Happy Birthday to me

Well, I've been a year older for a couple of hours now, and already several eMarketers have sent their greetings to me via e-mail.

The first greeting came only 33 minutes into my birthday. The message, from EZSweeps, offered me 10 "bonus entries" and explained some fine print about using them all within a 24 hour period. I got a sense that there might be a way to part with some money at the end of the process, so maybe I'll check that one out a little later.

MySony weighed in with the second greeting, a mere 11 minutes later at 12:44. It informed me that as a birthday gift, I had received 500 awards points as a present. A quick check of the redemption page showed fewer than 10 items as rewards, but I did find out that by adding only $11 to those points, I could receive a John Mellencamp CD (way to celebrate 40, a little ditty about Jack and Diane...) I guess I'm not really in the target demographic anymore...

Finally, at 1:30, I received my first "pure" greeting from someone not "friends and family," in the form of a simple message from Surveys.com with a link to an online greeting card that simply wished me a Happy Birthday without popping up a bunch of windows, asking me for money, or disguising (poorly) a direct marketing offer. I'm not sure if Carol Henderon at Surveys.com is a real person, but, if not, the e-mail made me believe she could be. Either way, thanks for the birthday greeting with no strings attached!