Re: Your Problems/Concern About the Future? (Internet)

"Fabrice Pombet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> "Joe Beaven" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<snip>
> > Please could you tell me what you think are your top 3 current
> > problems in, or concerns about the future of, Internet marketing?

<snip of valid concerns>

Those are good points, Fabrice, but there is a far more pressing
concern:

Spam! This is really hurting legitimate small businesses that rely on
e-mail for contacting customers. Spam is hurting my company NOW! When
someone purchases one of our products, they register so they can be
contacted when we announce free product upgrades. We can't afford to
send out postcards 6+ times each year, nor can we phone thousands of
people. Our customers, like all of us, are sick of spam, and like many
of us they create many different throw-away Hotmail and Yahoo e-mail
accounts because they don't want to pollute their private company
e-mail address. I bet a lot of those reading this have throw-away
e-mail accounts they they've used to register something, then sign up
for another account months later.

E-mail is dying a slow death as a viable means of customer
communication. Which is too bad, because e-mail has been a powerful
tool for small businesses to communicate with their customers
throughout the world.

Anti-spam filtering tools are not the solution. People shouldn't have
to pay to NOT receive spam, and these filters frequently delete
legitimate e-mail. Some form of check/identification/pass system must
be agreed upon by the e-mail software companies very soon, or people
will stop using e-mail en masse.