email spamming and torture

I’ve been using SpamCop as a non-paying member for about a year now. In that time, I think I’ve probably reported about 1,000 spammers, but you know what I’ve noticed? It hasn’t really helped me. I still get spam. Sure, I could sign up for the paid version, but that’s a little silly to me. I mean, why pay to not get spam, when the delete key is only a slight wrist movement away.

But this week, I’ve been getting a lot of enjoyment out of torturing spammers by using a new tool from EmailSherpa.

EmailSherpa is part of the MarketingSherpa product line and is “the newsletter

for responsible emailers.” It’s something that I find invaluable as a resource for learning new things about publishing email newsletters, or sending out direct marketing messages via email. The topics are always on topic, and always useful. For example, in this issue, they gave the results to a survey that they did on email marketing, which reveals quite a bit about what others in the email scene are doing, yet does so easily and quickly.

I sent Anne Holland, publisher of EmailSherpa, a few questions about their latest product Torture a Spammer, which is a game based marketing tool that was launched “as a combination of public service and promotion.” They launched it on September 17th, and have seen a lot of response from it.

If you ask me, this is a great viral marketing tool, that will do two things 1) help educate the consumers about email marketing and more importantly 2) help EmailSherpa increase its brand name in the same field. Anne expects the bulk of the people playing the game will be consumers, but thinks that “some people will hopefully be marketing professionals” that will opt to join their subscriber base. I’d like to think that they’re also counting on a percentage of those new subscribers to their mailing list(s) to buy some of their reports (which are excellent by the way).

Interestingly to me, they’re also offering shirts, mugs, and mouse pads through CafePress to people that ‘win’ the game. Great little afterthought as a way to keep the brand in front of people, and as Anne puts it, “If we are wildly successful, the t-shirt etc. sales will cover about $100 of expenses (which were in the thousands.)”

I’m quite interested in how the game ends up doing for the Sherpa folks, and will keep an eye on their blog for more information.

Go play the game, and buy a mug (they’re $3 off as of this writing).