Further to another thread, where I had to concede that my plan to send a single email is is close to be straight out spam, I am thinking of sending sms messages, through a free sms provider, since that would get around the spam and cost problems. Hopefully the word would then get spread about the website I am setting up for this local community of people that share the same passion, with no profit in mind. Do you think that it would be effective and legal? The only other doable thing that I can think of would be postcards, posters wouldn't work in this case.
If the people willingly gave you their phone numbers and gave you permission to send them stuff, I'm sure it's fine.
No, they didn't. The numbers together with emails are publicly available on another related website. Since I really believe it would be beneficial to them to know about the site, I wouldn't mind sending them the sms if that was legal. I know emailing them is illegal, so I am looking for affordable alternatives.