Are Your Emails LEGAL?

They better be!

Congress has taken an interest in making sure that email marketers CAN send legitimate emails IF they follow the rules.

What are the rules? They are outlined in the “Can Spam” act (funny name for anti-spam legislation, isn’t it?) which can be (and should be) reviewed in numerous places on the net such as http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.shtml

I do suggest you read and understand the entire thing if you are planning to market using email.

Here are some highlights that are most often abused and will get you shutdown, banned and or prosecuted.

Falsify Headers
What does this mean? It means if you put fake info in your email header to make it look like it came from somewhere or someone that it DID NOT come from, that is falsifying headers. If you know what this means, don’t do it. If you don’t know what this means, you probably can’t do it anyway.

Opt-Out instructions
Marketing emails must contain instructions on how to STOP getting your emails. This is known as “Opt-ing Out”. It is usually via a weblink at the end of the email, or instructions to send an email to a specific address (i.e. ‘To stop receiving our messages, send an email to OptOut@MyISP.com (don’t send to that address… it’s fake.)

Inclusion of a valid physical postal address
The “Can Spam” law (I just love that name) says you HAVE to put a valid physical postal address in your marketing email to make it legit. Pretty clear isn’t it?
In general, if a person sends a “remove” request to opt out, you have up to 10 days to do so. NEVER wait that long. Do it immediately or program your weblink in your email to do it immediately.

Again, read the text of the law at http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108s877.shtml to get the full info.

Basically, exhibit good etiquette, be honest, and follow the rules the rules and you will be fine. I send out thousands of emails a month from my personal autoresponder and have not received a spam complaint ever.

Again, having your own autoresponder on your own domain is the best way to stay clean of spam problems and blacklisted ISPs. See Parabots for our recommendation. These guys will even set it up on your domain for you in short order. See webhost for our recommended webhost. Most for less and super responsive and reliable!

Fred Raley
Fred@ABC-Success.Biz
Woodbridge, VA
(703) 730 1079