How Spam Effects Small Business

Q:Regardless of your feelings on, or definitions of, SPAM. My question is a bit more simple: Does it work? Does sending out unsolicited bulk email increase business? Do spammers actually make money. About two or three times a year a news service like 'Wired' will post an article about how Spam works, but it feels to me that every one of those articles is based on the same original article, and that one was specious. So, does anyone on this list have hard facts of Spam working?

A:I too once asked the same question. I found the following URL: http://www.claws-and-paws.com/spam/burn.shtml Which after a little math gives the following figures: 0.004% positive response 0.16% complaints $20 paid for each $15 earned (and this is an old article, when spam was more welcome) So, in answer to your question, no, it doesn't work - except maybe for 50-200 professional spammers, which make a living on spam and our misery. Sure, I've had clients that have successfully used unsolicited email correspondence. However, it is like any other advertising medium. It all depends on what you're selling and how you're pitching it. You're not going to sell an expensive yacht by way of email. And with better and better spam filters, hitting your targets is becoming ever increasingly difficult. The best way to make money on SPAM is to sell a list of e-mail addresses to unknowing business people so they can spam those people. Even offer to send out the e-mails for them. They will not get enough of a response and the complaints will knock their site off the web. But you will have made the $300-$900 to send out the 3 million e-mails.