14 Apr
Posted by
Kidino

Category

Your Subscribers Use SpamArrest – Good or Bad?

Every now and then, I get an email from SpamArrest asking me to confirm the emails that I am sending. Well actually, I didn’t really send them any emails. They subscribed to my mailing list. And when they use SpamArrest (or any similar services), they will not get my emails until I verify myself.

Now, the question is — Is SpamArrest a good thing or a bad thing?

To me, it may take some time to verify yourself. And you’ll always have to check your inbox for these types of emails. Otherwise your emails won’t get delivered. Some marketers hate this because they don’t like having to check their inbox for email verifications. And they don’t like to have to verify themselves. Some even uses a blackhole email address with all their email marketing. That way you can’t reply to them. To them, it’s you who opted-in. So you should take responsibility if you want the “so-called” valuable info.

Me, I am different. To those who are my readers, they know that I use a real email address. And though I am sending my readers a broadcast, with a click of the Reply button, my readers can write back to me. They ARE my readers. I should respect them for that … and listening to your readers (or reading their emails) is what makes the differences. Though I’ve missed a few, most of the times, I reply to my readers.

So I have a different view when it comes to SpamArrest … As an ezine publisher, I think it’s a good thing. You want your emails to be read, right? Then verify yourself when that SpamArrest email comes. You see, I believe those who subscribes to SpamArrest, seriously reads the email that arrives in their inbox. Otherwise, why would they use the service in the first place. All it takes for me is a one-time verifications and I know that my emails will be read.

Think about it in a different way … you want good quality subscribers, right? People who are already spending money. Aren’t SpamArrest’s customers are people who are already spending money?

4

Comments


  1. Gobala Krishnan
    17/04/2006

    The way I see it, with every Spam Arrest request you comply with, you’re guaranteed a subscriber. The email will never go to the junk folder again..

    Then again if you have subscribers in the tens of thousands, I guess it can be irritating. But that’s a “good problem” right :)


  2. Juan Pablo
    18/04/2006

    Hi,
    Although I like your fresh perspective on this topic, in practice SpamArrest, poses real problems:

    1. It takes your time to do the validation. (This means it is costing you money).
    2. The customer has signaled that they *want* to receive your emails. A second confirmation is another chance that you can loose this contact.
    3. For a small list, it may be possible to do the verification, but for a bigger list, it will be an overkill.

    At the begining I was doing the same as you suggest, and I was manually giving my details to the SpamArrest system.
    Given the number of cases where even after validation, the email was already declined by the customer, I don’t bother any longer.

    Regards,
    JP


  3. JS
    20/04/2006

    I would also read the TOS for SpamArrest…

    You can be held liable finacially ($$$) if SpamArrest/end user so chooses for any future emails. It’s in the fine print which no one ever reads. I’ve never heard of SpamArrest pressing the issue but I wouldn’t want to be the first one to pay the fine ;-)

    Jeff


  4. Anonymous
    28/04/2006

    Here’s a handy hack:

    If you do your opt-ins via email, you don’t have to worry about Spam Arrest since anyone who their users send email to is automatically added to that users whitelist.

    To subscribe, they send an email to list@domain.com, then when you send out your mailing from list@domain.com, it goes right through!

 

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