I propose a challenge to every reader of DM News. Try to get off e-mail lists of e-mails you don't want. It doesn't happen. Like everyone, I am inundated with junk e-mails. Let's call it what it is: junk. Sure, it's easy to delete, and delete, and delete, but I got tired of deleting and tried a little experiment: What would happen if I requested off all the junk e-mails I receive. For two weeks, I clicked on all the links to get off the junk e-mail lists. I looked forward to a life free from mortgage loan, weight loss, financial freedom and porn offers.
The theory I was taught in mail order is that you only mail to people who may respond to your offer and who want to receive the offer. In recent years, legitimate direct marketing firms policed their lists and removed names that wanted off.
This simply doesn't happen with junk e-mail. Many of the links simply don't work, despite their seemingly sincere offers to e-mail only those who want to receive the e-mails. I kept getting the same e-mails over and over again.
So, if our industry is linked to junk e-mailers, we are in for trouble in the long run. We must do something to police our industry. Please take the challenge and report your experience. I may be wrong, but I strongly believe you will find what I found. The junk just keeps on coming.
