EZ Publishing Announces its Position on Email Postage Fees: Potentially Damaging to the Small Business Sector

Davis, CA, February 08, 2006 --(PR.com)-- Dan Forootan—CEO of EZ Publishing, developer of the StreamSend permission-based email marketing service—is outraged by the new email Goodmail CertifiedEmail “postage” system that AOL and Yahoo! have recently implemented.

“AOL and Yahoo! are fabulous companies, but implementation of this ‘postage’ charge will hit small businesses the hardest. It will make email as a marketing medium less accessible to small businesses,” says Forootan. “The Internet is the great equalizer for small businesses because they can engage in enterprise marketing activities on a smaller scale. Imposing a per-message fee will create a competitive disadvantage to small businesses and non-profits that cannot afford the fee.”

Small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy, serving as an employment engine. Because it has made one-to-one marketing a reality, permission-based email marketing has become a key element of the small business marketing mix. To take this powerful tool away would be a damaging blow to the small business sector.

In addition, Forootan says "the potential anti-competitive effects of this new program trouble me. Because most small businesses have customers with email addresses at Yahoo! and AOL, I feel this postage program can lead to a monopolistic position for Goodmail Systems, the ‘postage’ supplier. There is no competitive market mechanism to set prices for emails, thereby giving way to a virtual monopoly."

“The choice becomes either pay the fees or risk emails sent to your customer list being sent to the spam folder,” says Forootan. “This program will be an enormous disadvantage for small businesses.”

Forootan notes that the real issue here is that people get too much spam. The solution to the spam problem is not to enable email senders to buy their way into your inbox.

“This stamping program comes at a time when domestic spam volume is dropping (primarily due to legislation such as CAN-SPAM),” continued Forootan. “Technology can also play a role to help further decreases in spam. Frameworks such as SPF, SenderID and DomainKeys (ironically strongly supported by Yahoo!) have been established to help stop phishing attempts and virus distribution. Because there has been no mandate, adoption of these solutions has been slow.”

Fair solutions, that maintain a level playing field, are available but the major providers have thus far declined to mandate them, instead the pay-per-message model was adopted.

About EZ Publishing, Inc.
EZ Publishing is an Internet technology solutions company that provides technology services and solutions to small and medium-sized businesses. EZ Publishing is the developer of the StreamSend permission-based email marketing service.

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