Email marketing is big business. From spammers to political action groups, the past five years have witnessed the rise of electronic correspondence as the most popular way for businesses and organizations to reach the public. This change is due to the fact that, unlike the ancestors of the digital marketing revolution (direct mail campaigns or phone calls), email is free and fast.
At least it was until AOL, the largest U.S. Internet service provider, announced plans to charge for guaranteed delivery on certain types of bulk e-mail messages. By charging for "certified" email messages, AOL hoped to curb the amount of spam customers were receiving in their inboxes. With this new technology developed by Goodmail, mass mailers must pay a fee to ensure that their email was "stamped" by the ISP as a certified piece of correspondence.
AOL's new bulk email fee -- which boils down to a fraction of a cent per message -- took effect two weeks ago. So far the program has had a mixed reception – consumers seem to love it, but businesses and non-profits, small and large alike, have begun to worry about what this fee will mean for them.
As much as my heart goes out to small business owners who are just trying to make it, I can't say I'm sorry to no longer receive messages, cryptically entitled, "Buy L3vitr^! Ch3^p P!lls!"
Cramer on BloggingStocks: This bullish retail story looks like a good fit 
Top growth fund manager sours on Apple, U.S. tech
New Facebook share structure hints at IPO
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-22-2006 @ 5:39PM
Chuck Templeton said...
Hmmm...is it surprising this editorial was on the AOL news page? LOL
In reality, yes, this helsp curb spam...btu filters, laws, and the like aren't stopping it now - so to think this is a cure is silly. Yet, the free speech it stifles, and the disadvantage to non-profits and political users is immense.
Let's call a spade a spade - AOL has mediocre content, and is losing users as a result (and revenue). So, rather than develop innovative products or content, the best and brightest at AOL can only think to add fees that diminish the great equalizer that was the Internet. We were lucky to have Google fight the goventment's spying, and Qwest to resist relaeasing records - sadly, AOL is a lemming and not an innovator.
5-22-2006 @ 7:22PM
Bruce said...
That's not what this program is about. They could block the spam before this. It is about an extra revenue stream for aol, and forcing us to receive marketing messages that we don't necessarily want. I'm a consumer and do not like it.If I cannot block these senders in my mail preferences aol will be saying bye bye to my monthly fee.