Factually speaking there are two types of direct email marketing, one being Bulk email marketing and the other opt in email marketing.

Bulk email marketing

Bulk email marketing no spam generally involves sending out thousands of unsolicited mails to prospective customers. Now this kind of email marketing though not illegal can effect the company's reputation as people generally are averse to opt out mails that they receive with out their permission. Even by providing an opt out box in your mail, you only make the recipient ponder as to when he opted in on the first place that he has to opt out now? Bulk email marketing though may seem to be prospective is best to be avoided simply because it's against good netiquette and to be a bit pessimistic it can even lead to your account getting disconnected by your ISP!

Opt in email marketing

Now here's a winner! Opt in email marketing is the best possible way to market your goods and services online as it involves taking prior permission from your customers if they actually want to receive the mail or not? Opt in email marketing can derive more results than mass/bulk email marketing owing to the fact that opt in emails are targeted on a focused audience and they are less likely to be termed as spam.

Contrary to popular assumptions Opt-in email lists are not as hard to find and can be gotten from a variety of sources. To begin with, there are you own customers, customers belonging to other partner businesses and visitors to your website. You can also give adverts in newsletters of other businesses, adverts through press or other print media, referrals etc

Websites offering opt-in email lists

There are plenty of websites online that offer opt-in email lists and optin lists tricks and tips. Some of them are bonusmail.com, bulletmail.com, copywriter.com, emailannounce.com, htmail.com, notifyme.com, targ-it.com, mailing-list.info etc

Opt in email marketing seems to be the new face of internet marketing and is bound to grow in the future as anti spam organizations and legal authorities become more active against internet spam.