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A L S O__T O D A Y
- - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K Getting your parents online: Discuss the challenges and rewards of wiring the family in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y Is culture endangered in the digital age? Blame it on Rio Prime time for hackers is over Of math prodigies and canine cosmonauts Let's Get This Straight - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE - - - - - - - - - -
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- - - - - - - - - - From the anti-spammer side of the aisle, SAFEeps is still suspect. Most spam-haters reject any form of opt-out list. E-mail marketing on the Net, they argue, must always be opt-in: That is, the recipient must have previously expressed an interest in receiving e-mail, perhaps by registering at a Web site, or contacting an advertiser directly, or registering one's interests with a specialist in assembling opt-in lists. "Opt-in should be the only model for the Internet," says Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters, an anti-spam advocacy group. The concept of opt-in advertising may seem unlikely at first -- there is no corollary for it in other media, like radio, TV, print or billboards. On the contrary, the whole thrust of modern advertising is to push ever further into every corner of our lives whether we like it or not. We don't get to say no. Why would we ask for more of it? But the Net is different, argue the advocates of opt-in. The same interactivity that makes it so easy for advertisers to pound consumers with mass e-mail makes it easy for recipients to respond -- which, in turn, explains why so many dedicated spammers forge fake return addresses. Opt-in sounds idealistic, but it is a fact of life on the Net. There are well-established companies that swear that they are making good money simply by assembling mailing lists of consumers who have expressed interest in a particular topic, like Java programming or model airplanes, and selling the use of those lists to carefully controlled clients. PostMaster Direct is one such company. Indeed, according to founder and president Rosalind Resnick, the company "pioneered opt-in e-mail marketing on the Net." After two and half years of operation, Resnick says, PostMaster Direct has a database of nearly 2 million people, and enjoyed revenues of $3.5 million over the last year. "At a time when banner ads are generating 1 percent clickthrough," says Resnick, "we get between 5 and 15 percent on our mailings ... Our database is growing by 5,000 or 6,000 people a day -- double what we were seeing six months ago ... We've raised our prices twice in the last year." Mueller, CAUCE's chairman, says PostMaster Direct is an example of how to do e-mail marketing correctly. "If you go back and look at some of the surveys about spam done for various online publications," says Mueller, "you'll note that from 20 to 25 percent of the respondents seem to want ads ... The thing is, not only do that group of people want ads, they're willing to tell someone what ads they want. That is really incredibly valuable marketing information -- worth more than enough to make up for leaving the other 75 to 80 percent of people alone. And I'm willing to wager a dollar that, if spam were stopped entirely, more and more of that large majority would sign up for legitimate solicited marketing-oriented publications -- ads or ad-supported services." Resnick rejects both opt-out style lists in the form of SAFEeps, as well as anti-spam legislation. The success of opt-in marketing, she believes, will inspire other companies to choose that route and avoid angering potential consumers. Indeed, she goes even further, suggesting that the opt-in model could potentially spread beyond the boundaries of the Internet. "The Net is a much more responsive medium," says Resnick. "In the postal world, consumers don't have the tools to make their voices heard. But on the Internet they do, and as consumers realize that they have the power to level the playing field, they are going to start demanding the same kinds of rights in the postal and telemarketing worlds. We are going to see a lot more consumer empowerment in the future." Junkbuster's Catlett, although differing with Resnick in supporting anti-spam legislation, agrees with her on the possibilities for empowerment. "I think it is realistic to believe that we can continue to hold off the unmitigated exploitation of the [Internet] medium by marketers," says Catlett. "We accept as Americans that telemarketing calls are an unavoidable part of life, but in other countries they don't accept that at all. It's partially cultural and partly legal, but really it is a matter of the consumer's acceptance as to which degree the medium is exploited." Could the fight against spam turn the tide against the seemingly unstoppable influx of in-your-face advertising in the offline world?
Could opt-in become the calling card of a new generation? Wishful thinking, perhaps. But keep an eye on what arrives in your e-mail -- and what doesn't. Should there be laws against spam? Come to Table Talk's Digital Culture discussion area and join the debate. Spam bombers Tired of receiving dozens of get-rich-quick offers and promos for "bulk mailers" in your e-mail? Meet the software designers who have made it all possible.
Hands off that data -- I'm European! A
transatlantic trade war brews over data privacy rules.
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