I got an email a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, addressed to me by name and asking whether I would like to link to an article that the sender had written.
He or she explained how the article enhanced something I had written about the Hemingway app.
Earlier today I got a a follow-up email asking whether I had had the chance to review the first email, and what were my thoughts.
By chance, I was looking at the traffic sources for Photograph Works, and one of the traffic sources was Pitchbox. So I took a look.
Pitchbox describes itself as an ‘Influencer Outreach & Content Marketing Platform’.
Prices start at $195.00/month.
Watching the intro video on Pitchbox I see that one of the features designed to make life easier for its users is that it picks up personalisation information by scraping the target websites – in this case, my site.
The person who sent me an email picked my site and others on the basis of keywords he/she chose.
Then Pitchbox scraped my name to make it appear that the emails I receive are personal.
Well, yes, that’s business – and who wouldn’t go for the easy option if it is available.
But it’s not a way to make friends now that I know how it works.
Photograph Works 
That sounds a little unsettling to be honest, it’s clever trickery and for some people it may well be a good solution however I’m not sure for myself.
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Yes, me too. I’d feel uncomfortable using it.
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I too received such mail but I ignored it. Though I wondered who that was but now I know that my suspicion was right. Thanks for updating.
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Oh, that’s interesting! I mean, not nice, but interesting. Fortunately, given I live in a second-world country which uses other language than English, any attempts at “personalised” spam are easily recognisable. It’s still impossible for the machines to get it right in a minor language.
The other day I was laughing so hard at a “personalised” ad I saw on the internet: the worst kind, the kind of cons which promise you to earn billions or shed tons of pounds… The ad was so pathetic: it showed a picture of a smart African American with the caption to the effect “this guy from [name of my village] earns billions, learn how, blah blah”. The language was supposed to be Czech but was a machine translation; and in rural areas such as mine, there are absolutely no black people. It’s like putting a native Hawaiian to Siberia. Sure, no problem, but he can hardly pass for a local. So, I had fun with this ad…
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That’s funny.
You know, the ones that make me stop for a moment are when I am scrolling through the spam list and I see it’s ‘from’ someone in the news, like Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI.
Do you get that?
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