Ever think about how much your e-mail address is worth to a marketer?  Take a second and think about it.  I know you probably have 4 or 5 "junk" e-mails you can use to access something you want without getting an unending amount of junk in your inbox.  There are a couple of pretty legitimate companies whose e-mail practices border on obscene.  These are BIG names who send me 3 or 4 e-mails a week, no matter how many times I've asked them to stop.  So I can clearly understand why you'd have throw away e-mail boxes.

Those e-mail boxes can be worth $5 or $10 EACH to a marketer. 

Think about it this way.  I have a lot of friends in the car business.  These guys are always looking for the "up".  That's the word for a person who wanders in off the street to the dealership. You've been there I'm sure.  I count the amount of time from when my feet hit the floor of the parking lot, till I get greeted by a seller.  That tells you how hungry, and how aggressive, the seller might be on that given day.  An average car dealership figures they will close (sell) cars to a certain percentage of all the ups that come in the door.  Another word for "up" is lead.  In that business, if you want to increase your profits, you need to increase your ups.  The number of closes vary a little, but the number of quality ups is the single biggest indicator of business health.

To internet marketing people, your "up" is your e-mail.  The more e-mails they collect, the better their chance to sell you something.  Now, if the light bulb just went on in your head, you have a bit of an idea how the very basic part of internet marketing via e-mail lists actually works. 

You've probably already subscribed to or received e-mail in this fashion.  I-Tunes uses it.  So does E-Reader, Amazon, and practically anybody you do business with online and give you e-mail address. Facebook even leverages your e-mail addresses to generate money by selling exposure of advertisers to you.  Online surveys of all manner are done--JUST to get your e-mail address.

So how do people make money with my e-mail address?  Here's the thought process.  Once a marketer has your e-mail, just like the car guy above, he is going to begin a marketing plan for you.  He knows he will convert a certain number of "ups" into real money for his company.  Its the master salesman at work.  He doesn't mind paying for information now, to make more sales later.  All manner of companies use a form of this marketing, called CPA (cost per action) to generate leads.  American Express is one. Credit reporting is another.  How many of the Free Credit Report.com online and broadcast commercials have you seen or heard?  E-Harmony.com and the Video Professor are in this marketplace, so is the Discover Card.

A different but similar process happens when you buy a home, or sell a home--you get offers from people wanting to paint your house, mow your lawn, install shutters, and on and on.  They bought either bought your information from a company that collects it, or scanned the public records to retrieve it.  The same principle applies.

My dad always said if you want to know how something works, follow the money.  Here's the trail.  Company "A" offers to pay Network an amount of money for each lead.  Network then recruits people to promote Company "A"s offer.  Each lead a recruiter gets for the Network means there's money coming in from Company "A". Company "A" pays the network.  Network keeps some for their overhead.  Recruiter gets paid the agreed upon finders fee.  Company "A" gets a lead.  You, if you are the lead, receive marketing materials you hopefully really want.

If you want to learn more about where all these ads come from I've included links at the bottom of the page.  If you are thinking about making money online, you might want to look at them.