IM4Newbies Internet Marketing Community

[Mike Merz]

... of EzineTips.com.

Janet's a dear, longtime friend ... and one of my fav authors/publishers.

Check the following recently run article regarding the current, and pending email marketing laws ...

____________________

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like ...
By Janet Roberts
____________________


No, not Christmas. Now that the dust is has settled from the
furious round of Congressional voting on the CAN-SPAM Act last
week, it looks as if Americans will have a federal spam law on
the books by the time Champagne corks start popping on Jan. 1.


Is this cause for celebration? It depends on whether you're a
spammer, a legitimate email publisher, an ISP or a recipient. It
does mean you have less than a month to read the law and find out
what you have to do to comply.


The bill's approval also is not a done deal yet. There are lots
of "ifs" from here to enactment, too.


However, if you are not sending unsolicited email, falsifying
your name, sending address or subject line, harvesting email
addresses off the Web or generating names randomly to build your
list, and if you include a working opt-out in each message,
you're okay.


If you rushed into action with your newsletter or marketing
programs in order to head off any potential problems, you can
probaby take a breather now, too.



Our Story So Far


In the rush of voting on major legislation before the Thanksgiving
recess, the House of Representatives voted 392-5 to approve its
amended version of the Senate bill popularly known as the CAN-SPAM
Act and sent it back to the Senate.


The Senate agreed to the amended version but made a couple of
changes and sent it back to the House, which is expected to take it
up the week of Dec. 8.


Now for the "ifs:"


If the House okays the bill, it will go on to President Bush, who
had said previously he favored the bill. If he signs it before
Dec. 31, it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2004.


If something happens between now and then to prevent Bush from
signing the bill, the new California spam law that has publishers
quaking will go into effect on Jan. 1.



Right to Sue and Do-Not-Spam


In the last Ezine-Tip, we promised you ways to avoid running into
problems with the California law should it go into effect. We're
going to put that on hold until we see what happens in Washington.


In the meantime, you can review the latest amended version of
CAN-SPAM here: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c108query.html .
Type "S 877" into the blank marked "Bill Number" and hit Search.
Then, read the fifth version, marked S.877.EAS .



If you don't want to wade through all that tiny type, Declan
McCullough distilled the amendments into an excellent story for
CNet's News.com:
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5111893.html?tag=sas_email


The federal legislation targets deceptive and fraudulent email,
rather than the sheer volume of junk email, and gives the Federal
Trade Commission and law-enforcement agencies a stronger hand in
dealing with the most unrepentant spammers.


On one hand, it helps email publishers by removing what in the
California law seemed to scare publishers most: the individual
right of action, which would have allowed individuals to sue
email senders for violating the law. Only government officials
and ISPs, in some case, can sue under the federal law.


That fear appeared to have motivated several email publishers
either to suspend their newsletters, request readers to opt in
again or stop emailing to anyone who gave either a California
address or who didn't specify their states when they signed up
for subscriptions.


But, CAN-SPAM also directs the FTC to come up with a plan for
implementing and creating a do-not-spam registry, similar to the
do-not-call list for telemarketers, within six months after the
bill becomes law.


Although Sen. Charles Shumer, D-New York, who promoted the spam
list, says it will happen, FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris doesn't
think it will work. If I had to lay odds, I'd back the
bureaucrat.



What to Do Now


Make sure your unsubscribe link works! That's a key factor in
the federal legislation.


When our company changed its name and email addresses, I had to
change or drop 752 subscriptions. I changed email addresses on
341 of them and dropped the rest. (Not as easy as it sounds.)


Of that 341, I got confirmations on 271. I've received 78 notices
from publishers whose systems retained the old address after I
either updated or unsubscribed.



Comments? feedback@ezine-tips.com


Tip submitted by
Janet Roberts
Editor
http://EmailUniverse.com/

Thanks, Janet!

Regards,

Mike "soldier in the ongoing email marketing war" Merz

[CorpRebel]

Hey Mike!

Yep ... Janet's EzineTips is definitely full of timely email publishing info that will help keep us ezine/newsletter publishers out of the "spam" doghouse (if that is even possible anymore ). EzineTips is on my subscribe and READ list.

For those that are reading this thread ... if you do ANY email publishing (newsletters, ezines, etc.) at all, you NEED to to get on Janet's mailing list at:

http://www.Ezine-Tips.com

She'll help keep you up-to-date on these critical "spam compliance" issues.


Ahhhh ... The joys of ezine/newsletter publishing!


Have a Profitable, Safe and Sane Holiday Season!

Rick Wilson aka CorpRebel
_________________
FREE Instant Banner Creator | eBiz Rantz And Ravez

[Christopher Knight]

Thanks Rick and Mike for the Ezine-Tips mention!

Just wanted to update your members that Ezine-Tips has a new home:
http://EmailUniverse.com/ezine-tips/

Even though the old site (ezine-tips.com) will still re-direct you.

Also added a search engine (upper right corner of the site so that you can search the 1050+ Ezine-Tips archives).

A bit of history: I started Sparky's List-Tips back in 1998. This list got merged with Brian Alt's Ezine-Tips (who joined us for a brief while to continue the publication). Janet Roberts managed it for a good stretch of time and now in 2004 -- I'll be the lead writer for a while. We celebrate 7 years in July.

For the RSS fans, Ezine-Tips also has an RSS Feed:
http://emailuniverse.com/rss/ezine-tips.xml (you'll need an RSS reader to view)

Lastly, for the first time ever, Ezine-Tips is now accepting guest submissions: http://emailuniverse.com/ezine-tips/submit.php -- In exchange, your article will reach our 20k+ members and our monthly 100,000+ unique visitors to the website.
_________________
To Your Email List Marketing Success!,
Christopher Knight, Email Newsletter Expert
http://Ezine-Tips.com/

[Mike Merz]

[Christopher Knight]

Well, geez, where do I send the check !

I've always had an affinity towards charter email list members. Every list is special (like a baby) -- but every list publisher always has a special connection to the first list members that stick with them over the years as the list, the publisher and the list members evolve professionally and personally.

Rock on.
_________________
To Your Email List Marketing Success!,
Christopher Knight, Email Newsletter Expert
http://Ezine-Tips.com/

[Mike Merz]

For those of you that may think I'm just kissing ...

This page ...

http://www.im4newbies.com/lists.htm

... has featured Christopher's link since 1999.

It was also present on the site that preceded it.



Regards,

Mike "not just talking out my .." Merz

[Christopher Knight]

[Mike Merz]