I saw a story featured on Yahoo today, and it made me do some thinking and realize some things. (Article: Man quits job, makes living suing e-mail spammers)
Daniel Balsam hated spam SO much that he quit his job as a marketer, and he studied law, just so he could legally fight against people and places that spam.
Balsam has successfully sued many companies, and so far the defendants have paid over $1 million total.
"What started just as kicks turned into a hobby, which turned into a career," Balsam said. "It's what triggered me to go to law school."
This could be important. While very few people, if any other than Balsam, will study law specifically to fight spam, it is an excellent indication that we might need to be more careful when we market.
Should Internet Marketers be worried?
Truthfully, I don't know whether this will ever become a huge issue that will make every Internet Marketer quiver in fear, but it serves to make a really good reminder.
When you market, it is NEVER a bad idea to be careful.
Be Honest. You want to make sure that you are representing your product or service truthfully. I am not saying that you need to mention that you are more expensive than your competitor on the other side of town. This does not mean that you need to make it easy for people to see your weaknesses. It does, however, mean that you should not make any claim that you are not capable of delivering.
That is a bad idea, even when you are NOT on the Internet.
Target Your Marketing. Nobody respects the marketing campaign that allows a little boy to have the easy opportunity to buy cigarettes or make up. There is little benefit to sending ads for Depends to teenagers.
You can argue that they might be helping take care of an elderly family member and might buy my brand instead of my competition, and I don't want to take a chance.
However, if you put more effort toward developing your intended market, you won't have to spend so much extra money trying to tap a market that has few people ever needing what you're offering.
None of us want to see ads offering to enlarge part of our bodies that we don't even have.
I don't send out mass e-mails. What does this have to do with Internet Marketing?
If we go to a forum about free computer advice, and we try to leave a backlink for our pet food site, we are spamming. If there are enough of these types of "comments" left on a forum, we won't find the forum to be valuable anymore, and we will stop visiting that site.
Spam is like litter. Nobody want to see it, and nobody wants to be anywhere near it. Mostly, there aren't many people willing to clean up these affected areas; so they become wastelands.
It is similar to neighborhoods with older houses that nobody took care, and the entire neighborhood becomes deserted. If this happens in enough places, the entire city becomes a less desirable place to live and visit.
The Internet: The Great Neighborhood of a Great Resource
The Internet is a wonderful place. We need to make sure that we don't leave litter...er spam...lying around the Internet.
Not everyone has to appreciate your marketing, but make sure that it's honest and relates to the people who are most likely to read it.
The Internet is great when you find relevant information that you want or need on it. Let's do our part to help keep it as a great resource.
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