Did you know that sending out mass emails is often illegal? You perhaps didn't. Particularly if you work as a politics blogger, for which an important part of your job is "blasting out" your stories.

But the deeply flawed CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 codified some mass email behavior, and described what's spam and what isn't. The FTC describes what emails are subject to the Act: "'any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,' including email that promotes content on commercial websites."

So, yes. Your mass email promoting your "content" at Politico or BuzzFeeᴅ or your [...]

It's very beautiful! When you have a big penis! It's the kind of thing that makes a fellow proud!

About.com, the content farm owned by the Times and one of the worst things on the Internet, looks like it's finally in trouble, due in large part to Google taking action against the Garbagenet. (These outfits depend on search results.) And also: advertisers realizing there are better ways to spend money than advertising against an empty void. In the second quarter of this year, About.com shed staff and now their real operating costs are $13.1 million; their operating profit is down 24% from last year, to $11.6 million. (That's less than $4 million a month.) To be fair, this is still a "real business": The About Group had [...]

There's an (allegedly) iPhone-taken video with 60,000 views that went on YouTube on June 9, 2010. It's not very good or very funny, but it surely is black ops marketing for one major burger chain, even though it's shot in another major burger chain. And this is how the greatest minds behind the big business of viral marketing today apparently think is the best way to get their video "picked up" by blogs: casual emails that look pretty much like emails anyone with a blog gets on a daily basis except… less good.

Sad news for fans of found pen1s poetry: "E-mail spam has plunged by more than half since Christmas Day when the world's largest criminal spamming operation inexplicably shut down." But! Experts "fear that top spamming groups might be shifting to sneakier, more lucrative online scams." So there's that. [Via]

Here is the current list of PR companies that are blocked on my Gmail. Offenses by these firms in recent email subject lines include: "Heads Up – Hybrid gets a makeover," "Miss USA 2010 Odds: Louisiana's contestant will be crowned on Sunday!," "Story Idea: Get Carrie'd away with these delicious low calorie Sex and the City Cocktails!!," "Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka Celebrates One-Millionth Bottle," "Recall: The future of Post-Kate Dancing with the Stars," "Is Jane Lynch really rocking a $395 engagement ring?," "Blog Material – Jennie Garth in Grand Central Station" and "Is "Brexting" the New Break-Up?" Oh and who can forget: "Snooki's Diet Weapon: COOKIES!" I welcome communications [...]