Don't do it!

We've all been a victim of this at one time or another. Your email address has been harvested and your inbox is now full of emails for products, services, ministry events that you never signed up for. Harvesting email addresses is illegal! It does not matter if, "everybody is doing it" either. The law on email harvesting can be read here.

Email addresses are harvested through a number of ways.

1. One can scour the Internet for ministries with a Web presence and grab their info@churchname address. It's recommended that you use a comment form instead of listing your email address online to ward off harvesters.
   
   
2. Friends send you and everybody else in their address book an email so now they also have your email address. If sending out an email to everyone in your address book, use the Blind Carbon Copy or BCC to protect your list.
   
   
3. And then there are "bots" that scour the Internet for email addresses.

Today I received an email from someone I do not know, for a ministry event happening on the East coast. And I'm certain that the person who sent the email wishes they had not. Apparently the email addresses were harvested and a snowball of emails ensued asking to be removed from the list. They had the system setup to where if you responded to the email, your response was sent to everyone. So today my email has been full of angry request to be removed from their list. Now the email sender who was just trying to the get word out about a ministry event has to report to his leaders why all the angry calls and emails to their ministry.

So, today I urge you, if your friends send you an email and its loaded with email addresses, or if you're tempted to go cruising the Internet for email address...Don't do it!

You may find yourself like this young man, buried under angry emails and phone calls. Sometimes a marketing effort backfires horribly as it did today for that particular ministry.

Instead, make sure your Web site has a place where visitors can legitimately sign up to receive notices from you. Include a double opt-in feature. Services like Constant Contact and AWeber are good resources and can help you conduct ethical and legal email marketing campaigns.

Do get the word out about the great thing God is doing in your ministry, just make sure it's legal!

Be blessed,

Pastor Lisa