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At last,
the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook
are revealed for all to see!
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According to
a report
carried on stuff.co.nz this morning, Deputy PM Jim Anderton is about to launch
a new self-regulatory body called the eMarketing Standards Authority (eMSA) who seem
set to grant themselves a license to spam.
The piece which rang alarm bells for me was this in respect to a proposed
code of practice planned by the body:
'The redrafted code, for example, contains an "anti-spamming"
communications by e-mail "unless they are relevant to the existing
relationship between an organisation and its customers'
It would appear that if buy anything from an only shopping site, they
then have license to bombard you with spam with the full endorsement
of the eMSA.
Today On 7amNews/ShockHorrorProbe
The detection of a new, "very serious" worm which
targets computers running the Linux operating system
seems to indicate that hackers are growing tired of
the ease with which much of Microsoft's software can
be compromised.
Find out more...
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The eMSA has reportedly been jointly formed by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) but I can't help thinking that there's
going to be a conflict of interests here -- with the DMA looking to preserve
the rights of its members while the ASA pulls in the other direction to try
and preserve the public's rights.
Quite frankly, given the amount of regular junk mail that arrives in my letterbox, I
expect that a huge number of direct marketers are just straining at the leash,
dying to make the switch to email marketing, and will see this code of practice
as a license to spam anyone and everyone who has ever done, or who ever will do
business with them.
What I'd like to see is online retailers set up an organisation outside of
the DMA's influence with the clear understanding that its members will
only offer double-opt-in mailing lists that customers must explicitly choose
to join. Throwing people on such lists by default the moment "an existing
relationship" is forged is just not good enough.
If I buy a Christmas gift from Brooms Online for aunt Grizelda in Christchurch,
I don't then want my mailbox filled with spam inviting me to buy newt-eyes and
batwings every other day -- but the current code appears to endorse this.
We also know that selling or renting snail-mailing lists is big business --
will this also apply to email addresses collected by eMSA members I wonder?
Even though I'm not a fan of increased legislation, I'd like
to see us fall into line with moves being made in Europe and the USA to make
spam illegal. What do you think? Share your thoughts.
Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
Over the years during which I've been publishing Aardvark I've frequently
shared my insight into the business of marketing your website and building
traffic.
When I launched 7amNews/ShockHorrorProbe
last week I put much of that knowledge and previous experience to the test.
Was my ability to build 7am.com from nothing to a two-million-a-month news site
within a few short years on the smell of an oil rag just luck? Well if the first
few days of my new site's growth is anything to go by -- it seems not.
The site's traffic has doubled every day since launch
and by Friday it was already attracting almost 30,000 user-sessions a day
(generating over 110,000 hits). Remember that this site has only been running for less
than a week and absolutely no money has been spent on advertising or traditional
promotion. Apart from my own time, the total investment to date is a US$39
hosting fee that also covers the next three weeks of operation -- although
I have a feeling that the hosting company might bitch about the fact that the
site is using almost 2GB of traffic a day already.
I have set the goal of building a unique monthly audience in excess of 1 million
by the end of the year and, bearing in mind the current rate of growth plus
the fact that I've got a whole handbag full of marketing tactics that I haven't
even started using yet -- it looks like it's not a big ask.
What's even more satisfying is that at the current rate of sign-ups for
syndication (plus the launch of new revenue-generating services yet to be
unveiled) -- profits are just a few months away.
Based on my experiences, successes and failures over the next 3 months, I intend
to publish a revised guide to building traffic and profits sometime in August -- stay tuned.
As always, your feedback is welcomed.
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Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it
now!
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