As a business owner, it's important to not only find methods of advertising for your business, but more importantly, methods of advertising that work. So, I'm always on the lookout for the newest advertising method to see if it might work for our team. As you can imagine, finding a new, effective advertising method that no one else is using can do wonders for sales and company branding. However, travelling down this road has its risks, too.

EUREKA!

Recently, I logged on to a corporate web server and found about 10 alert messages -- only they weren't alerts. They were advertisements! Advertisements ranging from getting a bachelor's degree online to adult-related products and services.

"What's this? How did this get here? Who sent these? Who's invaded the 'personal space' of this server?" I knew that whatever it was and whoever sent it had to be stopped.

GREEN EGGS AND MESSENGER SPAM

It turns out I stumbled on to Messenger spam. No, I'm not talking about instant messengers like AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. I'm referring to the Messenger service that comes with Windows (see sidebar at right as to who it affects, how to block Messenger spam, ...). The Messenger service provides valuable alerts and warnings, such as messages from your anti-virus protection program, when a print job is completed, or other warnings and notices that the computer user (or those connected to the computer) should see.

What's happening is that there are individuals who are exploiting this service and sending advertisements directly to a computer that's running the Messenger service. Now, if you receive one of these messages and you don't know what's going on, there's no way to "opt out." To me, this is worse than email spam.

TEMPTED BY THE FRUIT OF ANOTHER

For the moment, forget you know anything about Messenger spam. Now, imagine an individual or company approaches you and informs you of their new advertising method. You might be tempted to give it a whirl. Heck. We always say you've got to give a form of advertising a try and see if it works for you and your business.

However, if you didn't know what was going on behind the scenes (in terms of how this Messenger spam method works), you might suffer consequences like those associated with email spam. Your web hosting company drops you. Your ISP drops you. Anti-spamming groups label you as a spammer. You lose the trust of potential and existing customers. Your image and reputation is tarnished. All because you decided to give the latest advertising method a try.

Now, there's nothing wrong with trying different forms of advertising. BUT, you've got to do your homework.

DON'T IGNORE THE LITTLE MAN BEHIND THE GREEN CURTAIN

The next time you evaluate a method of advertising, you need to ask yourself some questions. How does this work? Is the method legal? Is it ethical? How would I like it if I were on the receiving end of such an advertisement?

The bottom line is that you've got to listen to common sense. And in the case of Messenger Spam, that little inner-voice inside you should loudly be saying "turn from the Dark side, Luke."

Thanks for reading.  And as always, you can search the back issues.

Warmest Regards,
Steve Little
Vice President, Marketing
CashFlowMarketing.com

P.S.  At CashFlowMarketing and AdMinder, we are always researching and testing advertising methods to make sure they are legitimate and are effective. That's why we only offer services that we have used and tested ourselves (like our Guaranteed Visitors program). We don't want you wasting your time and money on methods that don't work or aren't appropriate.

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