poll What is your stand on outbound?

[Arpit131]

If you opt for a different opinion, mention it in comments

 

[equity78]

I would actually say the way the question is worded makes for only one answer,

Outbound does not = Spam.

Could some people do outbound and use spamming tactics sure.

 

[Arpit131]

It is interesting the large majority see it as a grey area or it depends, kind of similar.

You started the thread @Arpit131 - I would welcome hearing what you think personally.

Bob

I personally think that it is a grey area. Having said that, if the leads are targeted, I do think it is okay to approach.
For the people who end up buying from you, it is not a spam!

 

[poweredbyme]

It's spam. Because,
1- Nobody wanted to receive email from you to know which domain you are selling.
2- Number of emails needs to be sent will usually be huge in 2 aspects:
* Assume you own toys dot com. You will likely to email thousands of people.
* Assume you have hundreds of domains in "toys" niche then you will likely to email the same smaller groups of persons for hundreds of time (i.e. you need to sell whitesofttoys, brownsofttoys, toysinnewyork, toysinbrooklyn, toysinjersey, etc. and also don't forget to add different TLD's of the same names)

 

[NickB]

I will repeat what some people have already written.

If the email is personalised and the name has relevance to that company then it is not spam.

If you just sending out 1000s of emails hoping someone will bite then you are a spammer.

Unfortunately a lot of people choose the second route and ruin it for those that try and do outbound properly

I voted grey area.

 

[Skumars]

It all depends on money power and beneficiaries.

EXAMPLE 1. When we watch television or any video online, then big companies like coca cola, walmart etc show their advertisements in between. These advertisements are UNSOLICITED + BULK broadcasted. No one calls them spam because the media houses and political parties benefit from big companies.

EXAMPLE 2. When small companies/individuals send emails, then they are scrutinized and labelled because such small companies/individuals are of no monetary use to media and politics.

Looking for different opinions

 

[BaileyUK]

Of course your going to vote, It's Outbound when.

* You hold good domains
* You are business literate
* You are successful using this sales method.

And of course the opposite applies

 

[dncafe]

If I own SeattleRoofing.com and gather 30 email addresses from the top Seattle roofing companies and send them and email letting them know I am selling the domain, is that spam?

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

If I own SeattleRoofing.com and gather 30 email addresses from the top Seattle roofing companies and send them and email letting them know I am selling the domain, is that spam?

If I was an owner of one of the businesses I would consider it highly relevant to my company.

 

[poweredbyme]

If I own SeattleRoofing.com and gather 30 email addresses from the top Seattle roofing companies and send them and email letting them know I am selling the domain, is that spam?

After contemplating on this issue for an hour, I don't think it should be spam if you are sure you didn't email to their personal email addresses.

Here is my logic:

Thanks @Skumars for discussing above the difference between advertisement and spam then ending up there is no difference. There should be at least one difference. I found one: Advertisement doesn't occupy personal spaces of people. Thus it's allowed. TV, internet, media, billboards are public spaces. But an email address or phone number or physical address can be personal or public space. How can you know?

Here the magical word I found, is "Business". Business is usually deemed to public space, not personal. So you should be allowed to enter to business spaces without their prior consent. That's why business contact details are publicly available while personal contact details are not. Therefore, it should be okay to send offers via business email addresses, or contact forms at websites, regardless of quantity and strict relevancy between your offer and their scope of business (e.g., sending cleaning service offer to a travel company)

Of course you are not allowed to annoy people in public spaces like sending them repetitive emails or calling their office phones again and again after they told you they are not interested in your offer or if they told you nothing.

My logical interpretation may be wrong or incomplete. I am not giving legal advise here.

I will change my vote to gray area.

 

[Name Trader]

Every inbound I receive is unsolicited SPAM. I've never once received an inbound offer, I would have even the remotest interest in. I probably receive up to 10 unsolicited SPAM every day. It gets marked as SPAM and deleted. Without even a 2nd thought. I agree outbound is an art. You need to be an artist when using it.

 

[Brands.International]

My take on it:

When I do it, it is an outbound...when YOU do it, it is a spam

Lol, just joking..but more seriously, I think email outbound is simply waste of time.

Much better: go to social media and start posting.

 

[EbookLover]

I see nothing wrong with it.

Whether it is legal as per CAN SPAM act and other similar acts/laws in other countries to outbound your domain sales, I don't know.

 

[EbookLover]

I think the reason why some domainers (not all) say it's wrong is because they just don't want to have to do it themselves. But they'd pay someone to do it because they know it will bring in a good chunk of sales. There are NPers that, as far as I'm concerned, are proving that.

Outbuilding isn't for everyone. But I believe that for many people to make a decent income in domaining this day and age, outbuilding is not optional.

I mean, if you have a huge portfolio of truly premium domains listed on marketplaces and you can make a few thousand every week or so, then that's great. But that isn't realistic for newbs anymore IMHO.

I think that if you are going to outbound, you need to come across as human as possible and not be afraid. You have to sound professional in your emails and you have to end your emails with a signature that has your full name, mailing address, phone, company email and even maybe social links and certainly a link to a company website (it does not have to be extensive, but professional - 5-10 pages).

 

[EbookLover]

I think email outbound is simply waste of time. Much better: go to social media and start posting.

or do you mean, start spamming?

 

[Skumars]

Here is my logic:

Advertisement doesn't occupy personal spaces of people. Thus it's allowed. TV, internet, media, billboards are public spaces.

Here's my counter

Advertisement DOES occupy personal spaces of people. If I intend to watch a TV show or a youtube video online, It means that I am interested in that particular show/video only, but those ads which come in between these shows are INTRUSIVE and they come on my PERSONAL TV and my PERSONAL LAPTOP/MOBILE ("personal space"). The only thing is that since there has been no opposition from media houses ever on this issue (because of the associated monetary benefits), we have got hardwired to believe that it's normal.

That is why people who are aware of AD blocker plugins use them online to get rid of these ads which are otherwise labelled as mere advertisements and are thought to be normal. If similar AD blocker mechanism can come to TV's, then they will become popular too.

 

[Name Trader]

@Skumars - Yep. My Ad blocker is blocking 9 ads on this page alone. God forbid what it would be like with them all displayed I feel for you.

 

[Dealtor]

Let's leave out domains

I have a product software to sell to a company I think may need it, I sent an email to the lead? Is that spam?

Will you call newsletters consisting of products being sold spam too?

 

[FolioTeam]

Let's leave out domains

I have a product software to sell to a company I think may need it, I sent an email to the lead? Is that spam?

Will you call newsletters consisting of products being sold spam too?

With newsletters, chances are you opted in, so that can't be SPAM since in this case it is solicited.

Now, if you never signed up on any site, telling them to keep you updated on anything, then that is SPAM because it is unsolicited.

 

[frank-germany]

Here is why I voted SPAM

spam
Dictionary result for spam
/spam/
Learn to pronounce
noun

1. 1.
   irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc.
2. 2.
   TRADEMARK
   a tinned meat product made mainly from ham.

verb

1. 1.
   send the same message indiscriminately to (a large number of Internet users).

Nothing in the definition says anything about good intentions or good fit or how professional you are.

So is outbound unsolicited, sent to several end users and is its purpose to advertise your domain name for sale? If yes, then it's SPAM

check the part where it says:

large number

 

[NYJimbo]

My take on it:

When I do it, it is an outbound...when YOU do it, it is a spam
.

Indeed.

 

[FolioTeam]

check the part where it says:

large number

It also says TYPICALLY. Which means in most cases.

Which also means that sometimes, even messages to a smaller number can be deemed SPAM

 

[frank-germany]

It also says TYPICALLY. Which means in most cases.

Which also means that sometimes, even messages to a smaller number can be deemed SPAM

nothing beats a clear
advice

 

[NameBuyer.com]

I tried this a couple times. Out of about 70 super targeted emails, sold 1 domain.

Even if I get 1-2 more follow up sales later, for 67-68 people it is pretty spammy, so I don't think I'll be doing "outbound" again unless it is for some anomaly.

 

[BRANDERX]

If done properly, its Spam.

If done improperly (in bulk) then its spam+scam.

They end up buying something they don't need, to pay for your renewals & whoever is doing the spamming.

 

[EbookLover]

I tried this a couple times. Out of about 70 super targeted emails, sold 1 domain.

Even if I get 1-2 more follow up sales later, for 67-68 people it is pretty spammy, so I don't think I'll be doing "outbound" again unless it is for some anomaly.

You sent out 70 emails and sold 1 domain. That's 1.4% conversion and that is actually better than average. If you are looking for XX% conversion rates then internet marketing of any kind is definitely not for you. Most internet marketing conversion rates rarely hit over 5% and 5% is extremely high. You are sittin' pretty if a PPC ad and your optimized landing page garners a 3% conversion.