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Have you ever noticed how some words become ‘buzz’ words? Some of these words are good and some of them just raise red flags. The ‘Blast’ word is one that raises major red flags.
The dictionary defines the word ‘blast’ as: “a sudden and violent gust of wind” or “the blowing of a trumpet, whistle, etc.” or “a loud, sudden sound or noise” or "a forcible stream of air from the mouth, bellows, or the like.” None of those definitions are very appealing or positive, are they?
A slang use of the term ‘blast’ is: “having a very enjoyable time (i.e. “We had a blast!”) Sometimes the word “blast” means “a vigorous outburst of criticism; attack.”
No matter how the word ‘blast’ is used it really isn’t a very positive word and when it is used by companies engaged in internet advertising it often denotes a less than desirable company to do business with because the techniques that they are advocating might just blow up in your face.
There are many companies on the internet that use the word ‘blast’ in the advertisements for their services. You can find advertisements that advocate "Massive Ad Blast” or “Blast Podcasts” or “Fax Blast” or “Email Blast Advertising” and a host of others.
There are also companies that use the word ‘blast’ in their company names. It is simply the best overall policy to avoid all advertising businesses that use the term ‘blast’ although there may be some that are legitimate.
In the English language descriptive words are used freely and often. They are used to tell you what a ‘thing’ is and each one of those descriptive words cause responses in those who hear them or see them. The word, ‘blast’ is one that should be avoided.
The REAL Truth about FFAs and Safe Lists
You have likely heard of FFA’s and Safe Lists. If you haven’t "FFA” is NOT an acronym for ‘Future Farmers of America’ in this case. It is an acronym for “Free For All” links and this kind of free-for-all isn’t as much fun as it sounds like it is and a “Safe List” is only a safe bet that you are going to get an awful lot of mail in your inbox.
In the beginning an FFA or a Safe List was a method by which webmasters helped one another to advertise their goods and services for free by providing space for others to place advertisements on their own websites. It seemed like a good idea at the time and for awhile it was but that is just no longer the case.
FFA’s and Safe Lists are usually divided by category. For example you will see divisions like ‘computers, business, pets, swimming pools, etc.’ The idea was that a website owner could place an advertisement on an FFA or Safe List and when surfers came across that advertisement, they could just click on it and sales would increase for free.
Then two things happened that rendered FFA’s and Safe Lists useless.
The first was automated software that could be purchased very inexpensively that would place advertisements on every FFA and Safe List on the net without a website owner even needing to visit the site to place the ad. This defeated the purpose for even providing FFA or Safe List space on a website.
The second thing that happened was the CAN SPAM act that became law in 2002. Now website owners needed members for their opt-in lists and the FFA and Safe List pages became nothing more than collectors of information for the website owner.
Basically, the only thing that you will get out of an FFA or Safe List is a lot of unwanted mail.
