When doing email marketing and other Internet marketing initiatives, it is essential that you use active and persuasive marketing phrases and words in order to convey the benefits that your product or service can deliver. You must be able to effectively convince your customer to take action and try your product or service.Seasoned Internet marketers who have learned the ropes of online business will most likely acknowledge that there is a thin line that separates marketing and spam especially as they endeavor to manage their marketing campaigns to generate maximum exposure on the Internet without being labeled as a spam.We are open to varying interpretations of what constitute a spam and what is not depending on who we are talking to. However, majority of people agree that spam is the equivalent of the junk mail that we receive at home. In general terms, spam refers to the unsolicited emails that are usually part of an ongoing internet marketing or advertising campaign. It can also apply to the postings on message forums which are primarily used for the promotion of products or services.We need to have a clear delineation of what constitutes spam and what falls within the purview of Internet marketing as our general guide when we are implementing our own Internet marketing initiatives.Firstly, let us consider community forums when used in the context of forum marketing. Community forums are basically virtual meeting places of people who share common interest or aspirations to exchange information, answer and ask questions or just simply interact with other people. These forums allow members to post their messages. These community forums implement guidelines in posting of messages by their members. It is important that you follow these rules and guidelines in order that the moderator does not delete your account in the community forum.These community forums can be powerful tools of Internet marketing. As such, it is essential that you become responsible member of the community forum while maximizing the benefits and the synergy that your forum marketing creates with the other internet marketing strategies. However, if you use your postings in community forums to establish links to your website even when it is not related to the topic being discussed in the forum may be tantamount to spamming and not internet marketing. In fact, such practice and abusive acts may do more damage than good to your internet marketing campaign in the long run as members will be inclined to avoid your website even if their need for your product or service is valid.On the other hand, it is in email marketing where most spamming occurs. There is a greater possibility that your marketing efforts using email will be viewed as spam if not handled properly. As a general rule, most people would not appreciate the practice of sending unsolicited emails. These are normally considered as spam mails by a lot of people and you will not definitely succeed in your email marketing if your messages are seen as spam.This normally happens when Internet marketers farm out unsolicited messages even to those that do not have interest in the content of the message. This is not the right way to approach your email marketing. A better way of doing your email marketing is to focus the message to those on your list that would consider the message relevant or of interest to them. One effective way of pinpointing this segment is by sending the message to your former customers.