Emailer Fined $350K By The FTC For Scam Involving The ACA

By Rahmah Sajid


One of the world's biggest spammer was recently fined an impressive sum of $350K by the Federal Trade Commission under the CAN-SPAM Act. Yair Shalev was fined for sending spam related to the Affordable Care Act. Yair Shalev is a well-known spammer who relies on the snowshoe method to reach out to a wide number of email addresses without getting caught. This method consists in using several domain names and IP addresses to send out spam. Yair Shalev and his company Kobeni Solutions sent spam related to the Affordable Care Act using over a hundred IP addresses.

Yair Shalev's company, based in Hollywood, Florida, apparently sent emails with content that deceived recipients regarding false deadlines supposedly set by the ACA (Affordable Care Act), or better known as Obamacare. The emails were sent during the rollout of the ACA and contained false warnings that recipients who had not yet joined would be in violation of the law if they did not immediately click to enroll in an insurance plan. The emails included links to websites that displayed advertisements from insurance companies. Although the proprietors of these websites paid Kobeni Inc. for traffic received by the email scam, the FTC found that they were not directly involved and were not aware of the fact that it was a scam.

The charges brought against the defendants in January included violation of the FTC Act by deceptively spreading false information about legal deadlines, as well as a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act for not allowing recipients the option to opt-out and failing to display a valid postal address in the emails. Although it is not entirely clear how the amount of $350,000 was reached, the original suit sought restitution, disgorgement of ill-gotten monies, and other equitable relief.

It is really a wonder that the insurance companies even hired Kobeni, Inc., because they are considered to be the number two worst scamming company in the business. Evidently, this is what they are best known for. Is it possible that Kobeni just looks at the FTC fine as a cost of doing business, and then they go on down the road, as if nothing happened? Possibly so, but it is a shame that so many consumers had to put up with their deception.

The ROKSO has been monitoring Yair Shalev and blocking IP addresses used to send spam for years. The FTC finally took action due to the number of recipients affected by the Affordable Care Act spams and due to the profits generated by Kobeni Solutions.

When clicked the links led them to designated websites where advertisements for insurance companies were displayed. The insurance companies involved claim they are completely unaware of the scam, but the website owners paid Shalev and Kobeni for the traffic received.




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Easy Email Marketing Ideas That Are Proven To Work

By Jennings Ray


When you want to market your business, you may want to start with the most effective way to get the word out. Email marketing plans have been tried with great success to build a number of companies; here are some solid suggestions to ensure that your email marketing campaign is flawless and successful.

If you want your email marketing messages to get to the right inboxes, target anyone whom you send to. If you already have a core set of fans or followers, offer discounts or promotions to those who get friends to show up. Anyone curious in your products and services probable has known others with similar interests, which mean you, can organically grow your list through existing social relationships.

When developing an email marketing plan, make sure that every customer on your email list has voluntarily "opted in" to be on that list and provided you with an email address for that specific reason. This reduces the chances of your emails being marked as spam.

Be sure that your landing page lives up to the customer's expectations. The subscriber is obviously interested in your product if they have clicked on the link in your email. You do not want them to be disappointed by clicking on the link, and finding the page to be other than what they thought it would be.

An email marketing campaign needs a design and testing phase, just like anything else. Plan on putting in time making sure that your messages get past all techniques used for fighting spam, from content filters to image blocking and java-script suppression. You can send out a million messages blindly and not ever know if they are even seen.

Your email marketing efforts will give you the best results when you coordinate them with the rest of your marketing campaign. Do not work against yourself by unnecessarily duplicating your efforts in several different marketing channels. Make sure that your use of email, social media, and traditional venues are all designed to work well together.

Avoid using exclamation marks as crutches in your emails. If you want to express a sense of urgency or importance, use the structure of your sentence and the words you choose to to make that impact. Overusing this form of punctuation can turn potential customers off and make your message seem insincere.

Give customers the choice of getting a plain text version of your email marketing materials or a rich text version. Customers can choose the option they prefer when they sign up for your newsletter. Plain text versions don't include graphics, so customers with slower connections or overactive spam filters might appreciate this option.

It is important to always maintain persistence. It is essential that you have the correct clients in mind, or your work is worthless. Reaching out to an audience that is not appreciative of your efforts will be a waste of everyone's valuable time.

Use a consistent and persistent strategy in your email marketing campaign. While you need to be persistent, it must be with the right customers or else it is not going to make that much of a difference. If your messages are not properly targeted, your customer base cannot grow.

Diamonds may be forever, but permission is not. Even after you have subscriber permission, renew it somehow after around nine months, since that is the typical expiration date of permissions given. Not only will prospects feel respected by your polite behavior, you will rapidly identify who is really interested in your material.

A company's marketing plan can really make or break them. There are many ways to successfully market a company, but making a strong email marketing campaign can really be the foundation of all your marketing efforts. By using the information in this article, you can set the stage for profit for years to come.




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How To Choose The Right Email Marketing Program

By Jennings Ray


Email marketing is one of the most innovative ways that you can market your wares to people who are likely to buy them. It does, however, take some know-how to build an effective email list. This article will show you some things you can do that will help you be successful with email marketing.

Only send emails to people that you know. Mailing people who are not familiar with you or your product can look like spam. They won't know who you are, and they won't care what you're selling. This may cause them to simply delete your email, which is just a waste of your time.

Be predictable in your emails. Send them on a specific schedule. Make sure you send something at least monthly, this will help keep your customers interested. If you can send emails on or two times a week, that is even better. Test out which days give your site the best responses, and then use these days as your normal days to send emails.

In the end, the goal of digital marketing is to make a sale. Every email should be a way to get clients to make a purchase. This can be accomplish by drafting messages containing facts about new offerings, that reveal new uses for existing products or that inform customers of available discounts.

Maximize the results of your email marketing by encouraging your readers to respond to every email. Always read and reply to these emails immediately. Building a personal relationship with each of your readers is the best way to convert them into loyal customers. This is also a good way to get more specific feedback on the success of your efforts.

Try following up with a product review when sending a follow-up email to your clients. You could insert a link onto your email that informs them to enroll by clicking on this link. The ending P.S. on the message could urge them to take advantage of this opportunity that you are providing them.

Strategically plan when your emails will go out. People do not like getting emails at inconvenient times, especially if it's something that they have to act on quickly. Be considerate by making your offers convenient and easy for people to take advantage of, and you will have more sales than you otherwise would.

When you offer your customers lots of options, you will have a much more effective email marketing business. Customers should be able to select the frequency with which they receive messages and what personal information they want to disclose to the business. When your customers feel that they are somewhat in control of the process, they will be much more satisfied.

Automatically unsubscribe customers who don't respond to your marketing materials after a certain number of emails. If your customers aren't responding to your emails anymore, they most likely have lost interest in your newsletter but aren't annoyed enough by it yet to unsubscribe. By unsubscribing them, you avoid generating bad feelings that could hurt your business.

A good way to get your content out there is to provide a way for people to easily sign up for your email list. Give people the chance to sign up when they visit your site or when they are checking out.

Now that you've read the entire article, you should have some good ideas of how to go about email marketing. Use the tips that you've just learned and start building a list right away. Keep learning about email marketing, and eventually you'll have a huge list that will increase your customer base.




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Google Adwords Phone Tracking Feature Permits Advertisers Track Call Generation

By Ayub Yusuf


As a part of its ongoing effort to improve the AdWords system, Google has just launched a new option called Website Call Conversions. This option adds a new conversion type to the AdWords system, and allows webmasters to track phone calls which are made if a user lands on a site after clicking on an AdWords ad.

To use the system, advertisers merely add a bit of code to their websites. The code will produce a distinct Google phone number that will be seen for up to 90 days, and will redirect to the company's official phone number. This means that Google may track not just users who take advantage of the click-to-call feature of their phone, but likewise those who write the number down and call it manually. Users can assign distinctive values to conversions depending on which page the phone number was seen on. So, an individual who calls a general enquiries or purchaser service number may be worth less (in terms of advertising payments) than an individual who called in directly to the sales hotline.

It manages this by providing a special Google forwarding number, instead of the regular number for the company. Whenever a user clicks on an ad, Google will dynamically create a phone number which can be traced back to the ad, page, and keyword that led the purchaser to the site. This number can be seen for up to 90 days, and is applied in reports to establish what generated the call.

These are the only countries that have Google forwarding features offered at this time. If the Google forwarding feature rolls out in other countries then it is likely that the call tracking feature will also be made usable in those territories.

Users are giving up a lot of sensitive details when they utilize the app, but they're unlikely to mind considering the cash savings, convenience, and flexibility of the method. This is something that really makes shopping better for buyers.

The savings catcher app, nonetheless, is revolutionary. This app is offered for iOS and Android, as well as in a desktop form. The app offers buyers a means to make sure that they are deriving the best value for money whenever they acquire something from Walmart. All buyers are required to do is download the app, then utilize their phone's camera to input the QR code on their receipts. The app will process the information on the receipt, and aid them to make sure that they're clinching the best costs for the item.




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Google Launches Phone Call Tracking For Webmasters

By Bilal Hamdan


Walmart has just launched its innovative Savings Catcher, a killer app that is possibly the very best thing to come to the world of retail in recent years. The app takes an old-fashioned philosophy and adds a new high tech twist to it. Walmart's best charge guarantee is not exactly revolutionary. The "lowest charges, anytime" mantra has been a part of Walmart's core philosophy since the 60s, and the idea that purchasers are price conscious has been around for as long as money has existed.

The savings catcher app, nevertheless, is revolutionary. This app is offered for iOS and Android, as well as in a desktop form. The app offers purchasers a method to make sure that they are getting the best value for money when they buy something from Walmart.

All purchasers are required to do is download the app, then make use of their phone's camera to scan the QR code on their receipts. The app will process the information on the receipt, and assist them to make sure that they're getting the best charges for the item.

Google will allow webmasters to assign distinctive values to calls which come from different pages at various points in the sales funnel. So a call from a customer-service focused page may have a lower prospective value than one from the final page in the sales funnel.

These are the only countries that have Google forwarding facilities provided at this time. If the Google forwarding facility rolls out in other countries then it is most likely that the call tracking facility will also be made usable in those territories.

Google has lately introduced a new option to AdWords that will permit webmasters to track call conversions on their web pages. The option will reveal which keywords are driving calls, and permit webmasters to track not just how many calls they are getting, but also which stage in the sales funnel the calls are getting from, and which keywords are inspiring purchasers to pick up the phone.




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Success And Internet Marketing: How To Achieve It

By Ivry Alfred


Taking into consideration the rise of e-commerce and a drastic increase in the number of consumers who are turning to the internet for shopping advice. It is not wondered that more and more businesses are relying on online marketing to drive sales. Join the best and the brightest by checking out this handpicked selection of internet marketing tips and tricks.

Find out as much as you can about your regular visitors to your site. This can be done using basic (usually free) or enterprise level (for large sites) web analytic services. By knowing your audience, you will be able to add the content that they seek. This is sure to drive up the amount of traffic to your site.

You should weigh your options and decide if your time or your money, are the most important things. If you want to spend more time than money, opting for very cheap or free online marketing strategies may be the way to go. However, if you do not have a lot of time, but can spend a bit more money, you can hire companies to do the online marketing for you. You will have to spend one or the other, so choose wisely!

Make sure your content is your top priority. Write about things that are relevant, and make sure your writing is good. People want to read what you are writing, and they want it to be meaningful and good for them. They don't want to waste time reading something that you without putting in any effort.

Keep the background on your site very light and manageable. The darker the background on the site, the harder it will be for your visitors to view your products. Also, a dark background can create a morose and gloomy atmosphere, which could alter a customer's mood when they visit your site.

A great way to attract more readers for your articles is through a catchy, punchy headline. The headline is often the first thing anyone sees from your article, so make sure you take advantage of this to grab their attention. Use popular keywords in your headlines so that the search engines will notice your articles.

An important tip regarding internet marketing is to make sure that your site is easy to navigate and understand. This is important because you want to make sure that you eliminate the possibility for frustration when potential customers are navigating your site. You could easily lose customers if navigation is not linear and intuitive.

The customers experience is by far the most important aspect that you must consider when developing your website layout. Try to limit the amount of features and widgets that can serve to increase the load time for your potential customers. Eliminate clocks, weather applets and other miscellaneous material from your site.

Avoid being pushy about your products or services. Being pushy is definitely a way to make customers avoid your business all together. You should explain your products or services on your website in a way that draws your potential customers in without pushing them away. Avoid saying things like "buy this now!"

For the most part, internet marketing is very similar to other forms of marketing except for the manner of delivering information. One example is search engines might stop using title tags in their algorithms. Marketing your product through means like youtube may be another good option if such a change takes place.

Choose a niche that you already know something about and think favorably of. If you are genuinely enthusiastic about your product or service your enthusiasm will rub off. People will want to try what you have to offer because your presentation will be obviously genuine. Promoting something you truly support is enjoyable and profitable.

Now that you have become more familiar with some of the basic tips and tricks of internet marketers, you can be better prepared to lead your business in your online sales efforts. Look for opportunities to apply this knowledge to your own business practices and products, and you are sure to see favorable results.




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How To Rise Above The Competition Online

By Ivry Alfred


Most people are simple and ordinary. Ordinary people can create great businesses! When using the correct Internet marketing strategies, you can turn a business into a profitable venture, and the tips below will show you how to achieve that.

There is only so much Internet marketing you can do for your business without actually having a user friendly website. Even if it is a free site you create on your own, you need to have this web front available to your customers with basic information about your business, where you are located and what your hours of operation are. It should also include a way for them to contact you.

Remember the point of your site should be to attract customers. If your website is bogged down with excess data, your customers will inevitably get lost and you will lose hundreds of potential buyers. Never forget that there is a time for data, and a time for attractive language.

As important as the content on your website is, the appearance may play an even bigger role in your success. If you do not take the time to design a website format that is inviting and pleasing to the eye, many visitors may just back right out of your site and move on to a different site.

You must be willing to answer questions. People visit your website in a quest for further information. If you do not provide prompt and accurate responses, they will move on. Providing them with detailed facts has the immediate benefit of satisfying their curiosity, which engenders trust, which leads to sales.

Try not to fall in love with your own website. You probably put a lot of time and effort into your website. You might think of it as dearly as a child. You are just plain proud of it. Don't be. Try your best to look at your website objectively. Try your hardest to spot all the potential faults in it.

Direct marketing should not be overlooked as a complement to the marketing system for your Internet site. Contact your customers by email, phone, or fax to tell them about services and specials. A lot of the data you need can be acquired through the yellow pages or through online phone directories.

When creating online marketing copy, be sure to tell your customers in advance of a purchase, what kind of support is available to them after they buy. People like to know who to contact if they have a problem, and what kinds of issues they can have dealt with for free. Be sure to point out specifics, such as what hours they can contact the support team (even if your "support team" is just you) and what types of communication are available.

If you are marketing a product online, trying mixing up your sale phrases. For example, saying they should "invest in this product" makes the item seem like an investment in their future rather than money they are spending now. You can complement this approach by including testimonials from other customers about how much they've earned from your product.

Providing free telephone consultations, will generally provide increased sales. Not only does this give you a personal opportunity to sell, but it shows your customers that you are the type of business that cares and takes times to meet their needs. Even if a sale is not made as a direct result of the call, it can cultivate the loyalty of the customer, which may mean future sales and referrals.

It is a great idea to try and upsell with people that are already purchasing from your site. There should be some suggestions for other products that they may be interested in directly on the order page. Many people buy extra things when they believe it will enhance what they are already buying.

Even though the online world continues to evolve rapidly, certain internet marketing strategies prove themselves to be consistently productive. These reliable strategies have a track record of good performance. Tips like the ones shared here can help steer the canny business owner towards a good plan of action and develop a great internet marketing campaign.




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