I’ve Discovered the Problem With Internet Marketing — It’s Me!

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I’ve had an epiphany.  A breakthrough realization.  I now know what is the problem with internet marketing and list building.  It’s me!  That’s right, me.

“Well,” I hear you ask “how do you know this?”

Great question.  I know this because an internet marketer told me so.

Let’s get into the story.  I signed up for a free membership site which put me onto a mailing list.  So far I’m sure that your familiar with how this works.  The membership site had a collection of free downloads — eBooks, software, etc.  It was basically a collection of PLR and MRR products.  No problem, I checked a few out and didn’t see much that was of interest to me.

Then the emails came.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Typical of the current crop of ad swap list builders.  Nothing that I couldn’t handle.  This list builder was no worse (or better) than most of the lists I’ve signed up for.  Didn’t really stand out in terms of what he/she was offering.

After about 2 weeks I got an email that had 4 of my unsubscribe triggers in it.  Since I hadn’t seen anything outstanding from this person I decided that it was time to unsubscribe.  Then the little feedback dialog box came up.  So I pointed out the reasons why I was unsubscribing.  Usually this is the end of the story (although I’ve had a couple polite “Thank you for the feedback” type emails).  This time was different.

First, we’ll start with my feedback:

Comments:
Your subject line in the last email triggered 2 things that I hate —  using Re: and mentioning payments.
Also, you don’t mention anything about the product except that it is “normally $47”.
Finally, you’ve used blank lines to push your unsubscribe info further down the page — annoying and in violation of AWeber terms of use.

Not a lot of fluff in there, just the facts.  Here’s what I got back.

Waaaa Waaaaa

You’re like one of these people that look to find stuff to complain about…
You’re also probably one of these guys that purchase something and then find a reason to demand a refund.
I mean, it’s not like you were paying for membership anyways…

Scram off and don’t come back around… I for sure don’t need you or your complaints and attitude… In other words,
GET LOST !!!

Oops.  I guess I came across too harsh somehow.  This poor fellow must be having a bad day and has decided to take it out on me.

Hi XXXXXXXXXX

I’m sorry that my constructive criticisms offended you.  I figured that rather than just unsubscribe I’d let you know why I did.  Sorry that you really didn’t want to hear it.  You might want to turn that feature off in the autoresponder.  It will save both you and your unsubscribers the time.

And I was paying with my time which you obviously don’t care about.  And I could have become a paying customer at some point, but now I never will.

I have never purchased anything and looked for a reason to refund it.  I also don’t look for stuff to complain about, but I do find lots of it as there are lots of people out there like you.  I always hope for the best when I subscribe to a list.  And I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Best of luck in the future.  I hope you don’t tell too many people to GET LOST!! though.  It’s pretty hard to sell things when you do that.

Ciao
Bill

Finally, the epiphany email:

You wasn’t going to order anything through us anyways…

Remember, you unsubscribed…

I don’t even want customers like yourself…

You aren’t interested in our services and products…
You are only interested in nosing around different marketers to find out what they are doing, marketing etc..
I have ways to know what others are up to, but don’t pay that much attention until someone like you finds stuff to bitch at.
I really need to eliminate more just like you, but I’m laid back – cool until someone like yourself comes along.
I can take constructive criticism, but yours wasn’t in that nature… It was more like you wanted to take a piss on something…

It’s people like you that are part of the problem in this niche

NOT part of the answer….

So, now we know.  I’m the problem.  If only I didn’t expect marketers to be honest and have respect for my time when they email something.  If only I didn’t expect people to provide me with something of value rather than endless ads.  If only I didn’t expect to build a relationship of trust and respect with someone before I buy their products.

So, to all you struggling internet marketers out there, I’m sorry that I’m part of the problem.

NOTE: This post is a Ramblings Classics. It was originally published at Ramblings on October 14, 2010.

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Comments

I’ve Discovered the Problem With Internet Marketing — It’s Me! — 6 Comments

  1. Hi Bill
    I just can’t believe that someone could be that rude. Or, I suppose I do really. It’s a good example of really awful customer service, a good example of a really nasty guy, and a good example of a site to avoid like the plague.
    Dee

    • Hi Dee

      I like to think that the guy was just having a bad week or something, but that’s probably wishful thinking 8=)

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Hope to see you back!

  2. Hi Bill

    You are not the problem the idiot who thinks he is GOD is. Your unsubscribe reasons were quite reasonable and he was totally unreasonable in his response.

    I would just unsubscribe from people like him without giving a reason.

    I assume he was not using Aweber and if he was a complaint to them could well remove him from sending out any more nasty emails.

    Richard

    • Hi Richard

      I must confess that I don’t provide feedback as much as I used to. This is part of the reason, but it is also quite tiring when you’re unsubscribing from 5 lists at a time.

      One thing that I do when I get something that I think is dishonest from a person who usually provides better is that I will reply with my concerns. The ones who respond usually are apologetic. It is often just an automated swap that got out before they could re-write it to their standards.

      I have referred people to Aweber before. The ones who take their unsubscribers and create a new list from them. I imagine that they get enough people to confirm the subscription just because they don’t remember whether they signed up for this or not. I’ve probably fallen for it from time to time myself.

  3. Hi Bill,

    Don’t think that you are the problem! I didn’t see a thing wrong, rude or harsh about your comment to them. You were right about the criticism you gave them and if they were any kind of ethical marketer they would have thought about your comments. But instead they came back with a nasty comment themselves.

    It just goes to show the type of juvenile, so called marketers that are making it hard for the rest of us. No professionalism in IM any more or should I say it’s rarely seen today.

    Dennis

    • Thanks for the support Dennis. I know that it seems that there is very little in the way of ethics any more, but there are many who are doing things right. We just hear about (and complain about 8=) the bad ones more.

      Have you investigated IM Trustworthy (see the sidebar)? It allows you to sign up and put yourself out there to be rated by fellow marketers as to how well you adhere to ethical standards. It isn’t just something that you put on your sites, it is tied back to a real site where people can provide real feedback. It may be a way for the white hats to stand out a little if it catches on.

      I think your article on the Internet Marketer’s Code of Ethics is a good tie-in to that.

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