Usually it's misleading as practically nothing is really free. (Smile.)

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3168072].message }}

The Word "FREE" in Emails

Trending Topics

Been a while! Any of you Old Timers here?

How much does the rebranding affect CR ?

Are billboards still effective in driving customers?

Boat and Jet Ski Rentals...... Door Hangers Effective?

A Very Strange Internet Problem