I don't think these personal emails would fall under CANSPAM? "If it contains only transactional or relationship content, its primary purpose is transactional or relationship. In that case, it may not contain false or misleading routing information, but is otherwise exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act." I would consider this relationship content, you're not advertising a particular product or website, moreso sending a message saying hey, thanks for stopping in, how is x? see you around.

An alternative is the comment redirect plugin, you set up a page that all first time commenters are sent too.  Cover all the thank you's, like me, follow me, etc. at your site without having to worry about the FTC.

I would never use the plug-in.  I dont like them one bit.

Wow - I'm glad I found this.  First, I'm kind of shocked by a few things.  

1) About every 2 weeks, I take the emails from the comments and send each person who has commented on the site a personal note saying "thanks for leaving a comment"  - It's not a plug in, nor a mass email - I email each person individually.  I know that there are people who have commented in this thread that have gotten them, as well - and never expressed their annoyance.  If I was bother you, I'm sorry.  I've found that sending an email to each of my commenters has really helped me get to know a lot of my readers better, specifically a lot of you yakezie members.  These emails are not automated and simply say thanks for commenting.

Sounds like it's been working for you. What about making it more evident that it's a personal email though? For example, maybe mentioning something about their site if you see they are a blogger, or hm...I'm not sure what else.

I'm not a fan of the "Thank you for commenting" auto-responses either, but I wouldn't mind a personal response.  Thank you for following DMs irritate me much more. Especially when someone has followed me, and then I follow them back, and then they thank me.

In any case those are all different from the original question about basically signing commenters up for an email list without them asking to be on one, which it seems we all agree isn't a good idea.

I wouldnt mess with that... if they wanted email updates they would sign up for them...I would be upset if someone starting doing that to me. 

I agree. You don't want to run the risk of annoying people.

I don't want to use it knowing 90% of my commenters are fellow yakezies. I don't feel the need to specially thank them in an email.

MoneyIsTheRoot said:

I actually dont even like the "thank you" emails after receiving a comment...I mean, it's a plugin that sends out a generated email to every single person, its just another email for me to delete.  If you want to thank me, then say it in your comment back to me on the blog.

I agree with this Justin! 

I kind of agree here, but my problem is mostly with the plug-ins. A personalized email probably will not cause me any distress, but my preference is to keep this type of communication on the comment threads.

I actually dont even like the "thank you" emails after receiving a comment...I mean, it's a plugin that sends out a generated email to every single person, its just another email for me to delete.  If you want to thank me, then say it in your comment back to me on the blog.

I absolutely agree with this sentiment. Any email bothers me too. But maybe I am just grumpy like that. 

MoneyIsTheRoot said:

I actually dont even like the "thank you" emails after receiving a comment...I mean, it's a plugin that sends out a generated email to every single person, its just another email for me to delete.  If you want to thank me, then say it in your comment back to me on the blog.

I agree with this Justin! 

If it only happened the first time I commented, it wouldn't be bad.  There are a few sites that send me thank you spam every single time I comment.

Wow - I'm glad I found this.  First, I'm kind of shocked by a few things.  

1) About every 2 weeks, I take the emails from the comments and send each person who has commented on the site a personal note saying "thanks for leaving a comment"  - It's not a plug in, nor a mass email - I email each person individually.  I know that there are people who have commented in this thread that have gotten them, as well - and never expressed their annoyance.  If I was bother you, I'm sorry.  I've found that sending an email to each of my commenters has really helped me get to know a lot of my readers better, specifically a lot of you yakezie members.  These emails are not automated and simply say thanks for commenting.

2) The fact that it is not exactly legal.

3) I will say though - that I feel like this has been a great way to get to know a bit more about the actual blogger - perhaps something they havent shared on their site about themselves, or to help them out with something if they need it (I always offer, because I'd be happy to help with anything any of you need). 

 

At any rate - thanks all of you for the feed back.  I'll have to consider what to do about this going forward.

If it's not a mass email, it's not legally spam, period. 

1) About every 2 weeks, I take the emails from the comments and send each person who has commented on the site a personal note saying "thanks for leaving a comment"  - It's not a plug in, nor a mass email - I email each person individually.  I know that there are people who have commented in this thread that have gotten them, as well - and never expressed their annoyance.  If I was bother you, I'm sorry.  I've found that sending an email to each of my commenters has really helped me get to know a lot of my readers better, specifically a lot of you yakezie members.  These emails are not automated and simply say thanks for commenting.

2) The fact that it is not exactly legal.

3) I will say though - that I feel like this has been a great way to get to know a bit more about the actual blogger - perhaps something they havent shared on their site about themselves, or to help them out with something if they need it (I always offer, because I'd be happy to help with anything any of you need). 

At any rate - thanks all of you for the feed back.  I'll have to consider what to do about this going forward.