What if you are new to email marketing and do not even have an email campaign, let alone data? What if you do not even understand all the industry lingo and are starting from the very beginning? Welcome to my world.

A report out this week claims that there has been a significant rise in spam since June. The report, released by anti-spam solution provider Postini, claims that currently nine out of 10 e-mails are spam. And I have to admit that the number of pump and dump stock scam e-mails I've received lately has dramatically increased....

An interview with Beck in Wired about the future of the album captured my attention and won't let go. The article describes how fans could have heard the album "Guero" as an unfinished mix leaked online, the official release, the deluxe CD/DVD with bonus features and interactive components, or as "Guerolito," a companion piece with remixes by other artists.

Let's face it, Internet Service Providerss are an e-mail marketer's best friend. Like a boss who tells you the cold facts about what you need to do in order to improve your performance, or like a good friend getting you to face up to the tough truth, ISPs can be counted on to tell you what you need to hear.

Last week we took a look at Thanksgiving e-mails. Of course this means that Christmas is just around the corner. So this week we'll discuss the e-mail campaigns from last year's Christmas season, and also take a look at who is getting a quick jump out the door for this season.

E-mail Diva explains why a specialty retailer who seems to be asking too many preference questions is actually doing something right.

Debunking e-mail myths and legends.

I've decided to go on a diet--a data diet. In an email world of bounces and conversions, people who click 67% more when mailed on Tuesdays and people who never click when it's raining, I've lost sight of what's important. I'm bloated by bounces, overindulgent with opens. To paraphrase a tired old cliché (the best kind), I can't see the strategic forest for the tactical trees.

With turkey day approaching, I thought it would be interesting to examine the Thanksgiving related e-mail campaigns that ran last year at this time. For many of the retail and catalog sites, the days surrounding Thanksgiving are the highest-trafficked days of the entire year. People obviously bored by Thanksgiving at Aunt Ruth's are hitting the Internet big time in search of those holiday savings.

One of the topics to be explored at the upcoming Email Insider Summit is the role of e-mail in a Web 2.0 world. Bluestreakhas done some interesting research on consumer attitudes toward these new technologies, but the value and adoption of certain Web 2.0 communication channels was made clear to me recently through some personal experiences.