I just threw away a list of 3,000 people and I'm happy...

[Scott Ames]

Call me nuts, but I just took a list of about 4,000, gave them 2 months to switch to a new list with a download as a bribe, and about 1,000 of them did. I even repeated the request and warned them the list would be shut off. Now I have a list of 1,000 real people that actually look a my messages.

Some would say that I may be missing a few that didn't open the messages for whatever reason and are still potential clients. True.. but I would think very few. The rest are going to throw away email accounts and/or never opened. Some of these forget they signed up and report me as a spammer. I love that one with a double opt-in list.

I feel better now that I've cleaned the list. It was very old, about 6 years and had a lot of dead but deliverable addresses.

[Mukul Verma]

What was your reason for doing this? Just to get rid of people who did not read now?

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by Mukul Verma

What was your reason for doing this? Just to get rid of people who did not read now?

Yes... they were on the list for a very long time just taking up space, not reading anything I send. What good are they? I gave them every opportunity to continue if they wished. Also, it saves on costs for the list service.

[avenuegirl]

A few months ago I had an issue where product was not available. When I emailed the list the issue I got a lot of unsubscribes. I also got a lot of true supporters who were impressed with my honesty and wanted to be updated on what I suggested they do to remedy the situation. These were real buyers!

A couple years back I had the same issue with another product where I no longer endorsed it and lost some people and converted others.

Anyway, in the beginning I was mortified to lose subscribers - but now realize they are just dead weight if they don't really want what I have.

If my emails are just winding up in your junk box then they are no good to anyone.

[George Wright]

Hi Scott,

Glad you are happy.

Another way to interpret what happened. Hmmm. You had a list of 4,000 with a 25% response rate.

Anyway, one thing for sure. That 1000 is solid now. Congratulations.

George Wright

[eaglechick]

BRAVO Scott! You will not regret it.

I'm fairly new but IMHO the biggest lie (according to Michael Rasmussen as well) is a big list with poor conversions. Too much hype out there to get more traffic - build your list etc without making sure it is a targeted, responsive and hungry for your product list. Will it be wise then to clean out your list at least every 6 - 8 months?

I'm sure from now on even with a significant smaller list you'll have better conversions.
The people on your list wants to be there and will respond accordingly.

Thanks for sharing.

Best of luck and let us know.

[JayXtreme]

Beautiful list clipping there, Scott. ::thumbs up, dude.::

It's a great way to refine your list.

I have done this a variety of times, and also in many variations. Occasionally, I will segment a list like this by offering various bribes at different intervals to get a better idea of what my list members are looking for..

Fantastic to see you sharing your result with it. I'd think it was a safe bet you have more responsive subscribers now, and ones that are listening to what you have to say.

Peace

Jay