Is affiliate marketing a spam?

This question was thrown to me and I find it very interesting. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic)) defined spam as "the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages". Spam is a tool used by advertisers to promote their goods or services. Does it hit the mass market? Yes, it does. Is it effective? I don't think so. It's like having a machine gun and keep shooting and hopes one bullet hits the target. It's a waste of effort and resources. Affiliate marketers and e-commerce businesspeople should be like snipers. They aim at their target, evaluate the wind direction and distance and make a shot. In my opinion, there's no point selling meat to a vegetarian.

I do admit that some affiliate marketers engage heavily in sending unsolocited e-mails. At this time and age, if we are still sending spam, then we are behind time. I was watching my friend's kid checking his e-mail. The moment he saw an unfamiliar e-mail sender, he deleted immediately without even reading it. GET MY POINT? It has been drilled into internet users that spam must be deleted. Even a six year old kid spend no amount of time reading spam, so how effective can it be? If any of you love spam, i'd suggest you put on this t-shirt so that spammers can detect you from far. hahaha


In the recent years, internet business people are challenged to be more creative and innovative in their marketing efforts. It is not as simple anymore.what the heck, is anything ever been simple?