When you first start out on the internet you will get a lot of people and articles telling you not to spam. This is a very well know subject area because its so important for you to learn the ropes as far as spamming is concerned.

What Is Spam?

In a nutshell (Unsolicited Commercial E-Mails). When you go to the mail box everyday you see a lot of garbage or that is what we call it in our house. But its just another word for junk mail.

We get a lot of it and I suppose you do to. I can't understand why you can't do this on the internet when its ok for a company to send you things that you don't want or didn't request in the first place.

Emails are for communication purposes and not for selling things like goods and services to people this will be considered as spam in the eyes of many.

It also annoys people to get spam in their email boxes, sure there is still people that do this everyday but its not worth it if you get caught.

The Spam Rules

Here are some guidelines that you can use without reading though a lot of paperwork.

Never use email for advertising or opting into a program that your promoting. Don't send numerous emails out to someone that doesn't request it. If you do get permission to send advertisements to someone make sure you have an opt-out option there for the person that your sending the emails to. Don't mislead anyone in an email (like make money tomorrow and become rich).

If you follow the above rules and stick to them it will keep you out of trouble as far as sending unsolicited emails out to people that don't want them.

The best way to think about spam is common sense just take take a look at yourself and ask yourself would I like a lot of bulk emails coming though my email box everyday?

On the other hand if someone fills out a form on a website that you have and requests that they want more information on a product then this will be ok because your getting permission of that person to do that.

Be Careful With List Offers

If someone is selling a CD and it has three million email addresses on it don't be tempted to buy anything like this because you will be accused of spamming them if you do.

There are lists of email addresses you can buy that are double opt in email addresses. Now what did I mean by (double opt-in) is the person has consented twice to receiving information though email this is the best list to buy.

Summary: Sending emails in a legitimate way is the only way to go as far as spam is concerned always protect yourself when sending out emails to people. Never get caught up in spam complaints there is nothing worse.

Copyright (c) 2009 Charles Goldie