[SpamCop-List] Re: Can we stop our email keeps getting blocked

[caroljean52]

"someone" <someone at somewhere.com>:
> For administrative efficiency, we send these emails once a week. Total
> volume is somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 emails.

And I assume you're sending the same form letter to everybody. And I'm
assuming that you want them to pay you to be listed in your directory.
(Otherwise you'd just go ahead and include them.) Yep, I sure would report
that as spam if I got one of your mailings.

I do have a directory-type site myself (small scale hobby type though) and
frequently get contacted by other webmasters about listing their site on
mine. I'll use my directory of free recipe sites some specific examples. (Of
course there are *so* many recipe sites out there that I am nowhere close to
needing to go out of my way to search for things to include, so I'm in a bit
different position than you are.)

1) A big travel agency wants me to list them because they offer restaurant
tours around Southern California. The email is totally impersonal and was
probably sent out the way yours are, a few thousand at a time. Not only are
these bulk, but obviously their so-called targeting is way off the mark.
Maybe they think "food is food" but I'm only interested in restaurant sites
*if* they include some of their recipes online. (Most don't.) The travel
agency doesn't even give me links to the restaurants--they're just selling
tour packages. Yep, I'll report this one as spam.

2) At the opposite end of the spectrum are emails like one I received just
today. A lady wrote telling me that she has posted some old public domain
candy cookbooks on her site and thinks these would be of interest to me.
This was a *personal message* from someone who very clearly did more than
just glance at my site. She took the time to see that her new online content
is *exactly* the sort of site I'm interested in including in my
directory--and sure enough, she's getting a personal reply and a thank you
from me.

Of course there are lots of emails somewhere in the middle. I probably won't
report them for spamming but I probably will just ignore and delete them...

Maybe you should try having your staff who are out there looking for sites
you want to contact write individual messages as they come across them
rather than just collecting addresses by the hundreds. (Or do you just pay
them by how many addresses they find for you--in which case you'll probably
find your list isn't nearly as well targeted as you think it is!)

Carol
Pocatello, Idaho