Is this sales letter a help or hindrance?

I got this email in my inbox this week from a vendor I have worked with, or researched.  I paraphrased where necessary to keep the email anonymous [in brackets].
Subject: [Vendor] offers end of the quarter discount
If recent news reports are any indication, our country is no longer in a recession, and business should start increasing.  [...]

Are you really getting spammed, or is it something else

One of the things I notice about email list management is that people leave mixed messages.  I don’t know if this has happened to you, but you find a few people visit the unsubscribe page, and never complete the action.  Is the page confusing, or did they get sidetracked.  Another common one is to get [...]

My time is too valuable to read this newsletter

Here was the opt-out message on a newsletter I received. Unfortunately I forgot to opt-in to this list.  Pet peeve: people who buy addresses and pretend that it was for my benefit.

List-building tactics to avoid and one way to look less shady

Here are a few good tips on list building from BtoB Magazine, and an example how to add without looking like a spammer.
The bad ideas:

Pre-check the opt-in box
Add old prospects, customers to your mailing list
Down play co-marketing (wow this happens to me all of the time).  I.E. list rentals
Harvesting email addresses to add to your [...]

Does this sound like spam to you?

Got this message in my mailbox today.  (sender name omitted)
Subject: New Prospects Email List (Promotional Discount)
Hi Jame
You are receiving this special offer because we see potential with your company for our future lists.
We have New contacts within medium to large corporations in the US. We are offering these contacts, which you will own and can [...]

Friendly reminder to the salespeople out there

I got this really helpful and useful email today. Here is is verbatim (name removed)
Hi Jame,
I hope this finds you well. I saw you registered for the webinar next Tuesday. I will be your primary point of contact and wanted to see if there is any other information I can provide in [...]

Fundraising Emails: the effective and the deleted

It’s end of the year gift time for non-profits! And I am getting messages all around from Cal, my alma mater. Here’s a good one:
And here is one that didn’t move me from the College of Letters and Sciences.  So both made a ploy to get me to send money.  No problem there.  [...]

Marketing Website: “We hate spam as much as you do!”

^^^^ Then why do you send me unsolicited emails?  I am a member of a well-known marketing networking website.  And this site is possibly the worst offender of following the best practices of email marketing.
So there are a few rules we are all supposed to follow:

Easy and obvious unsubscribe process
Letting the users choices on the [...]

Email Templates, the best thing since sliced bread?!?!

So we’ve all heard the phrase better than sliced bread.  Of course according to some people, sliced bread lead to the decline of American baking.  (see here and here.)  So email templates (and mass email in CRM systems and mail clients)….possibly the best thing ever for salespeople…or is it messing up email communications?
Raise your hand [...]

Changing your name (and losing credibility with your subscribers)

So yesterday I got an email.  From an unknown sender.  It looks like an association of storage user groups reorganized under a new name, with new sponsors.  This is all a surprise, since this association has been MIA for the past 6+ months.  Perhaps even since the beginning of the year.
So the first email basically [...]