There’s something I don’t get about email. Who in the hell is clicking on the spam emails like the Viagra and penis enlargement ones?! For crying out loud, isn’t that industry about dead? How could they possibly be still making money? Maybe instead of targeting our frustration at the spammers sending these emails, we should be pissed off at the morons clicking on that stuff.
That said, aside from the obvious learning points there (DON’T CLICK ON THAT CRAP! being #1), I think there’s some things we can learn from these guys (sorry ladies, I’m pretty sure most of the scumbags who send that crap out are guys). Bear with me and I’ll see if we can get some value out of the annoying junk that fills our inboxes on a daily basis.
1. They’re persistent. Far far FAR more persistent than most of us who claim to be doing business online. Can you imagine if we were that persistent with our Google Adwords optimization. Or resubmitting our Facebook ads when they’re rejected? Or testing new ads for affiliate offers, posting styles for our blogs, or traffic drivers?
I don’t know about you, but I’m generally lazy at heart. Being persistent takes work and intentional action. Sure it pays off nearly every time, but it’s not something that comes naturally. I could stand to catch a bit more of the persistence bug from these spammers.
2. They stick with what works. Or so I assume. They’re still sending the things out, so they MUST be making money at it. I suppose it’s one of the ultimate online implementations of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). I haven’t done an exhaustive study of penis enlargement ads from the past 5 years. I avoid the things like a plague due to my general distaste for spam, but I doubt they’ve changed all that much. Put a picture of a busty blond in an email with some clever letter substitutions for penis, sex and male enhancement and blast away. Plain and simple.
How many of your projects end up not going anywhere because they get overly complicated, too feature rich, or just plain too big? What if you would have stuck with just getting enough done to get the project out the door, then circled back and added features under phase 2, 3, 4, etc? I’ll tell you what you’d have…You’d have something completed, live, and generating some results towards your goal instead of yet another incomplete project. Keep It Simple and go with what works.
3. They are very good at adapting. Sure there are a lot that get caught in the spam filters, but I swear, I still get at least a few that slip through every day. And I have pretty strict filters. That tells me that they’re adapting to the challenges they’re faced with. Just because we consumers have gotten better at filtering their junk mail, doesn’t mean they’ve given up. They just send out more of it in more creative ways. It sucks for us, but you have to kind of admire their ability to adapt.
We need to adapt when we’re faced with challenges online. This could be new technology we need to embrace, new ways to market to our audience, or new ways to accomplish something. You can’t sit back and relax. Be continually looking at what’s next.
Next time you get some annoying email, comment, or piece of junk mail, consider what you can learn from the person sending it. If something wasn’t working for them, they wouldn’t be sending them out.
November 21st, 2009 at 2:02 pm
"Next time you get some annoying email, comment, or piece of junk mail, consider what you can learn from the person sending it. If something wasn’t working for them, they wouldn’t be sending them out."
I usually get some annoying emails and don't even give a glance of reading some of it. Thanks for your advice. Maybe someday it might help me.
November 21st, 2009 at 3:24 pm
It is a funny way to look at the effectiveness of these low life characters, but effective nevertheless. Very well put and topical.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:56 am
I always get those annoying type emails abut most of the times i just ignore the lot. I delete it. plain simple. Next time i will take some time and see what these people get about to get their business done.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:12 am
Really well written post. I always thought that these annoying emails were done by people who had nothing to do. In fact, this is the way they actually earn a living.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 am
Don't keep the learning only limited to email, there's lots to learn for search engines as well.
The keywords they use to rank (for instance "buy viagra") are very very competitive, so they almost always use tricks to get to the top. When you study those tricks regularly you can learn more about search engine optimization which you can use on your (white hat) projects.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I never get such mails.I think if you will visit such sites then only you will receive these ads.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Yes they definitely are very persistent. They are simply playing a numbers game. They send that crap out to millions or billions of people and some people are bound to either be gullible or have a genuine interest in the product.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
I dont think the industry is dead just yet, and such advertising methods are keeping it alive. I dont think you make the same amount of money as you did in the past, however there is still money to be made here; hence the reason you still see these types of emails.
As you mentioned, they do have a clear plan, and focus on a few small things, rather than making it too big and complicated to get out of hand.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Good to see all the comment and the articles.I will wait for the upgrades.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:21 am
yes it's very usefull news for me and i read very carfully
November 24th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
You been looking at penis enlargement websites. There is a spy ware of some type running on your machine generating these ads. Mal ware bytes anti malware and super anti spyware should take care of the problem.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
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November 24th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I got such kind of email once year ago but now all moved to spam
November 25th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
funny but true… although i never looked viagra ads in the same manner
November 26th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Both are necessity of some people who really interested in the enlargement or getting more energy while doing sexual activities.
November 26th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Hi it's a problem we all have. The only solution I have found is to have a seperate e-mail address which I only give to trusted contacts. I change this every so often.It stops the spam for a while at least. I If you allow e-mail on Yahoo answers anyone can get your address. Good luck and hope this helps.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
i'm sure most of them using spam software,
even they are so persistent it's really annoy, i dint like when my kids see me read email about penis enlargement.
November 26th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Yep true, we could be more successful if we had the same level of persistence.
November 26th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
I am wondering about what I am learning from viagra ads. Let's say that they have ten million e-mail addresses to send to each day, the same ten million. During the course of any one day, at least 1000 males find themselves at an age where they are humiliated in their mind in the bedroom. They have been annoyed like the rest of us by these ads, BUT WAIT, TODAY they are thinking something much much different. They are thinking that perhaps, just perhaps viagra is the answer. So, instead of just ignoring the ads, they look for them. If they are in the spam folder, they actually go through them to find one that seems like the best for a "try." So, of the 1000 e-mails that were sent to fellows in this situation, perhaps 50 will order THAT DAY. If on average, the company makes just $10 per order, that means that $500 has been made simply by sending out the spam. If 500 of those thousand order, that's $5,000 for the day. Not bad for having a server do the same thing over and over again.
Numbers is the key, AND the human condition. I am not surprised at all that we continue to receive these ads. As long as SOMEONE of the ten million keeps failing in the bedroom, new motivations will always be born. This will be true for all time. They only challenges are to keep e-mails current AND to defeat spam filters, but even that isn't that important, since once failure in the bedroom occurs, the men will be searching desperately through spam for the salvation of their (in their minds) masculinity.
Gaston
November 27th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Sadly, this is pretty true. They are absolutely persistent in their advertisements, that is something that marketers can definitely learn from them. I also feel that their keyword selection is pretty effective because their subject lines are what get people to click on the actual email. But I would agree we should be getting mad at the idiots that click on this spam.
November 27th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I was also recieving that kind of email everyday. I didn't read that instead I deleted it right away.
November 27th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I often get tons of mails of this kind of ad.I wanna know do it really works! One thing is sure they are clever as they test mans desire to satisfy women.
November 28th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I must respectfuly disagree. I wonder how you draw your conclusin?
November 30th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Ryan,
This is a killer post. I love the reference to the ubiquitous Viagra ads. Everyone is familiar with them and generally they are dismissed… until your post. Frankly, I've got to use your concept to craft my own piece of Viagra linkbait.
Thanks!
November 30th, 2009 at 4:57 am
They really do stick with what works. I've seen the same ads for the past 3 years.
November 30th, 2009 at 4:59 am
HAha…this is funny but SO true. So often we people just delete these things but if you stop and look at the ads…theya re quite brilliant. They promise the MOON if you'll only click this little link. I'm sure MANY people fall for those ads.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Yes…i always have that kind of email about viagra and something like that in my spam, but they keep sending it to me, so they must be making money from it, i am very sure about that.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:57 am
I dont know about you but i never klik that kind of email in my inbox or my spam. I just klik delete button and it is gone because i dont need that kind of information.
November 29th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
“good post”
November 30th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Sure there are a lot that get caught in the spam filters
November 30th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I seem to get more SPAM emails saying I need to reactivate bank accounts at banks I've never had an account with.
The reason, I think, these SPAM emails are successful is because there are a lot of gullible people out there. I read somewhere that they only need 1% to fall for it for them to make money.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
These guys will never change. They simply blast e-mails to thousands of people to get a sale. They don;t understand that e-mail providers are clever enough to mark them as spam and people too are too clever. So why do some nasty work, instead you can spend your time in doing some good will creation.
November 30th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Well, I don’t know. Not sure yet. But this is convincing…
November 30th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
This theme is very effective for your topic, btw. What’s the name of it?
December 1st, 2009 at 8:33 am
Good post… indeed penis / viagra spam emails can be very very annoying, but problem is, many IMarketers should regard them with far more humility and perhaps we all could learn something (persistence being the first perhaps?)
December 1st, 2009 at 2:03 pm
You have been unusually quiet the last ten days. All well?
December 1st, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I would have to disagree. These guys do change their strategies over time. They keep up their mass mailing strategy because it is obviously still working for them. There are a lot of naive people online. Over time they do find new ways to get around e-mail filters.
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:39 am
What do you mean??
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 am
Nice post, fuuny way to explain it.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:20 am
agree with you…just wonder it is work or not cause everyday they send me a Viagra spam and i delete that aright away…and most of people that receive Viagra spam will delete that right away…
December 4th, 2009 at 5:41 am
i'm sure most of them using spam software,
even they are so persistent it's really annoy, i dint like when my kids see me read email about penis enlargement.
December 4th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
lovely!
December 5th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
It is a funny way to look at the effectiveness of these low life characters, but effective nevertheless. Very well put and topical.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I agree with you. It amazing how they can rank for such keyword. I also noticed that most of them don't have a website but a domain with a 301 redirect. They hack into very large websites and they add their ads and a list of keywords there. They must also be using some automation softwares. As someone who is learning seo, I pull my hat to them! They are very good.
December 8th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Good to see all the comment and the articles
December 8th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
mmm never got any mail like that..
nice post
December 9th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Okay, I must admit I just clicked becaue of the title!! But, I always see this title so I had to read what you really had to say about. I am just glad it was not a paid per blog!
December 11th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Yes it is a very competitive keyword and the ppc of that keyword is very high.So spammers are making a good profit promoting that keyword.It happens
December 14th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
great post. thanks
December 19th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
=)))
December 21st, 2009 at 9:08 am
I also feel that their keyword selection is pretty effective because their subject lines are what get people to click on the actual email. But I would agree we should be getting mad at the idiots that click on this spam. Nice article
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:44 am
I never get such mails.I think if you will visit such sites then only you will receive these ads.
December 29th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
hehehe very nice this yHaa …
December 30th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
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Yes, I use it .
January 12th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Woooo nice article
January 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Hot post. Comments also great. Will watch for updates…
January 13th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
It is a funny way to look at the effectiveness of these low life characters, but effective nevertheless. Very well put and topical.
January 18th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Numbers is the key, AND the human condition. Yes it is a very competitive keyword and the ppc of that keyword is very high.
January 21st, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I don't think is good for the ads. I read it one's and its not nice
January 21st, 2010 at 8:28 pm
I also feel that their keyword selection is pretty effective because their subject lines are what get people to click on the actual email. But I would agree we should be getting mad at the idiots that click on this spam
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:08 am
I do agree with you…So should be careful in these cases…
January 24th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Good job, showing maturity in your response. I never comment on those blogs, even when the content is great
January 28th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
http://themelib.com
January 30th, 2010 at 2:14 am
it was funny when i've read your topic, but after read it all, yeah i think we should follow them how to post ads
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:34 am
for me, I don't have any, As per my experience is concern , most of the ads is not real, in the sense that they are not giving what they have in their advertisement , they said they gonna send back the money if does not work, but they didn't.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Wow! You've managed to find something useful in spam.
I get those emails and I'm female. I wish there was some way I could let these people know I'm a woman–I don't have anything to enlarge. You can stop sending me this stuff.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
If people were not clicking and buying products they would go away. There must be a market…besides they brobably by those email lists for cheap..maybe unverified lists and they just keep emailing every day and ad to the list every day.
February 18th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
it is very useful,
thanks
February 26th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Oh God I am quite fed-up of these mails….the best thing to do is ignore them…I agree with you, I like their persistence.
March 3rd, 2010 at 6:31 pm
It shows that the people who mail these ads are determined to succeed