This Email Was Almost Funny Even Though It Should Have Been in SPAM
Spammers are people too. Are you at risk of becoming one? After being at Wealthy Affiliate for over two years, I have watched a few too many people fall for shiny objects in hopes of making money faster. Even a few "respected" members have. So, just because someone is a Wealthy Affiliate member; that does not mean they immune from becoming a spammer.
Maybe I"m in a weird mood today but this morning I found myself feeling sorry for a spammer. After all, this spammer is just like most of us. This spammer is simply trying to make a living. Trying to earn a few dollars so they can pay their bills.
Yet, that person has gotten sucked into a method that is not going to work. They have wasted money and time listening to someone that has tried to offer a fast way of making money.
Here is what happened:
This morning, my cooking with chocolate website received the following email from a girl with a gmail address. Although I was a bit confused about the title, I still opened the email. After all, living in Colorado, I do frequently find myself sharing my opinion on CBD.
Check out the email that I received. How many "No, Nos" can you find?
To: me, admin of my chocolate website, at my email address.
From: Her first name and last name@gmail.com
Subject: cbd/vape help
Message Body:
Hey guys!
I just wanted to check in with you whether you need any SEO / lead generation services at the moment?
I have a pretty good working knowledge of the vape and CBD niches as I have been in this game for 7 years and have helped to rank some of today's leading sites.
I can do all sorts of things such as monthly backlink packages, writing blog articles, scraping leads for your business, doing an outreach, promoting you on leading vape and cbd publications and so on!
You can buy my links / chat to me here fiverr.xxxxxxxxx this is a freelance site).
Cheers guys!
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This marketing email is almost a "Textbook" case of what NOT to do:
1. My website was about cooking with chocolate. It is a nice, conservative, type of mommy website. The knowledge about vaping and CBD is completely irrelevant to me.
2. I don't want to my chocolate website to rank for vaping or CBD words. (Knowing my avatars, my audience, that would be a public relations nightmare for me.)
3. If this person is sending info to me, the owner of a chocolate website - I do not believe the really have the experience ranking websites that the person claims to have.
4. This person will scrape leads for my business?
5. They are going to sell me backlink packages. I can buy them from this person?
6. They are going to promote my chocolate website in leading CBD and vape publications.
Wow.... Based on things that I have learned here at Wealthy Affiliate, I am concerned their offer would kill my website's traffic rather than help it. Black hat SEO strategies, such as these, do not work.
Had my website been promoting CBD or vape things, would I have been tempted? Fortunately, I have learned enough here WA to know that scraping isn't good. Nor is purchasing back links. If it sounds too easy or too good to be true, it probably is.
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Somewhere, there is probably a person just like you and me, trying to build an online business.
That person probably purchased some sort of program promising a way to find new businesses.
They were probably told that using a person's name with a gmail address would keep your "offer" from getting sent to SPAM.
Maybe my email address ended up on someone's email list that was sold or rented.
Regardless, this person will be happy that people are opening the emails, yet the people are not converting into paying customers.
Why?
This person probably bought some program, some shiny object, that like it would help them make money fast. I sort of feel sorry for them.
Bottom Line- Trust the training that you get here at WA. Be Patient. Consistently publish good content that will help your readers. Always strive to improve your skills.
Do NOT get sucked into believing that short cuts work.
I hope that you all have a great week.
-Sondra
Recent Comments
77
LOL I actually thought about trying.
My first email response got kicked back as undelivered - real spammer. Granted, that was probably for the best because I wasn't super nice in that email like I was here.
I'm not willing to risk losing Fivrr privileges, just in case I ever need them, trying to marketing something to a spammer. Spamming the spammer. lol funny thought.
I hope you both have a great day.
Sondra
Love it! Yes spammers are people too and you have to feel sorry for them that they have to resort to spamming low quality leads and they don't have the knowledge of who to focus on as a target audience
Hi Catherine,
On normal days, I put spammers just below phone telemarketers. At least with spammers, you can hit delete.
Yet, I am sad for people are so desperate for a job, that they accept those types of jobs. Or try spamming people in hopes of getting a sale.
Another thing I often get: emails that start out by telling me what a great website I have, without a word about which of my websites it is, dogs, simple living, my author site, or any of several others.
Well, the positive side of those types of emails is that people, even if they are spammers, are finding your websites somehow.
My new websites, which I refer to as "babies", don't even get noticed by the spammers. ha, ha.
I hope you have a great week Rosana.
It seem like they take forever to grow in the beginning and you are in the "changing diaper" stage.
Yet once they websites start growing and getting traction, it happens to fast...
Thank you Sondra. As someone who has fallen prey to "shiny object" syndrome person it's been difficult to put the blinders on. But WA and their wonderful training is helping me learn to focus. Thanks again for sharing!
You are welcome.
The success stories at WA, especially those written by the guys that have made it to Vegas, help me stay focused on the training. I book mark them so I can find them quickly.
If you ever find your self getting tempted, be sure to read some of their posts.
Best wishes for an awesome and productive May.
Thanks Sondra for a very interesting post.
We should pray for all the spammers out there so they could learn how to make money online the Wealthy Affiliate way.
Very true Derrance.
I am thinking that maybe I should pull the email out of my trash bin and invite them to WA.
I thought that there might be some way to invite the person to checkout Wealthy Affiliate.
Tell him or her that you will send them a piece of chocolate cake if they respond before you take your limited time offer away.
LOL I need to check out Fivrrs rules for soliciting people. I don't want to get myself banned trying to help out a spammer. My "snarky" reply to the gmail address, before I wrote this post, bounced back.
In all seriousness, I need to go find some chocolate cheesecake today.
Of course, I'm willing to share but probably not with them.
Yes, it's someone trying to build a business. But spamming is never a way to build a trustworthy business.
I understand his/her struggle....
I agree.
For whatever reason, today was the first time that I ever took the time to think about their struggle.
We are lucky to be WA members because Kyle does teach us what needs to be done. Granted, it won't work as quick as most of us would like, but the training does work.
I hope you achieve success with a trust worthy business soon.
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Believe it or not, Spamming is how I first became acquainted with affiliate marketing back in 2002. Back in the days of AOL.
I answered an email and it sounded good. Made a little, very little, money. Left it after a few months of searching for emails and spamming. I think it was Click marketing.
I haven't received any spam emails yet on my website.
But one thing that I did learn, was all about Spam.
Sonny
Sonny,
Sometimes good things, such as WA, find us in unexpected ways.
Just stick with the training and publishing content. The spammers and the good people will eventually find you.