Getting Spammed By GAP

[AussieWebmaster]

Guess times are tough and the GAP group is being effected too. I received the following email today:
I m certified Google adwords professional and seeking virtual job. My google certificate is
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I can save your time by managing your routine work of google adwords efficiently and effectively
from my Google client center. I can manage your Goggle campaign as one of your regular man-power.

Google Adwords Campaign
1. Services of Qualified Google Adwords Professional
2. Setting up new campaigns
3. Finding/mining keywords
4. Creating text ads
5. Establishing cpc
6. Managing - monitoring campaign (of each client) on daily basis
7. Evaluating performing/non-performing keywords
8. Adding more keywords
9. Deleting non-performing keywords etc
10. Sending weekly report
11. Following your instructions

I m having 8+ years of internet experience, with rich exposure in various internet activities, which can be used in the best interest of your company.

I m available for a virtual job which I can do through instant messengers and emails. I will be available online to you during YOUR regular working time - 8 hours a day x 5 days a week = 40 hours a week, like a regular, dedicated employee.

About myself
I am highly motivated, net savvy, honest, reliable, trustworthy, intelligent, and hardworking person from India.
I have previous experience of working as virtual employee for US company for past 2+ years in their day time through IM and email.

Work terms
I am available to work for you through net using emails and messengers (yahoo/msn/aol).
During YOUR office time.I m available for 8 hours a dayx5 days a week=40 hours a week

Costing
I m open to your offer.

Payment terms
Pay AFTER first week's work is done.
It means, u can pay me at weekend after your work for that week is finished.
You can release payment at weekend (after work is done) via paypal or via ikobo.

[Chris_D]

Hey - I got a very similar email last week - with an hourly rate that was very low.

Looks like he's emailing other GAPs to try to sub-contract work....

[seobook]

sorry about that Aussie...you weren't supposed to be on my list.

[Marcia]

ROFL - clean your mailing list up, man!

[AussieWebmaster]

sorry about that Aussie...you weren't supposed to be on my list.

Hey no worries... can I buy some ad space on the next email?

[boxer]

If one fellow is seeking work and he is seriously willing to show his capacity, then what is wrong if he is seeking smaller projects from big-stablished-guys?

Is he wrong simply because he sent emails to few of you?

Or is he wrong simply because hs is charging low per hour cost? It is give us right to laugh on him by saying that he is charging -- riduculosoy low prices --?

If we feel that our charges of US$100 per hour are the right, then why dont we outsource our 10 hour work to him? This way, we will get our 10 hour work done by a certified GAP for only US$10 (10 hourxUS$10 perhour= US$100) and v can charge from our clients what we are charging now, i.e. US$100 per hour.

It means, if we give him work for 10 hours, it will cost us 100 bucks and same work (without adding anything) we can charge from our client - 10 hour x US$100 our per hour rate = US$1,000. So, this way, we are making 900 bucks profit from per day of this fellow's work.

Should we laugh on him who is charging low or should I laugh on all of you who are ridculing this fellow and loosing a good business opportunity?

REMEMBER - This fellow is also certified by GOOGLE, like our certification.

Just Think.

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

I would personally never outsource AdWords management to a GAP. To me, GAP is a major disqualifying factor!

[AussieWebmaster]

If one fellow is seeking work and he is seriously willing to show his capacity, then what is wrong if he is seeking smaller projects from big-stablished-guys?

Is he wrong simply because he sent emails to few of you?

Or is he wrong simply because hs is charging low per hour cost? It is give us right to laugh on him by saying that he is charging -- riduculosoy low prices --?

If we feel that our charges of US$100 per hour are the right, then why dont we outsource our 10 hour work to him? This way, we will get our 10 hour work done by a certified GAP for only US$10 (10 hourxUS$10 perhour= US$100) and v can charge from our clients what we are charging now, i.e. US$100 per hour.

It means, if we give him work for 10 hours, it will cost us 100 bucks and same work (without adding anything) we can charge from our client - 10 hour x US$100 our per hour rate = US$1,000. So, this way, we are making 900 bucks profit from per day of this fellow's work.

Should we laugh on him who is charging low or should I laugh on all of you who are ridculing this fellow and loosing a good business opportunity?

REMEMBER - This fellow is also certified by GOOGLE, like our certification.

Just Think.

I was commenting about being SPAMMED ... it is not exactly a solid way to try and get work especially in this industry. Make contact, post a little on the forums and he would get work. Instead he comes online and grabs some email addresses and spams people.... not the type of effort that should be rewarded with job offers.

[GuyFromChicago]

To me, GAP is a major disqualifying factor!

Why is that?

[boxer]

I was commenting about being SPAMMED ... it is not exactly a solid way to try and get work especially in this industry. Make contact, post a little on the forums and he would get work. Instead he comes online and grabs some email addresses and spams people.... not the type of effort that should be rewarded with job offers.

Dont have double standards. On one side, you yourself are saying that he should make contact and when that fellow (who is seeking some work to survive), is making contact by sending emails to established GAPs, then you change your tone and start blaming this is spam. How else on earth, he could have contacted you? by personally visiting your office and giving you his visiting card???

We all will be delighted to know more about how you make contact without sending emails?

It is very easy to kick a tiny player but it is difficult to help others to grow. We (who are established ourselves) should help others to establish themselves not to frame on wrong side of border. If we are really big boys, then we should also have big heart.

[seobook]

On one side, you yourself are saying that he should make contact and when that fellow (who is seeking some work to survive), is making contact by sending emails to established GAPs, then you change your tone and start blaming this is spam. How else on earth, he could have contacted you? by personally visiting your office and giving you his visiting card???
well you are making more of an attempt to contact and communicate than the email spammer was.

perhaps he should try to contact people and get to know them before marketing stuff AT them.

We all will be delighted to know more about how you make contact without sending emails?
well sending emails in and of itself is not bad. but the lack of personalization shows that someone doesn't understand the medium or does not care about me when they spam me (and I got the same message).

I started off heavily in debt, no knowledge, unemployed, etc. I did things to get noticed:
-participate in forums
-go to conferences
-write articles
-write a blog
-write an ebook
-etc etc etc

It is very easy to kick a tiny player but it is difficult to help others to grow. We (who are established ourselves) should help others to establish themselves not to frame on wrong side of border. If we are really big boys, then we should also have big heart.
Wrong. You should not encourage people to spam others by helping them out when they spam you.

If that person wants to get established and thinks email spamming is an effective way to do it I think they are shortsighted and hope they are smart enough to be automating the spam or trying to personalize it a bit.

[boxer]

The main blame on this fellow is that he is spamming. Should we ask the aussie webmaster (who initiated this thread) that whether the email he received (and aussie webmaster started its thread here) was very first OR was this fellow has already exchanged few emails with aussie webmaster? That will help us to know whether this fellow is spamming or was he already in touch with aussie webmaster and has already established personal question-answers. I dont know but possibility is that aussie-webmaster may come out as guilty (if it is proved that this fellow has previously exchanged few emails with aussie webmaster).

If a fellow is going to every GAP's site, taking email addresses from there, and sending one email at a time (which I assume this poor fellow is doing), will we still feel it as spamming? If one fellow is sending you repeatedly bulk mails, then you can say that he is spamming, but just by receiving one email, you can not say that.

You are saying he should that he should personalize emails, thats fine. but how? If he goes at any site, and see info@something-somethiung then what could he do? Do you want him to search for your whoise information and get personalized information from there?

Listen, communication via email is the most preferred method. If u like it, give him business. If u dont like it, delete it. Who on earth has give you right to frame one person a guilty person? We are not judge and this is not a court-room. And remember bible - Let that person throw the first stone, who has not sinned in his entire life.

[seobook]

The main blame on this fellow is that he is spamming. Should we ask the aussie webmaster (who initiated this thread) that whether the email he received (and aussie webmaster started its thread here) was very first OR was this fellow has already exchanged few emails with aussie webmaster? That will help us to know whether this fellow is spamming or was he already in touch with aussie webmaster and has already established personal question-answers. I dont know but possibility is that aussie-webmaster may come out as guilty (if it is proved that this fellow has previously exchanged few emails with aussie webmaster).
afraid not. I got the same spam. no prior email. just blunt straight up spam.

If a fellow is going to every GAP's site, taking email addresses from there, and sending one email at a time (which I assume this poor fellow is doing), will we still feel it as spamming? If one fellow is sending you repeatedly bulk mails, then you can say that he is spamming, but just by receiving one email, you can not say that.
I bet it is a bit more automated than that unless the person is a bit slow or wet behind the ears.

from one spam email you can say that a person spammed you. if they did it to two or three friends as well then I see nothing wrong with labeling them as an email spammer...as it is what they are / what they do.

You are saying he should that he should personalize emails, thats fine. but how?
there are plenty of email marketing and social network marketing courses on the web. perhaps the trick might be for the spammer to write less and read more.

If he goes at any site, and see info@something-somethiung then what could he do? Do you want him to search for your whoise information and get personalized information from there?
nope. but personalizing an email means doing more than an automated bot can do.

those emails were below board.

Listen, communication via email is the most preferred method.
then why are you posting in this forum instead of emailing everyone who wrote in the thread?

do you have a reference link on why email is the preferred mode of communication? and to who? to email spammers, obviously. but not everyone

If u like it, give him business. If u dont like it, delete it. Who on earth has give you right to frame one person a guilty person? We are not judge and this is not a court-room. And remember bible - Let that person throw the first stone, who has not sinned in his entire life.
hey I did a small amount of email spamming a few years back. Generally I found it useless and ineffective unless the messages were personalized. and then as I learned more about the web and started getting spammed more I chose to send personalized messages instead of unsolicited email (spam).

I am not saying that the person will always be an email spammer...just that they recently were, and that I would never go in biz with a person who email spams me.

[boxer]

You still bypassed the possibility that this fellow might have gone to each site, and sent one email to one person. Instead you started betting that he might have done this or that spam technique.

There is a great information you are providing on spam which this fellow has not used at all. So, who is more dangerous? Answer is obvious.

And when you could not find any logic, you started simply blaiming and accusing that poor fellow.

And when I asked we should ask from AUSSIE WEBMASTER that why not we also invite this poor fellow to tell us that whether it was his first email to aussie webmaster or whether both (this fellow and aussie webmaster) have exchanged few emails itself. Instead of asking from aussie webmaster, you ignored this point. why? because aussie webmaster is your friend and this fellow is not???? Are you doing justice or being partial??

If you have courage, why not ask this aussie webmaster to invite this poor fellow to produce his side that if he has any email received from ausie webmaster in past. If that fellow can product any email received from aussie webmaster, then Mr. SEO BOOK, you will have to eat your words. Or I will eat my words. Go and ask Mr. Aussie Webmaster.

[seobook]

You still bypassed the possibility that this fellow might have gone to each site, and sent one email to one person. Instead you started betting that he might have done this or that spam technique.
even if it is manually done it still is spam.

There is a great information you are providing on spam which this fellow has not used at all. So, who is more dangerous? Answer is obvious.
since you are 100% certain what techniques this person used I am 100% certain I know your undisclosed relation to that person. Feel they are a bit close? :o

why not we also invite this poor fellow to tell us that whether it was his first email to aussie webmaster or whether both (this fellow and aussie webmaster) have exchanged few emails itself. Instead of asking from aussie webmaster, you ignored this point. why? because aussie webmaster is your friend and this fellow is not???? Are you doing justice or being partial??
I believe that the this poor fellow referenced above is already in this thread.

If you have courage, why not ask this aussie webmaster to invite this poor fellow to produce his side that if he has any email received from ausie webmaster in past. If that fellow can product any email received from aussie webmaster, then Mr. SEO BOOK, you will have to eat your words. Or I will eat my words. Go and ask Mr. Aussie Webmaster.
I won't be eating my words there...remember I stated I got the same email spam.

[AussieWebmaster]

Wow I spend one night away from the forum and I come back to find everyone rough housing....

lol... hope you had fun in Vegas mate!

Now boxer I would not have posted this as SPAM if I had contacted the person. He just blatantly grabbed emails - I would assume from going through this forum or buying a conference list.

I suppose being a Google AdsWords Professional does not imply you know anything apart from things about the Google AdWords program.

I must admit it does not guarantee you have any marketing knowledge whatsoever.... you know how to use an interface... it does not test for your ability to write good ad copy... it does not test you can develop solid landing pages... it does not test if you know how to successfully AB test.

But by sending SPAM to an industry list - 1. without first correcting the wording shows you do not care enough in your first marketing effort so why go any further... 2. you are too lazy to make the contacts through the forums or conferences and figure to snag a fool or two this way which shows a total lack of respect for his fellow industry workers... 3. you obviously do not care about being called a SPAMMER.

[AussieWebmaster]

You still bypassed the possibility that this fellow might have gone to each site, and sent one email to one person. Instead you started betting that he might have done this or that spam technique.

There is a great information you are providing on spam which this fellow has not used at all. So, who is more dangerous? Answer is obvious.

And when you could not find any logic, you started simply blaiming and accusing that poor fellow.

And when I asked we should ask from AUSSIE WEBMASTER that why not we also invite this poor fellow to tell us that whether it was his first email to aussie webmaster or whether both (this fellow and aussie webmaster) have exchanged few emails itself. Instead of asking from aussie webmaster, you ignored this point. why? because aussie webmaster is your friend and this fellow is not???? Are you doing justice or being partial??

If you have courage, why not ask this aussie webmaster to invite this poor fellow to produce his side that if he has any email received from ausie webmaster in past. If that fellow can product any email received from aussie webmaster, then Mr. SEO BOOK, you will have to eat your words. Or I will eat my words. Go and ask Mr. Aussie Webmaster.

I have not emailled this person. His email was SPAM - sent to a bunch of other people in the industry. There was no use of my name - screenname or otherwise - and a couple of other people I know got the same email.

[boxer]

From my clients, I charge US$60 per hour to manage their google adwords campaign and I am happy that now a days, I am making US$200 per day without doing any work for that.

HOW?

I have given 4 hour per day work to this poor fellow as I was also one of those, who received his introductry email. You people started a debate on his morale and I gave him work. Now, I am paying him US$40 for 4 hour work every day (as he is charging US$10 per hour), and same work (done by him in 4 hours), I am billing to my clients for US$240 (as I charge 60bucks per hour). Thus, I m gainer of US$240-US$40=US$200 every day.

This poor fellow is thinking that I have given him a good job and he is thankful to me for US$40 per day (for 4 hour work). And I am laughing on this poor fellow and thinking that it is not me who is giving him money, rather it is you poor fellow, who is making daily US$200 for me. Or should I say that this poor fellow is making money for me 200 per day x 5 days a week , i.e. US$1,000 per week or US$4,000 per month. WOW!

And I am thankful to aussie webmaster, and all others for not giving work to this poor fellow as he is still looking for more work. If all of you have given him few projects, perhaps, he would have left me by now.

But now, I know, nobody of you have given him work and that is great news for me. (as my earnings will not be disturbed at all).

Cheers!

Now I can have my last laugh!!!

[seobook]

I am making US$200 per day without doing any work for that.
gee...sounds like a great value add.

perhaps the spammer should have emailed potential clients directly to keep that cut for himself.

US$240-US$40=US$200 every day.
amazing that you have exactly 4 hours of work every day and that it takes you 0 minutes to pass that work on.

even funnier that you would validate or advertise a person who is working for you behind the scenes. if you were honestly doing well hiring him then you would only be creating more competition for yourself if other consultants wanted to hire him and his rates went up because frankly if they were any good they should be able to get more than $10 an hour.

And I am thankful to aussie webmaster, and all others for not giving work to this poor fellow as he is still looking for more work. If all of you have given him few projects, perhaps, he would have left me by now.
true...which is exactly why you wouldn't still be marketing his services unless you and he were the same person.

[PhilC]

I smiled all the way though this thread, not least at the very frequent use of the phrase, "poor fellow". I smiled at Aaron's natural conclusion that boxer is in fact the 'poor fellow', and I smiled more when boxer challenged Aaron about AussieWebmaster's email dealings with the 'poor fellow', but I saved a big smile for when it turned out that boxer would have lost the challenge, meaning that Aaron, me, and probably everyone else was wrong, or that the challenge was a ruse to turn away suspicion.

Anyway....

I don't agree that the emails were spam. I've argued for years that cold-emailing targeted people and companies is not spam. It's no different to cold-calling, and stuff through the letterbox, and it's a lot quicker to deal with if there's no interest in it. If you disagree, you only need to ask yourself how you would view such emails if there were no such thing as mass email spam, but once in a while, you received an email like that about a topic you are involved in.

I think the guy did right to cold-email people who may be interested in taking him on. There are many ways of obtaining work - some have been stated in the responses in this thread, and another one was stated in the first post in the thread - cold-emailing.

I have nothing against being contacted by cold-email when it's obviously aimed at me because I'm involved in whatever the topic is. Not personalising the email is a mistake when they are sent to web people, of course, but it doesn't make the message bad.

I'll provide an example. I once got a non-personalised cold-email from some outfit that had arbitrarily checked the linkages in my site. It told me that one of my links was broken, and it was. They wanted to sell me their auto-link checking service for a monthly fee. I wasn't interested in that, BUT I was very pleased that they'd send the email and shown me the broken link. Was it a spam email? To many people, yes it was spam - on principle - but it wasn't spam to me. It was a "Dear Webmaster", cold-email on a topic that I was known to be interested in, and in my view, that is not spam.

So I find no fault with the email that a few of you received. I may find fault with the person's abilities, but nobody would know that without taking it further. There are many companies and businesses that take advantage of the much lower wages in some countries, and the guy may actually be able to produce some good work. For instance, who would like to pay somebody a very low wage for a genuine 40 hour week of link-building? Some people do that, and it works fine. What about paying very low wages for quality website work? It's already being done. So don't knock someone for seeking work by cold-emailing people who may be interested in what he has to offer.