5 ms·

Because most people want to read what you publish. No further explanation needed. Now, being included on a mailing list because you bought something is a dick

Because most people want to read what you publish. No further explanation needed. Now, being included on a mailing list because you bought something is a dick move. However, most people dont mind.

Swizec 10y ago
I do the list on buy thing and the first email people get is "If you don't want this, unsubscribe now [big fat link]" Almost nobody takes me up on it. My guess is they care about the free updates and such. The reason I do this is because I too once made the mistake of not building a mailing list for a moderately popular blog.
- detaro 10y ago
  I wonder how many people just delete that mail without even consciously reading far enough. I've observed some interesting cases of "banner blindness" in myself with helpful information that was too big and fat...
  - Swizec 10y ago
    Good point. But hey, every email I send has an unsub link and the unsub rate is around half a percent. I can live with that and apparently so can my audience.
    - Jaruzel 10y ago
      However though, are the other 99.5% actually seeing your mails, or have most of them just blacklisted your domain and your mails now go to junk automatically? I think the blacklisting/mark-as-spam is MUCH more prevalent than people unsubscribing due to the harvesting of active email addresses (as mentioned above).
      - Swizec 10y ago
        This of course is hard to know. My open rates are in the 30% to 35% range for normal weekly stuff and shoot up to 60% for special events. I don't think too many people have blacklisted me yet.
        Optimal_Persona 10y ago
        FWIW - I'm on your list and find your content's signal to noise ratio pretty high. I like how you continually push yourself to learn new things, and bring the reader along on your journey.
  - ghaff 10y ago
    Furthermore, something like Gmail does a pretty reliable job of automatically putting a lot of newsletters and the like into a tab that I can just skim once a day or so. I used to use a Yahoo address for a lot of the mailing lists or online specials that I signed up for. Now I pretty much just use Gmail because the vast majority never hits my primary inbox tab and I can just train it to be even better over time. It avoids the mental energy associated with deciding whether I want to unsubscribe to something that I might potentially be interested in from time to time (although in practice I almost never look at it.)
- fps 10y ago
  are you sure the link works? I'm frustrated, but not really surprised, by the amount of email I get where the unsubscribe link returns a 404 or 500 error on submission. I'd say it's close to 20% of all unsubscribe links are non-functional. Also, I've noticed a large number of "unsubscribe" links are actually "proof that someone is reading this mailbox" links. I've had email addresses I had to walk away from because I clicked too many unsubscribe links that resulted in lots of more "subscriptions" My guess is that people have been burned by unsubscribe links so much that they mostly don't use them. I'd prefer to set up a filter on my side than have to trust that some spam sender is going to do the right thing.
  - prh8 10y ago
    CAN-SPAM only requires a link in the email, but nothing about a working link. Often times, those links do indeed trigger a "someone reads this mailbox" and add you to other mailing lists (yes, plural). I worked with a dev who had been at a "marketing" company and explained this stuff.
hashhar 10y ago
I agree. I am on a lot of blog's mailing lists. I follow them for a month and see where it goes. The key is keeping your mails short (or extremely attention retentive) and relevant. Pocket's (https://getpocket.com https://getpocket.com) mailing lists are also interesting if you like varied content.
- pmiller2 10y ago
  You forgot "not annoyingly frequent." I don't necessarily want to be emailed every time someone comments on a post I commented on, or whenever you post something new. Once a week or once a month, in digest form telling me what's new is more than sufficient.
  - erichurkman 10y ago
    Weather West (weatherwest.com) does a great job with this. The posts are information dense, topical, and timely. And, best of all, not overly frequent unless weather events warrant it. I wish more blogs operated this way.
kristianc 10y ago
In England retailers are now asking for your email address to send you a receipt (partly so they can integrate you with stuff like LiveRamp too).

Because most people want to read what you publish. No further explanation needed. Now, being included on a mailing list because you bought something is a dick move. However, most people dont mind.

Swizec 10y ago

I do the list on buy thing and the first email people get is "If you don't want this, unsubscribe now [big fat link]" Almost nobody takes me up on it. My guess is they care about the free updates and such. The reason I do this is because I too once made the mistake of not building a mailing list for a moderately popular blog.

detaro 10y ago
I wonder how many people just delete that mail without even consciously reading far enough. I've observed some interesting cases of "banner blindness" in myself with helpful information that was too big and fat...
- Swizec 10y ago
  Good point. But hey, every email I send has an unsub link and the unsub rate is around half a percent. I can live with that and apparently so can my audience.
  - Jaruzel 10y ago
    However though, are the other 99.5% actually seeing your mails, or have most of them just blacklisted your domain and your mails now go to junk automatically? I think the blacklisting/mark-as-spam is MUCH more prevalent than people unsubscribing due to the harvesting of active email addresses (as mentioned above).
    - Swizec 10y ago
      This of course is hard to know. My open rates are in the 30% to 35% range for normal weekly stuff and shoot up to 60% for special events. I don't think too many people have blacklisted me yet.
      - Optimal_Persona 10y ago
        FWIW - I'm on your list and find your content's signal to noise ratio pretty high. I like how you continually push yourself to learn new things, and bring the reader along on your journey.
- ghaff 10y ago
  Furthermore, something like Gmail does a pretty reliable job of automatically putting a lot of newsletters and the like into a tab that I can just skim once a day or so. I used to use a Yahoo address for a lot of the mailing lists or online specials that I signed up for. Now I pretty much just use Gmail because the vast majority never hits my primary inbox tab and I can just train it to be even better over time. It avoids the mental energy associated with deciding whether I want to unsubscribe to something that I might potentially be interested in from time to time (although in practice I almost never look at it.)
fps 10y ago
are you sure the link works? I'm frustrated, but not really surprised, by the amount of email I get where the unsubscribe link returns a 404 or 500 error on submission. I'd say it's close to 20% of all unsubscribe links are non-functional. Also, I've noticed a large number of "unsubscribe" links are actually "proof that someone is reading this mailbox" links. I've had email addresses I had to walk away from because I clicked too many unsubscribe links that resulted in lots of more "subscriptions" My guess is that people have been burned by unsubscribe links so much that they mostly don't use them. I'd prefer to set up a filter on my side than have to trust that some spam sender is going to do the right thing.
- prh8 10y ago
  CAN-SPAM only requires a link in the email, but nothing about a working link. Often times, those links do indeed trigger a "someone reads this mailbox" and add you to other mailing lists (yes, plural). I worked with a dev who had been at a "marketing" company and explained this stuff.

hashhar 10y ago

I agree. I am on a lot of blog's mailing lists. I follow them for a month and see where it goes. The key is keeping your mails short (or extremely attention retentive) and relevant. Pocket's (https://getpocket.com https://getpocket.com) mailing lists are also interesting if you like varied content.

pmiller2 10y ago
You forgot "not annoyingly frequent." I don't necessarily want to be emailed every time someone comments on a post I commented on, or whenever you post something new. Once a week or once a month, in digest form telling me what's new is more than sufficient.
- erichurkman 10y ago
  Weather West (weatherwest.com) does a great job with this. The posts are information dense, topical, and timely. And, best of all, not overly frequent unless weather events warrant it. I wish more blogs operated this way.

kristianc 10y ago

In England retailers are now asking for your email address to send you a receipt (partly so they can integrate you with stuff like LiveRamp too).