names in pornspam

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

Wired.com had a piece a few months ago on the related topic of which
subject-line tags seem to work best for spammers.

Geoff Nunberg

Spam Is in Eye of the Beholder
By Michelle Delio

Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59089,00.html

02:00 AM Jun. 04, 2003 PT

NEW YORK -- Exclamation points are evil!!!

E-mail that features an exuberant sprinkling of exclamation points is
almost guaranteed to provoke petulance in potential clients,
according to Michelle Feit, president of ePostDirect. Free is another
word that sparks sudden skepticism and must be used with extreme care.

Feit was speaking at one of the dozen workshops being offered this
week on successful e-mail marketing during DM Days New York
Conference and Expo in New York City. DM Days is organized by the
Direct Marketing Association, an industry advocacy group.

During the workshops, e-mail marketers shared tips on ways to create
what far too many here describe as "events in e-mail inboxes" --
exciting sales pitches guaranteed to whet the interest of clients.

But wait, there's more!

They also pondered such questions as the best day and time to send
out e-mail advertising pitches, the art and science of subject lines,
the "winningest" way to handle complaints, and how to overcome
customer skepticism in this "age of disbelief."

Between sessions, some mourned the loss of their very favorite
sales-pitch slogans.

"I feel like a lot of really good words have been stolen from me,"
said Kevin Codell, a freelance advertising copywriter who is
attending the conference.

"Free. Opportunity. Exciting. Credit. All of these words are now too
'spammy' to use because they are on the block lists used by antispam
filters," he said. "Even e-mails containing the word click are being
filtered out now."

The hundreds of direct marketers attending DM Days insist they don't
spam, and they would really like to see the shady purveyors of sexual
aids, porn and pirated software prevented from darkening e-mail
inboxes ever again.

But some antispam advocates take issue with the DMA's definition of
spam, saying it contains too many loopholes.

Spam or not, DM Days offers a somewhat unsettling backstage glimpse
into the tips and techniques used by marketers to appeal to potential
customers.

Consultant Lee Mark Stein offered a workshop on "10 tips that you can
use immediately to suspend disbelief." Stein pointed out that the
media and government take great joy in exposing the techniques of
direct marketers; consequently, many people's "bullshit filters" are
now set on high.

In response, Stein suggested that marketers drop phony
personalization, overwrought promises and deceptive sales gimmicks
like those snail-mail solicitations designed to look like bank
checks. Marketers should remember that people who respond to
direct-mail ads are optimists, not idiots, Stein counseled.

According to Tricia Robinson, who led Socketware's workshop on why
e-mail campaigns aren't working, voracious spam filters and a
spam-saturated marketplace are to blame.

Using words co-opted by spammers such as limited-time, free,
opportunity and only now makes recipients of e-mailed pitches wary.
And a wary recipient isn't going to toddle off to a website and
purchase things.

On the other hand, Need to know is still a good phrase to include in
e-mail subject lines. Everyone wants to know what they need to know.

Download, preview or trial also work well. And demo is solid gold --
it woos interested customers who are actually willing to look at the
product without the promise of a free download.

Dollar signs in a subject line are another proven loser. Especially
if that e-mail lands in an inbox on that dreaded Thursday afternoon
in August.

"In general, no one buys anything on Thursday afternoon besides their
basics," said New York-based ad copywriter Les Callhan. "Business
stuff is purchased at the beginning of the week, leisure offers are
ignored until Friday, and no one is interested in anything but
vacation in August. Thursdays in August are the black hole of e-mail
advertising."

Monday isn't a great time for recipients to receive advertising
e-mail either. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are considered prime days for
pitches, as most people are still in work mode but aren't overwhelmed
with Monday's pileup, or end-of-the-week restlessness.

Some of the hints offered at the workshops sounded more hopeful than
useful. There's a persistent thread running through all these
workshops that customers can be persuaded to really "get involved"
with an e-mailed sales pitch.

"Get involved with an ad?" laughed a security worker at the Jacob K.
Javits Convention Center, where DM Days is being held this week.
"What kinds of ads are we talking about here? Some new kind of
inflatable ads for lonely guys?"