Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:49 am Post subject: Affiliate Newsletters and Suppression Lists
Hi all,
I'm right now in the building of an affiliate site, I already did a lot of research on affiliate programs for this market.
I'm struggling with the issue whether or not to start a newsletter for this site. I know 'money is in the list' and all but with the new can spam law and suppression lists and all that, I kind of doubt about it.
I especially wonder how affiliate managers make their suppression lists work. Do they offer their suppression list to their affiliates or do most say 'you can promote my program into your newsletter' and never give you access to a suppression list.
I hope someone can shine their light on this, I do not wish to get sued for spam
* The opt-out provisions in the CANSPAM Act of 2003 and any related suppression obligations apply to commercial e-mail and not to transactional or relationship e-mail.
Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it's illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
The suppression obligation is found in this sentence:
Quote:
You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address.
In the request for public comment, the Commission asked whether:
* A safe harbor rule should be set up concerning third parties and affiliates; and,
* What restrictions if any should be imposed.
At this juncture, it is not certain that the Commission will create this safe harbor rule and if so, what restrictions will apply.
My own view? I believe the Commission may create a safe harbor for third parties and affiliates that send commercial e-mail with "affirmative consent" as that term is defined in the Act.
You can read the public comments filed in response to this Notice here.
* You also need to review with care the primary purpose rules and the background paper published by the Commission in January.
To avoid the "suppression" obligations, you may want to structure your affairs so that under the primary purpose rules, you are publishing a "bona fide" newsletter.
What is a "bona fide" newsletter? You will want to read with particular care pages 18 to 20 and 33 to 34 of the referenced publication.
In essence, if done properly, the sending of your "bona fide" newsletter by e-mail, or an e-mail notice that your "bona fide" newsletter has been published online to your subscribers further to your subscription agreement with your subscribers is treated as transactional e-mail.
In the request for public comment in May, the Commission asked two additional questions:
* Whether publication of a newsletter should be deemed a transactional e-mail?
* Whether monetary consideration is required to give rise to a subscription agreement?
My own view is that the Commission will not deem newsletters as transactional e-mails, having previously addressed the issue in the primary purpose rule.
At the same time, the Commission will likely confirm that monetary consideration is not required to give rise to a subscription agreement.
Why? It is a fundamental principle of American contract law that payment of money is not required to establish consideration.
Of course, if you live in and send your list mail from a server located in Australia, you don't have to bother with all this nonsense, as the rules are much simpler.
Do you have express consent to send e-mail to the addresses on your e-mailing list?
Yes, well great.
(Australian law allows for implied consent, but it is not really applicable to mailing lists, rather being designed to allow for ordinary commerce.)
No - then what the heck are the addresses doing on your e-mailing list.
Has the person unsubscribed?
Yes - then what the heck is the address still doing on your e-mailing list.
No, well great, you are good to go.
Trusting this helps.
John
P.S. For the Canadians reading this list, who send their mail from a server located in Canada you will want to bone up on these guidelines.
John Glube
Toronto, Canada _________________ Check out the The Zen List Of Marketing Forums and while there subscribe today to the The Journal to keep up todate on developments affecting your online business.
Kees, you are welcome. Some parts of the legislated requirements can confuse people, so hopefully my comments will help.
I might suggest you will want to focus on understanding the requirements for publishing what the Commission labels a "bona fide" newsletter.
One thing people need to remember.
Yes, you can set up your affairs so that the sending of your publication, or notice of its publication online is treated as a transactional message under the Act.
But many people presume that because their bulk mail is compliant with the Act this will suffice.
Nope. You will not pass Go and you will not collect $200.
The Act creates no obligation on Internet access services (receiving networks) to deliver any type of e-mail, let alone what I will call "CANSPAM compliant bulk e-mail."
(By 'CANSPAM compliant bulk e-mail,' I mean, bulk e-mail that is compliant with the rules for sending bulk commercial or transactional e-mail under the Act.)
The one that starts with this statement - "No effect on policies of providers of Internet Acess Service."
Therefore, as a rule of thumb, the first step is to ensure your mailings comply with proper list management practices.
This includes:
* Sending list mail from a dedicated IP address with a proper reverse DNS set up.
* Sending only solicited bulk e-mail.
* Removing hard bounces from your list immediately.
* Removing soft bounces from your list after no more than three delivery attempts. Pecking away at an e-mail address is one way to "tick off" a network administrator.
* Giving list members the ability to easily and quickly unsubscribe.
(As an aside the proceeding list is not complete. However, proper list management and mail delivery to list members are separate discussions from the topic at hand.)
So, there are really two parts to the equation. Put in place proper list management practices and make the necessary tweaks to achieve the desired message classification under the Act.
Trusting these additional comments help.
John _________________ Check out the The Zen List Of Marketing Forums and while there subscribe today to the The Journal to keep up todate on developments affecting your online business.
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