……10,000 Emails From Sussex County—–Original Message—–
From: “Richard J. LaRossa”
Sent: Jul 12, 2010 9:34 PM
To: baseline@sprynet.com
Cc: “Richard J. LaRossa”
Subject: Forgot the attachment.
Bill,
This email is strictly for informational purposes and is only between me and you. Attached is a breakdown of the original email list from Ryan. Steve, on his own, went out and acquired a piece of software that “cleans” email lists. Here is what he came back with.
The following is what is contained in the “statistics” attachment.
The system shows 271 emails rejected
The system shows 124 emails sending to the wrong mailbox
The system shows 171 emails that timed out
The system shows 199 connection errors
The system shows 69 with the wrong domain
The software shows 63 with unknown errors
The software shows 3888 refused by anti-spam systems
The software shows 5460 that are ok and can be considered “valid”.
This is pretty consistent with what the guy that I spoke to in Omaha told me with regard to third party lists and the constant contact people told me as well. What they said, is that with 3rd party lists, you never got a “clean” list. Of the 10,240 email addresses only a bit over 50% are usable and can or should be considered good email addresses.
You asked about my relation with Steve. This is what he does. Given a problem, he will find a solution. Yes, he is a hard head. But he is one of the best I’ve ever worked with in IT. Steve did this on his own, outside of any influence from anyone just to show you another example of what he is capable of achieving. And this is another reason why I think so highly of his abilities. When confronted with a problem, he will work it to death until he gets an answer. He has done that for as long as I have known him and he has never failed me. We talk the problem through and I let him work his magic. And if he thinks it is solved, he will kick it to death until he is sure he has an answer. The only thing he can’t solve are things that are impossible. But, given a solvable problem, he will conquer it.
This type of cleaning was running well in excess of $5000 on average from the people I contacted from the Google searches I did. I think that Steve would be very happy with $500 to supply you with a list that is totally clean and usable.
Given that Steve would have the software, any other list could be run through that software, but you’d have to work out a deal with him moving forward if you want to keep buying 3rd party lists.
The good news is that once you decide to “launch”, you will always have a clean list with no threat of black listing or being shut down. Steve says the software works extremely well. For him to say that is very unusual. If you want to go ahead, he has the software and he can use it to clean any new list NJCRLC gets in the future. So you could get a list on the cheap and he can make it more valuable by cleaning it.
This whole experience has been very tedious for all of us, but it just takes time to overcome an issue of this magnitude that none of us ever expected. The concept of email blasts and spam rules were something that none of us ever anticipated. And the problem with the list was not discovered until Constant Contact called it to our attention when they tried to send it for us.
In addition, Steve sent me two excellent links on email do’s, don’t and rules, laws and regulations. I think they are very valuable and we should all be aware of this information for future email activities or considerations. They are:
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/basics/bulk-email-lists.htm (this one is very informative. I wish we knew this when this whole thing started)
http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/canspam/ (this one touches primarily on legal issues)
If you want to do something like this, if they give it to us, even Lonegan’s list should be “scrubbed” assuming that it can be given to us for our use. I don’t know, but I’ll check with Steve to see if the Christie or Lonegan FR lists that I have can somehow be converted to an excel file with the ability to extract the email addresses. That would be awesome if it could be done.
Again, everything I have said here is only informational. However, I think it bears consideration.
Finally, whatever Steve does, will only get us a clean list. When sending emails that number in the thousands, they really need to go through a 3rd party vendor like a Constant Contact and each email must include an opt out option which Constant Contact can provide as part of their program. They are not the only vendor in that business and I only mention them as an example, not a recommendation.
So, this information should put the “research” part of this project to bed. The only thing that remains is a decision as to proceed or not.
Be well, stay cool and remember that it was Steve who took the initiative and did this on his own and it is his skill that got this done. I’m only trying to answer the question that you posed earlier. It will be hard to find someone with his talent or problem solving ability. And to get a 3rd party vendor to do what he has done is significantly more expensive that what I’m suggesting. Whatever NJCRLC wants to do is up to the organization. I think it is well worth it. But, that is not my call. Please give this serious consideration.
If you have any questions feel free to reach out directly to Steve. I do not want to speak for him, I want only to point out what he has been able to achieve.
Dick