Successful email affiliates know the best emails also adhere to the regulations laid out in the CAN-SPAM act of 2004. The FTC established the CAN-SPAM act to provide a uniform set of requirements for all email communications, and it’s got some teeth as well. Failure to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act may result in penalties ranging up to $11,000 in fines, per violation. So, affiliates using email marketing should keep these guidelines handy.

One bizarre thing about the CAN-SPAM act that many affiliates may not be aware of: The acronym actually stands for “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing” Act. Apparently marketing and pornography are synonyms?

Simple Guidelines for CAN-SPAM Compliance

1. The email’s From and To addresses should be the original sender. Use your primary email account or a specific marketing channel email account within your own domain to specify the email.

2. Subject lines should be accurate and representative of what’s contained within. For instance, if your email is about shopping advice, don’t use a vague subject such as “Amazing! Read this!”. Being specific is not only compliant, it will likely increase your open rates and provide valuable conversions.

3. Let them opt-out. You have to have a mechanism on your email that allows someone to state they don’t want further emails from you or your company. If someone opts out, you have 10 days from the time they opt out to shut their email deliveries off.

4. You must include a physical address. For smaller affiliates, if you do not want to provide your home address for personal privacy reasons, a Post Office box should be adequate.

Honestly, CAN-SPAM has a lot of teeth, but compliance is not that difficult nor intrusive to affiliate marketers. In general, just make sure your email is worth reading, and doesn’t try to deceive your recipients in any way. When in doubt, refer to the comprehensive CAN-SPAM FTC site:

http://www.ftc.gov/spam/

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