Alan R. Bechtold has released the latest issue of EWealth Report Volume 3, Issue 10. The featured article is titled “Back To The Past?” [EWealth Report]


Alan Bechtold has released the latest issue of ‘EWealth Report Volume 3, Issue 10’.

Back To The Past?

by Alan R. Bechtold

We’re nearing the end of The Great Email Experiment and it’s been an interesting exercise, to say the least.

One major conclusion I’ve come to is that we’re rapidly approaching a situation where online communications will be returning to where it was back in the 80s, if we don’t do something about email deliverability right away. I’ll explain that statement in a minute.

If you missed getting on board to help us with the Experiment – you can still go here to find out how it works and what we’re up to:

www.SaveOurEmailNow.com

You can also sign up there to get on a notification list and receive the final report when the Experiment ends. This report will help you decide which email service providers are most reliable and which are not, when it comes to actually delivering email that you want to receive. Then, you can move to those who will provide you with the level of service you expect.

I’m hoping the results of our Experiment will attract some media attention to illustrate the problems we’re currently experiencing with email deliverability, whether we send commercial email in an Internet business or just personal messages back and forth to each other.

Moving to the most reliable email service providers will help each of us individually right now. Reaching literally millions of people through the media will move hundreds of thousands of people away from the lowest-quality services and improve the reliability of email service once again.

Comments I’ve received as a result of the Experiment range from “Way to go, it’s time someone finally did something to improve email deliverability” to “I wish I got less email than I do now!”

This latter comment illustrates exactly why we must bring the real problems that email faces to the public’s attention. Most people still believe email service providers are all dedicated to knocking out spam any way they can. Toward that end, they’re more than willing to accept a few “civilian casualties” in the form of “accidentally” tossed personal messages and messages from companies they trust and like to hear from to “get the job done.”

The problem is that this isn’t making things any better. And there is a better way. A way to block even more spam than is being blocked today while ensuring most if not all valuable desired emails are delivered.

All email service providers have to do is check your whitelist first. Then, they can run any and all email that isn’t whitelisted through whatever tests for spam they wish and pitch whatever they deem is not worthy of delivery.

Simple, isn’t it?

But – the email service providers aren’t generally doing this and it’s showing up in our experiment results. Roughly 75% of participants report that they whitelisted our email address, but still the emails from the Experiment are either not arriving or, if they do arrive, they land in a “junk,” “spam” or “bulk” folder.

Simple as my suggested “fix” is – I have a strong feeling I also know why the majority of email service providers are not making that “fix” and doing things the right way. There are now services that charge companies for improved email deliverability. They’ve worked deals with some of the major free email service providers (and several who charge for their service) to pay them a cut of their fees in return for “honored” status when emails from their clients arrive at the service providers’ door.

Seriously – I don’t mind paying for bulk email delivery (only completely legitimate, CAN-SPAM-complient bulk emailing). I don’t mind paying for any print, direct mail, pay-per-click or pay-per-action advertising I might do, to attract people to my Websites and products and services, either.

But – if there is no way for prospects who respond to my advertising to reliably whitelist me as a respected sender, then reliably receive whatever emails I send, then the money I spend on my advertising becomes a huge problem.

In the world of print advertising (and broadcast and pay per click), advertisers will often gladly pay $20 to get a $5 or $10 order from someone. This proves the person is interested in what is offered and sets up a situation where, with repeated contacts with that new customer, additional sales for higher prices will occur. That $10 or $15 loss on the “front end” is, if a campaign is successfull, more than made up on the back end through other sales down the road.

But – if I can’t reach a prospect via email after they’ve responded to one of my ads, it’s a lot more difficult and expensive for me to make up the original front-end cost. I either have to find a way to make my ads pay on the front-end, or reach everyone who have purchased something from me by direct mail.

I’m doing more of this, believe me! But – it adds tremendous expense to the entire process. Expense that MUST be passed along, if I’m to remain profitable.

In short – just so you know I’m not just complaining because poor lil’ Internet marketer me has problems reaching people with mindless email blasts – the death of email deliverability could spell the end to free online reports and E-courses and more. And I know Internet users enjoy getting free stuff online regularly, at will.

Many of us will simply stop giving stuff away free. It’s already happening.

A good example is all the new offers you’re now seeing for free CDs and DVDs, if you’ll pay the cost of shipping and handling. I’m starting to make offers like these, too – so I can acquire the mailing addresses of people who are interested in what I offer, and to recoup at least some of the cost of production and shipping of those CDs and DVDs and reports.

But – I want to point out to you that, just a short time ago, these same marketers you’re hearing from (including me) would simply ask for your email address and name, in return for free access to these same recordings and reports online.

That’s why I am so adament about this that I’ve poked my head out and risked taking a bullet to bring the Great Email Experiment about.

If it’s worth it to you to begin paying something up-front to get all the reports, E-book, E-courses, and recordings you used to enjoy online for free, in return for less spam in your “in” box – then I suppose this will all work out fine. For you.

But – I suspect the vast majority of you would prefer keeping the Internet open as a source of reliable, quality free information – like this newsletter.

If this is you, please go to www.SaveOurEmailNow.com and sign up for the notification list right now. Study the report when we send it to you and join us in the ongoing Save Our Email campaign. I intend to turn this into a worldwide movement and get things back to where they were just a short while ago.

But – it will take some time and the effort and participation of everyone who wants to see email preserved as a viable communications medium without jamming up our in-boxes with spam.

There IS a better way for email to work. I’ve spelled it out. Now we just need to band together and bring the world’s attention to this solution, then force the email service providers to apply my suggestion or lose millions of customers. Period.

One other comment I received regarding The Great Email Experiment was the most interesting yet. It’s the one that brought on the statement I made early in this issue … that we’re facing a return to online communications of the 80s if we don’t do something to fix email now.

The comment was: “Who cares? I’ve moved away from email almost entirely and use social networking sites for all my communications now.”

This is actually a valid point. You can more easily stay in touch with people you know online – IF they join the same social networking site as you are a member of. I suspect one of the reasons why social networking sites are so popular today is that people join, invite their friends to join, then enjoy reliable communications among themsevles within the system.

This would be great – if we all used the same social networking site. Then, communications within social networking sites would be a workable solution. But – the way things stand right now, to communicate with large groups of people, I as a marketer either must join 50+ different social networking sites or you as a consumer must join 50+, to hear from all the different companies and people you want to reach reliably.

It’s actually a return to the days of the dial-up computer bulletin board systems (BBSes).

In those days, online systems weren’t connected well at all. You had to actually visit a local BBS to leave a message for a friend who lived in that BBS’s city, or count on your friends to dial into your local BBS and do the same.

Later, BBS operators got together and formed a network to exchange email between all the participating systems. Each BBS on the network would drop their systems at a given hour, receive the day’s packet of email from the network, grab out the ones aimed at users on their system, then distribute them and go back online.

This worked. Once implemented, networks like FIDO-Net made it possible to send someone a message on your local BBS to their BBS, wherever it was located. But – it also meant there was always a solid two-day delay, from the time you sent an email, to when you would receive a reply.

I don’t think anyone wants to return to those days.

I suspect, soon, we’ll see some social networking sites announcing they’ve banded together to share communications between their users. But – maybe not. It would surely be more seamless and faster than the old dial-up BBSes had to do it. But, most social networking sites today are still engaged in a heated battle to rise to the top. I don’t see a great chance that a lot of them will be cooperating any time soon.

Hint to any smaller social networking site: hook up and offer to exchange communications between as many other smaller social networking sites you can. It will provide your users with an advantage that the other “big boys” you’re now fighting don’t offer.

But – any meaningful large-scale network between social networking sites, if it will happen at all, is most likely a long way off. And reliable email would make it unecessary altogether. We have something that worked wonderfully right now – and we CAN save it, if you’ll join me in the Save Our Email campaign.

Just visit www.SaveOurEmailNow.com and sign up for the notification list. You’ll receive instructions in about a week AND the full report and results from the Experiment.

I believe we’re going to turn email around and make it reliable again. I believe this because I’ve seen the response. Now I want to see yours. Join us!

And – while you’re at it, you better start building your email list right now. It’s going to become more valuable as we move forward. That’s why my gift to you this week is full access to valuable free information that will tell you, with video training and audios, exactly how to build a list the easy, no-cost and low-cost way.

It really is free, even though you won’t believe it could be free when you see the quality of the information that’s being offered.

Click Here NOW to Grab tons of valuable Free Listbuilding Info!

Then, you’ll be ready to start earning tons of money and even more as email improves in the months ahead!

I’ll see you next week!

Alan R. Bechtold
President/CEO
BBS Press Service, Inc.

‘EWealth Report’

 

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Alan Bechtold for granting permission to reprint the latest ‘EWealth Report’..

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