Once done, go to or read Chapter 2 now - which will cover how to set up your marketing email boxes.

Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Marketing Email Accounts

This chapter will cover setting up your Marketing email accounts.

MARKETING ACCOUNTS v. YOUR REAL ACCOUNT

There is a difference. If you?ve ever signed up for safelists or FFA pages, then you already know the value of NOT having those sales emails sent to your MAIN email account (Called a Contact account). You have them sent to another account entirely (called a List account).

It is the same principle with Bulk emailing, with one VERY important difference.

First, and foremost, you do NOT want bounced emails (emails that are returned with a delivery failure message) or autoresponder replies coming to your Contact email account. When Bulk Emailing, even after validating your list (Day 5's lesson will cover validation), you will still receive a lot of returns for non-delivery. Also, some addresses will have an autoreply set up to sell YOU something - or some addresses will be from Autoresponders (email addresses that, when you send mail to them, consider you Opt-In and send you their full array of sale emails every day). Just like a safelist, you do not want these emails coming to your MAIN email address - the one you use for actual day-to-day business and correspondence.

Second, and this is that difference, if even ONE person receives an email from your REAL email address as the FROM address, and they are the type to file a complaint, your ISP will get pretty angry. Usually, first offenses generate a warning to you. These warnings NEVER expire. If you EVER do it again from that address, your ISP will cancel your account without further warning, and you will NOT get it back.

Even if you are able to have ANOTHER email box through your main ISP, this should NOT be used as any VISIBLE email address people can use against you. It will have the same effect in any complaints against your emails as using your main email address. If you are allowed more than one email box on your main ISP, then you CAN use them - to have mail forwarded from the other boxes.

Every professional Direct Email marketer knows that bulk email works in generating sales - and a lot of them. However, they also know that today?s environment makes it EXTREMELY dangerous for anyone to do Direct Email marketing. Since it works so well in generating sales, those who are experienced understand certain measures MUST be taken to protect themselves as well as their main ISP.

One of the most important things EVERY Direct Email marketer must have are several email accounts as a ?front.?

You will need at least THREE (3) email accounts that are not attached in any way to your main ISP. I suggest using a FREE email account for your Remove requests (Day 3's lesson will cover using disclaimers, headers, and Remove files). There are plenty of FREE email services you may use as your visible addresses. If you have already purchased a ?throw-away? ISP for your mailing services, using their boxes as your FROM address will be what you want to do.

For Remove requests, the FIRST box you will set up, we suggest Yahoo.com (http://mail.yahoo.com). Yahoo does NOT allow forwarding for their FREE accounts, however they do allow you to set up a Vacation Response. After you set up your Yahoo email account, go to Mail Options. Under the first column, there will be a Vacation Setting link. Click on that. On the next page, scroll to the bottom until you see the Turn Vacation response On button - click on that. The service will then kick you back to your Inbox. Go back into Mail Option/Vacation Setting. Your auto response is now on. All you do now is put a quick confirmation into the text field that tells anyone sending email to that box (remember, it will be a remove request) that their request will be immediately complied with. Yahoo only allows your Vacation to be 6 months long, so you?ll have to go back every 6 months and reset the Vacation Settings. At this point, you have set up an email box where people can request removal from your future mailing lists. Write down or remember that email address, since you will be using it in your sales letter disclaimers.

If Yahoo ever shuts down your email account due to SPAM complaints, it is an easy thing to create another, set it up, and change your disclaimer address. It is NOT advisable to have a Remove box with your ?throw-away? ISP (if they allow for more than 1 email box). You don?t want to have to set up another remove box if you are hunting for a new ?throw-away? ISP.

For your FROM address, the SECOND box to set up, use the box or boxes that come with your ?throw-away? ISP. Now, most ISPs limit your email space. If you are sending out 5000 emails a day, that space will fill up VERY fast, and you?ll always have to delete new returns and undeliverable emails just to keep up. IF the ?throw-away? ISP email account allows forwarding services, then have that forwarded to an account that allows a huge amount of space (10 - 30 MB).

I suggest YuhKnow.com as the account to have your undeliverables forwarded to. YuhKnow.com has HUGE boxes, beginning at 30MB for under $6/month. To fill 30MB, you?d have to have 100,000 emails returned as undeliverable. So, they are a good place to go to hold your mail. They also have POP3 access and an ?Email Potty? that can be set up to delete your emails every day at midnight (US Eastern time zone). You can sign up for a YuhKnow account by going to this link:
http://www.yuhknow.com. It may take 24 hours to activate your account, so I do suggest you do that today and get a jump on the time.

Or, if your email accounts on your main ISP are big enough, and you are allowed more than one box, you can have the undeliverables forwarded there for later deletion.

So, box #1 is your remove request address - this does NOT have to be forwarded anywhere. I suggested Yahoo.com because they allow for a vacation response to confirm receipt of the removal request, which makes people happy. You may use any FREE email account you wish. This is the email you will have in your Disclaimer in case the recipient wishes to request removal.

Box #2 is your FROM address, the one people will see as your email originating from. Usually with your ?throw-away? ISP account - if they allow forwarding, especially if the box space is small, have everything forwarded to Box #3. This is the box you will show as your FROM address.

Box #3 is a rather large email account that can hold all of the undelivered and rejected mail from the addresses you mail. It is fine to use a secondary box with your main ISP (if they allow more than 1 with a lot of room) to have you r rejected mail forwarded to. This way, you can keep track of how many emails did NOT go out versus those that were delivered (usually a 33% return ratio). If you do not have boxes that are at
LEAST 10MB in size, then I suggest YuhKnow.com as the box to have those emails forwarded to. Either way, whichever you choose, this will be the box that will hold all of the undelivered message responses.

The Last Word:

NEVER EVER use ANY of your main ISP addresses in your emails - any SPAM complaints will go to EVERY ISP listed in the email, return paths, and email headers. Don?t even send emails through your main ISP?s Internet connection, since most headers will show that connection. Chapter 1 lessons, as well as today?s email box set-up lesson are designed specifically to keep your main ISP, and your chief Internet connection, out of
harm?s way should any complaints be lodged against your emails.

This completes Chapter 2. By now, you should have 1, or 2, ?throw-away? ISP?s ready as well as your three Marketing email boxes. If not, please use Chatper 1, and today?s chatper, and get those set up today. Then, go to or wait for Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 will cover the creation and organization of files and folders on your computer to better manage your email lists. We will also cover the uses of disclaimers and headers within your sales letters.

Chapter 3: Organizing file & folders and Disclaimers/headers.

Chapter 3 will cover creating/organizing Files & Folders on your computer to better manage your email lists as well as disclaimers and/or headers within sales letters.

CREATING FILES & FOLDER FOR LIST ORGANIZATION

Pick a place on your hard drive. This place should be easy to reach within a few clicks. Create a folder - call it whatever you wish. For this lesson?s purpose, we will call is Bulk Mail. Once created, click on the folder and enter. Inside the Bulk Email folder you just created, create two more folders. Again, name them whatever you wish - for the lesson?s purposes we will call the first one Addresses and the second Removes.

Once created, open up your favorite text editor. Most people use Windows Notepad. Open a blank document in your editor. Go to the File menu and choose Save As. Save the blank document in the Removes file you just created - name it Remove. Be sure to save the file in .TXT format. Create another blank text document. Save that one in the Addresses folder - name that one what you wish; for the purposes of this lesson, we?ll
call it New.

The New.txt file you just created will be the file where you place your leads (IF you copy & paste from websites). If you download files from your leads sources, then you should save those within your Addresses folder under whatever names you wish.

For now, you may leave the Remove.txt file alone. Open and copy addresses into that file whenever you receive a request for removal. This way, you can use your list manager software to compare your Remove file to any current or future email list you intend to mail, thus removing those who asked you to do so - thus, again, preventing you from emailing them a second time.

If you need more files or folders to help you organize to your specific desires, then please do so. Organization is very important in any business. And, keeping an up-to-date Remove file in THIS business is essential (and will reduce the chances of SPAM complaints from an accidental second mailing to the same person.

For example, if you want remove files for each of the leads sources you use, then you may do so. However, we suggest ONE remove file for all of your lists.

When you are ready to load your lists into your bulk mailer, you will know exactly where to go every time and won?t have to try remembering where today?s files were saved.

DISCLAIMERS AND HEADERS

This section will quickly cover headers and footers (disclaimers) that are within the body of your emails.

Having a disclaimer is ESSENTIAL in preventing an abnormal amount of SPAM complaints. Disclaimers generally server Two purposes:

1. To serve notice that your email is NOT spam and that it is a ONE-TIME mailing, and
2. To give them a link or email address to which they may send an Unsubscribe or Remove request.

Disclaimer locations vary between professional bulk mailers - some place them at the top of their emails (before the sales pitch), others at the bottom (after the sales pitch). The rest use both or none.

First, the bad news about NOT using a disclaimer - it will generate more complaints and flames (emails containing threats, curses, or a large file attachment - also called an ?email bomb?). Recipients of sales letters WITHOUT disclaimers containing a removal option will understandably feel that they will have no way out and will continue receiving emails from you.

So, ALWAYS use a disclaimer with a removal option in ALL of your sales emails.

I always place BOTH a header and footer disclaimer in my emails. The header is at the top, just before the body of the letter, while the footer is after the body of the letter. My headers do not contain removal links or instructions; rather it simply states the following:

IF YOU ARE NOT NOW, OR NEVER HAVE BEEN, INVOLVED WITH DIRECT ONLINE MARKETING OR ONLINE MLM ORGANIZATIONS, PLEASE DELETE THIS EMAIL NOW. THIS IS A ONE-TIME SALES OFFER, AND YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE ANOTHER FROM US.

This allows those receiving my emails to decide whether or not to continue reading the rest of the email. If they are not involved in MLM or Online Marketing businesses, then they will delete it as told - taking a little comfort that you said you won?t email them again.

My Footer Disclaimers DO contain the removal instructions. If someone takes the time to scan  or read the email, and decides they don?t like my offer, or just doesn?t want to be involved with such emails again, they can use the instructions in that footer disclaimer to ?opt-out? - guaranteeing they will not receive further offers from me - even if they are on another list I receive for future mailings. I use emails for them to request removal. When I receive a removal request, that email address is immediately entered into my Remove file. That Remove file is checked against ALL future email lists, ensuring all within that Remove file will never receive another mailing from me or my company (for THAT email address).

My footer disclaimer looks like this:

DISCLAIMER AND REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS
THIS IS NOT SPAM - this is a one-time email. We received your email address from one of our partner companies where your address was used for one or more of their marketing services or products. The user of your address agreed to receive email advertisements in return for partaking in those services or products. However, if you wish to request removal, please send an email to <place YOUR remove email address or link here> with the word REMOVE in the subject line.

CAN SPAM ACT REQUIRES YOU TO ENTER AN ADDRESS SAY A PO BOX AND SOME COMPANY NAME. Heck make one up if you want the law just says it has to have A address and A company name or name.

A word of note: some new marketers place the removal address of their LEADS SOURCES in the disclaimers. DO NOT EVER DO THIS! If you are angry at your leads source, just leave them - don?t try to set them up by having remove emails sent to them. It won?t have the effect you think it will. And, don?t try making YOUR life easier by having requests sent directly to them. If you DO like your leads sources, this is a perfect way  to be deleted from their membership rolls. Keep your own Remove file(s).

A lot of new bulk marketers think that the act of having a disclaimer in their emails covers them from the fallout from SPAM complaints. It doesn?t. It gives you ADDED protection, not total protection. It is PART of what you must do to REDUCE spam complaints. There is no way to totally eliminate spam complaints (unless you use fake email addresses and always use a proxy server for your emails). Having disclaimers shows that you are willing to remove them if they desire - thus giving you a bit
more credence and the benefit of any doubts from those not desiring to see your emails again. These are to be used IN CONJUNCTION with your ?throw-away? ISPs (see Chapter 1 lesson), and the marketing email boxes (see Chatper 2).

Please remember. Every lesson we will send to you is to be used TOGETHER - they are NOT meant to be used separately. If you decide NOT to do one or more of the steps outlined, please know that you are REDUCING your protection and NOT making your life easier. Today?s environment for ANY bulk marketer is difficult and perilous, but the potential rewards outweigh all the pitfalls combined. Or, no one would ever undertake the risks.
 

Chapter 4: List Management

Chapter 4will cover how to manage your lists. This, also, will be a short lesson. And, good news! No homework! Just information and a how-to lesson!

LIST MANAGEMENT AND WHY YOU MUST DO IT

List management involves basically keeping your files organized so you know which you wish you have sent to and how to use the Remove file.

Let us assume you have a few email lists already on your hard drive. You just downloaded or copy & pasted them into your TXT files. However, they are NOT YET ready to send. You must check them against the other files. If you have combined all of your emails into one file, or if you only have one email list file, then there is nothing other than the Remove file to check against. If you do not yet have anything in your remove file, then all that is left for you to do is loading your list, filtering them (if desired), and using a validator to check against dead or blocked/closed/full box addresses. Chatper 5's lesson will cover the uses of Filters & Validation.

For the purposes of this lesson, however, we will assume you have SEVERAL email files and at least a small Remove file. And, we will assume you have List Management software - either within your Bulk Mailer or separately. If you do not, then you can get one at the addresses listed under the next section in this lesson.

I receive email leads from several sources. I usually combine them all into one file for easier mailing. However, it does take longer for each list to be mailed if they are large (of course). So, how YOU do it depends on your time. If you want separate files for quicker mailing, then that?s fine.

Open your List Management software and load you?re a list you intend to mail. Find the option in the menu of your software that allows you to load a REMOVE file. DO that. Click the button or menu option that then fires up the software to check the REMOVE file against your mailing list. The email addresses in the MAIL file will be removed automatically. Save your cleaned mailing list to it?s original file. Do this with EVERY
list you intend to mail.

If you maintain more than one mailing list, it may also be wise to check each file against the others, as if they were themselves remove files. This will ensure no one will receive your emails twice, or more, in the time you mail out to the lists - and that every address is unique in each file.

As mentioned above, I usually place all the email addresses I intend to email into one list - it makes it easier to check against the remove file. If some of your mailing lists contain names and other information, do NOT combine them with others that do not - keep those separate. Most email lists have email addresses only, so you can combine those, if you wish, for easier checks. If the list is too large for your purposes and time, you can always use your list management software to ?break up? that file into as many files you need.

However, if you market to more than one target audience, it?s best to keep those files separate (see USING TARGETED EMAIL LISTS).

An added bonus to using List Management software is that every DUPLICATE address will also be removed. Duplicates are just that, the same address somewhere else within the file. Getting duplicates is VERY common when you are taking email addresses from FFA email gathering sites.

LIST MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

ALSO IN OUR MEMBERS AREA UNDER BULK MAILERS.

Once you are finished cleaning your files, save them back to their original files. They are now ready to be loaded into your mailer for mailing! However, they are not yet ready to actually mail. They still must be ?validated? and filtered (if desired).

USING TARGETED EMAIL LISTS

A lot of new people to bulk email marketing don?t yet realize that their offer may NOT be well received by the list they are emailing. If you are promoting a porn or gambling site, it is not really a good idea to email those who have interests in MLM or Online Marketing, or Golf. What you need to do is take a look at the product or products (if more than one) you are trying to sell and decide which audience to which you want to market to get the best results.

If you are signing up for this course, you are likely into MLM or Online Marketing. If so, then look for FFA suites and become a paying Pro member. Only paid members are allowed to harvest the daily emails from FFA and Classified websites. Free members get to post, but then they become leads for the paying members (that?s the dirty little secret to FFA and Classified website - search engines, too). Pay for your membership, get set up, and go get your leads every day.

However, you may also have another product or service you wish to market, but you aren?t getting good result by marketing to Online Marketers. Let?s say, for example, you want to push a gambling website and get people there to gamble their hard earned money away so you get a cut! If you are selling that site?s AFFILIATE program, then Online marketing leads are what you need. But, if you are looking for GAMBLERS to frequent the site,. You need a different targeted list altogether.

To find these lists, you can go to the Google search engine (or one of your choice) and put in the keywords bulk-email-lists, or something like that. You search results will eventually turn up some website that sell the leads that they actively harvest each week. Those sites will allow you to purchase a monthly membership and you can download batches of  their leads at your whim. Most of these sites will have other lists for your leads (Gambling, Adult, Financial, and so on). These sites are easy to find, so if you need lists outside of the MLM/Online Marketing community, try out any one of the places you?ll find by a search engine inquiry. These sites also have GENERAL email lists, but those are only for GENERAL merchandise or services - they are NOT specifically targeted. Only use those GENERAL leads if you have a product or service that you know EVERYONE will enjoy and can understand or use (such as music, art, groceries, et cetera). NEVER send gambling, porn, or MLM/Marketing offer to those addresses - the complaints will be a lot more frequent if you do. WARNING: marketing to GENERAL addresses, no matter what your product or service, will generate SPAM complaints a lot more often that targeted leads. Try to find a source that has the target leads you want and need, or can offer you a service to get them for you (for an added price, of course).

The bottom line here is ALWAYS use targeted leads - no matter what you wish to market - and you will have much better results and a lot less pain from complaints and handling remove requests.

Chapter 5: Using Filters & Validation

Chapter 5will cover how to use filters and validation to increase the quality of your email lists. We will use filters first. The best thing to do is to take a raw file of email addresses, and load them into whatever software you have that allows filtering.

USING FILTERS

Filters are so useful, the person who first created the process should be placed in the Computer Geek Hall of Fame! Filters perform the function of getting rid of YOUR undesirable addresses. Whatever, wherever, or whomever to which you don?t want to send out, you can place into your filter.

Early bulk mail filters only filtered out domains (ie: @yahoo.com) or URL tags (ie: .mil or .edu), or even entire email addresses (before Remove files were thought up and provided for in software). A filter is basically a mini search engine that finds and eliminates email addresses which meet the parameters you set forth.

Today?s filters are very powerful - you can set them to look for undesirable addresses on FOUR different levels:

1. Entire and specific addresses (such as youremail@zwallet.com)
2. Addresses ending in certain URL tags (such as .edu, .mil, .org)
3. Addresses that come from certain domains (such as: @freeautoresponder.com) and MOST importantly,
4. Addresses that CONTAIN or BEGIN with words or phrases to where you definitely do not want to send email (such as submitter, submit, admin, webmaster, abuse, support, orders, and so on)

I mentioned that #4 is the MOST important - it most definitely is! Addresses that contain such words are usually NOT addresses to which you wish to market. These addresses will ALWAYS send you a remove request - and a few may even file a SPAM complaint.

It is important that, whatever software you use to manage your lists, set filters to remove any domains, URL tags, or word & phrases BEFORE you mail. Filters are ALWAYS fully configurable by you, the user of the software. Some software come with preset filters, but most do not. You will have to enter them in for yourself. I STRONGLY suggest the use of filters for ALL of your email lists to lower the time you will spend dodging complaints and placing addresses into remove files.

ALL ?GOOD? bulk mailers have a filtering mechanism these days. If yours does not, DITCH IT and go get another one that does. I won?t repeat myself about the importance of using filters, so please learn how to use them.

And, that?s it! You are now Bulk marketing through email like a Pro!

Chapter 6: Handling SPAM Complaints

Chapter 6will cover how to handle SPAM complaints: what to do when You receive them what to do when your ISP warns you, and what to do if you lose your ISP and/or mailing privileges. This is a VERY short lesson, since there is only one thing to do in each case.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU RECEIVE A SPAM COMPLAINT OR FLAME

When you receive a SPAM complaint or FLAME (a message with a lot of threats and/or cursing), do nothing other than patiently add that address to your email files. NEVER EVER answer them - no matter how tempting! That will only serve to make things worse. Just add them to your remove file, and move on.

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR ISP WARNS YOU

If you are still using your main ISP to send your emails, that can mean REAL trouble. If you ARE still using your main ISP, think of this - one more complaint, and you are gone - no more warnings. Unless you know them personally, or run the ISP yourself, you will have no other recourse and no chance to get it back. Once it?s gone, it?s gone.

If using a ?throw-away? ISP, continue your marketing until they shut you down. If they give you a warning, take that as your cue to start looking for other places to go when they do shut you down. Remember, it is a ?throw-away? ISP, they aren?t you main connection - they are meant to shut you down if the worst occurs.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU LOSE YOUR ISP AND/OR MAILING PRIVILEGES

As with the warning part above, simply pick another ISP and set it up. Continue your marketing from there.