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I see people here complaining about the author asking for email addresses, and I can't help but think: what a coup GDPR has been for large tech companies. The

I see people here complaining about the author asking for email addresses, and I can't help but think: what a coup GDPR has been for large tech companies. The author has spent hours creating a useful guide that he is giving away for free in exchange for an email address. He likely hopes to tap into this audience later for a paid product. Reaching this audience via email is cheap and easy. He can email them as many times as he wants, even if he doesn't want to sell them anything. But because of GDPR, he can't depend on email so much. He has to rely on other tactics to reach his audience again. And what are those tactics? Paid advertising, of course. No one stands to benefit more from GDPR than Google and Facebook. Everyone here cheering for GDPR needs to think how it placed all the advertising power away from mediums you can control (email) and over to ad companies. As a consumer, you can unsubscribe and block emails easily. As a creator, you can set up a mail server easily. You can't do that with ads, at least without relying on outside tech

IloveHN84 8y ago
What happens if my email goes shared with other parties I don't know? GDPR was a real help for end users, reducing the amount of spam in mailboxes.
- billmalarky 8y ago
  Is spam email actually a problem for most people still? Google inbox has pretty much resolved that for me automatically.
- dwild 8y ago
  Your email is probably already everywhere. There's very little chance that GDPR does ever help to alleviate spam. Email list aren't coming from Facebook, they are from scummy website that, you guess it, won't ever follow GDPR. Don't give your email if you don't want spam... that include this website.
  - jsendno 8y ago
    Nah, I like GDPR. Companies say they take privacy, security “seriously” and just look around you.
- dabernathy89 8y ago
  > GDPR was a real help for end users, reducing the amount of spam in mailboxes It just went into effect - has this been measured already?
  - osrec 8y ago
    Well, my personal inbox was filled with even more emails from every company I ever signed up to, telling me about GDPR. Initially at least the effect has been quite the opposite.
- candu 8y ago
  ...like ConvertKit? That's who powers the form that collects emails here. Just wanted to point out that this question is decidedly not hypothetical. Many websites use third-party services to administer their mailing lists. Now, this makes sense from a developer's perspective since we don't all want to be rewriting mailing list tools, but I'd wager many users aren't aware that their email address is being passed on to a third party. These are the sort of tradeoffs that we're now learning to address explicitly, as opposed to sweeping them under the rug in the name of "marketing". As much as it's a pain for me as a developer, I welcome it wholeheartedly as a user.
deleted 8y ago
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doomjunky 8y ago
It's not about the subscription, it's about the lead. Giving things away for "free" is a common marketing strategy to generate leads. A lead is a qualified contact of a potential customer. This things could be of a broad range of cheap assets, e.g. ebooks, apps or even games. I have seen a marketer buying the copyright of a ten year old textbook for a cheap price, polishing it, giving it a new shiny cover and a new title containing up to date buzzwords, and then giving it away for a "free" subscription via e-mail, and on top asking the customer kindly to come up for the shipping. I wondered why i couldn't find this book on amazon or somewhere else, but then i understood that it was re-released on the purpose of being exclusive for subscription. The cost for printing a small number of copies (500 copies) is quite low ($1-3 per book). This is a decent price for a qualified lead. This strategy has two benefits. First, you get a qualified lead with contact info and even with a correct address. Second, some countries have laws against e-mail spam, but this laws often have loopholes. In cases that your company has a business relationship with someone, you are allowed to get in contact and advertis your other products via e-mail, on an opt-out basis. Giving "free" assets to a costumer establishes this kind of business relationship. Almost always this "free" assets are of a minor quality, for me not sufficient enough to give away my datas. Freemium isn't free.

IloveHN84 8y ago

What happens if my email goes shared with other parties I don't know? GDPR was a real help for end users, reducing the amount of spam in mailboxes.

billmalarky 8y ago
Is spam email actually a problem for most people still? Google inbox has pretty much resolved that for me automatically.
dwild 8y ago
Your email is probably already everywhere. There's very little chance that GDPR does ever help to alleviate spam. Email list aren't coming from Facebook, they are from scummy website that, you guess it, won't ever follow GDPR. Don't give your email if you don't want spam... that include this website.
- jsendno 8y ago
  Nah, I like GDPR. Companies say they take privacy, security “seriously” and just look around you.
dabernathy89 8y ago
> GDPR was a real help for end users, reducing the amount of spam in mailboxes It just went into effect - has this been measured already?
- osrec 8y ago
  Well, my personal inbox was filled with even more emails from every company I ever signed up to, telling me about GDPR. Initially at least the effect has been quite the opposite.
candu 8y ago
...like ConvertKit? That's who powers the form that collects emails here. Just wanted to point out that this question is decidedly not hypothetical. Many websites use third-party services to administer their mailing lists. Now, this makes sense from a developer's perspective since we don't all want to be rewriting mailing list tools, but I'd wager many users aren't aware that their email address is being passed on to a third party. These are the sort of tradeoffs that we're now learning to address explicitly, as opposed to sweeping them under the rug in the name of "marketing". As much as it's a pain for me as a developer, I welcome it wholeheartedly as a user.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

doomjunky 8y ago

It's not about the subscription, it's about the lead. Giving things away for "free" is a common marketing strategy to generate leads. A lead is a qualified contact of a potential customer. This things could be of a broad range of cheap assets, e.g. ebooks, apps or even games. I have seen a marketer buying the copyright of a ten year old textbook for a cheap price, polishing it, giving it a new shiny cover and a new title containing up to date buzzwords, and then giving it away for a "free" subscription via e-mail, and on top asking the customer kindly to come up for the shipping. I wondered why i couldn't find this book on amazon or somewhere else, but then i understood that it was re-released on the purpose of being exclusive for subscription. The cost for printing a small number of copies (500 copies) is quite low ($1-3 per book). This is a decent price for a qualified lead. This strategy has two benefits. First, you get a qualified lead with contact info and even with a correct address. Second, some countries have laws against e-mail spam, but this laws often have loopholes. In cases that your company has a business relationship with someone, you are allowed to get in contact and advertis your other products via e-mail, on an opt-out basis. Giving "free" assets to a costumer establishes this kind of business relationship. Almost always this "free" assets are of a minor quality, for me not sufficient enough to give away my datas. Freemium isn't free.