Is the "IronPort" Whitelist Actually An Extortion Tactic Targeting Small, But Legitimate Email Marke

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved

http://www.thenetreporter.com

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It appears that Mr. Gates' prophetic prediction that

charging marketers to send email across the Microsoft email

networks (MSN and Hotmail) to cut down on Sp*m is about to

come true.



According to CIO Today, Microsoft is now employing

"IronPort Anti-Spam Technology."



"IronPort" is a paid "white-list" for people who send "mass

email" (including newsletter publishers, ezine publishers,

affiliate managers, mini-course operators, and basically

anyone who has a list of opt-in emails).



If you send any type of email where you do a broadcast to

everyone on your list, this applies to you.



If you want your email broadcasts to get through their

filters, you must pay a hefty fee and post a "bond."



Here are some facts about this developing story:



1. They charge by how much email you send a month, but the

minimum charge is a:

$375 Application Fee, plus

$500 Annual License Fee, plus

$500 "Bond" fee.

That's $1,375.00 just to get in the game.



If you want to see the complete breakdown, go here

https://www.bondedsender.com/fees.jsp

**

2. If you go over the "complaint" threshold of 1 complaint

per month, then they will debit $20 from your bond fee for

each complaint to "fine" you for being naughty.



Now that sounds good on the surface, but here's a scenario

to try on for size:



Your competitor / enemy / Net "psycho" signs up for 50 fr~e

email accounts at HotMail and complains about you every

month when you send your newsletter.



49 complaints (50 - 1 allowed complaint) times $20 a

complaint comes out to $980 in fines.



Now, can you dispute the fines? Sure, absolutely!



But how much will you lose in time, energy and effort

disputing the allegations? (My guess is, a whole lot more

than that.)



You can check out all the "rules" here

https://www.bondedsender.com/fees.jsp



Here are the details of the program straight from the

horse's mouth...

https://www.bondedsender.com



Here's my take on this whole thing (which dropped on me out

of the blue today):



First, don't get me wrong... I hate sp~m with a passion!



I spend at least an hour a day fighting it (down from 3

hours a day just a few weeks ago before I shut down about

2 dozen email addresses that got harvested by spambots over

the last few years).



With that said, this whole "IronPort" thing sounds and

smells to me like "white list" extortion.



Why?



Here's the basic premise: "Pay to get your email through our

filters, or else you run the very likely risk of not

getting your email through at all."



In fact, here's a *direct quote* from their website

https://www.bondedsender.com/faqs/sender.jsp:



<-- Start Quote -->



"What happens if I don't bond my email?

You're rolling the dice and taking your chances with spam

filters, black lists and bulk folders. Some days all of

your email may be delivered; other days 30-50% could be

blocked."



<-- End Quote -->



Kind of reminds you of a cheesy mafia movie on late night

TV:



Me:

"Hey Bugsy, what happens if I don't pay my 'protection'

money this month? What if I stand up to you and refuse to

pay?"



Bugsy:

"Well, maybe nothin' will happen to you because the

Boss ain't payin' attention when I tell him you decided not

to pay. On the other hand, maybe I'll just smack you around

a little bit... or maybe-- I'll BREAK YOUR LEG with this

baseball bat! Go ahead and not pay us... then we'll see

what happens!"



Now, back to my question: "Why should I have to pay a huge

fee to send email to people who have opted in to my lists?"



The argument from Microsoft (and soon to be other ISP's) is

that the uncontrolled sp~m on the web is costing them a lot

of money to deliver email nobody wants to read.



Well, if that's the case, aren't email users shelling out

cash or credit to pay their ISPs for email services (mine

charges me $40 a month for cable), or paying for free

services like HotMail or Yahoo Mail through viewing

advertising on every page?



I was under the impression we were already paying to

receive email... and last time I checked, there was no

place to put a stamp!



Okay, even if we make it past that and we accept the

argument that legitimate emailers should have to pay a fee

in order to get on that big "whitelist in the sky"

somewhere... there are still two very important

considerations here:



1. First, what about the little guy who starts doing really

well?



You know, the small newsletter publisher who puts out a

great ezine or fr-e report or whatever, and gets a lot of

subscribers and then wants to broadcast email to them on a

regular basis?



Let's say they start making $20,000.00 a year from their

ezine... are they now supposed to shell out 6-10% of

their earnings in order to get their messages through? (And

that's if they never get a fine!)



Do they have to be penalized for being successful?



Apparently so if this system gains widespread acceptance by

all the big ISP's and email service providers!



2. Second, what about the high potential for abuse at the

hands of unethical competitors and just plain jerks that

populate the Internet!



I know it might seem hard to believe, but there are psychos

out there who will sign up for a bunch of free email

accounts just so they can make trouble.



(This is not paranoia! I had a user who signed up,

definitely opted-in from my website, had the emails routed

through a SpamCop address so I got blacklisted by SpamCop

until I could get it straightened out. Oh, and guess who

owns SpamCop... IronPort, that's who!)



Now, some idiot making waves with 100 email accounts won't

put a dent in the pockets of most big players in the email

arena... for them it'll just be a business expense.



But for the case of the "little" guy, fighting that

potential abuse and those fees could seriously cripple and

even kill a fledgling enterprise... and that, in my

opinion, is a serious problem.



In my opinion, all this is going to do is cut out the

little guy and make it easier for big companies to email

the hell out of the rest of us.



A small newsletter publisher will find it cost-prohibitive

to pay for the service, and some giant company will just

keep pumping the email out because they have the staff and

resources to fight the inevitable complaints.



And let's face it, if a big company is paying a $10,000.00

a year licensing fee plus posting a $4,000.00 bond, how

aggressive do you think the IronTrust people will really be

to get rid of them?



In my opinion, not very.



In conclusion: Despite my ranting, I actually think this is

a step in the right direction (albeit a wobbly, drunken,

and inconvenient step).



Something has to be done to fight spam.



However, at this point, this whole system has (in my

opinion) too many unanswered questions, especially for us

little guys.



Namely:



~ Do I really need to do this if I'm a little guy operating

and growing a newsletter?



~ What happens if I get unfounded spam complaints?



~ At what level does it make financial sense for me to do

this?



~ What if my newsletter isn't a big profit generator...

am I supposed to give up the revenue I do create just to

get my emails through?



To their apparent credit, Yahoo! is also trying to pioneer

a solution, but this one doesn't appear (at this point)

like it will cost publishers or subscribers any money (and

I like the sound of that).

http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys



But with so much at stake (on both sides), this issue is a

far cry from any satisfactory resolution.



Stay tuned for further updates as events warrant...



About the Author:



Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the

co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how

to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted

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