Our Blog

On the popular N.Y. Times blog Freakonomics, contributor Daniel Hamermesh speculates about why he's receiving less spam these days:

I assume that the spammers realized that the return per period of time — the price of the activity — was less than its marginal cost: the opportunity cost of their time. They have shut down the business and moved to other activities that might yield higher returns.

The author is an economist, so it's natural that he'd look to market forces for an explanation.  However, as anyone who operates servers that receive incoming mail can attest, spammers remain as busy as ever.  Sadly, the cost of their activity isn't nearly high enough to discourage them from it.

Rather, what's happened is that the tools to block spam have improved so much.  What this means for legitimate email marketers is that server administrators, having become adept at blocking obvious sources of junk mail, are increasingly able to turn their attention to other types of traffic that consumes their resources--including your bulk email to your subscribers.

No legitimate marketer wants to "look like a spammer," but that means more today than just not using words like "Replica" or "FREE" or "Canadian Pharmacy."  Sure, content filters still have their place, and we recommend using them to test your messages.  But marketers also need to understand that message content isn't the only thing receiving systems are inspecting to determine whether your bulk messages "look like spam."

Chris Broshears | Product Development