by Robert Taylor
I subscribe to a great number of ezines, some of which
provide free advertising for their subscribers. Of late
a disturbing trend of abusing the privilege of posting
free ads in ezines has emerged.
The evidence is that great numbers of people are in the
habit of subscribing to free-ad ezines and using a fake
(or throw-away) email address. The procedure is to submit
free ads and never look back.
The reasoning behind this is that those posting the free
ads will benefit from the service and not have to pay the
"price" of reading the ezine. You expect others to read
your ad, why not give them the simple courtesy of reading
theirs?
I stated in a previous article about free ads that this
service is a privilege accorded subscribers, and not a
service any ezine publisher is required to provide. The
title of that article is "The Magnificent Gift of Free
E-zine Advertising" and you can get a copy of it by sending
a blank email to artsub1@....
Those who submit free ads using false or throw-away email
accounts cost ezine publishers a great amount of extra
time and effort which could be spent on more productive
items. This becomes a nightmare of rapidly diminishing
returns which could conceivably cause most, if not all,
ezine publishers to totally discontinue free ads.
At this point you are probably thinking, "Big deal!" You
better believe it is a big deal. FFAs and free classified
ad sites are almost totally ineffective because this same
mentality was used in abusing them. How effective is an ad
nobody reads?
As I see it, those subscribing to an ezine for the purpose
of submitting free ads should at least be willing to
provide a valid email address and accord the publisher the
courtesy of reading his/her ezine.
Once the throw-away email in-box is full, all further
messages sent to that address are bounced. Thus, the
publisher cannot verify the email address of the person
submitting the ad and the ad is not published. This is
all a great waste of time and effort.
How would you like it if you published an ezine and groups
of people subscribed just long enough to get a free ad and
then disappeared? Try putting yourself in the publisher's
chair and looking at it from that point of view.
Using fake or throw-away email addresses solely for the
purpose of abusing the privilege of submitting free ads
is the same as spamming someone. There is nothing ethical
or moral about this practice.
I will undoubtedly receive some irate responses to the
following statement, but so be it. No publisher should
feel obligated to provide free ads to obtain subscribers.
The content of their ezine speaks for itself. Where the
publisher wishes to help subscribers by allowing the
posting of free ads, the poster should be required to be
a regular subscriber to the ezine.
Some find this hard to believe, but the Internet should not
be a battlefield. Choose to cooperate with the publishers
instead of going to war against them and you will achieve
much better results.
One of the greatest attributes of the Internet is that we
are hidden behind a computer screen. We are not judged
by our appearance, race, color, creed, social status or
other such things. We are judged solely by what we tell
others about ourselves.
This is also the ugliest part of the Internet. Those who
are rude, discourteous and greedy can hide behind their
computer screens and commit outrageous acts with virtual
impunity. It is like coming into a huge amount of money.
The money does not make a person good or bad, it only
magnifies the goodness or badness.
You have surely seen the meek, mild-mannered soul who
turns into a raging maniac when driving a vehicle. The
Internet has become that vehicle for some of us.
The future of the Internet is in our hands. We can make it
a garbage dump or one of the greatest benefactors known to
humanity. Common courtesy and decency are no less
required on the Internet than in face-to-face dealings.
I wish you the greatest of success in all your ventures!
Robert Taylor
Amazing New Money-Maker Hits The Internet!
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