Archive for the ‘Marketing Tips’ Category.

This looks interesting, and from Mike Filsaime

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Domain buyer enquiry scams

I, like many others out there who have a number of domains (er, especially un/under-developed ones :-) get a fair number of enqueries about them. Most of the enqueries are just junk, some are actual spam, but this one appears to be a scam for an appraisal service.

email’s like this:

We are interested to buy your domain name xvxvxvxvx.COM and offer to buy it from you for 80% of the appraised market value.

As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:

- fleos.com
- sedo.com

If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.

As soon as we have received your appraisal we will send you our payment (we use paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow for amounts above $2,000) as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.

We appreciate your business,

Yours truly,

Kevin Hill

Don’t know for sure what the scam is, but appears to be trying to drive folks to the first appraisal site link (fleos.com –sound too much like ‘fleece’ to anyone besides me?) which was registered in July of this year, and offers lower prices than Sedo (um, who doesn’t? :-)

A couple of notes on checking authenticity:

1. Real buyers that represent companies don’t use gmail (well, except to forward/manage email) as their primary contact information.

2. Real buyers don’t ask for your payment options and promise to send the money before you have worked out the transfer process.

Good luck selling any domains or sites you have, but do your homework and deal with reputable buyers/sellers.

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The ‘don’t unsubscribe from spam’ myth

Okay, so I had a few questions/comments come in about using the ‘report as spam’ button.

Look, I know it’s easy, and sometimes you get that little ‘ooo, that’ll teach them’ feeling, or you really just are lazy and/or think ‘this is crap, I asked for it, but this stinks’ feeling, but you really need to use a little caution here.

Here’s a reply I made about this:

No problem marking real spam as spam, and if you did not ever subscribe, do not hit the unsubscribe button as that will only confirm to the spammers an active email address and most likely not remove you from the list. But if you subscribed, find the unsubscribe link and use it. If that doesn’t remove you with 48 hours, report it.

However, you really need to be careful in two ways:
1. If you’re forwarding other email addy’s to Yahoo! or gmail and report it as spam, the service provider is marking ‘your’ email as the sender. Just delete those.
2. If you’re not sure, don’t recall, then just delete.

gmail also uses user actions to ‘learn’ what’s spam. It’s not really new technology.

Bottom line is simple.

If you subscribed, do the ethical thing and unsuscribe. Give the system a chance to work for you.

If you did not subscribe, and you’re really sure about that (look at the bottom of the email message where most good, ethical email marketers often include such information for things like possibly your IP address, a date, time, from when you subscribed), then report it.

Also, regularly check your spam and trash folders for legitimate emails and ‘de-mark’ them. This will help train most of the better email service providers algorithms to act appropriately in the future for you, and sometimes for others as well.

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ThisIsTrue.com loses 20,000 subscribers due to Yahoo!’s idiotic blocking.

Not that this is a new problem (major email service providers blocking access), but when it hits a publication as old, as reliable, and as stringent about promoting and proliferating proper email use, the little guys should take note.

I’ve certainly had my own issues with this, and even using gmail, and having Google filter it’s own Alerts, which I of course set up, confirmed, and send and receive through their very own system, end up where?

That’s right, in the trash or spam folder.
Randy Cassingham, of ThisIsTrue, just published this blog post
http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-yahoo_alert_trues_biggest_crisis_ever.html
about having 20,000+ subscribers through Yahoo! being blocked from them from receiving the email they asked for.

<sigh> Sad.

And also a wake up call, again, that we all need to be pushing subscribers to be educated about managing their subscriptions, and using (or preferably ‘not using’) free email service providers for subscribers.

If you read the post on his blog, you’ll see that the problem appears to stem from the lazy unsubscribers who just hit the “This is spam” button rather than using the unsub link provided in every issue.

What’s the recourse here? Complaining to the choir (other marketers, and those still getting their subscriptions) isn’t really going to do much.

Getting the word out through other newsletters and especially social media sites that your subscribers frequent though can help.

For now, you may be thinking, “Well, it’s not me, or my list isn’t that big yet, or there’s only a few Yahoo! subscribers” but even if they make up a small percentage, that’s still email not being delivered, email that puts you at risk of getting blocked by one of the major free email service providers and adding your name, website, url, and your business to a major black list.

Be responsible.

If you took the time to optin and subscribe, confirm that subscription, then have the decency to use the proper method for unsubscribing if that’s what you want to do. Or, be lazy, and fraudulent, and report every email you receive that you’re tired of getting as spam, and then see how long it take before all of your subscriptions disappear because you and others like you (oh yes, there are certainly enough idiots out there doing this, not just you) have taken the lazy, malicious way out… all the way out.
To me, that’s frightening.

To Yahoo!, wake up. Honestly, which do you think is worth more to you, the sludge of the earth subscribers who report legitimate email as spam, or quality content providers who give people a reason to use your service in the first place?

Doesn’t really take a genius or a calculator to do that math, now does it?
Be well, live well, die last.
Allen

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TCOBaG: Time is Money, but Value is

TCOBaG: Time is Money, but Value is . . . ?

Time is not money. Money, I can make again :-) But I do see the logic of this. What bothers me is this tendency to place a greater value on something because it takes up, needed, or requires more time to do.

Sometimes this might be the case, fine wine, diamonds, and large works of art, as well as scientific discoveries, research and development, and even things like great relationships. More time = better value.

One part that is not in the equation though is our desire to latch onto, hold on to sometimes at even detrimental costs, things simply because of the time that has been invested.

So, what am I getting at?

It is a dangerous trap to fall into, believing that value is directly proportionate to time spent.

Often we are just as bound to trying to hang on to something because we’ve invested so much time into it as we are to think that something we have is not worth much because the time it took to create it was so short.

Recently I had a discussion with a colleague who had just written his first book. I expressed concern over the value of including a certain portion and that others would likely not find it useful as well. He replied that it was interesting I’d mentioned that, especially since it was specifically brought up as a possible problem by the publishing house he is working with to release the book.

Then, he says, “But I’ve spent so much time working on that particular section, I really hate to give it up.”

Besides this being a common fault among writers, from amateurs to professionals, it is also a common mistake made by many in various walks of life and a wide range of situations.

He attached greater value to the ‘time spent’ than the overall value of the book he was trying to create.

He has chosen to ignore my suggestions, and now the suggestions of the publisher, and is likely to find his whole project looking for a new home, hopefully not just on his hard drive. All of this is because of his misplaced ideal of “time spent equals value.”

The same is true in reverse. Sometimes we think things created in a short time are not of as great an importance, or value, as those created over longer periods.

I’m reminded of the story of the man who went to the dentist for a tooth extraction after suffering in great pain for weeks. He arrived at the dentist’s office, was ushered into the chair
shortly afterwards, spent about 15 minutes with the dentist, the tooth was removed, and he was on his way.

When he received the bill, some $200, he called the dentist to complain. “I was only in your office less than 30 minutes! $200?”

To which the dentist replied, “Next time, I could take longer?”

The key is?

Value is in the result.

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