Email Marketing: Major category within online marketing. Sending commercial email to individuals. You market to HUMAN EYES. Goals are to get reader to open email and then take action by going to your website.
Groups aka Ezines: Groups like Yahoo and MSN were early forms of what we now call Safe lists. Groups are often called Ezines (although and Ezine can be on a different script from an actual Group...lol.) Confused yet? Ha. Don't fret...it gets better (and more confusing.) The basic concept however was pretty simple and elegant. You joined a Group (ezine). You agreed to receive email in return for sending your own. You then could send your email ad, post your link, set up files and etc.
While Groups, especially Yahoo Groups, where at first called Ezines (and many still refer to them as such) there is actually a clear difference between Groups and actual Ezines. The main difference is that Groups (like Yahoo) are free to join and then free for members to post ads and links. Ezines tend to be on different scripts and are usually paid venues - although some of them will offer a free membership option. There are many types of ezines on the Internet. We will discuss more on GROUPS here. From these venues evolved...
Safe list: a marketing platform. This is a venue you join and then agree to receive email ads so that YOU can send your ads to the membership. This is called:
Opt-in. An agreement. You agree to receive commercial email so that you can send your commercial email to the members of that group or list. Opt-in applies to many other venues. Opt-in is important as only opt-in members can send email ads. Anything else is considered SPAM. All sites which are opt-in have rules you must abide by called Terms Of Service. Double opt-in means you have agreed and then confirmed that you agreed.
SPAM: this is unsolicited email. Everyone hates it. There are very powerful organizations set up which regulate SPAM.
Terms Of Service: the rules of the site. Also called TOS.
Email Ad: an ad you send to other people via email to their Marketing Email box.
Marketing Email Box: this is an email account you set up SPECIFICALLY for handling your email marketing. For safe lists especially you want to use commercial POP3 email services like the one provided by GW Xtream.
POP3 Email: This is a kind of script for email services. One of the things about POP3 is that it is compatible with OTHER scripts on the market like Validation Services and Box Cleaners. The other kind of email services are called Web-based. Your typical free services like Yahoo, G-Mail, Hotmail are web-based. So are your major internet providers like AOL and MSN. And your other providers like Excite, PeoplePC, Netscape and etc. Validation programs do NOT work with Web-based email accounts or boxes.
Solo or Contact address: this is how Admin contacts you. In safelists it is also where Solo ads are sent. So for safelists it should never be your ‘real’ email address as you will ALSO receive ads here.
Subscription email address This is your email account where you will receive the ads other members will send you. Never, ever put an auto responder on it or your Contact email address.
Bounce: Email being returned or rejected. With safelists, bounce cause your account to be put on...
Vacation Hold: Prevents you from sending email to the members.
Auto Responder: a tool which sends out an email when ever someone emails you. You use these under certain circumstances and for certain reasons. Safelist marketing is NOT one of them. Members opted into each SPECIFIC safelist (as you will when you join and validate through the submitter.) They (and you) did NOT opt-in to any other individual's 'list'. They (and you) agreed to receive email from the SPECIFIC list only NOT from people who joined a list only to drop out (or be kicked out) who harvested your email and now sends you their ads unsolicited. (called SPAM - see above.)
List: This is a list of names and email addresses. Used to send email ads and offers to the members. There are very strict rules that govern lists - and the main one is that anyone on your list MUST opt-in to it. Period. They must also be provided with a means of opting out of it. With safelists, all members are double opt-in (meaning they joined and agreed to receive email at time of the join and AGAIN they agree at time of validation. Triple when you count many safelists now make you validate your contact email address as well.) Every email sent from a safelist or ffa site has the spam disclaimer and opt-out means embedded in it. If you receive an email without these elements from someone, you just received spam and it was sent to you by someone outside the safelist or ffa site. That someone HARVESTED your email and added you to their personal list.
Harvesting Email: this is obtaining someone's email address and then sending that person unsolicited email of any sort - especially email wanting them to sign up for a program or purchase goods and services. Powerful agencies (one of them called Spam Cops) watch dog and regulate Spam. If caught spamming you can lose your internet access AND face fines and discipline which could include imprisonment.
Terms Used throughout these Courses:
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Stand alone Safe list: this is a safe list not found in the submitter. Not all safe lists can or want to go into submitters. Not all safe lists are compatible with the submitter script. These are called stand alone safe lists. You join, validate and submit your ads to the list yourself OUTSIDE the submitter.
Email Adblaster: this is another tool and you find some of these listed on the forum. VMS users have a bonus page with dozens of these venues. They seem to be made up of DATABASES of safelist users or opt-in members who have agreed to receive email. The nice thing about Adblasters is you do not have to join the lists in their databases and thus do not receive email in return. Some people swear by Adblasters, others don't. To me, they are another tool to add to your marketing toolbox.
Safeadlist and Master Safeadlist: Email-style advertising except the basic ads do not go into your email box - they are read at the site via an onboard ad viewer. They also offer the traditional email-style advertising as solo ads, in addition to having link capability, a banner rotator and paid to view. This venue is an evolvement AWAY from the traditional safelist with all the ads in the inboxes. It is new and innovative and creative. One of the creators of this venue recently introduced a type of submitter which helps automate the venue a bit.
FFA Email Marketing: Pro members send email ads to the individuals who posted their links free.
Link Marketing: Another major catagory of online marketing. Link marketing involves Search Engines, SEO, traffic, placement. You are marketing to ROBOTS.
Search Engine: Database of websites. Major engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN. Hundreds of smaller engines exist on the Net as well. Getting your website into an Engine is called Indexing. Engines use robots called Spiders to find and gather the information from websites which goes into their database.
Traffic: visitors to your website also 'hits.'
Linking and Link Popularity: Adding or attaching your site to other sites creates 'popularity' which the SE measure.
FFA: Free For All. This is a site which you post your link or links and a short text ad for free. The flip side of FFA is emailing your ads
to those who posted their links. These are ALL opt-in. Unlike safelists however they are not as closely monitored. Most FFA boards
(but not all) do not allow auto responders. If you visited 90% of all the boards on the Net (and most of the huge FFA Networks)
you will find that Auto Responders are banned. However, there are some specific programs which encourage them within their
own system only. So, use a marketing address - like yahoo or G-mail especially for these. Do not set up an auto responder for
your 'in general' FFA marketing.
Link boards: can be FFA or classified ad sites or Message Boards or other sites and venues. Any place you can add your site or url to. Some of these venues encourage what is called "Daisy Chaining."
Daisy Chaining: linking a series of boards or sites together with common links (yours.)
Traffic Exchange: a site or venue in which you join (opt-in) and then place your site or url on the surf rotator. You view or surf other member sites to gain credits. The other members surf and see your site. Your site gets seen by the members and the hits that occur to your site help with the Search Engines. Exchanges are all opt-in and do not allow email with auto responders.
* SEO: Search Engine Optimization. Things you (or the program owner) do to your website to make them attractive to the Search Engines in order to get them added (or indexed) to their database quickly AND brings them back to your site many times which helps in your popularity with the Engines themselves. SEs usually have robots called Spiders which anaylize your site (crawl) and then rate it. The higher your rating, the better. There is a series of articles on the forum regarding Search Engines and Search Engine marketing and we plan on having some advanced marketing classes on this topic as well.
Safe list Submitter: this is a venue which has a database of safe lists which you can auto join (opt-in), manage and then submit your email ads to the subscription addresses. You must JOIN/opt-in to all the lists and validate (double opt-in) your subscription and (sometimes) contact addresses before you can send to the lists. Because you join hundreds of them, we provide a Validation service which is called a Validator:
Validator: a service which can auto validate links sent to you by safe lists. Only works on POP3 email accounts.
Box Cleaner: a service which deletes email in your inbox. Only works on POP3 email accounts. Helps you manage the volume of email you will receive from the safe list members. Usually you set the Auto Cleaner on the subscription box only. You can then MANUALLY clean your Contact email account after you have read your email through the Center if you want.
Permission Based Marketing
Much of what we will discuss in RC and many of the programs, tools and resources available to you involve PERMISSION BASED marketing. Email marketing is Permission Based. You must have a person's express permission to send them emails - whether personal or commercial.
Permission based resources include Safelists, Safeadlists, Pro FFA memberships, Opt-In leads and any other program or site where you are required to JOIN and agree (Opt-in) to the Terms Of Service (TOS) and then obtain Permission to send and receive emails. As a member of that site or program you have permission to market. Once you leave the site or program you no longer have permission to contact or market anyone associated with that program - including your downline.
This is often a point of confusion. People often think that a person they sponsor into a given program is their personal lead. That person is not. Now, if a person you sponsor decides to join your personal list and then agrees to receive (give you permission) to contact them, that is one thing. However, it is important to understand the distinction that the members in your downline are NOT leads nor do they become part of your PERSONAL mailing list - unless they give you specific permission to be added to your list. This is vital because should you elect to leave a program for any reason you CANNOT email the former members of your downline. Once you leave a program - you no longer have PERMISSION to contact anyone in your former downline for any reason.
