There are many sides of bulk emailing from the logistics of deploying an eMail campaign to the moral issues of bulk
eMail. Electronic mail, or eMail, might be the most heavily used feature of the Internet. You can use it to send messages to anyone who is connected to the Internet or connected to a computer network that has a connection to the Internet, such as an online service. Millions of people send and receive e-mail every day. eMail is a great way to keep up with relatives, friends, co-workers in different branches of your company and other colleagues in your field.

eMail marketing is a powerful marketing medium but also a controversial issue in the Internet community. Here we address the logistic side of the mass eMail marketing process, and we leave the moral side to you. eMail in itself did not started out as a term for unethical email marketers but a term for sending out mass eMail campaigns to large groups of people.

eMail marketing messages are sent in the same manner as most Internet data. The TPC protocol breaks your eMail messages into packets, the IP protocol delivers the packets to the proper location and then the TPC reassembles the message on the receiving mail server so it can be read. eMail marketing requires a certain software program that takes each individual eMail address from that email marketing list and sends one message to that particular eMail address.

You can also attach binary files, such as pictures, video, sound and executable files to your eMail marketing messages. Because the Internet isn't capable of directly handling binary files in eMail marketing, the first must be encoded in one of a variety of encoding schemes. Popular schemes are MIME and uuencode. The person who receives the attached binary file (called an attachment) must decode the file with the same scheme.

When you send eMail, that message has to travel through a series of networks before it reaches the recipient—networks that might use different eMail formats. Gateways perform the job of translating e-mail formats from one network to another so that the messages can make their way through all the networks of the Internet.

A eMail marketing list is one of the most interesting uses of eMail broadcasting. It connects a group of people who are interested in the same topic, such as funny cartoons or cars. When one person sends eMail to the eMail marketing list, that message is automatically sent to everyone on that list, hence the name bulk eMail. You can meet others and talk to them on a regular basis about your shared interests, hobbies or professions. To get onto a professional eMail list, you send an eMail note to the bulk mailing list administrator and include your eMail address to be added into the eMail list.

eMail marketing lists can be moderated or not. A moderated eMail list is screened by the e-mail administrator, who might kill duplicate bulk eMail messages or messages not related to the list's theme. An unmoderated bulk eMail list is wide open—all eMail sent to it is automatically sent to everyone on the eMail marketing list.

Often, when you want to subscribe to a eMail marketing list, you send a message to a computer instead of a person. That computer, known as a list server (also called a listserv), reads your eMail and automatically subscribes you to the eMail list. You can unsubscribe from the eMail marketing list the exact same way.

Unfortunately, as more and more unethical email marketers are using eMail marketing as their preferred method of marketing, it has become more difficult to get out of eMail marketing lists unless the eMail marketing is coming from a reputable eMail marketing company. All ethical eMail marketing companies are more than happy to take you off of their list at your request.

In spite of the misconception that eMail marketing costs nothing, the use of bandwidth and resources that eMail marketing companies use can add up to thousands of dollars every month. When an ethical eMail marketing company receives your request to be removed, they know that you are not a prospect who will buy or use the service, and why should they use their resources to send out that message?