The risks

Third-party email lists can work. There is a large industry that recycles the lists that can attest to it. I’ve done it myself (see the bottom).

But there are serious risks.

• It takes experience. Don’t try this at home. As the process below shows, it CAN be done. But it preferably requires someone who has the war wounds from doing this a lot before and can avoid the many painful lessons.

• The cost advantage is an illusion. You don’t just push a button. The time spent massaging the email, list, mailings, and providers is significant. If you hire and pay for an experienced consultant, the cost advantage may disappear.

• Email provider cancellation. Despite your best list cleaning efforts, cheap lists will contain dead, invalid, and fake email addresses that cause emails to bounce back. They are a clear signal to your email company that your list is unverified. Using such lists violates their Terms of Use. Account restrictions, freezing, and even cancellation are a regular occurence.

• Spam traps. The danger isn’t just low list quality. Lists can be ticking time bombs. List brokers often plant spam traps (recycled or fake addresses) that get shared and copied from one list to another. Email passes across multiple services from sender to recipient. Spam filters, Internet Service providers, and email security services all build, contribute to, or subscribe to blacklist services that scan emails and can prevent your mail from being forwarded.

• Domain reputation. The damage isn’t confined just to bulk email senders. Blacklists can cause your entire sending domain, including regular business email, to be affected and undelivered.

• Hello junk mail folder. Once your sender reputation is ruined, your emails, including legitimate ones, may start getting filtered straight into spam or junk folders.

• Severe Legal Violations and Fines: Sending unsolicited emails breaks privacy laws like GDPR in Europe or CAN-SPAM in the United States, risking massive regulatory fines (up to thousands or millions of dollars depending on the region).

I’ve been there

The boss demands a mass email blast, regardless of your concerns. He’s not going to pay $10,000 or more for a high quality list. He asks you to reach into your bag of email magic to generate more leads.

• You get a clean domain. There shouldn’t be a link back to your company.

• Edit your oubound emails for content and direct company mentions. You can use the company name but only if it’s on a graphic. This isn’t a friendly newsletter to your clients. Let’s be real - it’s a spam email.

• Do the research to find a cheap third-party email list.

• Even better, use the list that the boss sent you from his own received spam email. That way there is no blame on you if it doesn’t perform.

• Buy yet another cheap third-party email list for your target market that’s a fraction of the legitimate list price.

• Filter out the addresses you already have. There goes 20% of the list. This isn’t your first rodeo.

• Clean the emails through an email validator to remove another 20% of the crap.

• Remove info@, sales@, and other general addresses that your email provider doesn’t like.

• Verify to your email provider and your God that it’s not a third party list.

• Slowly send the group emails to avoid tripping your email provider bounce and complaint rates and blacklists.

• Even better, mix the new addresses with your opt-in and aged lists to water down bounces and complaints.

• Remove the bounces. After all the list hygeine your list is now less than HALF the size of the original list.

• Still, at some point your email provider freezes your account due to tripping their rate or aggregate limits.

• Come up with a brilliant explanation (that damn admin didn’t know any better. You fired him. It will NEVER happen again.). They unfreeze your account.

• Get several responses that result in a few big sales. The attributed sales numbers and ROI show that the third party list was competitive with other marketing channels. Success!

• Rinse, repeat, and risk 6 months later.

It takes a few steps but it isn’t too painful.

1. Open LinkedIn on a desktop computer and click your Me profile icon at the top.

2. Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown menu.

3. Click Data privacy on the left-hand navigation pane.

4. Click the second (currently) menu item on the right Download your data (or Get a copy of your data).

5. Choose larger data archive.

6. Click Request archive and enter your password if requested.

7. Wait for an email from LinkedIn with a download link (usually arrives within 10 to 24 minutes, though it can take up to 24 hours) or just check back and reload the page.

8. Download the zip file

9. Your 1st-degree connections are listed in the Connections.csv file with name, email (just a few 😉), company, position, LinkedIn url, and date connected.

I’m an entrepreneur and investor. I started the DallasBlue Business Network in 2000 in the wake of the dot com bubble to help the local community recover. Blue became the largest networking group in Texas with events for entrepreneurs, investors, and networkers. During my career I’ve worked for, consulted with, or managed several companies in this space.

Three years later I was an active user on Ryze. I switched to LinkedIn and became an early advocate. I rose to #3 in the world in total number of connections. I created one of the first LinkedIn Open Networker communities, Linkedin Groups, a LinkedIn radio show, and other LinkedIn properties.

LinkedIn clamped down as its popularity took off. It was Wild West fun and games when people like me helped them grow to their first million members. Not so much afterward. They limited the maximum number of connections to 30,000. I was one of 6 (The “Dirty Half Dozen”?) who were above this limit.

That was just the start of a myriad of restrictions over the now early years that increasingly limited its use for open and active networkers and small businesses.

LinkedIn banned me at one point for being too good a networker. But, in what I was told was a first, they gave me a second chance (I can be a sweetheart) and let me back in.

And so LinkedIn pivoted from being a true networking site focused on contacts to a social media site focused on jobs and publishing.

IYN aims to do better. Read more in our About Us page.

I invite you to join us. The first step is registering as an Open or other type of networker in the Vacation Steal Sweepstakes (that’s our sister company). As an added treat, you may even win a cruise or resort vacation!

Marc Freedman

LinkedIn

The DallasBlue Business Network is back! It’s been 20 years since we were the top business network in Texas with 30,000 members and seminars, startup pitches, and networking parties. Did you miss us?

Blue is the live and local arm of It’s Your Network. We’re starting in Dallas-Ft. Worth, just like we did in the old days (yes, they had the Internet then too, even though some of you weren’t born yet!).

We’re sporting a new logo. But the mission is the same - Provide great business and network opportunities for executives, entrepreneurs, investors, networkers, and LinkedIn users.

To celebrate, we’re launching the DallasBlue Cruise & Vacation Sweepstakes. It’s free to enter with three Grand Prize winners picked every month. (Re)Join DallasBlue and win a vacation prize!

There is no doubt about the value of LinkedIn. Launched in 2003, it has grown to more than 1.2 billion registered members across more than 200 countries and territories.

According to them:

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform. It connects professionals, job seekers, and businesses to build networks, share industry news, and discover career opportunities. Users create profiles acting as digital resumes to showcase their skills, experience, and achievements. The platform also functions as a powerful tool for B2B marketing, recruitment, and professional education, enabling recruiters to source talent and allowing members to engage with thought leaders and industry groups.

But it’s a limited platform for networking

LinkedIn continues to be THE go-to resource to find a business contact. But LinkedIn poorly serves professinoals, small business owners, and marketers who want to use it to do business on or off the site.

• Limited contacts. LinkedIn limits your number of contacts. That’s fine for most users. But it’s limiting to marketers and open networkers who build large networks.

• Limited LinkedIn network access. LinkedIn limits your interaction with the full network unless you have an expensive paid subscription.

• Limited personal network contact. You can send an update to your personal network …. that’s received only on LinkedIn. But that’s your only option to reach a group of your connections.

• No email. Only 3-4% of executive LinkedIn connections allow you to see their email address. So you can’t contact them outside the limited ways LinkedIn provides.

• You don’t know who sees you. You and your business may spend thousands of dollars in Linkedin outreach. But it doesn’t capture views. You don’t know who’s see your ad unless someone actually connects.

Linkedin calls itself a “networking platform.“ And it is. It’s HUGE (over a billion served). But it’s not a place to network.

It’s the largest business site in the world to scan news, read a business article, play games, find a job, send a message, hire an employee, and find a new contact. But it’s all safely done within the antiseptic confines of the LinkedIn walled community.

There are big gaps in usability

• You can’t contact multiple or all your connections.

• If you message them one by one, only 18% of members respond within a week.

• So you try to contact them directly. But you get emails to just 4% of your connections.

• We hope it’s not urgent. You don’t get ANY connection phone numbers.

Is this any way to network or even do business?

IYN is building a unique set of business services for executives and professionals from Open Networkers to Do-Not-Networkers that fill in the LinkedIn gaps.

Our goal is to provide real networking and restore your contacts, while maintaining your security and desired level of privacy. Read founder Marc Freedman’s Welcome Message.

Please join us! The first step is registering as an Open or other type of networker in the Vacation Steal Sweepstakes (that’s our sister company). As an added treat, you may even win a cruise or resort vacation! We’ll keep you updated on new services and opportunities.

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