Anti-Spam Policy

Anti-Spam Policy & Terms of Use Effective Date January 1, 2011

If you use emailOrchard, you must read, understand and agree to the following terms.

How emailOrchard Defines Spam

When you send an email to someone you don't know, that's an "unsolicited" email.
Sending one unsolicited email message to one person is not spam.
But, when you send unsolicited emails to a list of people you don't know, that is spam.

Permission Lists Only

You absolutely cannot use:

* Purchased email lists
* Rented email lists
* Any email list that is not your own

You should only use emailOrchard to send newsletters, updates, and promotions to your own members and customers who joined your list, or to people who requested to be on your email list through our double opt-in method.

You can only use emailOrchard to send to lists of people who have given you permission to email them.

If you send emails to a list and you get spam complaints (more than 1 out of 1,000), Internet Service Providers will begin blocking future emails from your organization (and our server).

They will also request that emailOrchard close your account.

Acceptable Use (you can use these types of emails and address lists).

1) Explicitly opted in with you online. Each recipient subscribed to your list online and opted in for one or several types of mailings, for example by clicking one or more subject-related checkboxes that were unselected by default. Co-registration on a partner’s site is OK as long as as there are separate opt-in options for each list and it is clear to users that they are subscribing to your list. If you haven’t sent the recipient email in over 6 months, we recommend a reintroduction message reminding them what they subscribed to, and when.

2) Explicitly opted in with you offline. Recipient completed your offline form, survey or participated in your contest and gave their express permission to be contacted by email about specific subject(s), for example by ticking an empty checkbox.

3) Gave you their business card at an event. If it’s absolutely clear that by giving their card the recipient would be added to a list with a particular subject matter, you have permission.
We recommend an introductory message reminding them what they subscribed to, and when.

4) Explicitly opted in for the subject you are contacting them about. When opting in, it should be clear to the recipient what the nature of the mailings will be. For example, just because someone opted in for updates about a specific product doesn’t mean you can also add them to your general newsletter or promotional mailings for other products.

Unacceptable Use (you cannot use this email or this type of email address list).

1) Email address copied from the Internet or other source. Just because someone published an email address online, in a directory or on a business card, doesn’t mean they’ve given permission to be added to your mailing list.

2) No email sent to recipient’s address in over 12 months. Even when proper permission is granted, it doesn’t last forever. When too much time goes by, people forget they opted in and will consider your email to be spam. The industry norm is that permission expires after 12 months of no contact.

3) Email address obtained from a third party. If you purchased, rented, borrowed or otherwise acquired a list from another party, even if it’s an opt-in list, the recipients didn’t give their permission to hear from you specifically.

4) Recipient is a customer but hasn’t opted in. Just because someone is your customer doesn’t give you explicit permission to send them email marketing messages.
They would first have to opt in for the specific subject about which you are contacting them.

5) Email address is generic and used by several people. You cannot email to generic email addresses like sales@domain.com, info@domain.com or webmaster@domain.com because they are often role-based and the users of such addresses change frequently.
The only exception to this rule would be if you knew the recipient and were sure that it was their permanent individual email address.

6) Email address is a distribution list or mailing list. You cannot send email to any address that forwards to more than one person because it is impossible to determine whether all recipients have given permission, and there is no way for them to unsubscribe individually.

We Need to Work Together

Here's how:

Clean your member or customer list before we import it into Blossom.
Export your list to a spreadsheet or text file and take some time to look for and delete bad addresses like sales@bestbuy.com or support@earthlink.net because if you import one address from someone (or some thing) who did not ask to be on your list and they report your message as spam, it can cause problems for everyone.
Then email your list to your account manager so she can import it into Blossom.

Sending your first campaign to an old list?

It is possible that many email recipients won't remember you and will report you for spamming.
Your account manager will create and send a test email campaign to everyone on your list and remind them of who you are and how they got on your list. Your list members will also be encouraged to include you on their safe senders list for future email campaigns. Then your account manager will clean the list of all bounced emails and your list will be ready for use.

Have a really large or segmented list? Break it into separate list segments or interest groups so you can send relevant content to your members or customers.
Don't mix a bunch of different lists together and send one "blast" to all of them.

Never give your Username or Password to anyone.
If your Username and Password get into the hands of the wrong people your account will be closed.

Unacceptable Content

You cannot use emailOrchard to send anything offensive, to promote anything illegal, or to harass anyone.
If anyone from your organization does, your account will be closed immediately.

a. In general, don't send anything you'd be ashamed to show your mother.
b. No Pornography
c. No campaigns selling illegal substances
d. No campaigns that violate the FTC's CAN-SPAM Law

Who Can Use emailOrchard

You must meet these eligibility requirements in order to use the emailOrchard service:

1.Your organization must hold current legal non-profit status or be a school. Signatories to the emailOrchard agreement must be an authorized officer or employee of the organization.

2. emailOrchard reserves the right to refuse service or to terminate accounts for any user, and to change eligibility requirements at any time, at its sole discretion

Fees

emailOrchard reserves the right to change our fees at any time. We will send email notifications to users if and when we do. If a user violates any of the terms outlined above, we reserve the right to cancel accounts, or bar access to accounts, without refund.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold emailOrchard, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, partners and employees, harmless from any claim or demand,including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the service, use of your account by any third party, the violation of the terms of use by you, or the infringement by you, or any third party using your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity.

DISCLAIMER

The emailOrchard site and its contents are provided "As Is" and "As Available" without any warranty or representations of any kind, whether expressed or implied. emailOrchard is a distributor and not a publisher of the content supplied by third parties and users of the site; As such, emailOrchard exercises no editorial control over such content and makes no warranty or representation as to the accuracy, reliability or currency of any information, content, service or merchandise provided through or accessible via the site. Without limiting the foregoing, emailOrchard specifically disclaims all warranties and representations as the publisher of any content transmitted on or in connection with the site or on sites that may appear as links on the site, or as the manufacturer of the products provided as a part of, or otherwise in connection with, the site, including without limitation any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement of third party rights. No oral advice or writteniInformation given by emailOrchard nor any of its affiliates, employees, officers, directors, agents, or the like shall create a warranty. Price and Availability Information Is Subject To Change without Notice.

How We Prevent Spam

As an email marketing service provider, we feel it's our duty to be extra vigilant about preventing spam.
It's not just bad for the Internet community in general---if spam gets sent from our system,
we'd get blocked by all major ISPs, which would make our system useless for users who depend on us.

Please Report Abuse Report Bad Senders

We take abuse reports seriously at emailOrchard. If you've received spam that you think came from an emailOrchard user, we want to hear about it.

Here's how to get in contact with us:
Every campaign sent from emailOrchard has an embedded Campaign Tracking ID in the
email's header that makes it easy for recipients to report suspected spam.

Please forward any suspect email to: email abuse department

emailOrchard
4015 Pacific Coast Hwy., Suite 204
Torrance, CA 90505