In 1997 two brothers set out to change the corporate world. They used their Web site to collect over 100,000 emails to date, generate millions in sales and a click rates in the 60% to 80% range. Justin Sewell and his brother founded Despair, Inc. and used humor to build an empire.

Here's an example of one of their funny copyright, their privacy policy to be exact:

"Despair, Inc.® does not rent or sell personal information about you with other people or non-affiliated companies. Frankly, most of our customers aren't exactly the kinds of people you want to share with others."

They do not follow any set schedule for emails and they combined this humorous campaign with creative new ideas like blackout days so that only dedicated customers could shop on these otherwise slow sales days. Even going to the lengths that some browsers might think there was a problem with the Web site.

Store blackout days -- Once a year, mid-year, during the worst sales month the team runs a 'black out' promotion for 24 hours. During that time only house list members who click from an email promotion can get into the store where they'll see a variety of special discounts and giveaway offers.

Reference Links:

Successful Email Strategies & Tools

Full Text