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       ** DEMC ** Volume VIII No. 9 **
          The Truth About Email Marketing!
    Serving the Internet Since November 1995

 
Quote for today:

"We must look for the opportunity in every difficulty
instead of being paralyzed at the thought of the
difficulty in every opportunity." - Walter E. Cole

_________________________________

WHAT'S IN THIS ISSUE - FEATURES

1) Editor's Note: "The Truth About Internet Opportunity"
2) Business Insights: "Using 3rd Party Email Lists to Promote Your Business"
3) Feature Article: "The Nightmare Continues"
4) SOHO Help Desk: "Autoresponder Marketing Tip"
5) DEMC's - Advertising Information

 
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Forward DEMC to your friends and associates.
Anyone can subscribe for Free by emailing:
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=============
1.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

"The Truth About Internet Opportunity"

Never a dull moment! That's my motto for the Internet. It
also is one of the reasons I enjoy doing business on the
Internet. Every time I look up, there is a new idea, a new
business, a new development or software. Honestly, I can't
keep up with it all! Just focusing on changes in the email
marketing industry is enough to keep me busy. <smile>

One area that particularly interests me at the moment are the
new businesses and software tools being developed around
the delivery vs. the non-delivery of email. With the rising
tide of sp^m, entrepreneurs are creatively developing
solutions to stop the flow. While other entrepreneurs are
working on methods to make sure their email is delivered.

There's filtering software and special filtered email boxes
to keep email out. The problem with these solutions is often
the email you've request does not come through. So on the
other hand you have services and software trying to help
publisher get their email in to you. Add to this the newest
type of service that claims they'll whitelist your email with
ISPs for a fee so that you're assured your email won't be
filtered or blocked.

Just read today's "Feature Article" and you'll quickly
see there is a heated battle raging in the email delivery
realm. Personally, I view the war as a good sign. It
indicates the Internet is a healthy marketplace full of
entreprenuerialism and opportunity.

While some argue that new laws are needed to control email,
sp^m, sp^m filters, whitelisters, blacklisters, etc., I am
hesitant. The somewhat 'Wild West' freedom of the Internet
should be protected. It is this freedom and capitalistic
nature of the Internet that provides opportunity and lets
businesses succeed or fail based on their merit.

Just imagine if one of the laws I recently heard about came
to pass. It made even 'one to one' unsolicited communication
between business people illegal. Thus if you visited my site
and wanted to contact me about exchanging links you would
be breaking the law.

We certainly do not need laws like this hindering the Internet
marketplace. From what I can see there are plenty of laws
already on the books that stop abusive behavior. There are
laws that prevent fraud, thievery, slander, harassment,
assault, collusion etc.. Do these laws stop all abuse. No, of
course not. Just as laws do not stop all criminals offline.
But most offenders online are caught and stopped.

Every small businesses can use the current laws, to protect
themselves. Should someone copy your web site design or take
your ezine articles or slander your business or hack into
your computer files, you can fight back. Track them down, let
them know you are aware of their illegal activity. I've found,
nine times out of ten this stops the abuse. If necessary, have
an attorney contact them to cease and desist. And if in the
USA, you can contact the abuser's State's Attorney General.

Every time abusers have given DEMC trouble be it stealing
our content, forging our name and email address in spam,
attacking our servers or flooding us with email we always
have been able to stop them. There also have been times
that other businesses have harmed us by blocking our
email, by slandering our name and by preventing us from
doing business. Again we have always been able to resolve
the difficulties. More laws were not the answers to our
problems. We relied on the current laws and the marketplace
to help us find solutions.

I have found, over the last 8 years of working on the
Internet, it is a great place for businesses to succeed. As
a result of the flourishing marketplace thousands of small
businesses and entrepreneurs have profited and Internet
users have had incredible resources made available to them.

When you have a free market, problems do get resolved, as
the door is open for entrepreneurs to creatively problem
solve. This is what makes the Internet thrive and gives
us all such terrific opportunity!

For an alternative perspective, as I mentioned early, be
sure to read today's "Feature Article". Plus you don't
want to miss the valuable information on email marketing
success in the rest of today's issue.

Enjoy!

 
Abbie Drew
DEMC Editor
mail@demc2.com

 
=============
2.

EMAIL MARKETING INSIGHTS

* Exclusive *

"Using 3rd Party Email Lists to Promote Your Business"
By: Kevin Nunley

Nothing sells on the Internet like your own in-house email list
of dedicated subscribers. But what if you don't have your own
list and have no intention of developing one? Good 3rd party
email lists can be the answer.

Rather than spending years and thousands to build a list, you can
start promoting NOW to a carefully chosen group of prospects who
are intensely interested in your product or service. Cha-ching!
Done right, marketing to a fine 3rd party list is pure gold.

But watch out. There are a lot of lists that seem and are just
too good to be true. For every person who tells me about their
positive experience with 3rd party lists, I hear from nine who
got sucked into a bad deal that netted them no response and, in
some cases, got their web site taken down. It pays to know the
territory before you jump in.

Third party lists are widely available. You can find everything
from cheap "safe" lists to expensive, highly-targeted, double
confirmation permission list.

Watch out for anybody who says their list comes from "public
sources" or "all problem addresses have been removed" or is
offering to send to millions for a low price. These are usually
sp^m lists. New studies show the general public HATES sp^m.
They don't just dislike sp^m like they dislike sales calls at
dinner time--they detest sp^m. It's no wonder sp^m lists pull
almost NO response.

Instead, find 3rd party list providers who appear serious about
delivering true permission addresses. Insist on talking with a human
who will be immediately forthright and candid about where their
addresses come from. If you sense any attempt to sugarcoat or
hide the source of addresses, excuse yourself and call the next
company.

Al Bredenburg, one of the Net's longtime email experts, offers
A fine database of legit 3rd party list providers. See
http://www.EmailResults.com..

At the end of the day, you may want to opt for advertising in
email newsletters. In my mind, they are the ultimate 3rd party
list. Newsletters have audiences interested in specific topics
and their following is loyal and attentive. The price of
advertising in ezines is also far lower than renting double
confirmation permission based address lists.

After working with hundreds of businesses using 3rd party lists,
I've come to the opinion that finding just the right list is
important, but how you MARKET to that list is even more
essential. Even the best 3rd party list isn't going to have the
enthusiasm for you that a good in-house list would have, where
people already know and appreciate what you offer. You have to
build that familiarity with your new rented audience.

Start with a short, to-the-point message. Don't make your offer
a mystery. Tell people right up front what you are selling and
what benefits they will get. You also won't go wrong by
mentioning your price. It's just human nature to figure you
can't afford what is being offered. List the price and put
those fears to rest.

Do everything you can to get people to your web site AND to get
them to request some kind of email follow-up. This can be the
start of your own in-house list or it can be an autoresponder
series of lessons, product updates, or sales letters. Only after
your list of prospects gets to know you and trust you will the
bulk of your sales begin.

###
Kevin Nunley writes winning sales letters, reports, and
newsletters for email marketing. See his affordable copywriting
deals at http://drnunley.com/copywriting.htm
Reach him at kevin@drnunley.com or 801-328-9006.

 
=============
3.

FEATURE ARTICLE:

* Exclusive *

"The Nightmare Continues"
By: Laurie Rogers

Over the past few weeks we have discussed in great detail,
the new "pay to send email" problem that is Habeas. Well it
seems another company Coravue has jumped on board the
bandwagon and are offering the opportunity to send 1 million
free emails, should we elect to use the services that they
offer - http://www.coravue.com. So what's next? Yet another
service will come along, offer it for $19.95 and throw
in a few bonuses too? Don't disregard that thought, because
the true nature of the beast, is really starting to rear it's
ugly head. Coravue has certainly taken that approach, "Feel
Like A Million" Special Offer Enroll Now and Receive 1 Million
Free E-Mails". And if that doesn't sound like internet
marketing sales pitch, I do not know what does!
So where are we going with all of this?

My prediction has always been that this isn't about the sp^m
problem, this is about "money and control". No company can
have investors and tell me otherwise, when people do invest,
they are investing for one reason only - to make a return on
their investment. As marketers we do this everyday and we
have been taught all of these techniques by some of the top
marketers (our peers), but we've been taught to use them in
a more ethical manner. And I've never met a good marketer
that wants to control the entire internet, they leave the doors
open, they all listen to ideas and they never tell you that you
should eliminate your competition. In fact they tell us exactly
the opposite in a lot of cases, that's why we know when they
have seminars, they aren't "top secret" with an agenda.

However that has not been the case with Habeas or Coravue.
First of all, Coravue does not supply much information about
their company on their web site, aside from the fact that they
are located in Los Angeles. There is no history on their site,
no "about our company" page and they seem to appear out
of no-where. Which leaves me wondering, who they really are
and what is their real agenda. With regards to Habeas, and
despite Anne Mitchell's clarifications of my previous articles,
I know two very important facts regarding Habeas. They have
investors and they had a "top secret, by invitation only launch
party". Which tells me two very important things, one, someone
is looking for a return on their investment and two, we were not
invited to share our ideas about Habeas.

Although Anne Mitchell has argued that Habeas will not be a
requirement to send email, there are two facts to consider. An
ISP can make it a requirement and the anti-spammers could
simply make it impossible to send email if you elect not to use
Habeas. In fact SPEWS is working on two new features that
will simply do just that. http://www.spews.org/dnsdeny.html and
HTTP reject (which currently there is no information available).
Anne, also pointed out that not all ISP's would qualify to use
the Habeas header, as they had to have a very low outgoing spam
problem. This statement makes absolutely no sense to me, as
AOL (apparently) is using Habeas and if ever there was a spam
problem, AOL is definitely a rather large source of it. Not to also
mention, AOL has a habit of soliciting their clients without using
a double optin procedure and with topics that are irrelevant to
being their client.

Before I come to a close on this week's article, there are a few
other points I would like to bring to your attention. American ISP's
claim to have an enormous spam problem and in fact they claim
that it is so out of control that their servers are often overloaded.
There are two problems with those claims, more often than not,
the statistics "proving" the claims are supplied by the anti-sp^m
groups. And if you were to contact any major ISP in Canada, I
think you would find yourself in a bit of "bewilderment". You see,
the majority our ISP's do not use spam/filtering devices, as they
feel that it is "interference" to do so. Nor do they claim to be as
overburdened with spam on their servers. In fact the only type of
filtering that they will allow, is for virus protection only, in
which case the recipient still receives the message, but the message
is cleaned by the ISP before it is sent.

In closing, I will ask you this, are the sp^m statistics we are all
being provided with accurate? And how is it that we in Canada
can have less of a spam problem then those of you in the U.S.A.?
I also invite you to sign the petition against Habeas etc. which
is located at: http://i-Cop.org/habeas/petition.htm

###
Laurie Rogers is co-author of the Ezine Resource Guide and
is the author of the Ultimate Resource Guide, featuring OVER
500 FREE and Low Cost Resources for Business Owners.
http://www.optinfrenzy.com/ultimateresourceguide.html and
she is the owner of Optin Frenzy http://www.optinfrenzy.com

 
=============
4.

~/~ SOHO HELP DESK ~\~
http://www.demc.com

"Autoresponder Marketing Tips"

Do you use autoresponders in your marketing? Well if
you do today's Help Desk covers some good tactics and
a tip that will improve the results of your marketing
with autoresponders.

If you do not use autoresponders, after reading the
enclosed tips you may want to consider putting
autoresponders to work in your business. [Of course a
great place to get free and professional autoresponders
is from our site - http://www.sendfree.com .]

Do you have a tip or a question for our next issue?
We want to hear from you! Send in your feedback by
emailing: mailto:helpdesk@demc2.com

=== AUTORESPONDER MARKETING TIP ===

From: Gary J Kidd

"How To Turn Quantity Leads Into A Quality List
With Autoresponders"

It seems that no matter what e-book you purchase, which
guru you listen to, all of them seem to point to one thing
that will lead you to a successful online business.

Build your mailing list. OR your permission list.

This is of course true. But, there is something else you
should be aware of. Just because you have a large list,
doesn't mean to say that you will make money from it.

Having people subscribe to receive your Newsletter or
Ezine is one thing. But, you need to be able to double
qualify them also.

Let me give you an example.

If you purchase subscribers, you have no idea as to the
quality. With respect to the company that supplies them,
they have no idea either, as to how good they may also be.

But, if when you subscribe them to one list, you
immediately offer them something that they must
separately request by autoresponder, you qualify
that person a second time.

Both of my Ezines do this in one way or another. I offer
various free things that they can request. For instance I
give away an extra free report on How to Make Money Online
to any one who asks.

With this process, I've built quality lists with responsive
subscribers.

Can this be done in other ways?

A lot of people use a double confirmation set-up which
requires someone who subscribes to confirm that
subscription. Yes this procedure works, but tests show that
only around 20-30% of people confirm their subscriptions.
Why? Some people don't just realize what they are supposed
to do. Others, simply forget.

You could end up losing quite a few good prospects. The
advantage is of course, you know that these people want to
receive whatever is you are offering if they confirm their
subscription.

If you use a single request option, to qualify them, make
them a second offer for something of value. When they
take you up on your second offer, they not only qualify
themselves, but they also tell you that they are either
future buyers of your product, or a future member for your
programs.

If you offer advertising in your newsletter, when someone
purchases advertising, instead of having a normal thank you
page, why not have a thank you page that tells the customer
to send an email to an autoresponder address to get details
on how to submit their advert? This solves the problem of
you keeping extra records for your customers, and gives you
the chance in the autoresponder's reply to offer something
else of value to that person.

Plus, if you have any special promotions in the future, you
only have to send an email from your autoresponder to your
previous customers. Providing the service you gave was
good, and they got results from their purchase, these people
are more likely to buy again.

You can do this with anything you sell, not just advertising.

Qualifying your subscribers is vital to you understanding
how effective your list may be.

Do not think that a list of 100,000 subscribers will make you
a full time income. First you must offer your subscribers
value, gain their trust, and then qualify them with an
autoresponder offer.

Then you can work on making a full time income from your list.

Gary J Kidd
Publisher of 2 Newsletters:
http://tfinews.com and http://www.theredletter.com
Both offer Free reports and downloads to their subscribers.
Find out also why he thinks one of his programs -
http://www.theredletter.com/wealth.html has the potential
to be the biggest the Internet has ever seen.

=== Email Formatting Tip ===

From: Ley Win

Format Resource

This is a good resource any one can use for formatting
articles, ads, autoresponder messages, ezines, etc.
before you email them out.

You'll find information about the number of words, lines,
characters per line, and total characters. Best of all
you can use it for fr*e.

http://www.busitoolz.com/BestFormat.aspx

Ley Win
GET Full Online Services Never pay FULL PRICE again.
mailto:pbp@autobotinfo.com

===

 
Please keep sending in your feedback. The help and
resources we've been able to share has been terrific.
Send in your questions, answers and thoughts by
emailing: helpdesk@demc2.com

Be sure to include your SIG and contact URL with your
post as we'll be sharing any viable ideas/information in
an upcoming issue of DEMC E-Magazine.

 
=============
5.

ADVERTISE IN DEMC - * PRICES *

For information on advertising to the DEMC E-Magazine's
175,000 subscribers for as little as $36, plus details on
How To Get a FREE Ad in DEMC E-Magazine Visit Our Web Site:
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(c) 2003 DEMC All rights reserved

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