Is this spam?

[Jayne]

Hi,

I got this in my email today. I thought it was spam, but found the bottom quite interesting. It sounded legal, saying it's not spam and it was done manually?

Is this spam..Yes or No?

Jayne :D


Hello,

I've been looking at your website at www.bowbiz.co.uk. Apologies for contacting you unannounced but we have already provided a service for you for no charge (see below).

You are not on any list so this is the only email you will receive from us.

As a no charge service we conducted a link check for your website. We searched on Google for link:http://www.bowbiz.co.uk and found that you have 11 websites linking to you that are indexed by Google (try it, you can find websites that link to any other website in this way).

As you're probably aware the more websites that link to your website the higher up Google (and Yahoo and MSN) your website is likely to appear. Getting other websites to link to you is an essential but very time consuming aspect of any successful search engine optimisation process.

This is where we can really help you. Using your preferred search terms (we can assist in choosing these if you want) we can achieve top 10 placements on Google, Yahoo, MSN for you. This is done through a combination of tried and tested "off-site" (arranging for websites to link to you) and "on-site" techniques.

We are highly confident we will succeed. In fact once your account is set up we operate a "more than your money back guarantee" should we fail to obtain your chosen top 10 placements for you.

We have achieved top 10 positions on Google, Yahoo and MSN for numerous clients and are happy to show you examples. We know we can do the same for you.

For further details we can be contacted on 0845 0542847, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or simply reply to this email at john@backbone-solutions.co.uk

Just so you know, we are a UK based limited company.

Best regards
John Power
john@backbone-solutions.co.uk

Leading UK Providers of:

SEO, Rewritable Websites (Content Management), E-commerce, Shopping Carts, Hosting, Intranets, Extranets, IT Offshore Outsourcing, Microsoft Training and more.



We are also approved by the government as accredited suppliers of interactive websites and secure intranets for schools throughout the UK.









NOTE: This is not *spam, you have been contacted by a person sending this email manually, with the sole purpose of introducing ourselves to you with no cost or obligation on your part, also you are not on any list with us. We sincerely hope you appreciate this is the politest way of contacting you and we sincerely apologise if it has inconvenienced you in any way.
*Officially defined as, unsolicited, sent in bulk and automated (must be all three to be spam).

[confused]

I'd say its a marketing mail rather than spam

CALV

[Jayne]

But I thought you had to sign up for mail on a mailing list? That's what other threads say and i've never heard of this company.

Jayne :D

[mattk]

If it looks like spam and it smells like spam, then it usually is spam!

[Jayne]

If it is marketing, do you think it will be any good? I thought it was quality links needed, not big amounts?

Jayne :D

[confused]

But I thought you had to sign up for mail on a mailing list? That's what other threads say and i've never heard of this company.
There was a few threads about this a while ago, I have sent similar emails out though not as long winded. My opinion on your mail is that its basically an advert/marketing whatever you want to call i t, the equivalent of a leaflet through your door. Up to you what you do with it.
I dont like their site, its all over the place in firefox www.backbone-solutions.co.uk and to say they have we have close to 10 years experience in internet and SEO business which can benefit you to get top rankings.
it seems odd that my google page rank shows zilch for their site.

[Top Hat]

I'd class it as spam.

SEO is also a very spammy subject too

[Jayne]

I was tempted to email him, don't think i'll bother now.

Jayne :D

[directmarketingadvice]

It's not an email written for you.

I'd guess they've got a bot that goes through a bunch of websites and counts the number of google links etc and then sends out a bunch of emails to the contact address.

Does that count as spam?

A matter of opinion, I'd say.

Steve

[Jayne]

I may spam him back then :lol:

Jayne

[directmarketingadvice]

Also, they say that you've got 11 links in google, they've only got one.

Maybe you should be doing SEO for them.

Steve

[mattk]

I was tempted to email him, don't think i'll bother now.

Jayne :D
I have no doubt that he'll get your site into the top 10 on Google, MSN and Yahoo. However, the term you will rank highly for will be so obscure that only 6 people a month will search for it. See the thread about "biggest advertising" in the General section. This will drive zero traffic to your site and will remove several £££ from your bank balance!

[Mortime Business Software]

As I understand it from a previous thread, if it was sent to you in your capacity as a "company", then it is not spam. However, it should include a mechanism whereby you can opt out.

If it was sent to you as a consumer without your consent, and you are not an existing customer of the sender, then it is spam and against the law.

Here's the relevant part from that earlier thread...
-------------------------------
Revised UK regulations will mean online marketers can send e-mail pitches and SMS messages only to consumers who have agreed beforehand to receive them, except where users are existing customers of a particular company. So, for consumers at least, the UK government is applying the 'opt-in' approach to regulating spam.

Corporations can still be approached 'cold' with email pitches but in these instances emails must have an opt-out clause.
-------------------------------

Hope this helps,

Dave

[Rob Holmes]

Jayne,

It's interesting to see someone posting on the other side of spam - the debates so far on UKBF were always .. can I get away with sendin it etc etc..

The definition of spam is this...

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE)

This was clearly unsolicited - it is of a commercial nature and it is an email so yes it fits the definition of spam exactly.

Now is this legal? Thats another issue - there are loopholes where you can send to a business address etc etc BUT the real point is that a human reads it and even if it's legal in their mind as you've proved it's UCE or spam and IMHO rightfuly deserves to get blocked by your webhost or email systems.

Rob

[Mortime Business Software]

Thanks Rob. I should have made the distiction between 'legal' and 'illegal' spam. Since spam is such a dirty word to many people, I've been conditioned to think if it all as illegal.

Dave

[Rob Holmes]

Thanks Rob. I should have made the distiction between 'legal' and 'illegal' spam. Since spam is such a dirty word to many people, I've been conditioned to think if it all as illegal.

Dave

Hi Dave - I guess it doesn't matter from a sales point of view both end up in the same place!

Obviously from a legal point of view theres a difference.

Rob

[Cornish Steve]

For me, this is a polite business introduction. The guy is professional and polite, and he provides his name, telephone number, and email address. I'd say it's worthy of a polite response, even if it's a 'no'. I see no difference between a polite email introduction and a polite telephone call.

I am quite unconventional in my approach to contacting people. Our beta trial was populated by people from around the world to whom I wrote a similar polite email message. Our most important potential customers for our July launch came from email contacts - in fact, company/college presidents responded positively.

Maybe someone can help me with this, because I don't want to fall foul of any laws. By sending a personal and polite email, one to one (not mass mailing), am I violating any law? Given that we're talking about a one-off contact, I do not provide an option for unsubscribing; there's no subscription from which to unsubscribe.

[bwglaw]

Satisfy my curiosity, what does IMHO mean because I have now seen it several times and scratching my brain to work out the acronym

More to the post. A person will always view an email as spam if it is unsolicited and/or if it does not interest them. It does appear to be a polite professional approach but if it was done in bulk then I would delete it. If someone emailed me unsolicited but the email was more personal I would consider it.

[freecybermag]

Do you know I have seen IMHO and never knew what it was but suddenly I started to think and could it possible be

In My Honest Opinion? Eureka :D

[Jayne]

In My Humble Opinion = IMHO

Jayne :D

[bwglaw]

And me of all people should know "in my humble opinion" :oops:

Your lordships, my learned friend, I apologise for my ignorance of forum etiquette

*walks off back to law school in a sulk*

[Enigma121]

Well it's not the way we sell and market our services (which are similar to what this guy is offering).

We work on referrals and personal contact, rather than unsolicited e-mail. The trouble with unsolicited email contact such as this is it looks like spam and in most cases customers will simply ignore it anyway.

Email is free to send and thus it's easy to produce something like you have received.

However if they are unwilling to spend at all on cost of sales / marketing, what does this say about this potential supplier?

So they haven't sent this email through an automated program which mass mailed you. Instead they gave it to their team of mass mailing monkeys who emailed you... What's the difference?

[Urban Space]

Well IMHO (:lol:) chain letters are much worse than spam! :x! Have you ever got one of those that 'have been around the world 40 times since 1845 and if you don't send this to at least 500 people in the next 10 minutes you'll die tonight'?

:lol: Who makes these things?

Liam

[bwglaw]

Who makes these things?

Liam

Ermm...guessing...you?! :shock:

[Urban Space]

Could be...:shock: :lol:

Liam