'Spamford' Wallace builds new marketing site
Sanford Wallace, the "Spam King" so notorious for blanketing users with junk e-mail that he earned the nickname "Spamford," has a new Web site, and it's devoted to the marketer's new passion: opt-in advertising. Opt-in e-mail mailing lists include only users who have requested to join the list. Spamming is reviled partly because the e-mail messages are unsolicited.
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'Get PAID to wear your clothes!!!!' -- Marketeer Sanford Wallace |
Wallace gave up spamming a few months back in the face of persistent lawsuits and user wrath, He has since been selling computers and working as a restaurant promoter in the Philadelphia area. He even testified in Congress on the evils of spam.
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| What do you think of Sanford Wallace's new anti-junk-mail identity? Add your comments to the bottom of this page. |
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Wallace has also been trying to build a new business in opt-in advertising, and SanfordWallace.com has the stated aim of converting other spammers to the new faith.
Spam conversion
"I'm helping people convert their old opt-out habits to opt-in," Wallace said. "For instance, I've developed software that gives people the power to send mail to their existing contacts, and extract addresses out of ... their own in-box rather than extracting them from newsgroups or the Web. It takes longer to expose your business, but it's the [politically correct] thing to do."
In one newsletter, Wallace attempted to explain to spammers that opt-in mailing is not only financially viable, it is also emotionally satisfying.
"The key to success is the implementation of innovative techniques which make people beg you to send them e-mail," Wallace wrote. "That's right... beg!"
Sign up now!!!
While most anti-spammers have accepted Wallace's new anti-junk-mail identity, some of his new practices might not be quite up to their standards. He said, for example, that he is culling the e-mail addresses of those who sign up for his newsletter to create his new advertising audience.
Users can also select items from a list, to receive e-mail on such topics as "Make money on financial information!" "Submit your URL to 400+ Search Engines for only $12.95!" and "Get PAID to wear your clothes!!!! NO JOKE!"
Despite Wallace's make-over, one e-mail expert expressed some uncertainty about the former spammer's new venture: "Oh no, I'd never respond to an e-mail from him," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group. "He'd probably drop me onto some screwy list and I'd never get off of it."