Yes, that’s spam

As time goes on, my definition of spam has gotten larger and larger. If you’re thinking about sending something and wonder “would this be considered spam?”, yes, it probably would be.

My definition of spam has grown to simply include any cold contact. A cold email, a cold LinkedIn message, a cold phone call — they’re all spam.

I know some of you are thinking “ my emails aren’t spam because I can really help people with my offering “. That may be accurate, but almost everyone else believes the exact same thing.

The Magic Checkbox

I had to face myself on this recently regarding the magic checkbox. As I explain in this post from a few years ago, the “magic checkbox” in WordPress can be devastating. Thousands of sites mistakenly have it checked, and they’re costing themselves untold numbers of potential customers.

I found a way to find sites that do this, and wanted to reach out to them and let them know. Even though this could be cold email, it’s ok because “I can really help people”, right? It’s still spam.

Really, I would love to track down sites that do this and put them onto a short automated drip campaign. I’d help tons of people, and a subset of them might want to engage us for more work. I won’t do it, though, because it’s still spam.