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May, 15 2008 Press Release CAN-SPAM Act, updated Email Marketing, you are responsible.

markp — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:44:00 -0700

FTC updates the CAN-SPAM Act of 2004; this could have consequences in the marketing of many major players in the home-based business market as well as the online business market.

/24-7PressRelease/ - May 15, 2008 - The changes are supposed to help people clarify the original act of 2004. According to the FTC website these are some of the changes coming.

1) an e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender; (2) the definition of "sender" was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act's opt-out requirements; (3) a "sender" of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act's requirement that a commercial e-mail display a "valid physical postal address"; and (4) a definition of the term "person" was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM's obligations are not limited to natural persons.

This act has much father reach then most people realize. Email marketing is one of the major marketing modalities promoted in the home-based business and online business Industry.

Emails do work, but keep in mind you are responsible for insuring your email campaign is in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. The safest way to use email marketing is to build your list is by creating your own pay-per-click campaing, and search engine placement.

The Importance Of The Right Business Attitude

markp — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:27:00 -0700

Maintaining a positive business attitude is important in creating a successful business. This is crucial during the first six months that you are building your business because they will be the hardest. We offer this acronym in the hope you may find it helpful in maintaining your business FOCUS.

F = Focus on the day-to-day activities that you have determined is required to reach your main goals. Don’t concentrate on the end result, that's to far away, rather concentrate on the individual success of the day. For example, let’s say your business plan calls for you to make 5 personal contacts each day. Every day that you make the 5 contacts congratulate yourself, share the results with a like-minded friend, and get a congratulatory hug or handshake If, at the end of the week, you have successfully completed your daily business objectives, reward yourself with some predetermined treat. Rewarding yourself for staying focused on your business plan is very important, its called "positive re-enforcement." It is what will help you stay motivated.

O = Others. You are going to need the help of others. There are well meaning people who may try to break your focus and re-direct you back to your old plan, this is one of the greatest obstacles you will have to overcome on your road to success. What can you do? Easy - bring them along. Tell them you have decided to try and change your life and would like their support. In order for them to give you the support and encouragement you will need they really need to understand the program you are doing don't' they? Of course they do! So sit them down with your sponsor and review the program together. Let your sponsor answer all of their questions (don't try and explain it to your friends and relatives, it won't work - use your sponsor.) Why your sponsor? Have you ever noticed how you can say something to a friend or relative and it's ignored, but let an "expert" say the same thing and its gospel? The same thing happens to speakers. They are never received as well in their own back yard as they are in a strange place. Why does this happen? Honestly there is a lot of speculation, but I don't think anyone really understands what in the human condition makes this so. We just know it happens so we can plan around it. Use your sponsor. Lastly, surround yourself with positive people and avoid the negative.

C = Create opportunities. Just like any other business, your business is about creating and keeping customers. Customers are people, so to create opportunities you must go where there are people. Join self-improvement clubs or business orientated clubs. When your confidence grows offer to speak on "how to start your own home business". When next you are invited to attend a social gathering be swure to accept the invitation. When you arrive visit with everyone you don't know, introduce yourself and ask what they do for a living. When they have finished telling you about themselves, they just might ask you what you do. Bingo - new opportunity!

U = Understanding - In order to help people, either on a retail level or to help them change their lives completely, you must understand what makes them hesitate. We often listen to new, enthusiastic business builders asking these questions:

How can they not want my products?

Why don’t they want to improve their lifestyle?

Don't they want the best for their children?

How can they afford to send their kids to college, or retire comfortably?

Why won't they let me help?

To understand the answers to all of these questions all you have to do is look to yourself. You’ve felt these emotions, too. Haven't you passed up business opportunities in the past? Why?

Disbelief, fear of the unknown, unsure of how your life would be impacted by the change you were being asked to make. Share these insights with your prospect and listen to their comments. By listening you can better understand where their fear or hesitation lies. The most powerful question to ask can be put this way, "I understand what you are saying. What can we do, together, to alleviate this problem?" Then, together, define exactly where the problem lies and create a plan that is comfortable for your client. Maybe it's working part-time just one day a week. Maybe it would entail a visit to one of our more successfully Associates. The key is to create a plan that will have a series of mini success, and don't forget to include an award system in the plan. Positive re-enforcement is very important.

S = System. Find a proven system and follow it. Don't change it. The first and last mistake people make is to change a successful plan. Why? We don't know. The answer completely eludes us, yet we see it everyday. This, by the way, is the second biggest reason most people fail. They speak to our Associates, try the products, and get excited about the business opportunity. Then what do you think they do? They start doing it their way! It doesn't matter that the business plan their sponsor laid out for them has helped thousands of people to improve their quality of their life. It doesn't matter that one of the main reason they joined the company was because they saw how successful Life Plus is. No, now THEY know better. After two weeks they are now the experts, and are going to do it their way. Eventually they don't blame their poorly devised plan or their lack of expertise, they blame ours. If it was in our power to impart one lesson to you and, once imparted, you would never break it, it would be DO NOT CHANGE THE SYSTEM. Please, give it 6 months; if after that it still doesn't work for you at least you can point the finger our way with a clear conscience.

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Email Marketing, Beware.

markp — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:57:00 -0700

Email marketing is often advised by home-based business consultants as a way to increase you prospect list fast and with a fairly low CPI (cost per impression). These experts will usually tell you that when done correctly, you will earn thousands and thousands of dollars. Invariably, these “experts” have an email service and list available and for just this much money they will do it all for you.

In my experience, these experts are using old lists, and are not following the Can-Spam Act of 2003. This means that in most cases you will not see a good ROI (return on investment). The worst case scenario is that the you are contacted by the DOJ and they are talking about accessing you penalties of up to $11,000 per incident. Since you contracted the service, it is your responsibility to make sure that the service is following the CAN-SPAM ACT.

So what exactly do we need to do as marketers to ensure we are not going to get a visit by UNCLE SAM. Well the good news is that the act doesn’t preclude marketing emails, so for those of honest doing legal email marketing this was great news! Before the CAN-SPAM Act, states and ISP were trying to kill or block all emails that they determined were promoting anything. I had emails blocked that I was sending to my customers. Now, that the federal government has defined spam or more importantly what is not spam, we have recourse if an ISP blocks a legitimate marketing email.

I want to make it clear that I am not a lawyer and if you have any questions or doubts about what you or your service is doing, contact a lawyer.

The first question you need to ask is “Is this email spam?” Well luckily the CAN-SPAM act defines for us what commercial ads are and are not considered spam.

.A "transactional or relationship message" – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

If you are sending an email to an existing customer or is confirming or announcing the completion of an action taken by the customer or prospect, then, other that item number 1 below, these emails would be exempt from the act. I believe examples of these types of emails are order confirmation, emails sent from web based forms when the prospect clicks on a submit button and active members of web sites forum subscribers or blog subscribers, would all be exempt. I strongly suggest, even though as I read the act, its not required, to always include a simple opt out section (item 4 below) in your email.

As best as I can determine, this is what the law requires (reference http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.pdf):

1. It bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email. This means that the practice of bouncing emails off out of country servers that hide the point of origin of the email, you are in violation of this act. If you have created a legal email there really isn’t any reason to go through the added expense of using a hidden server.

2. It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message. This is usually where most of the emails I receive from home based business companies or promoter first fail to be in compliance with the act. This means subject lines like:”you just won a trip” or “Mark where have you been? or “Mark your order confirmation” or pretty blatantly misleading. We can enter a grey area with subject lines like “Mike here is something for you” or “Mike something you might be interested in ?” may or may not be frowned upon. In my opinion, if we are using a legitimate list, then a subject line like, Mike, I was told you wanted this.” or “Mike , is this what you were looking for.” should be in line with the act, but again I am not a lawyer, so what is and what is not a misleading subject line may be different to a someone representing the Consumer protection Agency.

3. It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a "menu" of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it's illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.

4. It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address. In my opinion this is the number one violation of the act. Lets first look at the valid physical postal address, it is my belief that a USPS mail box is sufficient to fulfill this requirement (remember I am not a lawyer), If you are working from home, using your actual home address, in my opinion , would not be a safe practice, I strongly suggest a USPS mail box.

If you are going to purchase desktop emailing software then you need to know how the law applies to Emailers. I will not cover these regulations other than to say as a person who contracts these types of services I always send an email asking “Does your company comply with the CAN-SPAM act which became law on January 1, 2004, United States of America?” The only way I will do business is if the question is answered affirmatively and the email is signed with the name of a real person, with a phone number so I can validate that the person does exist. I SAVE THESE EMAILS as proof that I have done what can be considered as “reasonable” to ensure that I and the service I am using is in compliance with the act.

The above information is not complete, there are additional types of emails with additional regulation that I didn’t write about.

The bottom line is that emails do work, when written well, but there are pitfalls both from a financial and legal aspect and you need to beware. In my opinion the best way to build your list is by creating your own using your own capture pages, search engine placement, and pay for click advertising. If you are going to use email, then create your email that complies with the act that promotes information or product for free. I also believe that your email should text with maybe one non critical graphic because the graphic will probably be blocked by the prospect email reader.