Ashtray Blog: An Electronic Cigarette Blog

Our affiliate system has been building up recently and we are seeing both increasing sales from affiliates and more people joining our site.

Unfortunately, we have to reject more than half of applicants, and I thought it might be helpful to give some of the reasons why we do this.

1. Health Claims

We can not make any unsubstantiated health claims when selling the electronic cigarette. Any health claims should be backed up by studies and research. So you can say that the e-cigarette has not tar (it doesn’t have any) but you can’t say it is 100% safe. (It isn’t – even the most favourable scientists we have interviewed believe there is still a small risk. )

2. Smoking Cessation Claims

There is no long term evidence yet that the cigarette can help people quit. What we have are studies that show electronic cigarettes can help relieve nicotine cravings and can increase the level of nicotine in the blood. There was an informal study in South Africa where many smokers were able to quit in the short term, but there was no investigation into longer term cessation.

Our own survey suggests that many e-smokers have completely replaced cigarettes with e-cigarettes, but this is replacement rather than cessation, and was a snapshot in time as opposed to following smokers for a long period.

3. Poor/inappropriate websites

We have turned down porn websites, as links from these sites can hurt ours. We have also turned down websites because of poor content, very bad grammar and spelling, because we have not been able to access them and so on.

4. Other methods of marketing

We are open to email marketing, social networks e.t.c. but we need you to tell us how you will utilise this. Anyone using a traffic exchange site will be suspended pending an explanation.

For more information see our affiliate page.

E Cigarette Direct is looking for writers/movie makers to answer questions about the electronic cigarette.

We will be paying for the answers, but we are also looking for people who are passionate about the topic and the issue of tobacco harm reduction.

For more information check out this page:

Electronic Cigarette Questions

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

It has come to our attention that an electronic cigarette company is conducting a scam.

They are “giving away” an electronic cigarette known as the e-igarette.

Before doing so, they ask for customers card details.

After the e-igarette has been sent, they start charging the customer for refills.

The amount of money taken can be up to 80 pounds a month, and according to our last caller the cartidges never arrived.

As a debit card rather than a credit card was used in each instance, the banks have refused to refund the money.

We have had three people call us about this in the last week. Other electronic cigarette companies we have spoken to have also had customers reporting this problem.

According to the scammed customers we talked to, the name of the product was the e-igarette.

Two of the people we spoke to alleged they had bought the product from freecig.com. This website now redirects to:

http://www.trendycig.co.uk/quit_smoking.html

We believe these products are imported by Dragon Trading.

A third person bought the product from a booth in a city center.

There have also been illegal claims that the electronic cigarette can help people to give up smoking.

Studies have shown that the electronic cigarette can reduce nicotine cravings and increase the nicotine level in the blood. However, there have been no long term studies which demonstrate that the electronic cigarette can definitively help smokers to quit, and as a result reputable electronic cigarette companies do not make this claim.

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

With some of the rubbish being written by e-cigarette donkeys suppliers, who needs ASH US!

According to one extremely badly written article:

“nicotine patches are heated (using a heating coil) and the resultant vapor is inhaled.”

What?

Nicotine patches?

What are these guys doing – buying nicotine patches and stuffing them in their Deliteless Smokes Smokeless Delites?

For the article, which is entitled Drawbacks to Electronic Cigarettes, is in fact written by an idiot electronic cigarette manufacturer, Smokeless Delite.

The article seems to be a very poor attempt to persuade readers to buy their $150 electronic cigarettes by libelling cheaper brands.

Not only is the NJOY cheaper, it is one of the few brands to have been tested by the FDA – and tests found that the NJOY contained a fraction of the carcinogens found in real cigarettes.

And personally, I’d far rather smoke an FDA tested NJOY than a nicotine patch…

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

The NJOY NCIG in white. Also available in black and other colours.

The feedback was that the nicotine “hit” was as good as a real cigarette, and we are sure that this will be the product that really goes at shows and exhibitions! The larger atomiser delivers more vapour and the larger cartridges offer the equivalent of 30 – 40 cigarettes, so even a heavy smoker should be very happy with this very reliable, FDA-tested product from America’s leading supplier – now available throughout the UK via authorised distributors, ECigaretteDirect.

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

Smokers are sticking with cigarettes because of the twisted FDA press release regarding the electronic cigarettes.

As a reminder, the FDA did a press release stating that electronic cigarettes contain tobacco specific nitrosamines – without mentioning that they were at just 1/1400th the amount contained in Marlbrough cigarettes.

Now the FDA and health groups are persuading smokers to stick with the cigarettes that will kill a third of them.

The examples came in yet another misleading article, this time by Denis M. Barab-Unland, who states “A laboratory analysis of electronic cigarettes found samples of carcinogens, including nitrosamines, and a cocktail of toxic chemicals.”

(How can these writers continue to churn out crap about the electronic cigarette without consulting one expert?)

She gives an example of a smoker who stays with cigarettes because of her fears over the electronic cigarette and passive smoking.

Well done, health groups. I hope you feel proud. You are now the front line of defence for cigarettes.

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

A great site I ran across recently was E Cigarette Spot.

The post that actually introduced me to the blog referenced our battle with ASH US.

It did a great summary of our conflicting press releases (including some of our more embarrassing mistakes – tobacco specific nitrogens instead of tobacco specific nitrosamines – wince!).

And it also indulged in a a bit of Banzhaf bashing, and if there was ever a billionaire who deserves a bit of bashing it’s Banzhaf.

After I pointed the post out to Smokles, they referenced it, which made me wonder why I hadn’t.

In fact, the whole blog is in fact worth a read – it’s intelligent, well written and does a good job of deflating some of the myths around smoking and electronic cigarettes.

So check it out…

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Ready to switch? Visit the Electronic Cigarette Store.

Philip Morris could soon have the ability to scupper the e-cigarettes in favour of its own products – cigarettes which contain, according to Professor Michael Siegel’s analysis of the FDA report into electronic cigarette, 1400 times as many nitrosamines as electronic cigarettes.