I periodically see confusion as to what is legal when it comes to email newsletters. Even when people are reading the actual CAN-SPAM Act. I’m not going to cover every part of it. I’m going to address the most common mistakes.

Sometimes I get email from spammers that claims their email is sent in accordance with the CAN-SPAM Act. No, it’s not. If I have no prior relationship with an organization and haven’t signed up for their newsletter, they are in violation. Putting that in the bottom of an email does not make them compliant. Not at all.

So here’s the first thing you need to be clear on: buying a mailing list, even one that the seller claims is opt-in, is often a bad idea. More often than not, they’re not opt-in. It doesn’t count if the email addresses were harvested from sites where the Terms of Service tell users their email will be sold (because who reads those? Mostly just weird people like me). It doesn’t count when users are notified by small print at the bottom of the page, or hidden elsewhere on the site. That information needs to be right in front of the user’s face. Hiding the fact that an email address will be sold is not informing people their email will be sold. It’s, um, hiding the fact that their email address will be sold. And this is a common tactic from those selling “opt-in” email lists.

What is Opt-In?
Opt-In means someone signed up to receive your newsletter, usually via a form on your website. They did it knowing they would get a newsletter from you. It’s that simple.

Can I Ever Send A Newsletter to Someone That Hasn’t Opted-In?
Actually, yes. BUT…only in certain situations. The CAN-SPAM Act says that if you and the person you are emailing have a prior business relationship, and you are sending emails that assist in continuing that relationship, then you can email them without them having fill out an opt-in request. You can include commercial content (where you are trying to sell them something) but the primary message must be transactional (information that continues the business relationship).

For example, I can send emails to my current clients to give them information about changes at GeekArtist Web Solutions. I can let them know about new procedures or other changes in the company. However, if I want to send an email that is just selling them new services, they must have opted-in to the email newsletter list. If I were sending a notice to my clients notifying them of a new staff member, I could include links to our other services on part of the email. But the main message must be about the new staff member. I can’t just give one line about the new staff member, then fill up the email with sales content.

I Don’t Want to Include an Unsubscribe Link
That is not optional. If you want to send a compliant email, you must have an unsubscribe link. Some people are afraid to put them in because they are afraid everyone will unsubscribe. If you’re that concerned about it, I would ask you why this worries you. If you have helpful information, or users have signed up for the newsletter, or these are current customers, most will likely stay subscribed.

I Don’t Want to Include My Mailing Address
This is also not optional. If you run your business out of your home and don’t want to give your physical address, get a Post Office Box. A P.O. Box address is fine for email newsletters. But either a physical or P.O. address MUST be on the email.

The CAN-SPAM Act has a few more details you will want to be aware of. I have only addressed the more common pitfalls. You may find your situation is not addressed here. Make sure you visit the Bureau of Consumer Protection website and read their The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.

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Backlinks and inbound links are two words meaning the same thing. Both of these are links from other websites to yours.

This is one of many factors that impact where you show up in search engine results, and probably the most important.

I often describe search engines as being a popularity contest: the more links to you, the higher you go in the rankings.

This part is often overlooked by website owners. After I complete I site, I recommend site owners spend time getting links to their website and continue to work on their site. I can’t tell you how many of them come to me a year later and say “but I’m not getting much traffic to my site”. And I ask: have you spent time getting links to your site or updating it? The answer is always no.

Once your site is made you need to spend time promoting it and working on it regularly (updating content). Or if you don’t have time, hire someone else to promote your website and/or maintain the website.

Not all links are created equal. One or two good links from a quality website (in other words: high ranking) can be better than many from low ranking websites. So while you may do research and work on getting yourself listed with every website out there that will take you, I also recommend spending some money on joining quality sites with good links. For example, we are members of the Better Business Bureau and Dallas Chamber of Commerce. These are quality websites. Additionally, these are sites people are likely to search when looking for our business (especially the BBB).

Consider having your site listed in other high ranking directories such as Local.com, yellowpages.com, and SuperPages.com. Have a Facebook business page. Have your profile on LinkedIn and apage for your business on LinkedIn too.

But don’t stop there. Are there websites that come up frequently when you search for terms related to your site? For example, searches for lawyer and attorney often bring up findlaw.com and lawyers.com. Spending money to be listed in these legal directories could be worthwhile for an attorney.

There are fewer and fewer quality sites out there that are free. So budget for money on directories and other websites related to your site. Budget for search engines too. Even Yahoo charges to be listed in their directory. While their search engine listing is free (the part of the site where you come up when people type something in the search box) they charge to be listed in the directory (the part where you come up when people are browsing by subject).

A key phrase I used up there is “related to your site”. You’ll do better linked from sites that are along the same subject lines as your website rather than from random websites on any given subject. For example, links from websites that are related to web design in some way, or are business directories that have a “web design” category are more helpful to me than links from Job Bob Bubba’s Garage and Bait Shop. The Garage and Bait Shop doesn’t have anything to do with web design, so it’s less helpful to my rankings than if I had a link from a web design blog or web design resource site.

Google has an excellent article on inbound links and offers more ideas on what you can do to increase your inbound links. In that article, Google also recommends practices to avoid when trying to gain links.

Remember, once your site is made, it is not “done”. A website is never finished. It is always a work in progress. And your competitors that are ranking higher than you in Google and other search engines probably know this.

Related posts:

• The Single Best Thing You Can Do For Your Website’s Traffic
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I can give you the detailed definition of web usability, but in a nutshell, it all boils down to how easy it is for people to use your website. (A great, non-technical and quick read is Jakob Nielsen’s Usability 101: Introduction to Usability.)

Usability can make or break a site. If you have good website traffic but not enough sales, and your products are good and reasonably priced, maybe you should look at how usable your site is. If members are complaining to your non-profit that they can never find certain information, it may be time to examine the site.

To be fair, you can have a giant, flashing arrow that takes up half the page screaming “IT’S RIGHT HERE!!” and some people will never find anything. But it’s still best to work toward getting your site to where critical information is as obvious as possible.

Steve Krug says the most important thing to do to make sure your website is easy to use is to remember this: “Don’t make me think!”

And he’s right. It’s been proven for years, repeatedly, that the longer it takes someone to find anything on your site, the more likely that person will give up and leave. People don’t want to think. They don’t want using a website to be difficult. The Back button is your friend. And remember that it is the friend of your site visitors too.

One way to keep things simple is to cut down information and choices. Paul Boag, another expert says “Studies in supermarkets have shown that if the shopper is presented with too many varieties they are less likely to make a purchase.” (Read his article 10 Techniques For An Effective ‘Call To Action’) So remember: watch out for information overload.

Of course, the challenge here is that most people are also concerned with SEO. They want their site to show up in search engines, and for many, that means filling up a page with information. Well, you have to decide what’s more important to you: getting to the top, or having people that actually find your site be able to use it. There are ways you can make your site be search engine friendly without it being just a pile of keywords crammed onto a page. In fact, a well-designed site that people like using has a better chance of moving up in the rankings because people are more likely to want to share it with others they know.

So how to test your site?

Nielsen, and another industry expert, Steve Krug, agree that you don’t need long, expensive tests to determine web usability. Their numbers range from 1 to 5 people to test a site. Better yet, get people that are representative of your target audience. Personally, I’m fond of what I call the Grandmother Test: if my Grandmother can’t use it, I did it wrong.

Ask a friend or someone that will give you honest feedback. A great way to test is to stand next to someone and ask if they can perform specific tasks on the site. If they struggle or can’t, something needs fixing.

Look at your site with your customer in mind. If you were them, how would you use the site? Will they find what you want them to find?

Remember that any site features that have annoyed you will annoy your customer too. Popup windows are a great way to chase off your customers. Websites that don’t work in most browsers are another good way. Websites that don’t work on phones are also bad. Can people search your site for what they want? Is there a sitemap? How about an obvious FAQ? Where is your contact information? Where is your navigation? Is it in the same place on all or most pages, or does it move all the time? These are important things to think on what looking at your site.

How about when something breaks on your site? Try typing in a page address for your site that does not exist. What happens? Just a blank page saying 404? Or do you have a custom error page that will help your visitor when something goes wrong?

These are just a few of the many things to consider when looking at your website. If you’re looking for some good, non-technical books on the subject, check out Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition and his later book, Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems.

And of course, you can always get in touch with a web designer for a review of your site. If you have a site, I’d be happy to look at it as part of our one hour consultation, and give a list of things that can be done to make it easier to use.