Spamalytics: A Study on Spam Conversion Rate
[Photo via david ॐ]
Spam hardly get to my inbox anymore, but in the early days they were VERY annoying. I still remember having to sort through dozens of emails everyday only to find 2 chain letters (remember those?? I wonder if I could make a chain blog post.. spread this link or you will not get internet connection for one week!!). Anyways, some bright CS students from Berkley actually did a study on spam email’s conversion rates. In conclusion, of the 350 million spams they observed, only 28 resulted in sales, so the conversion rate is under 0.00001%.
[crazy high number of junk mail] x [crazy low conversion rate] = [a few crazy people buying] => [profit]
The result is not really that surprising. The fact that they are still sending out spams means they make money out of it. I am nonetheless very curious who these buyers are..
Interesting read. [Spamalytics: An Empirical Analysis of Spam Marketing Conversion via Karl Long]
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ha. i just got a chain mail forwarded to me. anyone still believe something like that? 15 years of good luck if i forward it… i think not. my karma has to be earned the hard and right way.
sending the junk mails probably cost them less then nothing with close to no effort. so profit is profit even if it’s just 28.
spam (ham) is so gross…