Isn`t the power of email wonderful? It comes in all shapes and sizes, and it`s virtually time. There`s plain text, there`s HTML, there`s even something called "rich media". Email could be used in many ways to advertise online. Frequent bursts of selling , weekly newsletters, or even just a mail to your biz contacts when something effective comes along.

Unfortunately, where there`s power, there`s always a flip-side. In the case of electronic mail , the flip-side is abuse, also known as SPAM, that sizeably effective big nasty word. Makes me shudder just to think of it these days.

Is spam email considered advertising? It probably is, if you want to get all technical about it, but it`s most definitely not RESPONSIBLE email advertising. Although some marketers don`t seem to be able to see the difference between permission advertising (where many people have ASKED for the mail) and email spam. Spam is actually a major threat to legitimate email marketers.

People check their emails, see their inbox cluttered with all sorts of stuff they didn`t ask for and they yell SPAM!! Unfortunately, with so much stuff in their inbox on a daily basis, it may become really hard to recognise the mails they`ve asked for, they can even let the memory slip they asked for it in the first place, or they may just be sick and tired of receiving too many mails, and they yell spam about the wrong mail.

Everybody has their own definition of spam. As it currently stands, spam is in the eye of the beholder. Spam is usually unsolicited ads sent in bulk by people you dont know--although there are exceptions to this rule.

Some spammers will argue that e-mail spam is no different to traditional junk mail, but there is one undeniable difference... cost. The cost of sending junk mail through conventional means is very real, including postage costs paid by the sender. The cost of sending e-mail spam is very small, and most of the costs are paid by all the people other than the sender.

The lack of cost for sending is fairly often named as a key problem with e-mail spamming. With traditional junk mail, a direct marketer has to build sure that the offer & targeting are efficient enough to more than generate up for the costs of mailing. With e-mail spam, anything goes, fairly often in the form of shady deals and outright scams.

But besides the scams and other legal consequences of sending spam, one very important consequence is always overlooked: the credibility of the sender. Entire businesses have had their credibility ruined for sending spam, more quickly that you might hit "Send". So think twice before you send unwanted e mail to that address on your computer - it might mean the end of your business.

Good Luck, Happy e mail advertising, and have fun!