CAN-SPAM compliance for random email lists

[skipuhbeat]

Yes--there are known trap lists floating around... but anything worth using will be a commercial service... and not cheap.

Freshaddress and the like.

 

[steelmagnum]

as blackhat as it may sound, would i more or less likely be safe if i scrape well known blogs and stuff for emails? in my mind, it seems unlikely that many trap emails would be subscribed to bigger blogs.

 

[cyberjunkie]

US CAN-SPAM law does not specifically require opt-in. In fact, it specifically *allows* sending unsolicited commercial email... you just have to explicitly state that the email is an advertisement/commercial in nature. You also have to maintain and adhere to an opt-out (suppression) list... and scrub this against your send list in a timely manner (within ten business days, I believe).

That's the beauty of US commercial email law--no permission needed!

EDIT: There's still the issue of avoiding spam traps (honeypots), complaints, blacklisting... and actually getting into the inbox. If you're able to tackle that with a random list of email addresses, you shouldn't be fooling with marketing a brand... You should be a publisher!

Wowhaxor,
I totally agree with 'skipuhbeat' on this one, UNLESS you OWN the brand or have a good high margin partnership carved out with the brand owner.

 

[cyberjunkie]

The key to scraping list Steelmagum is RELEVANCY to the product or service
that you will be mailing to. That is, if your goal is to have profitable conversion
efficiencies.

 

[steelmagnum]

The key to scraping list Steelmagum is RELEVANCY to the product or service
that you will be mailing to. That is, if your goal is to have profitable conversion
efficiencies.

of course. my website is a financial media application that can predict the stock market with reasonable accuracy. basically, ill try to scrape emails from sites like wallstreetoasis, stock market forums, things of the sort.

i assume it's a good idea in principle, but is there risk of any trap emails in that strategy?

 

[steelmagnum]

of course. my website is a financial media application that can predict the stock market with reasonable accuracy. basically, ill try to scrape emails from sites like wallstreetoasis, stock market forums, things of the sort.

i assume it's a good idea in principle, but is there risk of any trap emails in that strategy?

bump please!

 

[djc225]

As someone mentions it's not a good strategy because any harvesting of email addresses is illegal in the US. Just check out the Wikipedia article to read the details.

 

[steelmagnum]

of course. my website is a financial media application that can predict the stock market with reasonable accuracy. basically, ill try to scrape emails from sites like wallstreetoasis, stock market forums, things of the sort.

i assume it's a good idea in principle, but is there risk of any trap emails in that strategy?

bump pls

 

[niceness8000]

Get somebody who knows how to blast emails to send the emails for you. Put some kind of optin for anyone who replies. then you can send you opt-in peeps whatever you want. That's the point . . .

 

[SEOwned]

People pay good money for email services to avoid running afoul of CAN SPAM. You don't have enough knowledge to run a 1.5 million list yourself. The list needs to be scrubbed and if you do run your IPS will be blocked within minutes not hours as you send out the list. If you are branding this is a no go and I recommend legitimate email services, which is costly, or if you willing to take some risk hire someone who knows how to work around the edges. Either way you are going to have to spend money!

If the list is Scraped to begin with are there services who will still send it? Surely it's breaking the CAN SPAM act when using any harvesting software?