If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I’ve seen this article starting to do the rounds of the affiliate marketing blogs today and I just couldn’t resist writing something about it. The article in question is a joint BBC / McAfee investigation into email spam, the full story and video can be seen on the BBC website. The problem with it is not the subject matter itself, I mean we all know how much of a problem spam is. I’ve personally had to take so many steps and pay for additional services to stop myself getting bogged down in literally thousands of emails a day.
The problem with the article comes from the websites they are showing on the video that accompanies the article. The video clearly shows a well respected UK site FreeUKStuff in several places. This site clearly has a double opt-in policy for it’s email circulation list and while I don’t know the owner personally, I know he is well respected in the web community and would not risk damaging his own business by selling his email list on as the article seems to imply.
According to the site owner’s personal blog, he was never contacted by the BBC before the article was published so he had no idea his site was featured in the video. I really find this appalling, for the sake of getting a poorly researched story out they have potentially ruined the reputation of a site and an individual, not to mention the damage it could do to his income.
I only hope that the old adage that “No publicity is bad publicity” rings true in this case and that he gets an apology from the BBC and more exposure to his site.
Read more on this at the site owner Clark Duncan’s Blog.
