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Fr.ee instead of Free?

by humbledmarket Banned
16 replies
I'm just curious why do people put the word Fr.ee instead of FREE is it because it is associated with catches or is it for the purpose of spam catcher.

Personally I'm sure people who don't know the reason will get suspicious seeing F*REE F(R)EE

I do it anyways just incase it's any legal thing but would like to know a reason?
#free
  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    I know that Google adwords only allows the word Free to appear in the ad if there is truely a free offer (no CC card "shipping charge")
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Originally Posted by humbledmarket View Post

    I'm just curious why do people put the word Fr.ee instead of FREE is it because it is associated with catches or is it for the purpose of spam catcher.

    Personally I'm sure people who don't know the reason will get suspicious seeing F*REE F(R)EE

    I do it anyways just incase it's any legal thing but would like to know a reason?
    I would imagine with emails it is to try and lower their spam score so more of their emails get through. What I think they don't realise it that nowadays all those versions of the same word would all be marked as spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Carl Kelly
    The idea is to avoid spam filters.
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  • Profile picture of the author AllanWard
    I think it's to reduce the likelihood of the email being treated as spam. Personally, I think it makes it look even more spammy.
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  • Profile picture of the author oscarte
    At Big Seminar 14 Armand Morin talked about this and said "free" can be used, no problem; used to have problems before, but f.ree, <-- and things like this, can't be more spammy.
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  • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
    I have never had a problem with spam filters picking on my subject lines that had "free" in them. I polled some peers at PP a couple of weeks ago and the results were 50/50. Half thought it could be a problem, the other half said not to worry about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    IMO if writing good email subject lines then you shouldn't need to use the word free to get them opened.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    It's just to help with the spam filters, as "free" is almost synonymous with scam in many cases. I'd just avoid using the word if possible in your email title - I'm sure there are many other creative ways of getting people to click on and open your email, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author humbledmarket
    Banned
    Ah ok that's what I thought initially I thought there was some catch and made me concerned about actually taking up the offers.

    The problem is I see this not only on Emails but on Threads and sales pages as well which confused me if it's cause to the spam filter.
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    • Profile picture of the author P3 Marketing
      Originally Posted by humbledmarket View Post

      The problem is I see this not only on Emails but on Threads and sales pages as well which confused me if it's cause to the spam filter.
      Maybe it's so that the eye can catch it easier or something
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  • Profile picture of the author grannywriteswell
    Maybe because they have got into the habit of it, some people automatically put in Fr.ee or something similar into threads and posts - because they do a lot of email marketing

    Just wondering
    Ellen
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    What I want to know is why people thing using "free" will cause emails go in to spam folders. I think technology is a bit more sophisticated these days and it should nto matter in the least.

    If you are using a good autoresponder and you have a confirmed opt-in list than it should not be a problem. Who really can honestly say it would be?
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by redicelander View Post

      What I want to know is why people thing using "free" will cause emails go in to spam folders. I think technology is a bit more sophisticated these days and it should nto matter in the least.

      If you are using a good autoresponder and you have a confirmed opt-in list than it should not be a problem. Who really can honestly say it would be?
      FYI - rather than me explain it to you, here is some info taken from Aweber.com:

      The Content of Your Messages

      Once your messages get through the door, ISPs will subject them to content filters to help determine whether to put messages into an inbox or another folder.

      Some of these are commonly used, such as the SpamAssassin filter, for which we provide a content analyzer so that customers may test their messages.

      Still, others are proprietary and to avoid the adaptation of spammers methods to get their junk through, ISPs won't release information on them.
      It would be fairly naive for us to think ISPs do not run some type of spam filters over all incoming messages these days - of course they do. And there are certain words that are going to throw off these filters more than others and have your message end up in the junk/spam folder.

      Having the word 'free' once in your email is not likely to cause a problem. But if you have the word 'free', 'click here', 'download' and a few links in your message as well, you are much more likely to set off the spam filter than someone typing a regular message.

      You know the old saying... "If it looks like a dog, and it smells like a dog, it's a dog."
      Same goes for spam email.

      Originally Posted by redicelander View Post

      If you are using a good autoresponder and you have a confirmed opt-in list than it should not be a problem.
      Having a good auto-responder and a confirmed optin list is not a 'license to print money'. People can still spam using a service like aweber. If I start sending stupid promotional emails to my list, that have nothing to do with the reason why the person joined my list in the first place, that is still considered spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tyler Abernethy
    I think that is just hilarious.. not your post, the fact that people do that. It certainly isnt to draw extra attention, as i could agree that in my mind that even reads as a red flag. So why wouldnt it raise a red flag to spam filters? -- im sure it probably does, algoritms usually use a ton of common sense
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  • Profile picture of the author jimojeda
    I like using symbols so that it doesn't distract a lot.

    For example, instead of just writing free, I enter: frëe

    The e with the two little dots on top doesn't distract much and it doesn't get interpreted as an actual "e" by the spam filters.

    For example, I once wrote an email that had a high spam assassin score which basically guaranteed it would go to the spam box.

    It had words and phrases like:

    make money from home
    work from home
    cash secrets

    So when I made the following changes...

    mäke möney from höme
    wörk from höme
    cäsh from höme
    cäsh sëcrets

    ... my spam assassin score went way down.

    Of course, low spam assassin score means email will most likely go to the Inbox rather than the Junk/Spam forlder.

    To get those symbols, here's what you do...

    Press and hold the ALT key, and as you hold it, type the four numbers in your computer's keypad. After you've typed the numbers, let go of the ALT key and the symbol will appear.

    ALT + 0228 = ä
    ALT + 0235 = ë
    ALT + 0239 = ï
    ALT + 0246 = ö
    ALT + 0252 = ü

    I hope this helped.

    Sincerely,
    Jaime
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by humbledmarket View Post

    I'm just curious why do people put the word Fr.ee instead of FREE
    It's because there are still a few people around who are naive and gullible enough to believe that doing that will increase their chances of getting through a spam-filter. It will actually have exactly the opposite effect, if anything. :rolleyes:

    On this subject, you might be interested in this thread, this thread, this thread and this thread.
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