Spam!
Who like spam?
What can we do about it?
Now, I know we all have had a good taste of the spammers here on Steemit. It's still pretty bad. But I think, at least for me, it's starting to calm down a bit. I think the strategy of calling spammers out and flagging them might actually be working; although slowly.
I'm not really talking about Steemit spammers today, though. Today, I'm referring to email spam, advertisements, and junk mail.
Everybody wants your permission for them to send you email. Every time you sign up to a new service, they want your email address. Every time you order something from an online store, they want your email address. Every time you inquire about anything through customer service about a company, they want your email address.
It doesn't take long these days for our inbox's to start getting filled with these unwanted emails trying to sell you something every day.
I'm not entirely sure about other countries, but here in Canada there is a requirement to have an 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom of all emails sent using mass email lists. It only takes about 30-45 seconds to unsubscribe from these emails now, but what about when there are 30 of them? I tend to let those emails add up over time until they become too much and I do an unsubscribe purge and basically go through and take my name off anything that is trying to advertise to me.
So this takes a little bit of time every so often.
What if there was a way to spam them back, while giving yourself a chance to earn some money from replying to their email?
Well, there is!
Using Earn.com
With Earn.com, you can get paid in digital currency for replying to emails and completing tasks.Set up an Earn.com profile to charge people to contact you, and use it anywhere on the internet in lieu of a public email address. Reply to emails and complete tasks in the associated Earn.com app. Keep the digital currency you earn, or donate it to charity.
The profile is pretty easy to set up. It takes less than 30 minutes to link some of your accounts and then you just need to wait about a day to be verified.
I've only just been verified yesterday, so it's still pretty new for me as well. This is just my shameless plug with my referral link. But, there are a number of features to take advantage of.
If you link your email address, you have the option to 'bounce' emails back to the sender with a reply linking them to your Earn.com profile. From there, they can choose to pay for your attention using the Earn.com service to contact you.
I think eventually I'll be added to some of the lists on Earn.com to start receiving offers for ICO's, cryptocurrency airdrops, and such. More on that when it happens. From what I see on the site there some lists that only charge $1 per reply - mostly about social media users. Then there are higher end lists for programmers and investors that pay around $40 per reply. So, if you've got some programming skills, it's worth your time to sign up.
Best of all, they pay you in Bitcoin. So, instead of just hitting that 'unsubscribe' button on your junk mail, why not hit the 'bounce' button on Earn.com and get a chance to earn a few extra Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.