SPAM WARS: SPECIAL McLUHAN POST [NOT ARCH}

[Comm Office]

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"The most important thing about warfare is knowing when
                                        you're in one."
                                    -- anonymous (transl.)

** TO OUR READERS***


On our last regular post, we mentioned our own
recent experience with spammers. Based on the
email we have received from you, many of you have
only recently begun to receive spam as well. (By
the way, our own list is 100% secure, and has been
since last winter, so spammers CANNOT get your
name from us.) By networking with anti-spam
groups, we have seen a "pattern" forming which
exceeds even the wildest projections we made in
our 94-95 postings. A SPAM WAR IS COMING. For
advertisers with no conscience, SPAM represents
the cheapest form of advertising in the history of
recorded civilization. Nothing else comes close!
To puruse the "wild west" analogy we used in our
very first Internet posting, until there is a
"spam showdown at the OK corral" you will begin to
see millions of dollars being spent to develop
software and hardware protocols that HELP the
spammers! The "spam" attached below is fascinating
because it is not only spam, but the product being
sold within the spam is software that lets you spam
millions of others without the fear of being
"disconnected" if anyone complains.


Food for thought...


Ideas on how to deal with this are welcome. The best
we will share in our next regular post.


------------ as received -----------------------
Sent via SWARM, bulk mail software,
http://www.quantcom.com/rave    403-998-4066SEND
MILLIONS OF EMAIL for $ 49.95  U.S. with SWARM
Bulk Email software,  EASIEST, FASTEST and most
POWERFUL software of its kind!  Regular price
$69.95 US, first ten sold  by Friday 16th only
$49.95!

NEVER WORRY ABOUT BEING DISCONNECTED FROM YOUR ISP
AGAIN!

GET, FRESH, TARGETED MAILING LISTS OVER AND OVER
AGAIN!

(See our animated demo at
http://www.quantcom.com/rave     ) (For faster
transfer, try downloading the demo during off peak
hours )

For more info write to  address@hidden

Some straight talk about why you want to get SWARM
over ANY other bulk e-mail software package.
Simple.  The bottom line.  Talk is cheap but your
money and your revenue isn't.  You need to be able
to send out a HUGE amount of mail to see if you
can sell your product or service. Lets face it, if
you can't get sales and make money by using bulk
e-mail as a marketing tool then your wasting your
time.  The problem is, that you can also waste a
whole hell of a lot of money by chasing after
cadillac priced bulk e-mail software.

Sure, you can go ahead and waste between $500.00
to $700.00 dollars to buy the software.  Sure you
get a whole lot of features that can make your
life easier when it comes to managing large bulk
lists.  But do really want to buy the whole damn
farm just to see if there are any animals on it?
SWARM has two things going for it that NO other
company or software can deliver. It sends HUGE
craploads of bulk mail FAST for peanuts!  You just
can't find any other software that lets you churn
out as much as 12,500 mails per hour for only
$69.95!  Also, when you buy SWARM you DON'T need
fancy schmancy stealth trappings because we show
you how to use special ISP's who will ALLOW bulk
e-mail and WON'T shut you down if they get
complaints.

Frankly, I'm a small business man myself... I know
what its like to have to scrape by on a fixed
budget and make my dollars work for me.  I say,
try bulk e-mail first at a reasonable cost, see if
it works for you.  Send out at least 250,000
e-mails over a weekend see what happens ... do you
get sales or not? Hell, if you send that much with
SWARM and you get stacks of sales then you've
pretty much covered your cost anyway haven't you?
But if you find your product or service doesn't
sell well through bulk e-mail...well, do you
really want to be left holding the bag... one that
cost you $500.00 smackeroonies because you bought
it from the competition?

Common Questions and Answers about SWARM.

Q.      Is SWARM easy to use? A.      Yes

Q.      Can SWARM extract addresses? A.      SWARM
extracts e-mail addresses from lists not from the
net.  That means  you have to either buy an e-mail
list from a list vendor or acquire a  list else
where.  When you buy SWARM we show you how to
constantly  get fresh, large and targeted lists,
constantly.  But what about the  competition you
ask?  Don't they let you 'hunt and pull' addresses
 right off the net? Sure they do...but they're
slow and pricey.... Get  real already, do you want
to spend your time making money marketing  your
product or do you want to spend your time and
dough chasing down  e-mail addresses?

Q.      Can I get technical support? A.      Yup.

Q.      Do I get a bunch of extra features to help
manage my lists? A.      For $49.95?  Are you
crazy?  Nope, no extra features... just  raw
seething power of sending HUGE amounts of e-mail!
Its called SWARM for a reason.  BUT if you order
now you'll  also be shipped, for free, the remove
list feature when it is  available. Otherwise
you'd pay an additional $39.95 US later.  The
remove list release date will be announced to
SWARM buyers.

 More detailed information follows;

There are bulk e-mail  lists as large as 12
million addresses available from various vendors
which can be imported into SWARM.  SWARM processes
your list into neat, packet sized bundles and then
lets you compose a message and send it
automatically to an audience as large as you
desire.

SWARM has been designed as a 16 bit application
that can run in  Windows 3.11 or Win'95.  The
interface is very simple and  has a smooth and
friendly  feel. It has been created to provide
important features found on a  few of the other
higher end bulk e-mail applications.  A major
difference however, is the price. SWARM sells for
a tiny fraction of the cost  of other similiar
programs, making it a highly attractive and
reliable alternative to the small business person
on a budget.  Its also much easier to use than the
other, higher priced bulk e-mail applications and
is intended for use by Marketing professionals not
just technical guru's.

Since SWARM's selling price is so low, we have
reserved a tiny space to help promote SWARM, a
small insert of text appears just prior to the
body of your message saying 'This message sent via
SWARM'.

To use SWARM you''ll need of course two things; an
e-mail list and a connection to the Internet that
will allow you to send large volumes of e-mail
without worrying about being disconnected.

By far the easiest and fastest way of getting your
e-mail addresses is by simply buying them from a
list broker.  You'll likely find this to be the
most cost effective method also.  You can also
extract them manually from internet usegroups, but
this is a lengthy and mundane task.  You could
also purchase one of the many 'E-Mail Collectors'
from the various vendors of such software, but be
prepared to often pay a steep price for this.
Sadly, most e-mail collectors, while clever in
concept, work fairly slow.

A collector allows you to suck e-mail addresses
directly from on-line newsgroups. The only problem
is that you have to put in a heck of a lot of your
own time to build any e-mail list of a worth while
size. And as you likely are already aware,
marketing is a numbers game.  You need to get your
message out to the largest audience as fast as
possible and for as cheap as possible.

We recommend that you buy a large list and start
cranking out your message as soon as possible. How
much are lists?  They tend to range on average,
between $100.00 to $300.00 per hundred thousand.
Sometimes you can even get lists of 2,000,000 for
around the same price.  It depends on who you deal
with and how good the list is. Make sure you find
out how old your lists are  as the older the list
the higher the undeliverable ratetends to be.  No
matter what list you use, you'll always have
e-mail addresses that will return messages back to
you stating that they were 'undeliverable'.  This
is normal as e-mail addresses can change rapidly.
Your vendor  should be able to provide you with
fresh addresses and an idea of what your
undeliverable rate should be from that list.  A
good list should not return much higher than 10%
to 35 % of e-mails sent (on average).

Where can you get lists? In the commercial version
of SWARM we show you how to get the best TARGETED
lists available!

Since some Internet Service Providers (ISP's) look
favourably on the practice of e-mail marketing and
others do not, its important that you get the
right kind of ISP for your marleting activities.
The last thing you want is to start sending off a
big campaign and then have your ISP disconnect
your account in the middle of it just because they
do not agree with the practice.  Some ISP's that
do allow you to send bulk mail will often get
pressured by their upstream providers to
disconnect you...and often under this political
pressure they will buckle and concede to the
wishes of their upstream providers. What you need
is a provider that has a bullet proof connection
that can't be shutdown and will keep you safe as
you send your bulk e-mail.  As a SWARM user, you
qualify to join our ISP, who is exactly THAT kind
of provider.  They'll be the bunker of safety you
need as you begin your own controlled SWARM of the
Internet! The great thing is that you use your
existing ISP and local dial up connection to the
Internet but you simply 'route' your transmissions
through us!  No long distance charges, no hassles
and easy to setup!  And your local ISP can't bark
at you because your not sending the transmissions
through their mail server's directly!  How much
does this ISP charge for their accounts?  Sorry we
can't tell you that until you buy SWARM, its our
competitive edge and secret.  But we can tell you
that its VERY reasonable and there are many
different arrangements that can be negotiated to
fit virtually any budget.

HOW TO ORDER Ordering is simple.  You may send
company cheque or money order in the amount of
$69.95 US dollars.  No other form of payment is
accepted at this time.  You can only order via the
regular mail.  Your software will be mailed
directly to you.  Your Registry Key.will be sent
via e-mail or mail.

Make cheques or money orders out to : RAVE,  and
mail to the following address,

8973 - 94 Avenue, Fort Sask., Alberta, Canada, T9L
1B3

With your order please provide the following
information:

--------------------------------------------------
----------------- Name: Address: City: Country:
State: Zip / Postal Code: Ph. #: Fax #: e-mail
address: alt e-mail address: web address (if
applicable):

My HARD DRIVE's Serial number : (Mandatory) You
can not run SWARM with out this. To get the serial
number of Drive 'C:' ( Swarm can only be installed
to Drive 'C:'), just type the command' VOL' at the
DOS prompt and record the information.  Send the
serial number with your order. We cannot ship
Swarm to you with out this information >
--------------------------------------------------
-----------------> My Computers Specs. (optional -
this information helps us provide technical
support to you)
--------------------------------------------------
------------------ Computer model name: Hard drive
size: Operating System ( DOS/Win 3.11 or Win'95)

Amount of memory, Modem model name Modem Speed:

My Internet Connection Specs. (optional - this
information helps us provide technical support to
you)
--------------------------------------------------
----------------- Dial-up Connection to local ISP
( Yes ) Direct Internet  Connection (Yes / No):
ISP's bandwidth: ISP's Line type (indicate  type)
ISDN, T1,T2,T3, Other: ISP Switch type (indicate
type), ATM, Other: Routers used (indicate type),
Cisco 7xxx, Other: If you are directly connected
to the Internet please provide your specs on
bandwidth, line type, etc.
--------------------------------------------------
----------------- Please describe the nature of
your business (optional this helps us anticipate
and provide for your needs) > >
---------------------------------------



Communication and Editorial Offices
Project McLuhan On The 'Net (since 1994)
Our Web Site:    http://www.mediaguru.org

                *****
"Even mud gives the illusion of depth" -- Marshall McLuhan



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