Podcasts about can spam act

Mariah Parsons hosts a podcast episode with Larry Kim, founder of customers.ai, discussing the importance of accurate website visitor identification. Larry reveals that current data sources, often used by website visitor ID companies, are only 5-30% accurate, leading to significant issues like low conversion rates and spam complaints. He emphasizes the need for brands to test the accuracy of their data providers and suggests strategies to improve email deliverability and brand reputation. Larry also highlights the legal requirements for email marketing, such as clear identification and opt-out mechanisms, to maintain compliance and trust with customers.Episode Timestamps:Introduction to Retention Chronicles Podcast 0:00Mariah Parsons introduces the podcast, Retention Chronicles, focused on customer retention strategies for e-commerce marketers.She highlights the importance of post-purchase experience, noting that 84% of shoppers won't return if they have a bad shipping experience.Mariah emphasizes the role of transactional shipping emails and SMS in turning them into powerful marketing tools.She mentions Malomo as the podcast sponsor, which helps brands create branded order tracking pages to enhance customer experience and drive profits.Introduction of Larry Kim and His Background 2:53Mariah Parsons welcomes Larry Kim, founder and CEO of customers.ai, to the podcast.Larry shares his background, including his previous role as the founder and CEO of WordStream, a pay-per-click advertising platform acquired by Gannett in 2018.Larry attributes the growth of WordStream to search engine optimization, which brought in 3-4 million website visitors per month.He discusses the challenges and opportunities in the website visitor identification industry, emphasizing the need for accurate data.Challenges in Website Visitor Identification 4:10Larry explains the limitations of current website visitor identification technologies, which rely on low-quality data sources like publisher data and co-registration network data.He highlights the inaccuracy of these data sources, with accuracy rates ranging from 5% to 30%.Larry describes the efforts of customers.ai to build a new identity graph for person-level identification, aiming for higher accuracy rates.He shares the results of their study and case studies, which show significant improvements in data accuracy.Impact of Inaccurate Data on Brands 19:28Larry discusses the negative impact of inaccurate website visitor identification data on brands, including low conversion rates and spam complaints.He explains how brands can test the accuracy of their data by comparing known website visitors with the data provided by ID providers.Larry emphasizes the importance of using accurate data to avoid damaging brand reputation and email deliverability.He suggests strategies for brands to improve their data accuracy and mitigate the negative effects of inaccurate data.Legal and Ethical Considerations in Email Marketing 22:47Mariah and Larry discuss the legal and ethical considerations of email marketing, including the CAN-SPAM Act and the need for clear opt-out mechanisms.Larry explains the importance of transparency and disclosure in using marketing trackers and collecting data.He suggests strategies for brands to comply with regulations and maintain good email deliverability.Mariah highlights the role of transactional emails in maintaining customer trust and the importance of accurate data in these communications.Conclusion and Final Thoughts 27:26Mariah thanks Larry for sharing his insights and experiences on the podcast.She encourages listeners to subscribe to the podcast and follow them on social media.Mariah provides a final shout-out to Malomo, the podcast sponsor, and encourages brands to explore their order tracking platform.The episode concludes with a reminder of the importance of accurate data and effective customer retention strategies in e-commerce.

Halt and Catch Fire, then listen to this episode, which may both make you hungry and scared of the Internet. Liz tells Diana about maia arson crimew and the Verkada hack. Research Linksmaia :3FTC fines Verkada for $2.9M for violating CAN-SPAM Act, requires additional security practices | Security Info WatchFTC Settlement: ExplainedHackers breach thousands of security cameras, exposing Tesla, jails, hospitals - Los Angeles TimesSecurity_Incident_Report_Version1.2.pdfVerkada to Pay $2.95 Million for Security Failures Leading to Breaches - CybersecurityVerkada Settles Major Lawsuit with $2.95 Million Penalty and New Data Security RequirementsAdrian Dittmann: Musk Continues to Block reporterSecurity startup Verkada hack exposes 150,000 security cameras in Tesla factories, jails, and more | The VergeAbout the March 8 & 9, 2021 Verkada camera hackSource code from dozens of companies leaked onlineThis is how the hacker from Lucerne ticks, who keeps the FBI central with her attack on trotmaia arson crimew - WikipediaVerkada Gave Various Employees Access To Any Camera Without Telling Customers150,000 Verkada security cameras hacked—to make a pointHacked Surveillance Camera Firm Shows Staggering Scale of Facial RecognitionSmile! Thanks to Verkada Breach, You Could Be on Candid Camera - Hashed Out by The SSL Store™A9R1a7b0dw_1fcjuku_70k.tmp.pdfINTERVIEW: maia arson crimew on online privacy and operational security | PatreonPokemon's Sprigatito becomes the unwitting mascot of “anarchist kitten's” colossal No-Fly List leak | GamesRadar+Feds Charge Verkada Camera Hacker...

Josh and Emily discuss email marketing! In this first episode of the mini-series on email marketing, they discuss whether buying email lists is worth it! Takeaways: Email is a very bad way to nurture a cold relationship. Buying an email list and sending cold emails is an easy way to violate the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Buying an email list from an event is an easier “in” because of the commonality…but the attendees will probably be getting a million emails from other vendors as well. You could consider delaying your email so you'll stand out, but if you wait, the content may not be relevant anymore. If you meet someone live at an event and want to send them something, have a template set up to be able to quickly send them that thing live, from the booth, in the moment. If other financial coaches think it's cool…your niche probably won't agree. If you buy a list, do a one-time mailing and have them opt-in to your regular email list. Want help building or growing a successful financial coaching business? Find resources below based on where you're at in your journey: Deciding whether Financial Coaching is right for you? Join our free Facebook Community with over 5000 current and aspiring financial coaches! https://www.facebook.com/groups/financialcoachescommunity Already decided you're going to be a Financial Coach and want to learn more? Get 30+ tips and best practices in our free 8-part email series! https://www.financialcoachesnetwork.com/pre-launch-email-series Ready to Launch your Financial Coaching business? Join FCN Launch, our step-by-step program that will help you successfully launch your business in four months and grow it to a consistent part-time income. https://www.financialcoachesnetwork.com/launch Are you already coaching clients and want to grow your business to a full-time income? Join FCN Grow, our program that helps you scale your business to a full-time income. https://www.financialcoachesnetwork.com/grow

In this episode of Millionaire University, Kirsten dives deep with Adam, founder of EOCworks, on the intricacies of cold outreach and email marketing. Adam, who has never worked a true corporate job and successfully sold his first startup through cold email outreach, shares his journey and the critical role cold email played in landing major clients like Bank of America and Amazon. They discuss the importance of setting up dedicated domains for email outreach, the evolution and optimization of cold email strategies, including the use of tools like Instantly.ai and Clay.ai for advanced personalization. Adam provides a step-by-step guide on structuring effective cold emails, the significance of timely follow-ups, and ensuring successful meeting bookings. He also reveals unique hacks like incorporating a charity PS to improve response rates. Ideal for entrepreneurs eager to proactively scale their outreach efforts.   What we talk about with Adam: +The Power of Cold Email + Overcoming the Stigma of Cold Outreach + Early Experiences with Cold Email + Scaling Cold Email Efforts + Setting Up for Cold Email Success + Legalities and Automation in Cold Outreach + Proactive vs. Reactive Marketing + Personalized vs. Automated Emails + The Importance of Iteration and Testing + Managing Large Lead Lists +Crafting Effective Outreach Emails + Advanced Email Personalization Techniques + Booking Meetings Efficiently   Resources mentioned in this episode: Instantly.io for sending cold email and buying cold outreach lists. Click HERE. Learn more about the Can-Spam Act.   Thank you to Adam and our show sponsors for today's episode! Check out Adam's business EOCWorks HERE!  Sign up for our FREE Business Course - over 300+ new business ideas, also includes the 7 Phases of a business, so you know where you are now and where you need to go next. You'll also get 7 of the most popular marketing strategies and 31 stay-on-track hacks that successful millionaires follow to grow and automate their businesses.  Go to https://www.millionaireuniversity.com/training. And follow us on: Instagram Facebook Tik Tok Youtube Twitter To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors.

Dive deep with Adam, founder of EOCworks, on the intricacies of cold outreach and email marketing. Adam, who has never worked a true corporate job and successfully sold his first startup through cold email outreach, shares his journey and the critical role cold email played in landing major clients like Bank of America and Amazon. They discuss the importance of setting up dedicated domains for email outreach, the evolution and optimization of cold email strategies, including the use of tools like Instantly.ai and Clay.ai for advanced personalization. Adam provides a step-by-step guide on structuring effective cold emails, the significance of timely follow-ups, and ensuring successful meeting bookings. He also reveals unique hacks like incorporating a charity PS to improve response rates. Ideal for entrepreneurs eager to proactively scale their outreach efforts. What we talk about with Adam: + The Power of Cold Email + Overcoming the Stigma of Cold Outreach + Early Experiences with Cold Email + Scaling Cold Email Efforts + Setting Up for Cold Email Success + Legalities and Automation in Cold Outreach + Proactive vs. Reactive Marketing + Personalized vs. Automated Emails + The Importance of Iteration and Testing + Managing Large Lead Lists + Crafting Effective Outreach Emails + Advanced Email Personalization Techniques + Booking Meetings Efficiently Resources mentioned in this episode: Instantly.ai for sending cold email and buying cold outreach lists. Learn more about the Can-Spam Act. Thank you to Adam and our show sponsors for today's episode! Check out Adam's business EOCWorks HERE! Sign up for our FREE Business Course - over 300+ new business ideas, also includes the 7 Phases of a business, so you know where you are now and where you need to go next. You'll also get 7 of the most popular marketing strategies and 31 stay-on-track hacks that successful millionaires follow to grow and automate their businesses.  Go to https://www.millionaireuniversity.com/training. And follow us on: Instagram Facebook Tik Tok Youtube Twitter To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing 146. Mastering Cold Outreach and Email Marketing with Adam from EOCworks from Millionaire University.Follow the show: Millionaire University Dive deep with Adam, founder of EOCworks, on the intricacies of cold outreach and email marketing. Adam, who has never worked a true corporate job and successfully sold his first startup through cold email outreach, shares his journey and the critical role cold email played in landing major clients like Bank of America and Amazon. They discuss the importance of setting up dedicated domains for email outreach, the evolution and optimization of cold email strategies, including the use of tools like Instantly.ai and Clay.ai for advanced personalization. Adam provides a step-by-step guide on structuring effective cold emails, the significance of timely follow-ups, and ensuring successful meeting bookings. He also reveals unique hacks like incorporating a charity PS to improve response rates. Ideal for entrepreneurs eager to proactively scale their outreach efforts.What we talk about with Adam:+ The Power of Cold Email+ Overcoming the Stigma of Cold Outreach+ Early Experiences with Cold Email+ Scaling Cold Email Efforts+ Setting Up for Cold Email Success+ Legalities and Automation in Cold Outreach+ Proactive vs. Reactive Marketing+ Personalized vs. Automated Emails+ The Importance of Iteration and Testing+ Managing Large Lead Lists+ Crafting Effective Outreach Emails+ Advanced Email Personalization Techniques+ Booking Meetings EfficientlyResources mentioned in this episode:Instantly.ai for sending cold email and buying cold outreach lists.Learn more about the Can-Spam Act.Thank you to Adam and our show sponsors for today's episode!Check out Adam's business EOCWorks HERE! Sign up for our FREE Business Course - over 300+ new business ideas, also includes the 7 Phases of a business, so you know where you are now and where you need to go next. You'll also get 7 of the most popular marketing strategies and 31 stay-on-track hacks that successful millionaires follow to grow and automate their businesses. Go to https://www.millionaireuniversity.com/training.And follow us on:InstagramFacebookTik TokYoutubeTwitterTo get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to team@podroll.fm.

In this video, we break down the legalities of unsolicited email marketing. We define the differences between cold and spam emailing and provide helpful business tips for sending cold emails legally to market your products or services. Understanding the legal side of sending marketing emails is important in order to avoid being in a sticky legal situation.Chapters00:18 Legalities of Cold Email Marketing vs Spam Email00:29 Defining Cold Emails00:43 Defining Spam Emails00:56 Are Spam & Cold Emailing Illegal?01:10 CAN-SPAM ACT of 200301:23 CAN-SPAM ACT Requirements01:42 Tips for Sending Cold Emails Legally⭐️ FREE GUIDE: Download your copy of our Legally Launch Guide & Legal Check-up Checklist!

Are you worried about the legal aspects of your email marketing? You're not alone. As an online coach or service provider, it's crucial to navigate the legalities of email communication. I'm here to share some straightforward tips that will help you send emails that are not just effective but also legally compliant. Let's dive into these easy-to-implement strategies that can save you from legal headaches and keep your email marketing on the right track.In this episode, you'll hear…The importance of including an unsubscribe link in your emails for legal compliance and list health.Why having a valid mailing address in your emails is crucial for adhering to laws like the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.The significance of displaying your business name in emails to separate personal and professional communication.The necessity of obtaining consent for email marketing, ensuring content relevance and legal adherence.Click here to find the full show notes and transcript for this episode.RESOURCES:Click here to watch the free workshop so you can get legally legit right now!Check out the Ultimate Bundle® - my signature program that includes 10 essential DIY legal templates + 35 on demand video trainingsCONNECT:Sam on InstagramSam on FacebookOn Your Terms on InstagramDISCLAIMERProduced by NOVA Media

Welcome to another insightful episode of "The Scaling Edge," where your host, Michael Brooks, delves into the critical world of email marketing and deliverability. In today's episode, we're joined by the esteemed Benny Rubin, the innovative founder of Senders, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table.1. Introduction to Benny Rubin and Senders   - Michael introduces Benny Rubin, highlighting his background and the inception of Senders.   - Benny shares the mission of Senders and how it's revolutionizing the email marketing space.2. The Importance of Email as a Revenue Source   - Benny discusses why email remains a powerful and reliable source of revenue for businesses.   - The conversation touches on the evolution of email marketing and its current significance.3. Email Deliverability Challenges   - Benny outlines the common challenges businesses face with email deliverability.   - The duo discusses the impact of these challenges on a company's bottom line.4. Types of Emails and Spam Filter Complexities   - An exploration of the different types of emails businesses send and how they are handled by ISPs.   - Benny provides insight into the complexities of navigating spam filters and ensuring emails reach the inbox.5. Compliance with Email Regulations   - The importance of adhering to regulations like the CAN-SPAM Act is emphasized.   - Benny offers tips on compliance and best practices for email marketing.6. Technical Insights for Improving Deliverability   - The conversation shifts to technical aspects that can enhance email deliverability.   - Benny talks about the significance of SMTP and introduces listeners to tools like the Google Postmaster Tool.7. Lighthearted Anecdotes and Practical Advice   - Michael and Benny share entertaining stories from their experiences in the email marketing world.   - Listeners are given actionable advice to apply to their own email strategies.8. How to Get in Touch   - For those seeking assistance with their email marketing and deliverability, contact information for Benny and Senders is provided.   - Michael encourages listeners to reach out with questions or for help in optimizing their email campaigns.9. Closing Thoughts   - Michael wraps up the episode with key takeaways and thanks Benny for his valuable insights.   - A reminder for listeners to subscribe for more episodes of "The Scaling Edge."Remember to subscribe to "The Scaling Edge" for more episodes on how to scale your business effectively. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review and sharing it with your network.Tags:#emailmarketing  #emaildeliverability  #digitalmarketing  #EmailStrategies #CANSPAMAct #smtp  #GooglePostmaster #marketingtips  #businessscaling  #Senders #TheScalingEdge #MichaelBrooks #BennyRubin #EmailCompliance #EmailRevenue #SpamFilters #marketingpodcast  #businesspodcast  #entrepreneurship  #EmailBestPractices #emailcampaigns  #marketinginsights  #techtalks  #EmailSolutions

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Welcome to the Podiatry Marketing podcast. In this episode, Jim McDannald, DPM, and Tyson E. Franklin unravel the potential benefits of incorporating email marketing, particularly newsletters, into your podiatry clinic's promotional strategy.Targeted Audience Engagement Direct communication with patients and potential patients interested in your services. Achieving more relevant and meaningful interactions than broad-reaching marketing strategies. Cost-Effective Lower cost per acquisition compared to traditional marketing avenues. High return on investment due to minimal printing and distribution expenses. Overview of budget-friendly email marketing platforms. Measurable Results Utilizing modern email platforms for insights into open rates, click-throughs, and conversions. The advantage of adjusting strategies based on data-driven results. Personalization Enhancing patient engagement by addressing recipients by name. Offering treatments and services tailored to the patient's history. The impact of simple gestures like sending birthday wishes. Timely and Direct Communication Immediate updates on new services, offers, or changes in clinic operations. Reaching patients promptly due to the frequency of email checks. Flexibility Adapting email content based on patient feedback and response metrics. Experimenting with varied messaging styles and visuals for optimized engagement. Consistent Patient Education: The value of newsletters in disseminating foot health knowledge. Building trust through regular updates on preventive care and treatments. Building Loyalty and Retention: How consistent email communication nurtures the patient-clinic bond. The role of email in fostering patient loyalty and encouraging return visits. Regulatory Compliance: The importance of adhering to regulations like the GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act. Ensuring that email marketing practices respect patient permissions and privacy. In summary, while email marketing presents numerous opportunities for podiatry clinics, its effectiveness lies in strategic execution and compliance. Incorporate it as part of an integrated marketing approach for optimal results, and always prioritize the trust and privacy of your patients.For more insights, strategies, and all things podiatry marketing, continue to tune into the Podiatry Marketing podcast at https://podiatry.marketing.

As most people know – either from professional or personal experience – the CAN SPAM Act requires companies who send “commercial” email messages to give consumers an opportunity to opt-out of receiving those messages in the future. The opt-out requirement does not apply to “transactional” messages, which generally facilitate an already agreed-upon transaction or update a customer about an ongoing transaction. https://www.adlawaccess.com/2023/08/articles/ftc-assesses-primary-purpose-of-emails-in-can-spam-enforcement/ Gonzalo Mon gmon@kelleydrye.com (202) 342-8576 www.kelleydrye.com/Our-People/Gonzalo-E-Mon Subscribe to the Ad Law Access blog - www.adlawaccess.com/subscribe/ Subscribe to the Ad Law News Newsletter - https://www.kelleydrye.com/News-Events/Publications/Newsletters/Ad-Law-News-and-Views?dlg=1 View the Advertising and Privacy Law Resource Center - https://www.kelleydrye.com/Advertising-and-Privacy-Law-Resource-Center Find all of our links here linktr.ee/KelleyDryeAdLaw Hosted by Simone Roach

Yesterday, the FTC announced an $18.5 million settlement with Publishers Clearing House (PCH), a marketing company known for using sweepstakes to sell magazine subscriptions. In its 52-page complaint, the FTC alleges PCH used purported “dark patterns” to promote product purchases, failed to disclose total costs, misrepresented its privacy practices, and used misleading email headers in violation of Section 5 and the CAN-SPAM Act. The order prohibits the company from making specific misrepresentations regarding sweepstakes entries, includes mandatory disclosure requirements, and requires consumer data deletion, among other provisions. https://www.adlawaccess.com/2023/06/articles/ftc-targets-publishers-clearing-house-dark-patterns-in-sweeping-order/ Gonzalo Mon gmon@kelleydrye.com (202) 342-8576 https://www.kelleydrye.com/Our-People/Gonzalo-E-Mon Ioana Gorecki igorecki@kelleydrye.com (202) 342-8417 www.kelleydrye.com/Our-People/Ioana-Gorecki Subscribe to the Ad Law Access blog - www.adlawaccess.com/subscribe/ Subscribe to the Ad Law News Newsletter - https://www.kelleydrye.com/News-Events/Publications/Newsletters/Ad-Law-News-and-Views?dlg=1 View the Advertising and Privacy Law Resource Center - https://www.kelleydrye.com/Advertising-and-Privacy-Law-Resource-Center Find all of our links here linktr.ee/KelleyDryeAdLaw Hosted by Simone Roach

Email marketing is an essential tool for small business owners and marketers to connect with their audience, build relationships, and drive conversions. In this episode, Tracy Brinkmann provides five simple steps for successful email campaigns. These steps included building and growing an email list, having a strong email marketing strategy, creating engaging and valuable content, optimizing for mobile devices, and analyzing and refining campaigns.   Building An Email List To build an email list, the speaker recommended offering lead magnets, using social media and referral programs, and leveraging paid advertising. Segmenting email lists based on demographics, behaviors, and interests is essential for creating targeted and relevant lists. Personalization and automation can be used to create targeted and relevant email lists for each segment, with dynamic content and merge tags used to personalize emails with subscriber information.   Have an Email Strategy   A strong email marketing strategy involves defining goals and objectives, developing a content strategy that aligns with those goals, testing and optimizing campaigns, and staying compliant with email regulations.   Using Email Automations   Tracy also discussed the importance of using automation to create triggered emails, such as abandoned cart emails and welcome email series. By sending targeted emails, businesses can increase their sales and nurture their subscribers.    Have Relevant & Engaging Email Content   Concise language and consistent brand voice are necessary in creating attention-grabbing headlines and engaging content. Additionally, using paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings can help break up the text and make it scannable for subscribers.   Testing Email Campaigns   Testing and optimizing email campaigns can improve results and maximize return on investment. AB testing is a powerful strategy for testing different elements like subject lines, call-to-actions, or images. Compliance with email marketing regulations is also emphasized as an essential aspect.   Stay In Compliance With Your Email Marketing   Tracy discussed regulations like the Can Spam Act, GDPR, CASL, and CCPA. Compliance can be achieved by obtaining consent for email addresses, providing transparency on how the data will be used, including an unsubscribe link, optimizing for mobile devices, using personalization and segmentation, and ensuring compliance with regulations.   In summary, email marketing is a powerful tool for small business owners and marketers to connect with their audience, build relationships, and drive conversions. By following the five steps outlined in this conversation, businesses can create successful email campaigns that engage subscribers, increase sales, and build a loyal customer base.  

Adam is the Founder and CEO of Retention.com (formerly Getemails) which he's bootstrapped to 14m ARR in 2 ½ years with six people. Retention.com is an identity resolution service that has the ability to identify one-third of your anonymous website traffic so you can market to those potential customers. Yes, read that sentence again, it's magical. Prior to Retention, Adam was the founder/CEO of Robly Email Marketing, which was bootstrapped and he exited for 8 figures to private equity in 2020.This is a two-part episode where Adam talks us through a revolutionary way to get quality email addresses and the legalities behind them. Let's get started.[00:01 - 08:02] Opening SegmentWelcoming Adam to the showIsmael's background and careerAdam's background and how he got into email marketingHe shares the story of his entrepreneurial mistakes during his start-up[08:03 - 10:17] Ways to Blow Up Your BusinessPoach customer information from a marketing companyToo many competitors in a saturated marketHaving a long contact list but are considered poor leads[10:18 - 16:19] The Beginning of SuccessDefined what Mailchimp isn't doing then offered that serviceAdam leveraged Customer Identity to start his businessBig players are prohibited from selling customer data making it a great business opportunity for small playersWant some Amazon refunds? Check out GETIDAPromo code: FTM400[16:20 - 27:01] How Is Email Spam Legal in The US?If your business fails, you come back stronger and more experiencedAdam talks about Retention.comHashed email is an email address that has been encrypted in a way that a human being cannot unencrypt itThis is legal because of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003Here's how you can filter dead email addresses and nurture an email list that is active and non-spam What matters in email is not whether you opt-in or opt out but the engagement[27:02 - 28:09] Closing SegmentTune in to part two of the conversations next episode!Quotes:“If you don't have a profitable email program then paying any price for a lead is not it's going to be worse for you.” - Adam Robinson“You have no idea how lost you are until you're so far in it.” - Adam Robinson------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Connect with AdamWebsite: www.retention.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamlanerobinson/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-robinson-64409348Send us a voice message and let us know how we can help you fire the man! FacebookYouTubeInstagramResources MentionedGETIDAEmail us --> support@firingtheman.com Leave us a review as it really helps the show!   

This week on The Download: Acast buys Podchaser, PodcastOne strikes out on their own, SiriusXM and Comscore expand their deal, Disney's integrating with The Trade Desk , and Podnews caught 240 spam emails. This Monday Podnews started off the work week with a big announcement: Acast is acquiring Podchaser in a $34 million dollar deal.  “Podchaser, which will continue to operate as a separate brand and independent business, was founded in 2016 and is home to the leading global podcast database, covering more than 4.5 million podcasts and more than 1.7 billion data points — including hundreds of thousands of ratings and reviews, and the advertisers of the world's top 5,000 podcasts. This unique, proprietary data — which will also remain open to all — spans and powers the entire open podcast ecosystem, and is used by listeners, podcasters, advertisers and industry professionals.” Podchaser has created strong integrations with hosting platforms to receive data, exported data to podcast apps and hosting platforms, and has a competitive intelligence tool built to enable publishers and buyers alike to improve their revenue streams.  General industry sentiment of Acast currently is a bit lukewarm unless you're actively working with them as a publisher or a buyer. As previously reported, Acast has—or at least had— a marketing strategy involving unrelenting spam emails encouraging podcasters to switch to their services. With mass emails to RadioPublic users and their siloed relationships with partners like Patreon, it's hard for some podcasters to give this deal the benefit of the doubt.  We're very happy for our sponsor Podchaser, and the entire team there, and truly hope the independent nature is maintained. We still question the comfort of existing and new integrated partners providing data to a competitor. Last Friday LiveOne issued a press release announcing that their company PodcastOne, having just raised 8.1 million in funding, is looking to separate and become an independent company.  “PodcastOne is the leading advertiser-supported on-demand digital podcast company, offering a 360-degree solution for both content creators and advertisers, including content development, brand integration and distribution. Acquired by LiveOne in 2020, PodcastOne has had more than 2.1 billion downloads a year since its acquisition, across the more than 350 weekly episodes it distributes.” Their talent stable includes names like Jordan Harbinger, Adam Carolla, and T-Pain. In the press release PodcastOne president Kit Gray said:  “The podcasting business has exploded over the past five years and PodcastOne is one of the largest independent podcast companies in the world. The company is one of only two independent podcasting publishers in the top 10 of Podtrac's list of Top Publishers. We believe that by trading as a separate public company, PodcastOne will have the opportunity to access the public capital markets as well as be better positioned to both acquire podcast platforms and attract significant podcast talent.”  PodcastOne offers its own self-built platform and operates as an ad sales network for its publishers. It's weathered a lot of storms in podcasting and investment like this during a recession shows confidence in the ability for them to stand on their own. It will be interesting to see how their products and services come to market faster, and who they cater toward. Much like the acquisition last story, this announcement shows podcasting deals aren't going stale. Last Thursday SiriusXM and Comscore announced the expansion of their collaborative agreement to bring predictive audience targeting to podcasts. This new expanded agreement will bring Comscore Predictive Audiences to both AdzWizz and SXM Media clients. General Manager of Comscore activation services Rachel Grant said:  “With podcast consumption skyrocketing and the regulatory environment still very fluid, it's critical to give advertisers the ability to develop privacy-forward and future-proof audience targeting on podcasts”  Prior to this AdsWizz was already working with Comscore for their contextual targeting based off of keywords for the Podscribe tool (not to be confused with the company Podscribe). The new deal expands into a targetable dataset for those buying through Adswizz programmatic offerings, either as a buyer using their demand side platform to buy anywhere in podcast programmatic, or buying directly into their open marketplace Podwave.  The continued highlighting of it being privacy-first is a bit misleading. AdsWizz is still providing the IP address to match off of, which we at Sounds Profitable do not find to be an issue. That Comscore has built a new dataset not built on cookies is a step towards the aforementioned future-proofing. The dataset looks to come from Comscore opted-in panels, which is different from universal ID solutions looking to match first party data. While podcasting is always probabilistic matching - as it's based on IP address - this is also probabilistic targeting.  It's neat to see Comscore focusing a bit more on podcasting while many other major data partners are snoozing on it. In a rare twist we only have one article posted on a Tuesday for you this week. Last Tuesday AdExchanger's James Hercher published “Disney Integrates With The Trade Desk And UID2 In Pursuit Of Better Addressability.” “This new integration with The Trade Desk, which was born from recent meetings in Cannes, will accelerate Disney's ambition to automate and target more of its overall pool of data, Barnes said. Advertisers will be able to more effectively find their audiences across Disney inventory and the added precision should help improve ROI and post-campaign results.” Disney is a major player in podcasting, both directly and through partnerships. So much of what Disney does today uses programmatic for efficiency's sake. A company of that size can't easily do manual IO's for every cookie-cutter campaign. As Disney continues to invest and grow their podcast offerings creates synergy with the majority of podcast SSPs being configured to purchase from The Trade Desk. There's  real potential for further increase in podcasting programmatic as the industry takes care of the small discrepancies and differences that stand in the way of podcasting as a main advertising channel.  While the article is worth engaging with on its own merits, script writer Gavin Gaddis wishes to spotlight the piece's cartoon of Toy Story stars Buzz and Woody selling ads with the caption ‘to automation and beyond.' Three months ago Podnews editor James Cridland laid a trap to learn more about the methods and companies using shady tactics to cold-call podcasters via email. On Wednesday he published the results in “the podcast industry's biggest spammer.”  “In May 2022, we amended Podnews's podcast RSS feed to produce a near infinite amount of trackable email addresses as a kind of spamtrap. We wanted to discover who was scraping our RSS feed for emails; what user agent they were using, when they scraped it, what tag they scraped it from, and whether the messages were legal under the FCC's rules (the so-called CAN-SPAM Act).”  Cridland's honeypot strategy attracted 240 emails over the three month period. Some fall within the boundaries of CAN-SPAM, some seem pointed in their lack of transparency.  The specific companies involved are not necessarily important to the overall story. Podcasting needs good governance as growth continues and the industry constantly redefines what constitutes ‘normal' business practices. It's on those within the industry to make podcasting better through what's considered an acceptable marketing strategy. It's perfectly legal to scrape email addresses from RSS feed tags and send them unsolicited emails as long as they follow loose FCC and other governmental regulatory rules. In an industry growing as fast and consistently as podcasting one has to question if it has a place for an antiquated cold-calling strategy perfected in the late 90s.  Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week's two Quick Hits are  The Most Important Things We've Learned About Making Successful Podcasts with Brands by Dan Misener. Misener, formerly Director of Audience Development at Pacific Content, provides a great list of learnings on his way out the door. One of the greatest minds at Pacific, Misener has been skilled at breaking down complex data and making it accessible to the masses. His heart has always been focused on growing all of podcasting and Sounds Profitable fully supports him in whatever he's doing next. We know it'll have an impact.  And secondly: a press release from Pushkin media: Pushkin Industries Expands Production Capacity With Acquisition of Creative Podcast Company Transmitter Media. Here we have yet another example of a podcast production company growing to the point they need to buy another podcast production company.  The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Download: Acast buys Podchaser, PodcastOne strikes out on their own, SiriusXM and Comscore expand their deal, Disney's integrating with The Trade Desk , and Podnews caught 240 spam emails. This Monday Podnews started off the work week with a big announcement: Acast is acquiring Podchaser in a $34 million dollar deal.  “Podchaser, which will continue to operate as a separate brand and independent business, was founded in 2016 and is home to the leading global podcast database, covering more than 4.5 million podcasts and more than 1.7 billion data points — including hundreds of thousands of ratings and reviews, and the advertisers of the world's top 5,000 podcasts. This unique, proprietary data — which will also remain open to all — spans and powers the entire open podcast ecosystem, and is used by listeners, podcasters, advertisers and industry professionals.” Podchaser has created strong integrations with hosting platforms to receive data, exported data to podcast apps and hosting platforms, and has a competitive intelligence tool built to enable publishers and buyers alike to improve their revenue streams.  General industry sentiment of Acast currently is a bit lukewarm unless you're actively working with them as a publisher or a buyer. As previously reported, Acast has—or at least had— a marketing strategy involving unrelenting spam emails encouraging podcasters to switch to their services. With mass emails to RadioPublic users and their siloed relationships with partners like Patreon, it's hard for some podcasters to give this deal the benefit of the doubt.  We're very happy for our sponsor Podchaser, and the entire team there, and truly hope the independent nature is maintained. We still question the comfort of existing and new integrated partners providing data to a competitor. Last Friday LiveOne issued a press release announcing that their company PodcastOne, having just raised 8.1 million in funding, is looking to separate and become an independent company.  “PodcastOne is the leading advertiser-supported on-demand digital podcast company, offering a 360-degree solution for both content creators and advertisers, including content development, brand integration and distribution. Acquired by LiveOne in 2020, PodcastOne has had more than 2.1 billion downloads a year since its acquisition, across the more than 350 weekly episodes it distributes.” Their talent stable includes names like Jordan Harbinger, Adam Carolla, and T-Pain. In the press release PodcastOne president Kit Gray said:  “The podcasting business has exploded over the past five years and PodcastOne is one of the largest independent podcast companies in the world. The company is one of only two independent podcasting publishers in the top 10 of Podtrac's list of Top Publishers. We believe that by trading as a separate public company, PodcastOne will have the opportunity to access the public capital markets as well as be better positioned to both acquire podcast platforms and attract significant podcast talent.”  PodcastOne offers its own self-built platform and operates as an ad sales network for its publishers. It's weathered a lot of storms in podcasting and investment like this during a recession shows confidence in the ability for them to stand on their own. It will be interesting to see how their products and services come to market faster, and who they cater toward. Much like the acquisition last story, this announcement shows podcasting deals aren't going stale. Last Thursday SiriusXM and Comscore announced the expansion of their collaborative agreement to bring predictive audience targeting to podcasts. This new expanded agreement will bring Comscore Predictive Audiences to both AdzWizz and SXM Media clients. General Manager of Comscore activation services Rachel Grant said:  “With podcast consumption skyrocketing and the regulatory environment still very fluid, it's critical to give advertisers the ability to develop privacy-forward and future-proof audience targeting on podcasts”  Prior to this AdsWizz was already working with Comscore for their contextual targeting based off of keywords for the Podscribe tool (not to be confused with the company Podscribe). The new deal expands into a targetable dataset for those buying through Adswizz programmatic offerings, either as a buyer using their demand side platform to buy anywhere in podcast programmatic, or buying directly into their open marketplace Podwave.  The continued highlighting of it being privacy-first is a bit misleading. AdsWizz is still providing the IP address to match off of, which we at Sounds Profitable do not find to be an issue. That Comscore has built a new dataset not built on cookies is a step towards the aforementioned future-proofing. The dataset looks to come from Comscore opted-in panels, which is different from universal ID solutions looking to match first party data. While podcasting is always probabilistic matching - as it's based on IP address - this is also probabilistic targeting.  It's neat to see Comscore focusing a bit more on podcasting while many other major data partners are snoozing on it. In a rare twist we only have one article posted on a Tuesday for you this week. Last Tuesday AdExchanger's James Hercher published “Disney Integrates With The Trade Desk And UID2 In Pursuit Of Better Addressability.” “This new integration with The Trade Desk, which was born from recent meetings in Cannes, will accelerate Disney's ambition to automate and target more of its overall pool of data, Barnes said. Advertisers will be able to more effectively find their audiences across Disney inventory and the added precision should help improve ROI and post-campaign results.” Disney is a major player in podcasting, both directly and through partnerships. So much of what Disney does today uses programmatic for efficiency's sake. A company of that size can't easily do manual IO's for every cookie-cutter campaign. As Disney continues to invest and grow their podcast offerings creates synergy with the majority of podcast SSPs being configured to purchase from The Trade Desk. There's  real potential for further increase in podcasting programmatic as the industry takes care of the small discrepancies and differences that stand in the way of podcasting as a main advertising channel.  While the article is worth engaging with on its own merits, script writer Gavin Gaddis wishes to spotlight the piece's cartoon of Toy Story stars Buzz and Woody selling ads with the caption ‘to automation and beyond.' Three months ago Podnews editor James Cridland laid a trap to learn more about the methods and companies using shady tactics to cold-call podcasters via email. On Wednesday he published the results in “the podcast industry's biggest spammer.”  “In May 2022, we amended Podnews's podcast RSS feed to produce a near infinite amount of trackable email addresses as a kind of spamtrap. We wanted to discover who was scraping our RSS feed for emails; what user agent they were using, when they scraped it, what tag they scraped it from, and whether the messages were legal under the FCC's rules (the so-called CAN-SPAM Act).”  Cridland's honeypot strategy attracted 240 emails over the three month period. Some fall within the boundaries of CAN-SPAM, some seem pointed in their lack of transparency.  The specific companies involved are not necessarily important to the overall story. Podcasting needs good governance as growth continues and the industry constantly redefines what constitutes ‘normal' business practices. It's on those within the industry to make podcasting better through what's considered an acceptable marketing strategy. It's perfectly legal to scrape email addresses from RSS feed tags and send them unsolicited emails as long as they follow loose FCC and other governmental regulatory rules. In an industry growing as fast and consistently as podcasting one has to question if it has a place for an antiquated cold-calling strategy perfected in the late 90s.  Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week's two Quick Hits are  The Most Important Things We've Learned About Making Successful Podcasts with Brands by Dan Misener. Misener, formerly Director of Audience Development at Pacific Content, provides a great list of learnings on his way out the door. One of the greatest minds at Pacific, Misener has been skilled at breaking down complex data and making it accessible to the masses. His heart has always been focused on growing all of podcasting and Sounds Profitable fully supports him in whatever he's doing next. We know it'll have an impact.  And secondly: a press release from Pushkin media: Pushkin Industries Expands Production Capacity With Acquisition of Creative Podcast Company Transmitter Media. Here we have yet another example of a podcast production company growing to the point they need to buy another podcast production company.  The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Download: Acast buys Podchaser, PodcastOne strikes out on their own, SiriusXM and Comscore expand their deal, Disney's integrating with The Trade Desk , and Podnews caught 240 spam emails. This Monday Podnews started off the work week with a big announcement: Acast is acquiring Podchaser in a $34 million dollar deal.  “Podchaser, which will continue to operate as a separate brand and independent business, was founded in 2016 and is home to the leading global podcast database, covering more than 4.5 million podcasts and more than 1.7 billion data points — including hundreds of thousands of ratings and reviews, and the advertisers of the world's top 5,000 podcasts. This unique, proprietary data — which will also remain open to all — spans and powers the entire open podcast ecosystem, and is used by listeners, podcasters, advertisers and industry professionals.” Podchaser has created strong integrations with hosting platforms to receive data, exported data to podcast apps and hosting platforms, and has a competitive intelligence tool built to enable publishers and buyers alike to improve their revenue streams.  General industry sentiment of Acast currently is a bit lukewarm unless you're actively working with them as a publisher or a buyer. As previously reported, Acast has—or at least had— a marketing strategy involving unrelenting spam emails encouraging podcasters to switch to their services. With mass emails to RadioPublic users and their siloed relationships with partners like Patreon, it's hard for some podcasters to give this deal the benefit of the doubt.  We're very happy for our sponsor Podchaser, and the entire team there, and truly hope the independent nature is maintained. We still question the comfort of existing and new integrated partners providing data to a competitor. Last Friday LiveOne issued a press release announcing that their company PodcastOne, having just raised 8.1 million in funding, is looking to separate and become an independent company. “PodcastOne is the leading advertiser-supported on-demand digital podcast company, offering a 360-degree solution for both content creators and advertisers, including content development, brand integration and distribution. Acquired by LiveOne in 2020, PodcastOne has had more than 2.1 billion downloads a year since its acquisition, across the more than 350 weekly episodes it distributes.” Their talent stable includes names like Jordan Harbinger, Adam Carolla, and T-Pain. In the press release PodcastOne president Kit Gray said:  “The podcasting business has exploded over the past five years and PodcastOne is one of the largest independent podcast companies in the world. The company is one of only two independent podcasting publishers in the top 10 of Podtrac's list of Top Publishers. We believe that by trading as a separate public company, PodcastOne will have the opportunity to access the public capital markets as well as be better positioned to both acquire podcast platforms and attract significant podcast talent.”  PodcastOne offers its own self-built platform and operates as an ad sales network for its publishers. It's weathered a lot of storms in podcasting and investment like this during a recession shows confidence in the ability for them to stand on their own. It will be interesting to see how their products and services come to market faster, and who they cater toward. Much like the acquisition last story, this announcement shows podcasting deals aren't going stale. Last Thursday SiriusXM and Comscore announced the expansion of their collaborative agreement to bring predictive audience targeting to podcasts. This new expanded agreement will bring Comscore Predictive Audiences to both AdzWizz and SXM Media clients. General Manager of Comscore activation services Rachel Grant said:  “With podcast consumption skyrocketing and the regulatory environment still very fluid, it's critical to give advertisers the ability to develop privacy-forward and future-proof audience targeting on podcasts”  Prior to this AdsWizz was already working with Comscore for their contextual targeting based off of keywords for the Podscribe tool (not to be confused with the company Podscribe). The new deal expands into a targetable dataset for those buying through Adswizz programmatic offerings, either as a buyer using their demand side platform to buy anywhere in podcast programmatic, or buying directly into their open marketplace Podwave.  The continued highlighting of it being privacy-first is a bit misleading. AdsWizz is still providing the IP address to match off of, which we at Sounds Profitable do not find to be an issue. That Comscore has built a new dataset not built on cookies is a step towards the aforementioned future-proofing. The dataset looks to come from Comscore opted-in panels, which is different from universal ID solutions looking to match first party data. While podcasting is always probabilistic matching - as it's based on IP address - this is also probabilistic targeting.  It's neat to see Comscore focusing a bit more on podcasting while many other major data partners are snoozing on it. In a rare twist we only have one article posted on a Tuesday for you this week. Last Tuesday AdExchanger's James Hercher published “Disney Integrates With The Trade Desk And UID2 In Pursuit Of Better Addressability.” “This new integration with The Trade Desk, which was born from recent meetings in Cannes, will accelerate Disney's ambition to automate and target more of its overall pool of data, Barnes said. Advertisers will be able to more effectively find their audiences across Disney inventory and the added precision should help improve ROI and post-campaign results.” Disney is a major player in podcasting, both directly and through partnerships. So much of what Disney does today uses programmatic for efficiency's sake. A company of that size can't easily do manual IO's for every cookie-cutter campaign. As Disney continues to invest and grow their podcast offerings creates synergy with the majority of podcast SSPs being configured to purchase from The Trade Desk. There's  real potential for further increase in podcasting programmatic as the industry takes care of the small discrepancies and differences that stand in the way of podcasting as a main advertising channel.  While the article is worth engaging with on its own merits, script writer Gavin Gaddis wishes to spotlight the piece's cartoon of Toy Story stars Buzz and Woody selling ads with the caption ‘to automation and beyond.' Three months ago Podnews editor James Cridland laid a trap to learn more about the methods and companies using shady tactics to cold-call podcasters via email. On Wednesday he published the results in “the podcast industry's biggest spammer.”  “In May 2022, we amended Podnews's podcast RSS feed to produce a near infinite amount of trackable email addresses as a kind of spamtrap. We wanted to discover who was scraping our RSS feed for emails; what user agent they were using, when they scraped it, what tag they scraped it from, and whether the messages were legal under the FCC's rules (the so-called CAN-SPAM Act).”  Cridland's honeypot strategy attracted 240 emails over the three month period. Some fall within the boundaries of CAN-SPAM, some seem pointed in their lack of transparency.  The specific companies involved are not necessarily important to the overall story. Podcasting needs good governance as growth continues and the industry constantly redefines what constitutes ‘normal' business practices. It's on those within the industry to make podcasting better through what's considered an acceptable marketing strategy. It's perfectly legal to scrape email addresses from RSS feed tags and send them unsolicited emails as long as they follow loose FCC and other governmental regulatory rules. In an industry growing as fast and consistently as podcasting one has to question if it has a place for an antiquated cold-calling strategy perfected in the late 90s.  Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week's two Quick Hits are  The Most Important Things We've Learned About Making Successful Podcasts with Brands by Dan Misener. Misener, formerly Director of Audience Development at Pacific Content, provides a great list of learnings on his way out the door. One of the greatest minds at Pacific, Misener has been skilled at breaking down complex data and making it accessible to the masses. His heart has always been focused on growing all of podcasting and Sounds Profitable fully supports him in whatever he's doing next. We know it'll have an impact.  And secondly: a press release from Pushkin media: Pushkin Industries Expands Production Capacity With Acquisition of Creative Podcast Company Transmitter Media. Here we have yet another example of a podcast production company growing to the point they need to buy another podcast production company.  The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Evo Terra are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable. Special thanks to our media host, Omny Studio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's time to grow your email list and reach out to new leads while being legally compliant. Tune in to find out how!   Episode Introduction:  In today's episode of Law Chat with Girija, we're talking about the things we need to keep in mind as business owners while we work on growing our email list that help ensure we're being legally legit.   Episode Summary:  Girija Patel walks us through the various things that need to be done when collecting emails from your audience ranging from the option to unsubscribe, your privacy policy, the legal obligations you have under the CAN-SPAM Act and also how to grow your email list in a legally legit manner. For anyone who's looking to branch out of social media and grow their audience on an evergreen platform, this episode is a must-listen.   Main Takeaways: As per the law in the United States, you can send someone emails without prior consent as long as they have the clear choice to unsubscribe from your list anytime they want. You are allowed to buy and sell email lists in the United States as long as it is clearly mentioned in your privacy policy. A privacy policy clearly tells your user how their personal information is being used and for what purposes. Your privacy policy needs to be easily accessible on your website. If your website has users from the EU, you need to ensure that your website is GDPR compliant.  Legal obligations when sending an email: Use a truthful header. The subject line can't be misleading. Specify the type of email you are sending. You need to share a physical address. Monitor what other parties are doing on your behalf. Have the unsubscribe button clearly accessible and honor it. How to legally grow your email list: Via opt-ins. Facebook & Google Ads (or other third parties). Through your website. Buy from a reputable and legal source.   Help us mentor other entrepreneurs through the power of storytelling by rating us and leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/law-chat-with-girija/id1528580730   Get the FREE Five Day Legal Audit: https://yourcontractbuddy.com/5-day-free-legal-audit-challenge/   Join Law Chat for Entrepreneurs Free Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lawchat/   Get the visual experience, watch the videocast for this episode: https://youtu.be/GHsGaAi-ED8   Connect With Girija: Website: https://www.gbplaw.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gbplaw/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GBPLaw/   Get Ready To Use Contract Templates At: https://yourcontractbuddy.com/

Business legalities. Now, I don't mean to scare you here. Many times, small business owners and people who work from home or remotely won't even face some of the issues that I bring up today. I just want you to know about them and determine if they apply to your business. This is way better than not knowing about the issue and accidentally violating some law that you never even heard of. Now, this is by no means a fully comprehensive list. My purpose today is to get you thinking before making quick decisions that may have unintended consequences. Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 561 How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars See Tom's Stuff – https://linktr.ee/antionandassociates 02:19 Tom's introduction to Business Legalities 03:36 Zoning, chickens and getting a business license 05:28 What type of entity are you 07:05 Getting certifications 08:28 Trademarks and defending it 10:15 CAN-SPAM Act and contracts 12:05 Employment law 15:43 Board of Directors vs Advisory Boards 17:52 Testimonials 19:20 Truth in advertising and truth in lending Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Higher Education Webinar - https://screwthecommute.com/webinars Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Screw The Commute Podcast App - https://screwthecommute.com/app/ College Ripoff Quiz - https://imtcva.org/quiz Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! - orders@antion.com Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there! - https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Program - https://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ KickStartCart - http://www.kickstartcart.com/ Copywriting901 - https://copywriting901.com/ Disabilities Page - https://imtcva.org/disabilities/ Email Tom: Tom@ScrewTheCommute.com Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Related Episodes Joe Libby - https://screwthecommute.com/560/ More Entrepreneurial Resources for Home Based Business, Lifestyle Business, Passive Income, Professional Speaking and Online Business I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://jvz1.com/c/41743/183906 The Wordpress Ecourse. Learn how to Make World Class Websites for $20 or less. https://screwthecommute.com/wordpressecourse/ Join our Private Facebook Group! One week trial for only a buck and then $37 a month, or save a ton with one payment of $297 for a year. Click the image to see all the details and sign up or go to https://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/screwthecommute/ After you sign up, check your email for instructions on getting in the group.

STAYING FOCUSED ON A MONITOR FOR 8 HOURS EP 62 - This episode is about getting CE credits As a CIC, we are required to do annual updates and the classes are usually a deep dive into a topic that you won't find elsewhere. I've done updates every year since 1992. In 2012 I did an update and received a certificate that I had been a CIC for 20 years. To my surprise that meant that I only had to do my CIC update every other year now, instead of every year.  This created CE issues for me because I need 24 hours of CE's a year in my state and since the CIC updates are only 16 hours, I've been scrambling for a few years  to get my 24 in the allotted time. In the past, I just did my update every year and there were my CE's. I never thought twice about it. Over the past 10 years, I've found myself scrambling at the last minute! Before COVID they were all in person.  It was great, you could go to Florida for an update, make a vacation out of it, learn something new, meet some new people and it was an experience, not something that was dreaded. Not everyone likes to travel, or to be out of the office for a few days at a time, so many people do their updates close to home. After doing them for so many years, you get to know a lot of the attendees and it becomes a little like old home week!  I've seen people I worked with in the 80's, 90's and even people I coached in my business development groups in these updates. One of my earlier podcast guests, Laura Bianchini, was scheduled shortly after seeing her at a CIC update! Listen to episode 8 Finding Your Niche   for that conversation! In my area, we had one instructor, Jerry Milton, who was a mainstay. He told a lot of jokes and stories around insurance, keeping  us entertained as we talked about business auto exclusions (I know, boring right) or is it an inland marine or business auto exposure! Sadly we lost Jerry a few years ago just after his retirement, but for anyone who's older listening to this and has taken a few CIC classes, will remember Jerry. RIP Jerry Over the years, the CIC society has updated things a little bit, taking them from 2 ½  days to 2 days but always in person. The classes usually start at 8:00 am and end at 5:15, allowing 10 minute breaks in between and also an extended lunch break because the hotel restaurants often had difficulty feeding 400 people in 60 minutes!. During the morning session and the afternoon session they send around a form to sign that you are there….if you miss signing the form, you don't get credit, so everyone is always watching out for the form. You never know when it is going to be passed around. If you had to get up and take a phone call or use the rest room, you could. If you needed to be out for more than 10 minutes, often you could get an ok from the educational coordinator. Basically if you weren't there, they didn't notice it! Last week with COVID, I did my first virtual CIC update. It's also about time for me to renew my state license, so I needed to get 24 hours of CE's. (or so I thought, but I'll elaborate on that later) Since CIC updates are only 16 hours, I needed two different classes. I decided to do a basic update on life and health, thinking it would be a refresher but hoping they would talk about a few topics that I'm not as confident about (annuities and LTC). I cleared my calendar, no appointments, nothing to do for 2 days but watch my computer monitor and listen to someone talking. First, I need to say that I don't really watch TV, so watching my monitor for 8 hours a day felt a little challenging. When I'm working, I usually have 20 tabs open, looking up something I don't know or doing some other type of research to get answers to my questions. The thought of sitting at my computer for 8 hours was concerning but I had to get the CE's. What caught me by surprise was the pop up quizzes. The three pop up an hour quizzes that apparently if you miss one, you don't get CE's. Seriously! Contrast this with the in person events where you can come and go to the facilities and still get credit but if you miss one pop up quiz you don't get CE's. I wasn't liking that but I really needed my CE's so I was determined to get through it, plus it was a topic I really wanted to know about. I made it through the first 4 hours before lunch and I heard the instructor say that several people hadn't responded to the pop up questions so a lot of people were going to be disappointed when they found out that they weren't going to get CE's.  OMG, how did people miss them……I was (or thought I was) glued to the monitor. I wasn't doing any work, I wasn't talking on my phone. I didn't have any background distractions. Heck, I even held off going to the bathroom until an assigned break. I did look at some of the handouts as they were referenced, which meant looking at a different monitor. But it was fairly close to the main monitor, so I thought I would see any pop up questions or a change in the screen.  ln my mind, I wasn't (or so I thought)  I wasn't one of those people.  But the instructors comment about missing the quizzes stuck in the back of my mind. Before I tell you what happened, I wanted to mention our sponsor, insurancemailboxpower.com This is a mailing service I've been using for over a year now and I love them.  I send all of my birthday cards, thank you cards and marketing post cards from this platform.  Depending on how many I send, I only have to pay for postage.  I'm using a plan that has unlimited postcards, both 4x6 and 5.5 x 8.5. All I pay for is the postage and I send a lot.  I am also in the process of setting up a birthday club. It's a great way for me to stay in touch with people and have their birthday…..think about it…how many birthday cards do you get as an adult? Probably not that many and you probably remember the people that send you a card! Check out Insurancemailboxpower.com and see how you can stay top of mind with your clients and referral partners. Tell them Debbie DeChambeau sent you! Ok, back to my CE rant….. I made it through the first day but it was hard…..there might have been a moment or two where I started to day dream, after all, how much can you absorb about annuities and long term care in one sitting? Day 2 was a little better…at least the instructor made reference to the pop up or would pause in his talking so it was a signal to look at the monitor. Day 2 was about Medicare and Medicaid, which is what I do everyday, so listening to him, seeing if I could pick up a few new nuggets was easier. However, it is also easy to daydream when you could be the one teaching the class!  On Monday I received an email from the National Society that I did not answer all of the pop up questions and therefore I did not earn CE credits!  What! I was shocked. I've been doing my CIC update for over 20 years (actually 30 this year plus the 5 years it took to earn the CIC  designation) Not once did I not get CE credits when the classes were in person! How is it that my first virtual update and I don't get any CE credits? Ugggggg I was pissed. I immediately sent an email back asking which pop up questions I missed. I think this virtual pop up system is flawed. I get that a lot of people will sign on, go play golf then come back and think they should get credit so they have to do something to  keep you honest.  But I think there should be a little grace in missing one or two or maybe 3 over the course of 2 eight hour days.  I feel bad for anyone that had something happen to their stomach and a child needed a glass of water and they missed the pop up question.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that hasn't earned their CE's because they missed a pop up…..but that stinks.  I did some serious soul searching after getting the letter. It was $500 down the tubes….I would never go to the casino and spend that kind of money, I hate throwing it away on CE's!  Then I looked into my state account about how many credits I needed. How was I going to get 24 CE's in less than 30 days? And how much more was I going to have to spend? In my state account, I knew I had a few credit hours because I took my LTC certification in 2021 and paid for the credits when I did my AHIP certification for Medicare. So I knew I had something and maybe didn't need the entire 24.  Well, as I did this, good things began to appear that I either didn't know about or I had forgotten.  For producers in MD that were licensed at least 20 years prior to 2008, you don't need 24 credits, only 8. Ethics was 3 and then I needed a few for life and health and a few for P&C.  Whew….was I relieved. I have an ethics scheduled in a few weeks and am doing another CIC update with the society where I'll get the rest of the P&C credit hours. Or at least I hope I will!. This next update is what the society calls their Mega - in the past it was a week long session of classes that you could take and pick the ones that were of interest to you. I did a MEGA about 8 years ago in Colorado and it was fascinating. This was right as Marijauna was being legalized in CO and one of the sessions was on issues employers faced with the legalization and the impacts with employment liability and workers compensation policies.  Another session I took back then was on cyberliability. That's a topic that has always fascinated me. I remember them talking about a claim where a pizza restaurant had been fined over 50k for sending unsolicited texts messages as a marketing campaign. This was tied to the CAN SPAM ACT which I was well aware of from all the teaching I've done on email marketing with Constant Contact. I hate when I get unsolicited text messages knowing they are violating the CAN SPAM ACT. One day I'll find the time to respond…but if you aren't familiar with it, do your homework.  As usual, I digress! Since COVID, the Mega has pivoted to Virtual and different classes are now offered over the course of 12 months. So you can take 5 classes of your choosing. I took one yesterday on current events and their impact on insurance. For example we talked about WCAG compliance (do you know what that one is?)  (think ADA for your website!) and the apartment building that collapsed in FL and different types of claim situations, outside of the obvious. It was a great class. The instructor told a lot of stories that were engaging and relevant. This class was 4 hours, with two in the morning and 2 in the afternoon with a 2 hour break in between. I was prepared for the pop up questions this time. I wrote down the times of each. After the first 2 hours, I realized that I might have missed one of the pop up questions because I didn't write down the time. I was there, I was engaged, how did this happen again.   I reached out as soon as the second session started only to be told they don't have that information. Ugh…now I have to wait to see if I really did miss one. I hope not, because I was there and I was paying attention….but I did look up WCAG and I'm hoping I didn't miss the question when I was doing the research. I'm talking about CE's because I think virtual is really hard. I don't know how people can love this having to be glued to the monitor for 8 hours straight. It's crazy!  I can't wait to go back to in person when I can doodle when I'm bored and not feel like I have to keep my eyes on the screen so I don't miss a pop up! But here's the good news…..remember earlier I said that I sent an email to the alliance asking which questions that I missed in the Life and Health CIC update. Well, upon further review, they said that I only missed one (which I had notified them about) and I am getting my CE's. The one that I missed didn't go through. I had hit submit but then my screen froze and it didn't go through before it left the screen! So now I just need to get my ethics completed and I'm good for another 2 years.  When it comes to CE's virtual is more convenient but I think in person is really the way to go. We need to be with other people, hear the conversations, build connections because one day the person sitting next to us could be our co-worker, boss or we could be their boss! You never know! Thanks for listening as I rant about CE's and I hope your journey with CE's is more enjoyable! Until next time check out our sponsor, insurancemailboxpower.com and keep creating opportunities!   SHOW THE LOVE If you haven't done so already, please follow, like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts. If you are listening to this podcast online and don't know how to listen to podcasts on your phone, reach out to our host, Debbie DeChambeau and she'll help you. SPONSOR This episode of the Business of Insurance Podcast is sponsored by Insurancemailboxpower.com Stay top of mind with your clients and referral partners by landing in their mailbox, not their inbox where you might get lost in email jail! CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL FACEBOOK GROUP FACEBOOK PAGE TWITTER ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneurer, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo.  Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful.  She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and produces three other podcasts, Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed and Seniors We Love.   Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. 

There was an interesting thread recently in our private Facebook group about people selling brand and agency emails to influencers. Did you know that if you search #brandemails on TikTok you'll find a slew of viral videos that give away brand email addresses? You can find videos on YouTube about how to be an internet sleuth and track down the right contact. There are blog posts that suggest using tools like Hunter.io to find direct email addresses. Tune in to learn more about this story.Leave your thoughts on this story on our LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-email-address-sale-jessy-grossmanYou can also sign up for our email newsletter with more on Influencer Marketing: https://iamwiim.com/newsletter/CAN-SPAM Act of 2003: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-businessWant to join WIIM's Collective?http://www.iamwiim.com/become-a-memberJoin our Creator Only Private Facebook Group:http://www.facebook.com/groups/wiimcreators/Follow us on Instagram:http://www.instagram.com/iamwiim

Episode 42 - Are the Vaccine Mandates Legal with Attorney Rachel Abramovitz Rachel Abramovitz is an attorney admitted to practice law in New York, California and Israel.  She offers her clients over 20 years of experience providing legal counsel on matters of corporate and business law, privacy, HIPAA, mHealth apps terms of use and privacy policies, general commercial contracts, FDA regulatory compliance (pre and post approval), clinical trial agreements, confidentiality agreements, licensing agreements, SaaS agreements, clinical supply agreements, vendor agreements, orphan drug development, CAN SPAM Act, employment agreements, employee handbooks and U.S. – Israel business transactions.In addition to her law practice, Rachel is a pro bono advocate for Patient Rights. Rachel was a voting member of the NYU Langone Medical Center IRB (ethics committee overseeing clinical research) from 2011 - 2019. Rachel presents frequently at industry conferences on clinical research, healthcare and HIPAA compliance and has published articles on HIPAA in clinical research and legal issues surrounding Phase IV studies.Rachel is a graduate of the Michlala Leminhal School of Law in Israel (LL.B., 1995) and the University of San Diego School of Law (LL.M.C., 2000). She is fluent in Hebrew and English and is studying Arabic.In this episode,  we discuss what employees can do to contest the vaccine mandate and what families can do to protect a loved one hospitalized with Covid and ensure they receive proper treatment.  Please review the extensive list of resources below. If you've been affected by mold and want to contribute to our efforts, visit our Patreon or GoFundMe page to donate today.Patreon - patreon.com/exposingmoldGoFundMe - gofund.me/daf1233eTranscript: https://bit.ly/3bRJAVG  Click here to obtain this show's resources page: https://bit.ly/2ZZBzvsBuy Covid early treatment medicine here: speakwithanmd.com or myfreedoctor.comFind us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YoutubeSponsors: Michael Rubino, The Mold Medic and  All American Restoration,  the first and only mold remediation company in the country specializing in remediating mold for people with underlying health conditions or mold sensitivities. They've quickly become the most recommended remediation company  from doctors and mold inspectors nationwide. Pick up your copy of Michael Rubino's book, “The Mold Medic: An Expert's Guide on Mold Remediation, " here: https://amzn.to/3t7wtaUMymycolab specializes in the most precise form of mycotoxin testing by analyzing a patient's IgG and IgE antibodies in a blood serum sample, producing accurate results you can trust. Visit mymycolab.com to order your test today.Support the show (https://www.gofund.me/daf1233e)

Today's episode on spam is read by the illustrious Joel Rennich. Spam is irrelevant or inappropriate and unsolicited messages usually sent to a large number of recipients through electronic means. And while we probably think of spam as something new today, it's worth noting that the first documented piece of spam was sent in 1864 - through the telegraph. With the advent of new technologies like the fax machine and telephone, messages and unsolicited calls were quick to show up. Ray Tomlinson is widely accepted as the inventor of email, developing the first mail application in 1971 for the ARPANET. It took longer than one might expect to get abused, likely because it was mostly researchers and people from the military industrial research community. Then in 1978, Gary Thuerk at Digital Equipment Corporation decided to send out a message about the new VAX computer being released by Digital. At the time, there were 2,600 email accounts on ARPANET and his message found its way to 400 of them. That's a little over 15% of the Internet at the time. Can you imagine sending a message to 15% of the Internet today? That would be nearly 600 million people. But it worked. Supposedly he closed $12 million in deals despite rampant complaints back to the Defense Department. But it was too late; the damage was done. He proved that unsolicited junk mail would be a way to sell products. Others caught on. Like Dave Rhodes who popularized MAKE MONEY FAST chains in the 1988. Maybe not a real name but pyramid schemes probably go back to the pyramids so we might as well have them on the Internets. By 1993 unsolicited email was enough of an issue that we started calling it spam. That came from the Monty Python skit where Vikings in a cafe and spam was on everything on the menu. That spam was in reference to canned meat made of pork, sugar, water, salt, potato starch, and sodium nitrate that was originally developed by Jay Hormel in 1937 and due to how cheap and easy it was found itself part of a cultural shift in America. Spam came out of Austin, Minnesota. Jay's dad George incorporated Hormel in 1901 to process hogs and beef and developed canned lunchmeat that evolved into what we think of as Spam today. It was spiced ham, thus spam. During World War II, Spam would find its way to GIs fighting the war and Spam found its way to England and countries the war was being fought in. It was durable and could sit on a shelf for moths. From there it ended up in school lunches, and after fishing sanctions on Japanese-Americans in Hawaii restricted the foods they could haul in, spam found its way there and some countries grew to rely on it due to displaced residents following the war. And yet, it remains a point of scorn in some cases. As the Monty Python sketch mentions, spam was ubiquitous, unavoidable, and repetitive. Same with spam through our email. We rely on email. We need it. Email was the first real, killer app for the Internet. We communicate through it constantly. Despite the gelatinous meat we sometimes get when we expect we're about to land that big deal when we hear the chime that our email client got a new message. It's just unavoidable. That's why a repetitive poster on a list had his messages called spam and the use just grew from there. Spam isn't exclusive to email. Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel sent the first commercial Usenet spam in the “Green Card” just after the NSF allowed commercial activities on the Internet. It was a simple Perl script to sell people on the idea of paying a fee to have them enroll people into the green card lottery. They made over $100,000 and even went so far as to publish a book on guerrilla marketing on the Internet. Canter got disbarred for illegal advertising in 1997. Over the years new ways have come about to try and combat spam. RBLs, or using DNS blacklists to mark hosts as unable to send blacklists and thus having port 25 blocked emerged in 1996 from the Mail Abuse Prevention System, or MAPS. Developed by Dave Rand and Paul Vixie, the list of IP addresses helped for a bit. That is, until spammers realized they could just send from a different IP. Vixie also mentioned the idea of of matching a sender claim to a mail server a message came from as a means of limiting spam, a concept that would later come up again and evolve into the Sender Policy Framework, or SPF for short. That's around the same time Steve Linford founded Spamhaus to block anyone that knowingly spams or provides services to spammers. If you have a cable modem and try to setup an email server on it you've probably had to first get them to unblock your address from their Don't Route list. The next year Mark Jeftovic created a tool called filter.plx to help filter out spam and that project got picked up by Justin Mason who uploaded his new filter to SourceForge in 2001. A filter he called SpamAssassin. Because ninjas are cooler than pirates. Paul Graham, the co-creator of Y Combinator (and author a LISP-like programming language) wrote a paper he called “A Plan for Spam” in 2002. He proposed using a Bayesian filter as antivirus software vendors used to combat spam. That would be embraced and is one of the more common methods still used to block spam. In the paper he would go into detail around how scoring of various words would work and probabilities that compared to the rest of his email that a spam would get flagged. That Bayesian filter would be added to SpamAssassin and others the next year. Dana Valerie Reese came up with the idea for matching sender claims independently and she and Vixie both sparked a conversation and the creation of the Anti-Spam Research Group in the IETF. The European Parliament released the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications in the EU criminalizing spam. Australia and Canada followed suit. 2003 also saw the first laws in the US regarding spam. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was signed by President George Bush in 2003 and allowed the FTC to regulate unsolicited commercial emails. Here we got the double-opt-in to receive commercial messages and it didn't take long before the new law was used to prosecute spammers with Nicholas Tombros getting the dubious honor of being the first spammer convicted. What was his spam selling? Porn. He got a $10,000 fine and six months of house arrest. Fighting spam with laws turned international. Christopher Pierson was charged with malicious communication after he sent hoax emails. And even though spammers were getting fined and put in jail all the time, the amount of spam continued to increase. We had pattern filters, Bayesian filters, and even the threat of legal action. But the IETF Anti-Spam Research Group specifications were merged by Meng Weng Wong and by 2006 W. Schlitt joined the paper to form a new Internet standard called the Sender Policy Framework which lives on in RFC 7208. There are a lot of moving parts but at the heart of it, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP, allows sending mail from any connection over port 25 (or others if it's SSL-enabled) and allowing a message to pass requiring very little information - although the sender or sending claim is a requirement. A common troubleshooting technique used to be simply telnetting into port 25 and sending a message from an address to a mailbox on a mail server. Theoretically one could take the MX record, or the DNS record that lists the mail server to deliver mail bound for a domain to and force all outgoing mail to match that. However, due to so much spam, some companies have dedicated outbound mail servers that are different than their MX record and block outgoing mail like people might send if they're using personal mail at work. In order not to disrupt a lot of valid use cases for mail, SPF had administrators create TXT records in DNS that listed which servers could send mail on their behalf. Now a filter could check the header for the SMTP server of a given message and know that it didn't match a server that was allowed to send mail. And so a large chunk of spam was blocked. Yet people still get spam for a variety of reasons. One is that new servers go up all the time just to send junk mail. Another is that email accounts get compromised and used to send mail. Another is that mail servers get compromised. We have filters and even Bayesian and more advanced forms of machine learning. Heck, sometimes we even sign up for a list by giving our email out when buying something from a reputable site or retail vendor. Spam accounts for over 90% of the total email traffic on the Internet. This is despite blacklists, SPF, and filters. And despite the laws and threats spam continues. And it pays well. We mentioned Canter & Sigel. Shane Atkinson was sending 100 million emails per day in 2003. That doesn't happen for free. Nathan Blecharczyk, a co-founder of Airbnb paid his way through Harvard on the back of spam. Some spam sells legitimate products in illegitimate ways, as we saw with early IoT standard X10. Some is used to spread hate and disinformation, going back to Sender Argic, known for denying the Armenian genocide through newsgroups in 1994. Long before infowars existed. Peter Francis-Macrae sent spam to solicit buying domains he didn't own. He was convicted after resorting to blackmail and threats. Jody Michael Smith sold replica watches and served almost a year in prison after he got caught. Some spam is sent to get hosts loaded with malware so they could be controlled as happened with Peter Levashov, the Russian czar of the Kelihos botnet. Oleg Nikolaenko was arrested by the FBI in 2010 for spamming to get hosts in his Mega-D botnet. The Russians are good at this; they even registered the Russian Business Network as a website in 2006 to promote running an ISP for phishing, spam, and the Storm botnet. Maybe Flyman is connected to the Russian oligarchs and so continues to be allowed to operate under the radar. They remain one of the more prolific spammers. Much is sent by a small number of spammers. Khan C. Smith sent a quarter of the spam in the world until he got caught in 2001 and fined $25 million. Again, spam isn't limited to just email. It showed up on Usenet in the early days. And AOL sued Chris “Rizler” Smith for over $5M for his spam on their network. Adam Guerbuez was fined over $800 million dollars for spamming Facebook. And LinkedIn allows people to send me unsolicited messages if they pay extra, probably why Microsoft payed $26 billion for the social network. Spam has been with us since the telegraph; it isn't going anywhere. But we can't allow it to run unchecked. The legitimate organizations that use unsolicited messages to drive business help obfuscate the illegitimate acts where people are looking to steal identities or worse. Gary Thuerk opened a Pandora's box that would have been opened if hadn't of done so. The rise of the commercial Internet and the co-opting of the emerging cyberspace as a place where privacy and so anonymity trump verification hit a global audience of people who are not equal. Inequality breeds crime. And so we continually have to rethink the answers to the question of sovereignty versus the common good. Think about that next time an IRS agent with a thick foreign accent calls asking for your social security number - and remember (if you're old enough) that we used to show our social security cards to grocery store clerks when we wrote checks. Can you imagine?!?!

EP 31:  Is cold-emailing legal?  What do I need to know to send my customers and leads new promotions?  In this episode, we break down the rules and regulations of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, so we can reach out to our clients in a lawful way.  *CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for BusinessCradoc Foto Software Stock and assignment photography pricing, image keywording, and photo business management software.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/artrepreneurs)

Email marketing. Now, you can make a lot of money with quality email marketing, and that's the way I've done it for 27 years now. But still to this day, with all the fancy social media and text and messenger marketing, people at my level make virtually all our money through email. Now, in this Part one episode, I'm going to cover the mechanics and some of the theories of email marketing. And next Monday, I'm going to cover the extremely important issue of subject lines. Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 454 KickStartCart - http://www.KickStartCart.com How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars See Tom's Stuff – https://linktr.ee/antionandassociates 03:33 Tom's introduction to Email Marketing Part 1 06:00 Autoresponder email marketing 07:16 Overriding principles 09:04 Don't send UCE (otherwise known as spam) 12:33 Emailing from business cards 14:47 Spam triggers 20:58 Single opt-in vs Double opt-in 22:00 Email formats 30:25 Subject lines Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Higher Education Webinar - https://screwthecommute.com/webinars Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Screw The Commute Podcast App - https://screwthecommute.com/app/ College Ripoff Quiz - https://imtcva.org/quiz Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! - orders@antion.com Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there! - https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Program - https://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ Disabilities page - https://imtcva.org/disabilities/ Pro Speaking - https://screwthecommute.com/prospeaking/ CAN SPAM ACT - https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business Spam Trigger Words - https://prospect.io/blog/455-email-spam-trigger-words-avoid-2018/ Whitelisting - https://screwthecommute.com/whitelist/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Related Episodes Shopping Carts - https://screwthecommute.com/10/ Email Marketing - https://screwthecommute.com/34/ Paul Ace - https://screwthecommute.com/453/ More Entrepreneurial Resources for Home Based Business, Lifestyle Business, Passive Income, Professional Speaking and Online Business I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://jvz1.com/c/41743/183906 The Wordpress Ecourse. Learn how to Make World Class Websites for $20 or less. https://screwthecommute.com/wordpressecourse/ Join our Private Facebook Group! One week trial for only a buck and then $37 a month, or save a ton with one payment of $297 for a year. Click the image to see all the details and sign up or go to https://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/screwthecommute/ After you sign up, check your email for instructions on getting in the group.

EP 57 Continuing Education for Insurance Professionals. I know, it's a boring topic, but I hope to get you thinking outside the box today. Many of you listening might already be doing this, but let's get more people heading this direction. Welcome to another episode of the Business of insurance podcast My name is Debbie DeChambeau, I'm the host of this podcast, I'm an entrepreneurer, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. I want to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo.  Todays episode is for everyone in the insurance industry, but if you are dealing with clients or helping to train insurance agents, this episode is especially for you.  You see, getting into the insurance industry is fairly easy. You take a test, get licensed with a carrier or broker and start selling or working.  Most people say the license test doesn't really cover what is needed for the types of policies you will offer as an agent. In my opinion, that statement is 100% correct. It just covers the basics and even covers some things that many of us will never use in our insurance career. But we need to know them for the test. Once you get licensed in the insurance industry, you need to update your license every year or two or three, depending on the state you are in. For many people, they just go online, find a course that they can get the proper number of hours and are done with it until next time. It's an afterthought for many, just doing what they have to do to get by.  We are all busy, I get it.  In addition to barely getting annual CE's in, there are many licensed agents that don't have a dual license, they only have the original license. For example ….. someone that started with a life and health license never gets the property and casualty license. Do they need to???? NO!  But here's why I think it's important to have both. You need to position yourself as an advisor to your clients, not think of yourself as a sales person. The insurance industry has a bad reputation, and in some ways well deserved. It's too easy to get in to the business….but if you are in the business to do the right thing for your clients and not just make a sale, then you will position yourself as an advisor, a risk manager. Someone that is looking at all aspects of insurance protection so that your clients understand their options. If you only have one license, it can make it hard to expand your conversation.  It's hard to position yourself as an advisor because you don't know what you don't know. Just like your clients don't know what they don't know. With the internet, people have the opportunity to learn more, but there's also a lot of misinformation on the internet and it's our job to help our clients understand. That's what we get paid for!  A lot of people get their licenses and then consider themselves an independent agent and open their business doors. The licensing class is what they have to run their business! Minimal product training…., minimal industry training...minimal business training. There's a big learning curve in the industry and most people don't realize that until they are in the middle of it.  While it sounds so great to be on your own, working alone adds additional challenges to learning the technical components of the industry in addition to learning how to be a business owner. It becomes a ‘hope and pray strategy' that they are doing things correctly. In the back of their mind they know they have E&O and think they are good. For this reason, I think it's important that you expand your education and think about getting some additional certifications such as  CIC, CPCU or CRM on the property and casualty side to a CLU, CHFC or even a CFP for those with a life and health license. BREAKDOWN OF DESIGNATIONS:  CIC - Certified Insurance Counselor - geared towards the property and casualty independent side - takes a dive into policy forms and provides a lot of real life examples CPCU - Certified Property and Casualty Underwriter - like the name says, it's geared towards the property and casualty side - has historically been pushed on the carrier sde, particularly for underwriters CRM - Certified Risk Manager - there's a version for commercial and a version for personal lines. I think we could all benefit from understanding risk management.  CLU - Chartered Life Underwriter - it's the life/health equivalent of the CPCU CHFC Chartered Financial Consultant - geared towards financial consultants who are more on the life and health side - CFP - Certified Financial Planner - also geared towards financial planners  but more on the investment side - encouraging them to take a risk management approach for helping their clients, not just focusing on investments. My husband obtained his CFP shortly after 9/11. It was a time when the market was down and a lot of people didn't want to talk about investments, so I actually encouraged him to pursue it because I knew the value long term of how it could help him. While I didn't get the Cruts and Crats portion, I did review the property and casualty portion and could see it was in-depth and valuable. This is showing my geeky side, but I really enjoyed doing some of the reviews with him as I learned a lot for my own practice. This is a high level overview of some of the designations. Do some research to see what makes the most sense for your career. There are many other designations, and new ones are popping up all the time - for example, the CPIA which is the Certified Professional Insurance Agent which is for all agents, and focuses on sales processes, ethics and marketing using insurance as the platform. I earned the CPIA designation about 4 years ago and CiC designation  more than 25 years ago…. With the CIC designation, I have to complete a minimum of 16 hours a year doing an approved update so that I can keep using the designation. Yes, every year I have to update my designation by taking 16 hours through programs with the The National Alliance which is the organization that manages the CIC, CRM and many other designations. For this particular designation, you have to do the update before your birthday each year. I always try to take the sessions that are new, trendy, innovative, because a lot of them are the same and are repeated frequently.. For example, I was fascinated by cyber liability sessions back in the mid 2000's. Not enough businesses have cyber liability today and in light of recent hackings, they are probably more aware of it now than ever. So those people that paid attention to cyber liability years ago should be crushing it now! That combined with a good risk management strategy can open a lot of doors and set agents apart from the pack. In a recent CIC update, I took the medicare and medicaid session. Now,I've done that many times. I admire the instructor a lot. I took a session with him back in 2012 or 2013 and he blew me away. It was right  after the Affordable Care Act had been passed and he read the 2000 plus  pages of the document and taught us what we needed to know. We were talking about aspects of the ACT  before anyone. I digress…..The recent sessions I took were around medicare/medicaid and long term care and different uses of life insurance. I've taken several of this type of session many times over the years and I always learn something new. For example, this time I learned about the new hybrid life and long term care policies. Yes, insurance companies have finally figured it out!  What I always find interesting in these sessions is how many property and casualty agents know very little about life and health. These are agents that have been around for awhile. Many of them do this particular session because they are thinking about retiring in a few years and feel like it's time to start learning.  Think of all the missed risk management opportunities with their clients because they didn't know what they needed to know. Now, I would guess the same would apply to a life and health person sitting in on a property and casualty class but it's like the hands are in front of their face saying, no, I don't want to know about this. It's too overwhelming and my brain can't handle it! I'm not saying you need to be an expert...because I do believe in focusing on one area. But you need to know a little bit...you need to know enough to ask a few questions that could lead to an introduction to someone on your team.  Imagine writing car insurance for someone for 10 years and in year 11 they passed away. They left behind a wife and 3 children under 10…..and no life insurance. You talked to them every year updating their car information but because you focused on car insurance, you never asked them about life insurance. You were their trusted advisor……. In this scenario, you probably wouldn't get sued for not asking about life insurance, but there are circumstances that if you don't address certain issues, and then there is a loss, you could get sued.  As an insurance professional, it is to your benefit to position yourself as a trusted advisor. To take the sales notion out of it and make sure your client is aware of what insurance products are available to protect them. It's important for them to know what is not covered, just as much as it is important for them to know what is covered.  Don't make any assumptions.  I also offer this from first hand experience. You see my sister passed away at the young age of 36. She wasn't sick, she just didn't wake up one morning. She left behind 4 children. One under 5, one under 10 and 2 teenagers. She stayed home and did daycare. Her husband worked but they counted on her income as well. Plus, her staying home meant they didn't have any daycare expenses. When she passed, there was no life insurance. Financially, he was devastated. He lost her in come and had to pay for daycare, so it was almost a double whammy from the financial perspective. I was / am an insurance agent. I never talked to them about life insurance because I focused on commercial insurance. Losing a sibling is hard. Knowing that I never asked an important question is harder! Had I had the conversation, how different might their lives have been if there was some insurance to help them out? A lot of times people don't want to talk about other lines of insurance because they feel like it's sales, but the more you know the more you realize that asking the questions builds trust, it positions you as more of a professional than an order taker and someone selling insurance. We need to work on that mindset.  There are some people who have so many designations, you have to wonder if they ever work. While it is impressive, without a doubt and in my opinion they are probably 10 times more knowledgeable than I am, it's hard to be away from the office doing all of these classes to earn the designations!!  But having one or two designations, particularly the right ones, can make you so much more valuable to your clients and set you apart from other agents. I'm not a big fan of actually touting the fact that you have a designation but the knowledge that it provides you will definitely pay off. The insurance designation organizations haven't done a great job educating the public to look for professionals with these designations. The CFP designation is advertised regularly and most people who are looking for a financial advisor are aware to look for someone with that designation.  There are other ways to get an education in this industry. Self study, on the job training, having a mentor and through networking. I don't think that enough organizations have what I like to call focused networking and that's part of the piece that's missing. I few years ago I attended a conference for IAIP. I interviewed several attendees for the podcast and you can hear the conversations in earlier episodes. This is an organization that has been around for awhile but recently rebranded to be more inclusive. It's the International Association for Insurance Professionals, formerly known as NAIW, National Association for Insurance Women. Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a member and when I went to an NAIW meeting many years ago, I felt like the youngest person in the room and I know I wasn't the youngest at the recent event I attended. But, I could see how people might feel that way.  Yet because of the age difference, it might keep people away if there isn't an ongoing effort to bring in young people into the organization and make them feel welcome. But getting involved in an organization like this is a great way to meet people with experience, people that can answer questions and help you build your career. I would encourage you to be a part of at least one insurance organization to meet your peers. Those friendships will be invaluable.  So to recap, consider advancing your career by obtaining a designation or two, instead of just doing CE's to get them out of the way!  Position yourself as an advisor, ask questions like a risk manager and talk about what isn't covered so that people understand their risks. Get involved in an insurance organization. Not with the intent of getting business, although that could happen, but this industry needs professionals and that's what is promoted in insurance focused organizations. That wraps up the conversation about continuing education but I want to spend a minute to talk about marketing. What are you doing to stay in front of your clients and prospects? If you haven't done so already, check out insurancemailboxpower.com. You see, being top of mind is essential. Yes, you can send an email which is probably more cost effective, but you have to deal with spam, being part of 100's of emails that people receive each week and staying compliant with the Can Spam Act. You can stand out today by sending things to the mail box. A post card, a birthday card or even a be different and send a half birthday card. Not many people are doing that today! Check out insurancemailboxpower.com. And see how you can make a difference in your marketing! Tell them Debbie DeChambeau sent you! Thank you for listening to this episode of the business of insurance podcast. SHOW THE LOVE If you haven't done so already, please follow, like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts. If you are listening to this podcast online and don't know how to listen to podcasts on your phone, reach out to our host, Debbie DeChambeau and she'll help you. SPONSOR This episode of the Business of Insurance Podcast is sponsored by Insurancemailboxpower.com Stay top of mind with your clients and referral partners by landing in their mailbox, not their inbox where you might get lost in email jail! CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL FACEBOOK GROUP FACEBOOK PAGE TWITTER ABOUT THE HOST This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneurer, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo.  Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful.  She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals and produces three other podcasts, Business In Real Life and Divorce Exposed and Seniors We Love.   Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. 

OVERVIEW: Jason A. Duprat, Entrepreneur, Healthcare Practitioner and Host of the Healthcare Entrepreneur Academy podcast talks about email marketing. He highlights three regulations business owners should be aware of and compliant with, and also shares tips for optimizing your email list hygiene.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Email is the most highly used and most effective way to reach prospects and customers online.  There are 3.8 billion email users and 1 billion accounts.  Email has about a 6% conversion rate and a 3.7% click-through rate.. Comparatively, social media has an engagement rate of about 0.50%. The ROI on email is well over 4000%, as costs are low compared to traditional marketing, such as direct mail.  The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to anyone residing in the EU. It’s extremely strict about how a company should post its privacy policy and how subscriber data is used. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is geared towards large corporations but there are good practices worth googling.  Jason shares the five components of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM), which applies to all promotional emails. If you’re making an offer or selling something, it’s considered promotional.  Jason also provides three tips for optimizing your list hygiene.  One, maintain low unsubscribe rates. You can do this by avoiding list buying, which hurts deliverability because these emails are often marked as spam.  Two, maintain good open and click-through rates by sending relevant content to segmented audiences within your database.  Three, if subscribers don’t open your emails in 60-90 days, consider deleting them from your database.  The overall movement in digital marketing right now is to protect consumer privacy.   3 KEY POINTS: Because there are more than a billion email accounts and the cost of sending mass emails is very low, it’s the most highly used and effective online marketing strategy.  Business owners should check out the details of the GDPR, the CCPA and the CAN-SPAM Act to make sure they’re compliant. Avoid buying email lists. Send only relevant emails to relevant segments of your subscriber database. TWEETABLE QUOTES: “(When it comes to engagement), email marketing blows social media posts out of the water.” - Jason Duprat “Keep good email list hygiene.” - Jason Duprat RESOURCES: GDPR: https://gdpr-info.eu/ CCPA: https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa CAN-SPAM: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business HEA Facebook Group for Digital Businesses: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HeathcareEntrepreneurAcademy/ HEA Facebook Group for Bricks & Mortar Businesses: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HealthcareEntrepreneurAcademyBrickandMortar/ #HealthcareEntrepreneurAcademy #healthcare #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #podcast #emailmarketing #onlinemarketing #onlinestrategy #consumerprivacy

On this week's episode Chris and Steph chat about upgrading to Rails 6, intercepting emails, and play a few rounds of Software Terminology Trivia. They also discuss "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and share strategies for finding and maintaining focus. This episode is brought to you by ScoutAPM (https://scoutapm.com/bikeshed). Give Scout a try for free today and Scout will donate $5 to the open source project of your choice when you deploy Letter Opener (https://github.com/ryanb/letter_opener) recipient_interceptor (https://github.com/croaky/recipient_interceptor) Spam Monty Python (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(Monty_Python)) CAN-SPAM Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003) Deep Work by Cal Newport (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25744928-deep-work) brain.fm (https://www.brain.fm/) Getting Things Done (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1633.Getting_Things_Done) Send us your question (https://thoughtbot.com/blog/send-your-questions-to-the-bike-shed), we would love to hear about it. Looking for your next role? thoughtbot is hiring! (https://thoughtbot.com/jobs) Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of The Bike Shed

Spam sucks. It sucks when you get it and it sucks worse when you're supplying it to your community and you don't even know it. If you are constantly in a habit of selling yourself, your brand, and/or your podcast to people while never providing value, guidance, and advice to those you're communicating with, you, my friend, are spamming.In Episode 77 of Pod Theory, I'm going to tell you why you should never spam your podcast community and what you should be doing instead to establish yourself as an authority, as a resource, and to get your fellow community members seeking more from you. In addition, I'll explain why you should NEVER add someone's email address to your list without their permission. If someone starts receiving email from you and they never asked for it, that's spam, too.Buzzsprout: Podcasting's #1 Hosting SiteClick Here to Sign Up For Buzzsprout and Receive a $20 Amazon Gift Card!Looking to start a podcast or improve your existing show?Download My FREE Podcast Primer Today!Connect with The Host - Jason CerconeWebsite | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | PinterestIn need of deeper podcast counsel? I can help with that!Click here to discover my podcasting servicesMUSIC CREDIT: Theme music for Pod Theory - Big Vision - via purple-planet.com

[2:53] Matter of Rivera-Mendoza, 28 I&N Dec. 184 (BIA 2020) Or. Rev. Stat. § 163.545(1); crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment; INA § 237(a)(2)(E)(i) [7:31] Rad v. Att’y Gen. U.S., No. 19-1404 (3d Cir. Dec. 21, 2020) aggravated felony; INA §§ 101(a)(43)(M)(i) and 101(a)(43)(U); deceit; $10,000 amount; CAN-SPAM Act; 18 U.S.C. § 1037(a); Chenery doctrine [17:26] Mohamed v. Barr, No. 19-3356 (8th Cir. Dec. 23, 2020) motion to reopen; changed country conditions; Somalia; in absentia [20:51] Pojoy-De Leon v. Barr, No. 19-1006 (1st Cir. Dec. 21, 2020) asylum; nexus; particular social group; “Guatemalan women” [23:36] Ruiz Varela v. Barr, No. 19-1994 (1st Cir. Dec. 23, 2020) withholding of removal; particular social group; “immediate family”; Honduras [27:26] Minh Nguyen v. Barr, No. 17-72197 (9th Cir. Dec. 21, 2020) asylum; particular social group; drug users; Vietnam; 2008 repatriation agreement *Sponsors and friends of the podcast!Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli and Pratt P.A.www.kktplaw.com/Immigration, serious injury, and business lawyers serving clients in Florida, San Diego, and all over the world for over 40 years.Docketwisewww.docketwise.com/immigration-review"Modern immigration software & case management"*Want to become a patron of Immigration Review? Check out our Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/immigrationreview *CONTACT INFORMATIONEmail: kgregg@kktplaw.comFacebook: "Immigration Review Podcast" or @immigrationreviewInstagram: @immigrationreviewTwitter: @immreview*About your host: https://www.kktplaw.com/attorney/gregg-kevin-a/*More episodes at: https://www.kktplaw.com/immigration-review-podcast/*Featured in the top 15 of Immigration Podcast in the U.S.! https://blog.feedspot.com/immigration_podcasts/DISCLAIMER: Immigration Review® is a podcast made available for educational purposes only. It does not provide specific legal advice. Rather, the Immigration Review® podcast offers general information and insights regarding recent immigration cases from publicly available sources. By accessing and listening to the podcast, you understand that there is no attorney-client relationship between you and the podcast host. The Immigration Review® podcast should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state. MUSIC CREDITS: "Loopster," "Bass Vibes," "Chill Wave," and "Funk Game Loop" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/immigrationreview)

As we’ve seen, spam messages are more than a source of irritation; they often arrive in our inboxes with dangers that we need to avoid.Cybercriminals send messages that make fraudulent solicitations or attempt to trick you out of money or steal personal, account, or password data. Nearly half of all emails are spam, many people have fallen victim to spam scams, and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages have been the result. It’s something we all need to take seriously.Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most importantly, be wary and watchful. Know that cybercriminals are masters of making their spam emails appear perfectly legitimate. Remember that legitimate companies know better than to ask for compromising data to be shared over email. Do your research and contact the company directly to put your mind at ease.Avoid opening suspicious emails, clicking on any suspicious links, or downloading unsolicited attachments. And keep your security software up to date to protect yourself against anything that sneaks past you. Finally, keep a sharp eye on your accounts. Be on the lookout for any activity that you don’t recognize and if you do see something concerning, take action right away.The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 makes bulk unsolicited commercial email illegal, and nearly all of these messages fall into this category. The fraud and cyberattacks initiated by these spam emails are also, obviously, illegal. But criminals don’t follow the law and they know how to get around the protections that have been put in place. So we need to take steps to protect ourselves from the dangers of spam. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The CAN-SPAM ACT is a regulatory provision on email marketing campaigns that establishes a healthy relationship between individuals, businesses and organisations with their email subscribers / readers.As marketers we initiate and run email campaigns for various reasons and over time email campaigns, when done correctly, have shown a significant ROI in comparison to other forms of digital campaigns. However, to avoid individuals, businesses and organisations from manipulating their readers, spamming their inbox, selling their data to 3rd parties e.t.c. The CAN-SPAM ACT set out guidelines and regulations, in which non-compliance thereof might lead to a penalty of up to $43,280.Send in your questions or business inquiries to augustine@siftgroup.net Get a $20 amazon gift card from Buzzsprout when you start hosting your podcast with them following this linkBuzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEDisclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

The CAN-SPAM Act was enacted in 2003 to protect consumers from unsolicited, malicious emails. In Part 1 of our Email Compliance series, Anne and Pamela discuss the foundations of commercial email standards, and how to make sure your messages adhere to the seven main requirements of this important law.   2020 BOSS Footer Show notes and exclusive offers at VOBoss.com! FOLLOW THE BOSSES: On Twitter @vo_boss @aganguzza On Instagram @vo_boss @aganguzza On Facebook VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent On You Tube VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VOBOSS iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vo-boss-podcast/id1238870667 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vo-boss?refid=stpr TuneIn: http://tun.in/piZHU Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/I5lk5ci2evkqynlddcro5khe7cy?t=VO_BOSS_Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43pUzgVrxP0wOBqYXojwrU?si=bbkH-KYbTRGZTb33u1aw-g iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-VO-BOSS-Podcast-29484508  Check us out on our website at http://voboss.com for BOSS swag, BOSS Business products, and our exclusive BOSS University Classes - Sign up for our mailing list to receive the latest news, exclusive content, and offers. Rock your voiceover business LIKE A BOSS! Show notes and exclusive offers at VOBoss.com! FOLLOW THE BOSSES: On Twitter @vo_boss @aganguzza On Instagram @vo_boss @aganguzza On Facebook VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent On You Tube VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VOBOSS iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vo-boss-podcast/id1238870667 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vo-boss?refid=stpr TuneIn: http://tun.in/piZHU Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/I5lk5ci2evkqynlddcro5khe7cy?t=VO_BOSS_Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43pUzgVrxP0wOBqYXojwrU?si=bbkH-KYbTRGZTb33u1aw-g  Check us out on our website at http://voboss.com for BOSS swag, BOSS Business products, and our exclusive BOSS University Classes - Sign up for our mailing list to receive the latest news, exclusive content, and offers. Rock your voiceover business LIKE A BOSS! CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VOBossPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vo_boss Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vo_boss/ VO BOSS IS SPONSORED BY: ipDTL: https://ipdtl.com/ Anne Ganguzza Voice Productions: https://anneganguzza.com/ VO BOSS LINKS: Website: http://voboss.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vo-boss-podcast/id1238870667 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vo-boss?refid=stpr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOsTYcJnlKo4t2vjN5h37CA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VOBossPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vo_boss Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vo_boss/ TuneIn: http://tun.in/piZHU Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/I5lk5ci2evkqynlddcro5khe7cy?t=VO_BOSS_Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43pUzgVrxP0wOBqYXojwrU?si=bbkH-KYbTRGZTb33u1aw-g

The US Postal Service brought to a screeching halt by widespread rioting and looting...Psychological warfare on our nation's sleeping-in citizens ramps up dangerously...Some news articles are too difficult to skim...Fixing the healthcare system with but a simple T-shirt...All that and more on today's YKS, an episode that's up on time and very full of many minutes of talking! Now that's what we call "fulfilling our duties as part of an implicit promise"! Music for YKS is courtesy of the Hell Yeah Babies, Craig Dickman, Howell Dawdy, and Mark Brendle. Additional research (if any of them made you mad) by the dastardly Zeke Golvin. YKS is edited by Producer Dan. Executive Producer PBostrom. This episode of YKS is brought to you by Manscaped. They got some good stuff over there as far as trimming up your shit goes. Check it out at Manscaped.com and use the promo code YKS to get 20% off your order and free shipping. Cool.Want more YKS? Well, you have to go to the Patreon page and sign up! We're not going to send more of it to a bunch of people who don't want it. That would be a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. This week we're breaking down the Kickstarter episode of Family Guy, watching some YouTubes, and showing Weird Al how it's done with some song parodies of our own. Plus a new round of campaigns to support on What The Fund?!?! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cate and Jessica talk about how the CAN-SPAM Act affects your email marketing.

As email spam became more widely spread in the early 2000s, policy makers started fighting back. In this episode, we’re covering the introduction of CAN-SPAM Act, terrible compilation albums of the decade’s pop hits, and the big privacy changes brought on by GDPR. Email Best Practices Contact Us James Veitch Ted Talk

Using content to connect with potential patients and grow a medical practice has become increasingly popular. Most practice owners are using some form of content to promote their business including a website, blogs, podcasts, social media posts, and/or email campaigns. In this podcast, the ethical ramifications of content marketing are explored with naturopathic physician and medical writer, Sarah Cook, ND. Download the Guide About the Expert Sarah Cook, ND, is a medical writer and a copywriter for the integrative medical community. She holds a naturopathic doctorate degree from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, a certificate in biomedical writing, a professional diploma in digital marketing, and she is a StoryBrand certified guide. Sarah writes website copy, email campaigns, e-books, and other marketing materials—helping clinicians and small business owners create authentic marketing messages to reach more of the people who need them most. Connect with Sarah at www.ndpen.com.  Transcript Karolyn Gazella: Hello, I'm Karolyn Gazella, the publisher of the Natural Medicine Journal. Using content as a way to connect with potential patients and grow your practice is an increasingly popular trend. Also called content marketing, most practice owners are using some form of content to promote their business. It may be a website, blog, podcast, social media posts, email campaigns. While it's true that content marketing can be extremely effective in growing your business, have you ever thought about what the ethical ramifications might be? Today I'll be talking with Dr. Sarah Cook, who is a naturopathic doctor and seasoned medical writer. Dr. Cook has worked with us at the Natural Medicine Journal on many writing projects over the years. She also helps doctors with content creation and copywriting through her company, ND Pen. Dr. Cook is here to talk about the ethical pitfalls of content marketing. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Cook. Sarah Cook: Thank you, Karolyn. I'm excited to be here. Gazella: Well, before we dive into these ethical pitfalls, could you briefly tell us why you think this is such an important topic for clinicians to think about? Cook: Absolutely. So, like you said, most clinicians are doing something with content. They're putting out content for their business, and most of them aren't really thinking about, "Well, how does this relate to ethics?" at all. And even if they thought about some of these things, they might not know where to go for information or really what precautions they should be taking. And I guess you asked why is it important, and I think it's really because it's just really too bad if they're well meaning clinicians, they're coming from a sincere place of wanting to put good information out to help people, and they make mistakes and just because they're not aware, and so then they end up with unexpected consequences. And so that's really what we want to avoid really just by creating awareness about it. Gazella: Yeah, it's such a good point because I do agree; I think the clinicians are coming at it from the correct perspective. Now you mentioned unexpected consequences. What do you mean by unexpected consequences? Cook: So, I mean, I can give a couple of examples of some things that I've seen happen. So for example, there was a doctor who I worked with to help him create his content for a while, and before I started working with him, he had been producing a blog, and one of his blogs, again, he just made a mistake. He found an image online that he thought went well with his blog and he posted that image along with that blog post, completely innocently, not trying to steal somebody else's content and not realizing that this image had a copyright and he was not supposed to use it. And ended up he got a letter in the mail for copyright infringement, and the thing is that the fines for copyright infringement, they're in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and so this is not a small thing. So, one unexpected consequence certainly could be financial. And maybe even worse, I think the other thing to think about is your reputation. Really your reputation is on the line when you're putting content out for your business. And so I can share another example of where I recently saw this play out on social media, and essentially what happened was there was ... I try to stay out of the weeds on these things. I don't get involved, and so I don't have all the details on this, but essentially it was some sort of wellness practitioner, I think a nutritionist of some sort, was creating a lot of social posts and blogging about a concept that actually another better known physician who had written a book about this topic had really already coined these ideas and like I said, written a book about this specific concept, and this other practitioner essentially was promoting the same ideas using the same terminology and not giving credit to that original doctor who had come up with the ideas and had written the book about it. And what happened, what I saw kind of play out on social media, was that people noticed and really her reputation was slammed for that. And I don't know, maybe ... We don't know. We can give her the benefit of the doubt. We don't know if she went intentionally stealing the ideas or if she just thought that she was putting helpful information out, but the mistake that she made was that she didn't give credit to the original person who came up with those ideas. So, I think that is really maybe even more important than the financial consequences is your reputation. Gazella: Oh, I would agree. I think that's such a good point. I mean, your whole business model moving forward stands on your reputation, whether or not you get new patients, patient referrals, et cetera, so I would agree. I think that's critical, and I can see that the stakes are high. So what is your direct experience with the ethics of content marketing? Cook: Yeah, so I mean, I can gratefully say that I haven't really personally suffered these consequences of making ethical mistakes. It doesn't mean I haven't made minor infringements. I'm sure I have, but I haven't been caught. But I've really just been forced to learn some of these concepts over the years of writing and creating content for the integrative medical community just really from being in the trenches and needing to. So for example, you know very well, Karolyn, when we write anything for a dietary supplement company, we need to be extremely careful about the words that we use so that we don't make any claims that that supplement treats or prevents disease, right? And so that is one thing where writing for a dietary supplement company, they usually have their own lawyers, and they make sure that you're being compliant with your language, but even when I've worked with individual doctors where we might be writing a blog and they have a product that they really want people to know about, but it's a specific dietary supplement, and so now we're in the realm of where we have to be very careful about the words we use. And we can get more into this, but you can't talk about that supplement treating disease. You have to talk about it supporting the structure and the function of the body. And so for one way, if there's clinicians listening to this and they're thinking, "Well, I'm blogging about this product," one thing I have done with doctors is like if you have any question, go to the company of that product and say, "Look, I'm writing this blog about this product. Is it okay how I'm wording this and what I'm saying?" I think it's always better to ask than to not exactly know if it's okay what you're doing. So, working with supplement companies, working with doctors is certainly where I have just been in the trenches and having to figure this out as I go. I think the other area is when it comes to email marketing, so collecting people's email addresses, building an email list is huge now as part of content marketing, and the regulations just within the last year, there were sweeping changes in the regulations that actually change what you can ethically do with a person's email address. And so as those changes in regulations rolled out in this last year, any of my clients who I've been helping with their email list, we've had to figure out how to become compliant to these new regulations. So again, a lot of these things are not stuff you can necessarily just Google and find out. A lot of it, for me, has been learning as I go because I have to, and so that's really why I wanted to talk about this subject and make sure everyone else is informed. Gazella: Yeah, it's such a good point, especially about emails, and it's interesting, I know we're going to talk about unsubstantiated claims, but I started out in the natural health industry in the early 1990s. It was like 1992. I became the marketing director of a very large supplement company, and within a couple of months after getting on the job, the company got into significant trouble with the FDA. Dozens of products had to be taken off the market. We had to change labels and literature, and I have to tell you, Dr. Cook, it was baptism by fire. I had to learn very quickly about structure/function claims, disease claims and how to write about products to keep the company safe. So, yeah, I think that that's such important topics. Now, I want to talk about- Cook: Yeah, and I really believe, like you said, you then were like all of a sudden you have to learn structure/function. Well, it's like I also think we can learn from each other's mistakes, and so you and I have worked with structure/function a lot, so if we can share some pearls so that other people don't have to go through what we've been through. Gazella: I know. It's so true, and I do like your advice about contacting the manufacturer because a clinician doesn't have the legal resources, but the larger manufacturers, they have a team of legal people that review content and make sure that the content is safe to publish, so I really like that piece of advice a lot. Cook: And in my experience, they are happy to review an article if you're writing about their product because it helps them. Gazella: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, it's different when you're talking about a product specifically versus if you're talking generically about a nutrient or herb. Cook: Yes. Yes, absolutely. Gazella: You have to be a lot more careful. Yeah, lot, lot more careful when you're talking about a product specifically. So, let's get to the ethical pitfalls of content marketing. What are some of the common pitfalls that you've seen? Cook: So, I was thinking I would just highlight three so we keep this manageable here, so certainly copyright infringement would be one thing to talk about. Secondly, unsupported claims, which I can get into a bit more what I mean by that, but not being able to support what you say with evidence. And then the third thing, misuse of personal information, and that really comes into play when we're collecting people's email addresses and what we're allowed to do with that personal information. So I think those three things are probably a good place to start. Gazella: Yeah. I would agree, those are perfect. So let's talk a little bit about that first pitfall. What advice do you have for clinicians to help them avoid copyright infringement? Cook: Yeah, so honestly, this one probably is the easiest pitfall to avoid if you just have a little bit of awareness. But copyright applies to any content that somebody else has created, so it applies to words, images, videos, and it even applies to ideas, and so the example I gave of where the practitioner had been using these ideas from a book and not giving credit to the author of that book, she wasn't directly copying any paragraphs from that book, but she was copying the ideas, and it's something that's called derivative work. We use that word derivative where it's basically like she's deriving that content, and that is a form of copyright infringement that people might not realize. You don't have to directly copy the words to be infringing on their copyright. So, derivative work is just something to keep in mind where ... I mean, the point is give credit to the person who came up with that idea in the first place. That's all you need to do. And that really goes across the board for any kind of a word. Any words, written content that you are using from somebody else, it's really just a matter of giving them credit, so either linking over to their website or linking over to wherever it was first published in a different article. Giving credit. Images. Images are something to think about. Again, I gave that example of where the doctor didn't realize he shouldn't be using that image. You can't just go to Google images and use any image that comes up. Most of those would have a copyright on them, and here's the thing about images: it doesn't have to have that little copyright symbol on there. It doesn't have to have a watermark to be copyrighted. If somebody took the time to design that image on their own and put it on their website, by default, they own the copyright to that image, and you should not be using it without their permission. So that's something to keep in mind about images, but probably the safest way to go about using images, I would say there's 2 categories of images that you can use without getting permission because you can always ask for permission, but of course that's a hassle, and probably for the most part you don't want to bother with trying to get permission to use somebody else's images. So, really the 2 types of images you can use would be either what's called royalty-free or images in the public domain. Now, I don't know if you want me to go into what's the difference between those, or what do you think, Karolyn? Gazella: Sure. Let's just, yeah, let's touch on that. Cook: Yeah, so royalty-free images, the free part doesn't necessarily mean they're free. You can buy these, so websites like iStock, you pay for it, but it's royalty-free meaning that you're getting a license to use it freely. And so some royalty-free images are paid for, like the iStock photos. Some royalty-free images are available for free at sites like Pixabay.com for example. But the point of being a royalty-free image is that they're granting you a license to use that image freely, and usually, I always would double check what the license agreement says, but for most of these, the license agreement says you can use this freely. You do not have to tell where you got it. The word is attribution. When you give credit, you do not have to give attribution. So you don't have to even document where it came from. Most of those licenses say that for royalty-free images. And then the second category is images in the public domain. And so those are different in that they actually either never had a copyright on them or the copyright has expired, and so they're just in the public domain, again, for anybody to use freely, you do not have to give attribution. So some of the places that you would find those would be on like Wikipedia or it's called Wikimedia Commons, I believe. And that's a nice place if you're looking for more science kind of ... A lot of times you might want to draw a flowchart of the hormones from the hypothalamus down to the ovaries or something, right? That's not something you're probably going to find on iStock Photo, but you might find it in the public domain on like Wikimedia Commons for example. Gazella: Yeah, that sounds pretty straightforward, and I'm glad that you went into that detail. Now, what about that second pitfall? This is the one that I'm really interested in hearing you talk about. What do you mean by making unsubstantiated claims? Can you give us some examples? Cook: Yeah, so we can start with what we talked about when we're talking about specific dietary supplements. That's really just a matter of needing to use words that talk about how that supplement supports what we call structure/function of the body. So for example, if you're talking about a certain curcumin supplement, you can't say, "Oh, this treats pain and inflammation in arthritis." You have to just modify your wording and say something like, "Supports a healthy inflammatory response." And again, that is when you're talking about specific supplements, and I'm glad you brought up that if it is just you're generally talking about curcumin, you can be more free in your language. However, it kind of brings me to the next point about supporting your claims, and that is even if you're just generally talking about curcumin, you shouldn't be making claims that you can't back up with evidence, and so either being able to link over to some study that supports what you're saying, if you're going to say curcumin really is great for knee pain or something, then you would want to be able to link to a study that showed that or be able to at least say, "Look, this is in my experience or what I have seen with my patients," and that's perfectly fine to use as evidence as long as you're clear that that's what you're basing this on, that's what you're basing your statement on. So it's really all just about being transparent about if you're making a claim, being able to back it up with either research or your personal experience and just being open and honest about that. Gazella: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense, and I think it's a great reminder. Now let's move on to that third pitfall. What does misuse of personal information have to do with content marketing? Cook: Okay, so this really gets into collection of email addresses, and so the thing is, this is a huge trend in content marketing is give away something free. So people call it all different things; they call it a freebie or a lead magnet or a lead generator, but they're giving away maybe like a free PDF download, and it used to be that you could give away this free, really valuable piece of content, and it was just assumed that when somebody put in their email address to download that guide, they're automatically put into your email list of subscribers, and they're going to start getting your regular emails like your e-newsletter or your promotions or anything. And that actually used to be fine, and there's an email regulation called the CAN-SPAM Act, which has some items in place to make sure you don't spam people with mass emails, but it used to be very easy to be compliant with CAN-SPAM if you were using any regular kind of MailChimp or Constant Contact or any of those things, you were pretty much automatically compliant. It was just required things like having a little unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email. But here's the thing is that just in the last year, so May of 2018, regulation went into effect in Europe called GDPR, and it totally changed this situation. So, quick disclaimer, I'm not a lawyer, so please, Karolyn, do not take anything I say as legal advice, Okay? Gazella: That's a great disclaimer. I like it. Cook: This is not legal advice. Gazella: I'm going to make that same disclaimer. I'm not an attorney. Cook: I am not an attorney, but in a broad sense, I think it's useful to understand what GDPR is about because it completely relates to ethically what we do with people's email addresses. So, I want to just broadly tell you what this is. Pretty much what GDPR says is that people should have a say in what you do with their personal information. So, it's really 2 things that we need email subscribers to give us, number 1 explicit consent to email them stuff, so they need to specifically say, "Yes, I want to be on your email list," and the second thing, granular consent. So it means you can't lump everything into a bucket anymore and say, "When you download this guide, you're also going on my general email list." They need to specifically check a box that says, "Yes, I want the guide, and yes, I want to be on your email list," so they need to specifically say they want to be there to be compliant with GDPR. So, it doesn't mean ... We can still use freebies or lead magnets or whatever you want to call them. It's just a slight variation on how you create that form on your website to collect that email so that you'll be compliant. Gazella: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and clinical practices are used to dealing with personal health information, so as long as they take that same care when dealing with the personal emails I think that ... And it can be confusing. A lot of this- Cook: But wait. Can I say one more thing about ... I'm sorry. Excuse me. Gazella: Uh-huh (affirmative). Cook: One more thing I just want to mention because a lot of people might say, "Well, I'm a US-based business and GDPR is a European law, so it doesn't apply to me," but here is the thing is that GDPR, if somebody in Europe accesses your website, even if you're a US-based business, you need to be compliant with GDPR. And so if somebody sitting in a coffee shop in Madrid, Spain looks at your website and opts in for your guide for smoothies, then you're supposed to be GDPR compliant for that person. And so that ... Oh my gosh, email marketers are doing all different kinds of things, and some are getting really technical and monitoring like, "Oh, if somebody is in Europe and they're on my website, I'll show them the GDPR-compliant form, and if they're in New York and they look at it, I'll show them the noncompliant form." So you can get into the weeds really fast here, but in my opinion, GDPR brings up an ethical issue that is people should have a say in what you do with their information, and if they want to be on your email list, you should get their permission for that. Gazella: Yeah, I think that's a good general piece of advice, but I can also see where some of these issues might get a little complicated quickly. Where do you suggest people go for more information if they have additional questions? Cook: So, that's a great question because I think I mentioned earlier a lot of these things, Google doesn't necessarily get you where he need to go. So, I actually put together a list of resources, at least from what I have, that I can share with your listeners, and so I just put together a resource guide. It has some things of where you can find royalty-free images or images in the public domain, linking over Copyright Alliance is actually an organization that just has really simple to understand information to understand copyright law. I have a link in that guide for where you can find FDA guidance on the structure/function language, and then of course some links to where you can learn more about GDPR. So, I tried to put together just some things that I have found to be reliable and really useful in that guide, and so I think we're going to share that maybe in the show notes, but you can find it. It'll be on my website, which is NDPen.com/ethics. Gazella: Yeah, and we'll also- Cook: Oh, and by the way ... I keep cutting you off, Karolyn. I'm so sorry. Gazella: Oh no, that's okay. Go ahead. Cook: I am setting that up to be a GDPR compliant opt-in so that you can see an example of what that looks like, so you can just download the guide and that's it, or you can choose to be on my email list, but I will not just add you to my email list when you download the guide. Gazella: Yeah, and we're also going to be linking to that guide. On this page of the podcast, there's going to be a link so our listeners can just click over. I mean, from a clinician standpoint, this might be something that you're going to want to share with your office manager or the people who are actually executing your marketing communication plan, your content marketing plan. So, yeah, thank you for doing that free guide for our listeners, Dr. Cook. Now, I have a question here. With all of these ethical pitfalls, do you think that content marketing to grow a medical practice is worth the risk? Cook: Yes, absolutely. Oh my gosh. I mean, here's the thing. The chances, if you are going about this from your heart, with good intentions, honestly the chances of getting in trouble for minor infractions of any of these things is so slim. It's so slim that you would ever get in trouble for anything, and yet the benefits of getting your content out there are massive. So, I mean really, if you're putting content out there, it's a way to really show your expertise, it's a way to get ... I mean, all of these integrative health practitioners, everyone has a unique message. Everyone's message is different. They have their own authentic voice and way of sharing it, and you get that out with your content. And really, yeah, creating content takes time, and you might hire some people to help you with all the parts and pieces, but it is a really effective way to promote your business without getting into a massive advertising budget. So, I mean bottom line is like getting your content out gets you connected with people who need you the most; that's what it's about. It's about getting your message out there and helping people, and I really believe that that content marketing is a solid way to do that and really to just grow a thriving business. Gazella: Yeah, I would agree with you. I have been a content publisher of integrative health information since the early 1990s, and I really feel that content is king. So, I have a love of quality content just as you do, Dr. Cook. I think that you brought up some really good points. It allows the practitioner to showcase his or her expertise. It can help you distinguish yourself from the competition. So for example, if you have areas of expertise or specialty areas that the doctor down the street doesn't have, you can showcase that, and you can actually target the patients that you want coming into your clinic. You can use content marketing as a referral tool. There's so many great things about content marketing, and the fact that you highlighted, Dr. Cook, the fact that content marketing helps practitioners help people; it helps a ton of people, so it's not just the patients that they're seeing, it helps a broader audience, and I think that is very much in line from a vision standpoint for most of the practitioners, and that's probably true in the case of the practitioners that you're working with, that they have this mission; they're on a mission. Cook: Yep. Absolutely. Gazella: Yeah, I think that this is great. Well, this has been a lot of great information, and we are going to be submitting this podcast for continuing educational credits in the area of ethics, so thank you for helping us out it with that, Dr. Cook. Cook: Awesome. Gazella: And I hope you have a great day. Cook: Thanks so much, Karolyn. You too. Gazella: Bye-bye. Cook: Bye.

Let's talk about the forms of broadcast e-mail. I started out with a newsletter called Great Speaking, which was directed towards professional public speakers. Now this was a long time ago, folks. My mindset didn't support a regular output of these newsletters on a certain day every week. I just put it out whenever I had enough to say. I'm just more of a random guy. I mean I refuse to be held to a certain schedule. Now with this podcast, I learned that having a regular schedule grows your audience faster. Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 118 Great Internet Marketing Training – https://www.greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars 04:10 Tom's introduction to Broadcast Email 05:58 Forms of broadcast email 12:28 Length of email is very important 14:08 Delivery rates 15:37 Open rates 20:37 Days of the week to send email 22:19 Time of day to send email 25:19 Text vs. HTML email 29:19 Clickable links 33:21 CAN-SPAM Act 34:46 Sponsor message 35:57 Making money with broadcast email Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Higher Education Webinar – It's the second webinar on the page: https://screwthecommute.com/webinars Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Screw The Commute Podcast App - https://screwthecommute.com/app/ Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! - orders@antion.com Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there! - https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel KickStart Cart - http://www.kickstartcart.com/ Copywriting901 - https://copywriting901.com/ Tom Antion's Butt Camp - https://screwthecommute.com/buttcamp/ How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Great Internet Marketing Training - https://www.greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ Great Internet Marketing - https://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/ Have More People Show up at Webinars - https://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/showup/ CAN-SPAM Act - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003 GDPR - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation To see the HTML code example Tom mentioned, go to the show notes for this episode here - https://screwthecommute.com/118 Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Related Episodes Shopping Carts - https://screwthecommute.com/10/ Joint Ventures - https://screwthecommute.com/31/ Spam Control - https://screwthecommute.com/115/ Gina St George - https://screwthecommute.com/117/ Patricia Fripp - https://screwthecommute.com/119/ More Entrepreneurial Resources for Home Based Business, Lifestyle Business, Passive Income, Professional Speaking and Online Business I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://jvz1.com/c/41743/183906 The Wordpress Ecourse. Learn how to Make World Class Websites for $20 or less. https://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/wordpressecourse Join our Private Facebook Group! One week trial for only a buck and then $37 a month, or save a ton with one payment of $297 for a year. Click the image to see all the details and sign up or go to https://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/screwthecommute/ After you sign up, check your email for instructions on getting in the group.  

OnyxQueen Media CEO, Renée Lowe, discusses SPAM and the law. You MUST be compliant or you are breaking the law! Yes...BREAKING THE LAW! . Steps You Can Take to Ensure Your Email Marketing Complies . If you've determined that you must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act, then there are a few simple steps that you can take to comply with the law. For example: . Email headers, domain names, and subject lines must be accurate and not deceptive. . You must disclose if your message is an advertisement. . You must include a valid postal address in the mail body. . Disclose and clearly state how recipients can opt-out or unsubscribe from your message. . Honor unsubscribe requests within 10 business days. Any unsubscribe mechanism must be able to process these requests for at least 30 days after the email was sent. . If you use a third-party email marketing service, make sure they follow the requirements of the law – for example, are opt-outs being handled correctly? The law doesn't differentiate from the company that sends the email and the company whose product is being promoted. . Source: SBA.gov . For press inquiries or to be a guest on the show, Please E-mail: info@onyxqueenmedia.com | © 2012 - 2019 OnyxQueen Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode we welcome Tom Tate, AWeber's Product Marketing Manager to give us tips on how to land your emails in your subscribers' inboxes. This episode is a Learning Lab--note taking will be valuable.  Show Notes & Links -Why email providers screen your emails -How email companies decide what is spam -Why you content makes a difference--is yours valuable? -Why getting target readers on your list is better than amassing large numbers of general readers -How to educate your subscribers to make sure your emails land in the inbox.  -Tips on how to escape the dreaded spam tag -Are you familiar with the CAN-SPAM Act? -Tips on engaging subscribers in a conversation to boost engagement -Why you need to include an unsubscribe link in every email Clickable Links -Information on Chris' new Facebook class -Learn about AWeber here -Link to info on the CAN-SPAM Act      

Everyone says you need an email list but few people really tell you how to start one or what to do with it once you have it. In this episode, we will discuss email list basics to help you get started or to more effectively use your list. We will also discuss the basics of the Can Spam Act, which is the law that regulates commercial email.

The good, the bad and the ugly about solo ads vs. affiliate networking... There are many ways to get traffic. Some of the older ones include fads such as: Joint Venture Giveaways: someone would sign up and have access to multiple giveaways that they could then send to their list. Everyone in the network would be cross-mailing their own lists, offering these giveaways, to attract traffic to their site. Viral Reports: you have a special report (i.e. how to set up a basic WordPress site) and mail it to your list and the link back to your site is included in the report. For each of your subscribers that passes it on and gets a new subscriber to sign up, you could pay them a $1 per new subscriber. Traffic Exchanges: this operates similarly to the JVG above where there's multiple people in the network. You would join it and then everyone is rotating through viewing multiple sites and each one you view gets you a credit. With these credits, you could then buy banner ads, etc. to drive people back to your site where they would hopefully buy your product. Co-Registration: you would sign up with several other marketers and basically cross-promote. As subscribers signed up for your list, they were signing up for other lists in the same group as well. Safe Lists: join an email-based community with several other marketers. It's really just marketers mailing other marketers each day. Renting/Buying a List: you can choose parameters and order a list from a site like InfoUSA, to market to and pad your own list. Even if they don't opt-in, you can create retargeting ads that follow them around the internet. All of the above have either gone "out of style" because they didn't work forever, or because they became illegal under the CAN-SPAM Act. Now, the major forms of driving new traffic are Solo Ads or Affiliate Networking. Solo Ads Solo ads are when you pay someone else to mail out your offers to their list. You are paying someone else, who already has an established list, for email leads. It sounds good in theory. What are the pitfalls? It's a great way for the solo ad seller to make money, not necessarily you and probably not you. They don't have to expend any effort-they are not marketing their own product and they are not having to take the time to research affiliate programs. Not everyone's lists are created equal. You don't really know where they got the names on their list from. Some are built from questionable traffic sources. Example: AdFly. The traffic you get from using Ad.Fly is mostly from interstitial ads, the ads that are placed before you can see articles and videos, etc. It's very untargeted traffic because you can't enter keywords. There is nothing that you have that everyone wants to buy. So, in this case you'd be paying someone to send ads to a list where subscribers aren't even interested in your niche. You could be paying $1 per click if your squeeze page is on target and converts at 50%, which is a good conversion rate. Tip: for a good squeeze page, see our Backup Creator squeeze page. You Win Some, You Lose Some Over a 1-year period, Robert purchased $1912 in solo ads. For that $1912, he got 3209 clicks, which resulted in 1059 email opt-ins and $502 in sales. This appears to be a $1500 loss but you can keep marketing to them (until and if they opt-out) and generate additional sales later. The good news is that 3209 new subscribers quickly builds your list-if you have a big list, you'll be excited to send out those emails for potential sales, which is the name of the game in internet marketing. Sales! Caveats & Advice The best solo ad sellers that will bring you success are likely those that don't do it as their only income. They may just be doing it for a time while they are on vacation, have family matters to attend to, or are between projects. Robert's experience with solo ad ‘only' You need to put back about 20% of your business income into ad spending so solo ads aren't the worst thing and you...

Affiliate marketers are getting hot under the collar about mobile marketing profits. And I’m becoming concerned about Internet marketers affiliates moving into  “mobile marketing without proper training. In many cases, those promoting courses and the “secrets” of the practice fall victim to lack of best practices and, sometimes, breaking the law. The CAN-SPAM Act of […]

OptIn Mailing, Can-Spam Act, Email Marketing, Sales Copy Glen Hopkins did a fantastic job explaining his very effective, highly successful double opt-in system.. for www.mikegtelecoach.com clients During this session we covered.. The five things you must do to be legal with your emailing, i.e. stay out of jail, don't run afoul of the CanSpam Act of 2003. Then we discussed the things you need to do to prevent 'spam' in the 'eye of the recipients'. This is easy stuff, we talked about all of it on this call. Glen also gave us a very valuable resource for an emailing program. Check out www.autoresponseplusv3.com and check out www.gammadyne.com. Both highly recommended mailing programs, and the reason we're sharing this with you is this We talked at length about public auto-responder programs.