Internet Tip of the Week - by Bob Osgoodby
The Year In ReviewThe Christmas gifts that were wrapped with such care are all
gone, and a New Year is here. No, this will not be an
anthology of events, but rather some impressions.The “Can-Spam Act” which was passed with such fanfare effective
January 1, 2004, has proved to be a bust. This time last year,
unsolicited email accounted for approximately 50 percent of all
email traffic on the Web. This year it has risen to
approximately 75 percent. Many people are taking extra-ordinary
means to protect themselves from this onslaught.In our business we were receiving 6,000-8,000 emails each and
every day which had to be sorted through to pick out a handful of
meaningful ones. We were actually spending more time going
through our email than conducting our business. This of course
is not acceptable and we were forced to limit our email to that
received through submission forms on our web site and a few
selected addresses known only to our clients.This is one of the most serious problems on the web today. The
“Can Spam Act” is a failure. If this problem is not resolved,
many people who looked to the web as an extension of their
business, will go to more traditional methods.Internet Service Providers continued their “holy grail” in their
fight against spam and only succeeded in blocking legitimate
email. Every time they came out with a new spam fighting
technique, the spamsters broke their code and continued on their
merry wayOur elected representatives are permitted to use insider trading
information legally while the average person faces jail time for
the same thing. The representative from Alaska whose only source
of income was his salary as a representative, became a multi-
millionaire in a few short years.And then there was Martha Stewart.
Spamcop continued to muddle along without doing much good, but
still hurting legitimate web sites.Despite all this, online business is booming. This was the best
year ever for online commerce, and it can only get better. Many
people avoided the crowded malls and opted to “let their fingers
do the walking” and made the majority of their Holiday purchases
online.The fear of terror attacks continued making headlines on a
regular basis. Some people cancelled vacations and avoided large
gatherings, or took other protective measures. The majority of
people however went about their daily business with an almost
blasé attitude.And then there was the earthquake and resulting tsunami.
We saw MLMs come and go, but what else is new. This happens all
the time and last year was no exception. With "visions of sugar
plums" the uninitiated plunked down their hard earned bucks, and
signed up in droves, only to find that if they wanted to succeed,
they had to work. When they didn't earn their million the first
month, while sitting in front of the TV eating bonbons or
guzzling beer, they lost heart.The pundits continued to suggest that anyone can publish an
online newsletter or ezine. What they didn't say is that you
have to be at least semi-literate to do so. There have been many
startups, and just as many who found that publishing is work -
there's that dirty word again. Some even gave away free ads in
their publication only to find that they were concentrating on
the wrong thing. There is a world of difference between
"readers" and "subscribers". Readers want content, not just a
bunch of ads with an occasional out of date article pulled off
the web.The scamsters did flourish. With new "fresh from the farm"
millions arriving on the web, P.T. Barnum would have had a
field day. "A sucker is born every minute" couldn't be truer.
Funny thing is that most of the scams were simply reworked
versions of ones that have been around for years. What was
new, is that the web provided access to these uninformed, whose
greed outweighed their common sense.There are currently over a million pornographic sites on the
Web, and growing daily. Despite the hue and cry of the
legislators, and attempts by the ISPs to block them, their filth
continues to flood our inbox. They are publicly denounced but
remain profitable. Is there a double standard here?My impression is that 2005 will be a great year. The
opportunities we face will only increase as the new technology
continues to emerge. Sure, some will "bite the bullet" but, we
live in a great time, and I look forward to it with great
anticipation.-----
Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's Free Ezine the
"Tip of the Day" get a Free Ad for their Business at his Web
Site? Great Business and Computer Tips – Monday. Wednesday. and
Friday. Instructions on how to place an ad are in the Newsletter.
Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm
We
Have Zero Tolerance for Spam