Why Are You On My List Then??

Internet Marketing is a fun niche. Seriously, I mean that. I have met a ton of wonderful people, and have been to many awesome places. Case in point, my recent trip to New Orleans for the start of Mardi Gras courtesy of Jeff Dedrick.

I won the trip because I finished in the top five of his affiliate contest. I had a great time. Name other niches that offer these kinds of perks…

When I decided to try to make money in the Internet Marketing niche, there were a few things I inherently understood as part of the “game”. That is simply this:

If I sign up to someone’s mailing list, I expect to get mail. Simple, right?

Of course, not all lists are created equal. I try to pick newsletters that offer value in between pitches. But I still expect to be pitched.

So it still makes me scratch my head when I receive emails from list members that complain about getting emails, and about being pitched to.

This isn’t rocket science. On MOST of my subscribe forms, I clearly state that you are signing up to my list and will be receiving emails, which may contain offers from myself or for products I am promoting.

Last week I wrote an email about John Reese’s one hour long IMA video – one which he touted before releasing that it would be the most important email/video you would ever receive…

I wrote about why I did not like it. I also was clear that there was no link. It was simply a statement of my opinion. MOST of the feedback I got was positive, and in agreement with my stance.

Yet I received an email from someone who basically said, “Hey, I signed up for your 12-part ecourse! I don’t want these other emails, so stop sending them to me!”

I found this amusing because on THIS signup form I DO clearly state that you will receive other mailings from me.

Normally I ignore emails like this one, but I felt compelled to do two things: Unsubscibe the person and then email him back stating that I unsubscribed them due to their obvious displeasure of being on my list.

I don’t now, nor have I ever claimed to be perfect. Yes, I send out pure pitch emails. But yes, I also send out pure content emails. That’s how, in my view, this niche works. In my opinion, if this is something “you” don’t understand and accept, then my advice to you is to run as fast as you can from this niche. Find one that does not email so many offers.

You MUST have a certain level of tolerance to play in the Internet Marketing niche. If you like the info, but don’t like being bombarded with so many pitch mails, here’s a very simple solution for you – and one in which I do myself.

Go to Yahoo, or Hotmail or Gmail and open yourself a free account. When you sign up for a list because you want the free gift, sign up with this email address. Now, what I do is about once a month I log in and scan the emails.

The lists which are 100% pitch, or the person sends me 2 or 3 pitch mails per day, I zap them. The ones which are awesome content, I forward to one of my other email addresses so I can read it.

And in ALL cases, I try to learn something from the emails – which subject lines got me to open, how the emails are structured, etc.

Do you have desire to simply bitch, moan and complain about these emails? If so then I ask you: “Why are you on my – or any – list then?”. You like the free stuff, right? There is ALWAYS a trade-off. Free stuff is mainly free from spending cash. You pay by allowing the marketer to email you. That’s how it works.

Disclaimer: I am not referring to scammers, spammers, or those that lie, or trade email addresses. There are plenty of those. I am referring to legitimate marketers who work hard to build their lists.

Remember – if you don’t like the quality of the mailings you are receiving, simply unsubscribe.

This isn’t rocket science.