Recommended

  What Biz Opp?

Check your spam folder - where did all the junk email go?

publication date: Nov 20, 2008
Download Print
Previous | Next
 
Hi

Take a look at your spam folder. Notice anything
different?

If it's anything like mine, you'll have noticed a marked
drop in the number of tempting offers for those little blue
'enhancement' pills . . . fake diplomas . . . lottery scams
and yes, even the beloved Nigerian scam.

Have the spammers decided to call it a day?

Alas, no.

The closure of McColo - a web hosting firm that is
believed to have had spam gangs as clients - has led to a
70% reduction in junk mail. According to the BBC, "it is
believed that it hosted gangs running botnets - networks
of computers that have been taken over by criminals to
send malicious software and spam."

Enjoy it while it lasts . . . because they will be back!
Analysts expect spam will return to previous levels by the
end of November as the spammers find a new host.

But I really don't know why they bother. Another report out
this week revealed that spammers were getting a response
rate of less than 0.00001%! In other words, they would
have to send out 12.5 million emails for every sale!

Is it really worth it? Well, yes.

The recent study saw scientists act as spammers
themselves by hijacking an existing spam network. While
running their undercover spam campaigns the
researchers sent 469 million junk e-mail messages. The
vast majority of these were for a fake pharmacy which
mimicked the spammer's version. However it always
returned an error message when potential buyers clicked
a button to submit their credit card details.

"After 26 days, and almost 350 million e-mail messages,
only 28 sales resulted," wrote the researchers. "Taken
together, these conversions would have resulted in
revenues of $2,731.88-a bit over $100 a day for the
measurement period," they added.

$100 a day! Hardly worth risking jail for is it? But hold on,
this was just a small test. The researchers estimate that
the controllers of the entire system they had hijacked are
netting about $7,000 (£4,430) a day or more than $2m
(£1.28m) per year.

Now it's looking a bit more attractive, but really not that
much compared to people who are using email marketing
ethically and legally.

So why don't they just come clean? Perhaps there should
be an amnesty for spammers? We should allow them to
leave the dark side and move into legitimate business
and share their experience and skills.

Spammers have a lot going for them . . .

They are technically advanced and smart enough to keep
ahead of the authorities, ISPs and spam filters. They can
think creatively - I mean some of those subject lines are
irresistible!

Just think what they could bring to a legitimate
information publishing business? They could easily make
$2 million per year . . .

-    They wouldn't need to send out millions of
unsolicited emails as their response rates to a
opt-in list could be anywhere from 2% - 30%. In
fact they could make good money from a list as
small as 1,000. Remember my email last week
when I told you how Jon Street had made over
£30,000 in one weekend with just 670 names! I
don't normally blow my email trumpet, but earlier
this year I brought in £1,510,000 in 2 weeks from
a list of around 15,000.

-    They wouldn't have to grub around with dodgy
scams, pills or diplomas - they could actually
help people to solve their problems. And if they
promoted good quality products they would
inevitably have plenty of glowing testimonials
from people who have benefited.

And who knows, the spammers could really redeem
themselves by using their expertise to change history!
Seriously, email has the power to change entire nations,
economies and even stop wars . . .

"Nick, have a lie down, you're getting delirious!"

No, no, I'm ok. Just bear with me. I'm getting a bit
evangelical now . . .but I truly believe that email cannot
only provide anyone with a money-making opportunity,
but it can actually change the course of history!

Consider US President elect, Barack Obama. The
success of his election campaign can partly be attributed
to the use of email marketing!

On the night of his election win, he sent out 70 million
emails to people who had signed up on his website
thanking them for making history! Far more significantly is
the amount of money the Obama campaign was able to
generate in contributions. In September he raised $112
million online!
 
According to The Sunday Times last week "The web
spearheaded a new way of fundraising, identifying
volunteers and - most of all - accumulating contact
details for millions of converts to the Obama surge."

He was able to bypass traditional media and go straight
to people's inboxes with personal messages.

Take a look at the site:
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/dnc08main

It's also worth visiting http://my.barackobama.com/ - this
moves beyond just email to use social networking (it's no
accident that one of Facebook's founders joined the
Obama campaign early on).

Ok, so I'm not suggesting you run for political office, but
you can see how powerful the legitimate use of emails
can be!

Fancy making money online yourself? There are
hundreds of gurus, courses and seminars out there, but
which should you go for? If you are serious about making
money online, then I would recommend you check out
what Jon Street is doing with his Internet Income
Detective newsletter.  You can find out more here:
http://internetincomedetective.co.uk/

Also, he has a great free weekly eletter. Go to
http://www.whatbizopp.com/Online/Default.aspx where
you can sign up plus check out some back issues.

If you want to dive straight into eletter publishing (one of
my personal favourites), then go see Charlie Wright and
his Inbox Tycoon. Click here
http://www.bizoppjungle.com/cashgenerator/

One more thing before I go . . .

I really can't say too much right now, but I have some
very exciting news. If you have not tried the Ultimate FX
Predictor yet due to financial constraints - then I have a
proposal that I think just might change your mind. 

Please look out for more details next week  . . .

Best regards

Nick

PS: Remember the parking ticket I mentioned last week?
Well I am glad to report they realised how petty and
ridiculous the fine was and we have got them to
reluctantly waive the penalty! Hurrah!
Search my Site
Who is Nick Laight?