I’ve finally figured out how to make money from spam. For those that know me you’ll know that spam is something I detest so don’t worry – I’ve not turned into a spammer, I just decided to bite back.
A few days ago TameBay reader Whirly complained about spam from an eBay seller and I advised him to charge them a fee for his time and inconvenience. What I didn’t add was that I’d just written to a company (not related to eBay transactions) asking for financial compensation for a spam text message they’d sent me.
Well I got a result, in Saturday’s mail was a cheque from the offending company as well as their apologies and an assurance that my details have been removed from their marketing lists.
I still hate spam, but if I have to suffer it I’m going to carry on invoicing companies for the inconvenience. At £35.00 a time I could even get to look forward to the next company that spams me. If you’re suffering from spam feel free to adapt the text of the letter that I sent.
eBay spam policies
eBay have a strong – unsolicited commercial emails are barred and the , which all users sign up, to states “You may not add other eBay users, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mailing list (email or physical mail) without their consent.”
If you want to market to eBay customers the easiest way to make sure you comply with the law is to use . This ensures that you only send emails to potential buyers who want to receive them. If a seller wishes to market off eBay they need to set up a process to allow buyers to specifically opt in to their off eBay marketing.
For the future I will continue to pursue compensation from companies if they send me spam and would encourage everyone else to do similar. If you’re marketing to your customers make sure that they’ve opted in to receive your messages, spam is unacceptable (unless I’m being paid for it ;-))
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