I recently took my first foray into the world of email lists. I signed up for AWeber with the intention of creating and sending out a periodic email newsletter.

I didn’t get very far.

Apparently a requirement of the CANN Spam Act is that you must display a mailing address on each email that goes out to those that sign up on your list.

To me this was a deal breaker. No - I am not a spammer. Just an honest person who works from home and  values privacy. I spoke with an AWeber rep about this rule and he said that many people get a P.O. box - something that my fledgling business cannot support and does not need at this point. And no, my honest Abe side cannot enter a bogus address with a clear conscience.

The end result - I pulled the plug on an awesome blog resource because of a ridiculous rule that is designed to protect… I really am not sure what. Obviously, if you are a spammer, you will not put a real address in this field anyway. So, those of us who are not spammers must complete this section honestly and give up our privacy. Thousands of strangers could potentially have our home address. Do you see my point.