up vote 3 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

Does anyone know of a site or reference for ways to promote an e-commerce site without breaking any spam laws. I've recently built a new site and I'm not sure what is and is not allowed.

Thanks for any advice

link|improve this question
Please see: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/17509/… – Troggy Nov 23 '09 at 22:28
1  
"Not breaking any spam laws" seems awfully specific to me. You aren't talking about ethics, effect on the people you're promoting to, or other laws (such as mail fraud or graffiti). You aren't asking about other negative effects, such as getting your site blacklisted. Do you have ideas other than mass emailing, and do you have some idea of what you're getting into? – David Thornley Nov 23 '09 at 23:06
Why has a question that is not even remotely related to system administration been migrated here? Personally, I don't think it's appropriate for any of the related sites. – John Gardeniers Nov 24 '09 at 8:26
feedback

migrated from superuser.com Nov 24 '09 at 6:11

This question came from our site for computer enthusiasts and power users.

4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

first of all, IANAL

now, there is one simple rule: only send to people who have given you explicit permission, (and the permission is still valid, and not retracted,) to recieve this kind of emails.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Your question seems to be more like, "What is and is not allowed in [my locality], so that I may figure out how to promote my site without breaking those laws?" I.e. you can't really ask how to go about promoting your site without first researching what is and isn't legal.

BTW, kudos for asking. That gets the ball rolling.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

You could buy some advertising..

But make sure you optimize your site for search engines and submit your URL to them.

You might want to consider using an SEO to automate the process.

Put a link to your site in your e-mail signature.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote -1 down vote

I believe it is legal to send email to people who did not request it. If it is commercial email, you have to have and obvious, easy-to-use unsubscribe method. However, unsolicited emailings run the risk of alienating users. That's a business decision rather than a legal decision.

An efficient way to promote a new web site is online marketing through Google and other search engines. You pay on a per-click basis for users who click on your ad. Your ad ("sponsored link") is displayed along with search results, and its ranking is based on the amount per click you're willing to pay. They are a lot of variations on this theme. You can check with Google, Bing, Yahoo, Aol, etc. for details.

link|improve this answer
1  
It's not legal to send to those who did not request it. – random Nov 24 '09 at 1:25
+1 for not legal. I believe the legality of sending unsolicited email depends upon where you are located. Here in the UK it is illegal. It's also illegal to send 'opt-in' marketing email to people in the UK without including certain information (details of the organisation/person who is sending the email, and details on how to opt out of said emails) – Bryan Nov 24 '09 at 7:45
1  
I should clarify this. It is legal under the U.S. federal CanSpam law to send unsolicited commercial email so long as it doesn't violate the other requirements of the law. Each country and some localities have different laws. – xpda Nov 24 '09 at 16:02
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown