Need advice on sending an email to announce a website.

davisr28 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-23-2008, 12:10 AM

I was wondering if I could get opinions on the following. I have a list of about 200+ email addresses. These are not individuals that I have met personally. I was considering sending a one time email to each person announcing my site and asking them to visit it. All of these individuals have an interest in Classic Cars which is what my site is about. Would this be considered spam and should I look for a different approach? I don't won't to give my site a bad rep but I am looking for ways to announce that my site is online. Thanks for the help

ssmorgan · #2 (**permalink**) 03-23-2008, 12:25 AM

I think whether this is considered spam or not is how you obtained the list of email addresses.

Sherif

lisa · #3 (**permalink**) 03-23-2008, 01:22 AM

I agree. Did you collect these email addresses yourself through a site and did the people know what you would be using them for specifically?

rwskate · #4 (**permalink**) 03-27-2008, 04:07 PM

Yes, I'm wondering the same thing since you said you don't know these people personally. I think it would be considered spam, very similiar to other emails that introduces a product or service with a url attached. And if you're not careful and you decide to send an email to these people, your email may be treated as spam and will get placed right in the spam folder in the recipient's inbox.

I would not recommend you sending out an email to folks who don't know you - note how I worded that. Let's see, your site is on classic cars, look up Yahoo Answers and see if they are any questions posted in relation to classic cars. If so, answer any questions you can and place a link to your site. This has helped me get folks to visit my blogs. That's a start.

James · #5 (**permalink**) 03-27-2008, 04:40 PM

Davisr28

Yes, that would be spam, even though the numbers are not huge.

Try working backwards if you can. Where did you get the list? How was it developed? Someone was given their addresses. Do they share the interest? Could they be encouraged to share your link with these people?

davisr28 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-28-2008, 03:12 PM

Thanks for the replys. How I got the emails was from a forum on classic cars that I participate in. Sometimes people will list their email addresses on the forum. From that I started making a list.

I haven't sent anyone on this list an email yet because I was trying to decide if it would be spam or not. I thought I could send them a personal email that introduced myself and the website. I didn't think that would be considered spam.

From the replys to my post, I am thinking it would be considered spam by people. I don't want to get the reputation as a spammer.

I appreciate the responses and the suggestions. Sorry it took me a while to get back to this. It has been a busy week.

James · #7 (**permalink**) 03-28-2008, 05:27 PM

davis28,

Knowing where you got the list, there are some possibilities. As on this site you can use a signature on postings.

It may be possible to contact people personally when they raise issues that you discuss on your site. If you don't try to sell anything directly in your email you could send a personal email saying something like, "I looked into that a while ago myself and wrote up an article about it you could read it at...I hope it may help you. Good luck."

WB Sponsors