Email List Hell
In the continuing adventures of making things more productive and spending less time doing “emails”, I have been scrutinizing my emails to get off of lists that have no value. At least lists that are all about promoting a product in every email and providing no real value to me.
In doing this research, I have come to a couple of conclusions.
1. I am hard pressed to understand how some of these marketers make any money from their list past the initial sale. The ones that provide any type of other content are few and far between. Some try to be creative in their efforts to make a sale in EVERY email; but, they are still not providing any pertinent content.
2. The few that do provide content other than trying to sell a product are product owners and have made me a customer of theirs in the past and are ones I have purchased multiple products from.
This is something we should all think about in our email list efforts. We are continually told “The Money Is In The List” and some of these marketers do make that work. Maybe I am different since I am trying to remove emails that try to sell me something in every email. Is this the ‘shotgun’ approach in a list? Keep pounding someone and sooner or later then may buy before the un-subscribe?
The hell part I have been encountering is to actually remove myself from these lists. It seems the more I un-subscribe from – the more I get BACK on lists I have un-subscribed from. I, at first, thought I had not un-subscribed and did it again. I have been keeping a list now of the ones I have un-subscribed from and what company and auto-responder service.
What I have been finding is scary. I have somehow been re-subscribed to lists at an alarming rate. I am getting subscribed to email lists I never signed up for.
It is now like trying to kill roaches. You kill a few and more take their place. Just today, I have gotten emails from lists I have never signed up for. Emails from some type of GVO autoresponder. I have found these are not the easiest to remove yourself from since the un-subscribe page fails to come up most of the time.
I have gotten back on lists from some pretty famous marketers that I had un-subscribed from many months ago. Along with some that have changed the name on the email and now end up in my spam folder since they are not white listed. Others change the name and are from one list to cross promote something I never signed up for.
To say the least, this has become a project that has taken on a life of its own. My initial time line has been destroyed since I thought, mistakenly, that once you un-subscribe – you are done with that list. The most dis-heartening thing is the marketers that are so desperately trying to keep me on their lists are ones most people think are the cream of the crop.
It also amazes me the auto-responder services are allowing these type of tactics. I can see it from a small outfit. I am talking about Aweber, ConstantContact, Imnica Mail, and others. Some of them have switched from the original auto-responder to another or a self-hosted program.
So it comes down to a ‘ethical’ thing. I can’t operate that way and if the largest names in the Internet Marketing circles resort to these type of tactics – what hope is there for the small guys like us?
It makes me sad since so many people are listening to these people on how to run their businesses. Is it a case of “Do as I say – Not as I do”? The reason I got off of some of these famous marketers lists in the first place is because they kept sending me products that had hidden continuity programs in them. I got burned by one of them and had a terrible time stopping the charges to my credit card.
Doing subsequent searches, I wasn’t the only one and the ‘complainers’ were hammered in each and every forum I saw anyone else complain. The consensus was “they could never do anything like that”. So I left that and moved on. In my case I was fortunate enough to actually screen shot the pages when I purchased (which is a good thing to do) since there was never a mention of a ‘membership’ or monthly payment.
I started getting these charges on my credit card and when I investigated, I found they had me in a continuity program. They were not too keen on refunding it or stopping it and after several emails back and forth, I sent them the screen shots and got a prompt refund and the charges stopped. The screen shots, and threat of legal action, worked well. There was a lame explanation they ‘forgot’ to put the ‘membership’ and charges on the particular page I used.
So, just when I thought it was safe to play in my email – the sharks start to circle. Hopefully, you have better luck in your email than I have so far. I will triumph in my efforts – eventually.
