Yes – I do sign up for stuff, I like to explore and develop. In the past I’ve had a lot of success with using a mail address that I never read to sign up at websites, but the purpose of the article was to address those marketeers who COULD have my attention if they played their cards right.

It sounds like you get a lot of spam…unsolicited mail. It also sounds like you sign-up for things for no reason. I’m pretty careful about what I sign-up to because I know most of it is utter rubbish.

There are lots of people around knocking out emails for the hell of it. I agree with your points for people who are copying what spammers do.

There are a couple of really important points.
(1) Graphics…they can be embedded.
(2) Negligible cost…it is actually quite costly (elapsed time) to set-up a good process…I know, I do it.
(3) Phishing…think you’ve mis-understood…often emails are designed to draw people back to a website to continue reading.

Most newsletters are mixes of text and graphics. eShots are sales promos and then we could have various sub divisions from there.

PS – If you’re on constant, you’d better get off data is supposed to be kept within the UK. No good. If anyone needs clarification, happy to help..