All of the major players in the early days made their fortunes with email traffic. Most won't admit it now though.
While spam traffic isn't as profitable as it used to be, it is still profitable. A good double opt-in list is some of the best quality traffic there is.
The biggest problem is that you have a lot of inexperienced guys buying those bullshit cdroms for $100 and spamming everyone on those cdroms (which most of those lists are several years old).
Can you really be sure someone mailing for you is using pure doubl opt-in emails? Nope, unless you've collected them yourself. You just have to trust the person doing your mailings.
If a mailer is sending you 100 signups a day and only a handful of complaints, are you going to get pissed about it? I know a couple mail guys who can send 200-300 signups per day. Would anyone openly turn that down if the complaint rate is 1%?
I think everyone needs to draw their own moral guidelines and stick with what THEY feel comfortable with.
I'm often asked if we accept email traffic and the answer is "yes". Does that mean we take spam? Not really. We take double opt-in email traffic and if someone can show how they collect the emails (for example via an email collection box) we will consider taking the single opt-in. We won't take harvested email traffic because it's too hard to tell who's on the other end, it causes more complaints and just isn't as good quality-wise. Each program has their own guidelines and policies regarding this. I don't knock those who take blatant spam anymore than I'd knock those who will take no mail traffic whatsoever.
Do I find spam annoying? yes, but I don't get as upset about it as most people do (or seem to). Do I find targeted email annoying? hell no. If I have certain likes and dislikes and someone emails me regarding a product or service that is related to what I like, I'm happy. Hey, I didn't have to search all over the fucking place to find this product.
I think the reason most people get pissed at spam (other than the 300+ emails
)) is because they feel like their intelligence is being insulted if they are being marketed to. They feel like everyone will take them for a sucker if they...gasp...got marketed to. Hell, yeah, market to me. I'm not a sucker, but give me something that reflects my interestes and I'm a fucking buyer. These days I've made more purchases via email links than I have clicking on flashing, blinking, shiny banners....