First, I want to make sure that everyone knows that I love AOBA (Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association www.alpacainfo.com ).  They are a great asset to the Alpaca Industry!  Thanks for all they do.

However, as an Alpaca rancher (in Texas we like to call them ranches and not farms) I had to make a business decision.  Do I continue to spend the money to list my basic information on their Farm and Ranch Locater, or not.  I decided to let my subscription expire.  Compared to other marketing choices, I was getting much less value from AOBA, and let's face it, the industry is becoming much more regional than national.  I have plenty of referrals from my existing sites where I concentrate on marketing "Texas Alpacas".  Our Website is www.HeartofTexasAlpacas.com or www.AlpacaTrack.com/HeartofTexasAlpacas.aspx.  Check it out for yourself

The funny thing is, that as soon as I was off the FRG list, my junk email dropped to practically nothing.  I had been receiving over 500 junk emails per day.  Apparently, all AOBA members have severe health issues, want to invest in penny stocks, or need other help that I don't feel comfortable mentioning.  My junk email box today had 16 entries, and my regular inbox has much more relevant emails.  I can only assume that someone or something is "harvesting" email addresses from AlpacaInfo.com, and when the listing goes away, so do the junk emails.

I brought this to the attention of AOBA, but ironically, my email to them ended up in their Junk email folder!  It seems that once an email is "harvested" it is also used to send out other emails.  Although I have never sent out an email "Blast" (I prefer to call them campaigns and leave Blast for atom bombs), my email address was being used to send to others!  How bizarre!

I regularly check my standings in the search engines.  If you search for "Texas Alpacas" our ranch will usually be on the first page, and is usually the second entry in Google.  It sometimes changes, but most of my AlpacaTrack clients show up in the first or second page when a query for Alpacas and their state are entered.  I decided to check out Yahoo today.  Our ranch is still on the first page, but something interesting caught my attention.  Yahoo has teamed up with another company, and shows a "red flag" on sites that are associated with "unsolicited email".  Guess What?  Anyone on www.AlpacaNation.com has a red flag! (Note:  The Red Flag Issue with AlpacaNation.com has been resolved when last checked on 7/22/2008 - Mike at AlpacaTrack)

Now that's just plain unfair!  AlpacaNation does not publish email addresses, and in fact, you have to be a member to contact an AlpacaNation member through email.  Apparently, they have an option to publish their email addresses on certain parts of their website.  Just "Google" Yahoo for "AlpacaNation" and you will see what I mean. 

In another twist of fate, (almost) every email I get from an AOBA list goes to Junk email.

So, protect your email addresses!  Don't subscribe to lists that publish email addresses if possible. If you feel the listing has great value, or don't have a choice, use a "throw away" email address. AlpacaTrack was publishing email addresses and recently changed our site to have a contact form instead.  Your email addresses are a corporate asset.  Guard them! And in the process, you will spend a lot less time wading through junk email and more time on reviewing legitimate email.