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I would not hire another SEO for any of my sites, especially my SEO site! Then he actually put me on his mailing list, so I had to unsubscribe. This really ticks me off.
Well I e-mailed him back, and told him he could always hire me. :)
The question is rhetorical of course, but unless more effort is given to reducing email spam, of at least the same effort search engines take to reducing Webspam, email will become less and less useful. There are some good community efforts, which are appreciated, but there is far too little.
I've had a couple of SEO spams recently but recognized them from their headers and automatically selected Shift-Del.
In this business, where we're rubbing shoulders and competing with every conceivable type of business, there's no way we can avoid these pernicious little reminders of human folly. Idiot letters inundate our inboxes every day. I've long since given up wondering what type of mentally challenged sociopath gets a kick out of deriving minimal business this way.
Sadly, there are no filters that satisfactorily curb this intrusion on one's privacy and space. Chiyo, you're right, there are only a few community initiatives that do any good. Perhaps it's a good thing, though. I can't say that out of the thousands of spams I've received, I've not found one that looks interesting. I probably subscribe to a couple of newsletters that spammed their way into my consciousness (in fact, I do).
The best filter is experience and a realization that I'm not going to let these retards mess with my head. When I settle down at my machine, I delete spam. When one gets a nose for what constitutes spam, it's a speedy exercise. In the years I've been summarily deleting hundreds of messages I suspect to be toxic, I've had no indication that I've ever deleted a valid mail.
Because I have a conservative approach to deletion, there are those that I get conned into reading, e.g. Re: Outstanding order (with additional clever but spurious details). But, these guys are the biggest losers. Clever they are not. I've yet to consider visiting the site of the type of lowlife who'd weasel his way into my Inbox by pretence. It's not on.
One gets used to spam's inevitable presence and, sooner rather than later, it loses its status as an issue. Concomitantly, e-mail increases in value. The bottom line is that spammers are a rather sad lot. Their desperation is obvious, a lack of emotional and mental maturity is all too apparent, and their inability to control themselves is a constant reminder that, on the Web, there will never be a dull day.
Unless it happens to be Thanksgiving weekend. Jeez, 45 active threads in 24 hours :).
So, yes, perhaps more proactive individual and collective actions need to be taken against these industry saboteurs.
Here's yet another way these idiots can cause damage. It's a true and recent story:
a) I'm company 'A' and sell blue widgets
b) Company 'B', which sells red widgets, sends a lengthy email spam. Within the spam, to give it legitimacy, they mention my site (A) and several other respectable players' sites. None of course compete directly with them, but we all get a mention.
c) SpamCop detects OUR URLs in the spam text and send a complaint to OUR hosting companies.
d) You can see it coming... MY site (company A) is taken down by the hosting company. I know nothing about the spam at all, but am caught in the cross fire.
It takes an age to sort out... the hosting company is totally uncooperative (you can see the conversation - "It wasn't me!" "You would say that wouldn't you", etc). They even tell me that it is MY responsibility to PROVE the spam wasn't sent by me by contacting the spammer!
I essentially lost a great deal of money through this episode, simply because some idiot mentioned my site in his pathetic efforts to get his product in front of people.
OK... the SpamCop and hosting people obviously need to sort themselves out. But the core culprit was an email spammer.
Everything you guys say about them is correct.
first
We offer a unique technology that will submit your website to over 300,000 search engines and directories every month.
second
10% off your first order of ****** *********.
The 1st email went into my spam folder the 2nd I visted the site and actually purchased from them. the problem as i see it is second company actually hit a target.
they spammed just like the first company but I didn't mind because they actually where selling something I used.
They also have just signed a contract for me to do thier SEO work due to the fact that I couldn't find them listed in the SE's.
At present I DON'TSpam but... company 2 get a 30% conversion rate.
DaveN
This is further complicated because a lot of the SEO spam email I see is forwarded to me by clients, so I can't just click delete to get rid of it.
>>...will submit your website to over 300,000 search engines...<<
Dave - Correction... according to email forwarded to me by one client, the number is 500,000. I had to spend time explaining what this is all about. Probably should do a boiler-plate message, but many clients want hand holding.
This is the best part of the job the sarcasm is spilling all over the floor
So I told them in no uncertain terms what I thought about their sales techniques and not to try to sell to a site which already has a fair number of #1 positions and offers SEO as part of their services.
Following this phone call I found I had a nice new #1 on Lycos.co.uk for one of my target keywords :) which cheered me up somewhat
they spammed just like the first company but I didn't mind because they actually where selling something I used.
If anyone wonders why email spammers persist, there's the answer: it works. It costs them almost nothing to send to tens of thousands of people, and no matter how scattershot the approach they'll hit somebody who actually wants what they're selling.
Personally, I'd never buy from such an offer. No offer is ever markedly better than what could be found elsewhere with a brief search. On principal, I wouldn't buy in response to spam.
I receive a voice mail message two weeks ago from a woman whom I thought could have possibly been a vendor. There was an 888 number that I called and the woman answered, it went like this...
Her: Mr. xxxxx, do you know that your site cannot be located in any of the search engines?
Me: Really, did you personally verify that?
Her: Our research department forwarded the information to me.
Me: Hmmm. Did your research department verify the information they forwarded to you?
Her: Yes sir, they did.
Me: Do you have online access right now?
Her: Yes I do.
Me: Go to Google and type in "keyword phrase" and tell me who is in the #2 position.
Her: Okay. Hmmm, looks like a company named xxxxx.
Me: Okay, who are you speaking with now?
Her: Um, sir, my research department clearly shows that they could not locate you in the search engines.
Me: You know, you should seriously consider a reorganization of your research department. Also, remove me from your solication list and send me an e-mail verification for confirmation.
Needless to say she was adamant that her research department was correct. I'll assume it was a work from home mom who got caught up in one of those above e-mail scams and now does it herself but with a new twist. They actually have a valid contact name and phone number and will leave you a message with an 800 number to call.
Anyone been this far?
I'd like to see an email client with privacy settings like ICQ has... you can choose whether or not to accept multi-recipient messages, and you can reject all messages from anyone not in your address book.
I can't think of any totally unsolicited mail I've ever gotten that I'd be really sad to miss out on...
They claimed a .02% conversion rate (that's 2/10,000) for their spam list and laid out the economics of profitability based on that number. No target audience, not even general fields of interest, nor any restrictions on copy or what you might be hawking. They really pitched that .02%
I have a new client who wants to try this. Makes me wonder why they hired me!
I would expect that those spam tools read that message and nix the account as bad.
I have a very very old e-mail account, that started using on Freenet a long time ago (even by human standards), and I would love to use it again. I get several hundred spam in a weekon that account.
What do you think?
Seriously, I have yet to find any of the dozens of companies that mailed me through any of my clients positioned anywhere in the top 50 for their main keywords (from their own site meta tags).
As with my peers above, in my experience, their 'research department' seems to consist of someone with a yellow pages and no internet access.
Ammon Johns
