from the front page of today's Wall Street Journal....thought it was kind of interesting. Probably not news to a couple of people on this board. Message is in 2 parts....
For Bulk E-Mailer, Pestering
Millions Offers Path to Profit
By MYLENE MANGALINDAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The sun was setting on Laura Betterly's six-bedroom house as she reviewed a pair of outgoing e-mail messages one last time. Satisfied, she moved her cursor to the "send" icon and clicked.
"It's that simple," Ms. Betterly said triumphantly, swiping her palms. She had just dispatched e-mail messages to 500,000 strangers. Half saw the subject line: "Don't miss your chance to win 2002 Lexus RX300." The other half saw: "Win a trip to Nascar!"
Ms. Betterly's messages joined the roughly two billion other unsolicited commercial e-mails that hit in-boxes around the world every day. The company she runs from her home, Data Resource Consulting Inc., sends out as many as 60 million such messages a month. That puts the 41-year-old single mother in the most hated breed on the Internet. She sends spam.
"I'm just trying to make a living like everyone else," says Ms. Betterly. Her e-mail marketing operation, she says, allows her to raise her children, Chris, 10, and Craig, 11, and to spend quality time with them. "You can call me spam queen, I don't really care. As long as I'm not breaking any laws, you don't have to love me or like what I do for a living."
Bulk e-mailers, as some spammers prefer to be called, are so unpopular that 26 states have banned their messages one way or another. Internet-service providers try to run them off their systems. Technology start-ups with products to filter out spam are attracting lots of venture capital. Consumer groups are pressuring the Federal Trade Commission and Congress to regulate bulk e-mail. Currently, there are no federal laws regarding spam, although the FTC has cracked down on spam that is fraudulent.
There is more of it than ever. Unsolicited messages made up 36% of all e-mail on the Internet in August, up from 8% a year ago, estimates Brightmail, an antispam-software maker whose statistics are often cited by legislators who want to outlaw spam. Antispammers are most outraged by unscrupulous bulk e-mailers who clog in-boxes with promotions for pornography or dubious get-rich-quick schemes and weight-loss plans.
Cottage Industry
While there are large companies that send unsolicited commercial e-mail, most of the hundreds of people who make up the industry are small-business people and entrepreneurs such as Ms. Betterly. A look at Ms. Betterly's business shows why bulk e-mailers, and spam, keep multiplying.
She and three friends started Data Resource Consulting with $15,000 six months ago. Ms. Betterly quickly discovered that she could make a profit if she got as few as 100 responses for every 10 million messages sent for a client, and she figures her income will be $200,000 this year. She has a flexible schedule that allows her to enjoy her children and the 5,000-square-foot home, with a pool, that she shares with them and a roommate.
She isn't breaking any laws. California, Washington and Virginia are among the states with laws that prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail in some form. Florida, where Ms. Betterly lives, has no such law.
Ms. Betterly says she follows a lot of the rules laid out by most of the state laws: She doesn't forge or falsify the message headers; she doesn't use a third-party company's Internet address or domain name unknowingly; she lets people opt out or unsubscribe to future mailings. Still, she doesn't put a specific label ("ADV" for advertisement) at the beginning of her subject lines, which some state laws require.
Ms. Betterly says she refuses to send e-mails about adult fare, because it "disgraces society." She won't take jobs from clients selling products she doesn't think are legitimate. And she only sends bulk e-mails to people who have indicated at some time that they want to hear more about certain products or offers. People do that, some unwittingly, when they sign up for free e-mail accounts or create chat-room identities or buy products online. Many Web sites ask users whether they are interested in receiving marketing offers and ask them to check -- or, more likely, uncheck -- an obscure little box if they don't want to receive that kind of e-mail.
Not Really Spam
Because Ms. Betterly's e-mails aren't, in the strictest sense, unsolicited, she doesn't consider them spam. So she isn't breaking any rules when she sends hundreds of thousands of messages through, say, WorldCom Inc., one of her many service providers. WorldCom, like most providers, has an antispam policy. "Sending unsolicited mail messages, including, without limitation, commercial advertising and informational announcements, is explicitly prohibited," WorldCom's policy says.
SURVIVING THE FLOOD
Is your junk e-mail out of control? If so, what pitches bother you most? What have you done to stop the flood? See our junk e-mail page, or join a discussion with other readers.
Even though she tries not to e-mail people who have expressly indicated, on one Web site or another, that they don't want unsolicited messages, recipients do often complain. While some unscrupulous spammers ignore people who ask to be removed from a list, Ms. Betterly says she complies if anyone e-mails back an "unsubscribe" command, sends "opt out" instructions or otherwise asks not to receive future messages.
"What we do for a living is not a bad thing. We're not horrible," she says.
The company that hired Ms. Betterly to send the Lexus RX300 and Nascar trip e-mails was wfsDirect Inc. Based in Omaha, Neb., wfsDirect has been selling what it calls "online marketing services" since 1999. The company compiles consumer profiles for other companies that use them for e-mail pitches of their own. It gets information for the profiles by sponsoring e-mail sweepstakes for big prizes. To be eligible for the prize, an e-mail recipient goes to a wfsDirect Web site to fill out a survey that asks for the person's name, address, income and other personal details.
In other words, this round of spam was a fishing expedition designed to catch names for future rounds of spam.
Ms. Betterly was hired to send out the 500,000 messages, which wfsDirect composed. She negotiated a commission of 75 cents for every completed survey returned and 10 cents for every incomplete survey.
The Lexus and Nascar messages went to mail-server computers in Berkeley, Calif., that spent two hours shooting them around the U.S. Two days later, 275 people had opened the messages. Only 65 completed the surveys, generating just $40 for Ms. Betterly, who says her costs for sending out the messages totaled $250.
'Horrible' Rate
The response rate of 0.013% was "horrible," Ms. Betterly says. A great response rate for Ms. Betterly would be a disaster for a paper-junk mailer, which expects a typical response of about 2%. Depending on what she's pitching, Ms. Betterly says she can break even at a rate as low as 0.001%. It all depends on the commission she negotiates, and she's considering a few jobs that could pay off particularly well: $35 on each sale of a 3D-glasses package; $50 for a mortgage lead; $85 for a cellphone sale.
Ms. Betterly's database is her most precious asset. She bought and bartered its 100 million e-mail addresses from dozens of places, including companies such as Excite (excite.com), About.com (about.com) and Ms. Cleo's psychic Web site. She can fine-tune e-mail runs, hitting just small-business owners, say, or only golfers or music fans. She can cull out certain addresses, to narrow her geographic target. Like most spammers, she also makes money selling her list to other bulk e-mailers, and she keeps adding to her own list.
For Bulk E-Mailer, Pestering
Millions Offers Path to Profit
By MYLENE MANGALINDAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The sun was setting on Laura Betterly's six-bedroom house as she reviewed a pair of outgoing e-mail messages one last time. Satisfied, she moved her cursor to the "send" icon and clicked.
"It's that simple," Ms. Betterly said triumphantly, swiping her palms. She had just dispatched e-mail messages to 500,000 strangers. Half saw the subject line: "Don't miss your chance to win 2002 Lexus RX300." The other half saw: "Win a trip to Nascar!"
Ms. Betterly's messages joined the roughly two billion other unsolicited commercial e-mails that hit in-boxes around the world every day. The company she runs from her home, Data Resource Consulting Inc., sends out as many as 60 million such messages a month. That puts the 41-year-old single mother in the most hated breed on the Internet. She sends spam.
"I'm just trying to make a living like everyone else," says Ms. Betterly. Her e-mail marketing operation, she says, allows her to raise her children, Chris, 10, and Craig, 11, and to spend quality time with them. "You can call me spam queen, I don't really care. As long as I'm not breaking any laws, you don't have to love me or like what I do for a living."
Bulk e-mailers, as some spammers prefer to be called, are so unpopular that 26 states have banned their messages one way or another. Internet-service providers try to run them off their systems. Technology start-ups with products to filter out spam are attracting lots of venture capital. Consumer groups are pressuring the Federal Trade Commission and Congress to regulate bulk e-mail. Currently, there are no federal laws regarding spam, although the FTC has cracked down on spam that is fraudulent.
There is more of it than ever. Unsolicited messages made up 36% of all e-mail on the Internet in August, up from 8% a year ago, estimates Brightmail, an antispam-software maker whose statistics are often cited by legislators who want to outlaw spam. Antispammers are most outraged by unscrupulous bulk e-mailers who clog in-boxes with promotions for pornography or dubious get-rich-quick schemes and weight-loss plans.
Cottage Industry
While there are large companies that send unsolicited commercial e-mail, most of the hundreds of people who make up the industry are small-business people and entrepreneurs such as Ms. Betterly. A look at Ms. Betterly's business shows why bulk e-mailers, and spam, keep multiplying.
She and three friends started Data Resource Consulting with $15,000 six months ago. Ms. Betterly quickly discovered that she could make a profit if she got as few as 100 responses for every 10 million messages sent for a client, and she figures her income will be $200,000 this year. She has a flexible schedule that allows her to enjoy her children and the 5,000-square-foot home, with a pool, that she shares with them and a roommate.
She isn't breaking any laws. California, Washington and Virginia are among the states with laws that prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail in some form. Florida, where Ms. Betterly lives, has no such law.
Ms. Betterly says she follows a lot of the rules laid out by most of the state laws: She doesn't forge or falsify the message headers; she doesn't use a third-party company's Internet address or domain name unknowingly; she lets people opt out or unsubscribe to future mailings. Still, she doesn't put a specific label ("ADV" for advertisement) at the beginning of her subject lines, which some state laws require.
Ms. Betterly says she refuses to send e-mails about adult fare, because it "disgraces society." She won't take jobs from clients selling products she doesn't think are legitimate. And she only sends bulk e-mails to people who have indicated at some time that they want to hear more about certain products or offers. People do that, some unwittingly, when they sign up for free e-mail accounts or create chat-room identities or buy products online. Many Web sites ask users whether they are interested in receiving marketing offers and ask them to check -- or, more likely, uncheck -- an obscure little box if they don't want to receive that kind of e-mail.
Not Really Spam
Because Ms. Betterly's e-mails aren't, in the strictest sense, unsolicited, she doesn't consider them spam. So she isn't breaking any rules when she sends hundreds of thousands of messages through, say, WorldCom Inc., one of her many service providers. WorldCom, like most providers, has an antispam policy. "Sending unsolicited mail messages, including, without limitation, commercial advertising and informational announcements, is explicitly prohibited," WorldCom's policy says.
SURVIVING THE FLOOD
Is your junk e-mail out of control? If so, what pitches bother you most? What have you done to stop the flood? See our junk e-mail page, or join a discussion with other readers.
Even though she tries not to e-mail people who have expressly indicated, on one Web site or another, that they don't want unsolicited messages, recipients do often complain. While some unscrupulous spammers ignore people who ask to be removed from a list, Ms. Betterly says she complies if anyone e-mails back an "unsubscribe" command, sends "opt out" instructions or otherwise asks not to receive future messages.
"What we do for a living is not a bad thing. We're not horrible," she says.
The company that hired Ms. Betterly to send the Lexus RX300 and Nascar trip e-mails was wfsDirect Inc. Based in Omaha, Neb., wfsDirect has been selling what it calls "online marketing services" since 1999. The company compiles consumer profiles for other companies that use them for e-mail pitches of their own. It gets information for the profiles by sponsoring e-mail sweepstakes for big prizes. To be eligible for the prize, an e-mail recipient goes to a wfsDirect Web site to fill out a survey that asks for the person's name, address, income and other personal details.
In other words, this round of spam was a fishing expedition designed to catch names for future rounds of spam.
Ms. Betterly was hired to send out the 500,000 messages, which wfsDirect composed. She negotiated a commission of 75 cents for every completed survey returned and 10 cents for every incomplete survey.
The Lexus and Nascar messages went to mail-server computers in Berkeley, Calif., that spent two hours shooting them around the U.S. Two days later, 275 people had opened the messages. Only 65 completed the surveys, generating just $40 for Ms. Betterly, who says her costs for sending out the messages totaled $250.
'Horrible' Rate
The response rate of 0.013% was "horrible," Ms. Betterly says. A great response rate for Ms. Betterly would be a disaster for a paper-junk mailer, which expects a typical response of about 2%. Depending on what she's pitching, Ms. Betterly says she can break even at a rate as low as 0.001%. It all depends on the commission she negotiates, and she's considering a few jobs that could pay off particularly well: $35 on each sale of a 3D-glasses package; $50 for a mortgage lead; $85 for a cellphone sale.
Ms. Betterly's database is her most precious asset. She bought and bartered its 100 million e-mail addresses from dozens of places, including companies such as Excite (excite.com), About.com (about.com) and Ms. Cleo's psychic Web site. She can fine-tune e-mail runs, hitting just small-business owners, say, or only golfers or music fans. She can cull out certain addresses, to narrow her geographic target. Like most spammers, she also makes money selling her list to other bulk e-mailers, and she keeps adding to her own list.
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