The savvy marketer knows how to tap into this, agitate the problem in the mind of the reader, plant seeds of doubt (or worms in their brains) and offer something that hurts less (a 'palliative' proposition).By the way, no one wants solutions.

My friend Ed (an octogenarian) reminds me, "Any problem that you can fix with a checkbook really isn't much of a problem".From Napoleon Hill: "In every adverse event lies the seed of an equal or greater benefit".

Like a new lawn, the ground needs to be prepared, and seeds need to be sown, watered and nurtured for months before you reap the rewards - same with Direct Mail. 

"herb yielding seed" you carry on your person is considered medicinal / non-criminal in your state.

Sure, there are bad seeds out there in the wholesale world, but there are bad seeds in every aspect of business.  

It isn't really THAT passive, unless you make hundreds of thousands to millions (like most gurus), to provide you the seed capital to outsource all of this.

I can't say if listsource does this or not, but i know some list management companies seed their lists with internal addresses to track usage.

They keep us legal (not saying there aren’t bad seeds here and there, they’re everywhere in every business). 

My proof is 8 calls out of 18K post cards, 0 return mail, and only a portion of my seed letters being delivered to me. 

To date, I’ve had 0 calls and none of the 12 seed letters have landed.