Selling on MailChimp

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Raindance

Does this mean no selling whatsoever? Not even your own stuff?

No; it doesn't mean that.

The key words in the part you bolded are "without proper permission". If they're opted-in, then you do have proper permission. It means that they won't have you using their service to send out spam, i.e. stuff for which people haven't opted in (which is fair enough, and in fact more than that - recommended).

For myself, MailChimp is a service I wouldn't touch even as a vendor, after a lot of what I've seen Warriors recounting about their experiences there, but of course that's a personal preference formed on second-hand information only (albeit quite a lot of it); selling your own products is ok with them, subject to their other rules, of course.

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Raindance

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

No; it doesn't mean that.

The key words in the part you bolded are "without proper permission". If they're opted-in, then you do have proper permission. It means that they won't have you using their service to send out spam, i.e. stuff for which people haven't opted in (which is fair enough, and in fact more than that - recommended).

For myself, MailChimp is a service I wouldn't touch even as a vendor, after a lot of what I've seen Warriors recounting about their experiences there, but of course that's a personal preference formed on second-hand information only (albeit quite a lot of it); selling your own products is ok with them, subject to their other rules, of course.

Thanks for your response Alexa. I am looking forward to making my own e-book.

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webapex

13 years ago

Their TOS is very specific compared to Aweber's who I assume rely more on a case by case examination of your outgoing emails, I hear about people being suspended by Aweber for marketing products not specifically addressed on their TOS.

The MailChimp mention of Affiliate marketing refers to, I believe refers to promoting affiliate opportunity offers, and is not prohibiting affiliate marketing in general.

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Raindance

13 years ago

Originally Posted by webapex

Their TOS is very specific compared to Aweber's who I assume rely more on a case by case examination of your outgoing emails, I hear about people being suspended by Aweber for marketing products not specifically addressed on their TOS.

The MailChimp mention of Affiliate marketing refers to, I believe refers to promoting affiliate opportunity offers, and is not prohibiting affiliate marketing in general.

Affiliate Marketing is absolutely banned with MailChimp.
Unfortunately, there are tons of email marketers who lost their complete lists and could never get it back only because they did affiliate marketing with MailChimp.

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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by webapex

The MailChimp mention of Affiliate marketing refers to, I believe refers to promoting affiliate opportunity offers, and is not prohibiting affiliate marketing in general.

I accept that you believe that, and I think you're the only one here who believes that.

Let's be really clear and unambiguous about this, for the benefit of anyone reading this thread who doesn't quite appreciate the position, because this can be a potentially disastrous mistake for people to make.

There are many Warriors here, who have commented in other threads that Mailchimp found out that they were using their Mailchimp autoresponder for affiliate marketing, by sending out affiliate-links to people on their list, and Mailchimp closed them down and they could no longer access their lists. And when they tried to raise "helpdesk" tickets to query this and find out if there was anything they could do about it, just to recover their lists, they were ignored completely. And when they eventually managed to get an email reply from Mailchimp, it was to tell them that there'd be no further discussion or correspondence because "support is for account-holders only" which they weren't any more, after Mailchimp had closed them down.

There are many of these people, all saying the same thing.

You and I both know perfectly well that they're not all making up the same story. They'd have absolutely no incentive at all to do this!

So don't anyone imagine that there's some "other reading" of the terms of service that makes it ok to do affiliate marketing there. There isn't.

If you're promoting your own products and throw in the odd affiliate-link, that may perhaps be acceptable to them, if you ask them about it, but if affiliate marketing is part of your essential business model, MailChimp is clearly not the autoresponder for you.

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Steven Carl Kelly

13 years ago

FYI:

MailChimp is positioning itself as serving the "higher-end" of e-mail marketing. I know a number of companies in the mainstream corporate world who have similar anti-affiliate marketing policies. Let's face it, there are plenty of unscrupulous affiliates out there, and MailChimp is looking to protect its own interests.

On the other hand, because they offer a generous free option, a number of my marketing students have used MC for affiliate marketing without a problem. In speaking to MailChimp reps directly, it seems that their prohibition is there in order to give them the ability to shut down shady operators -- I was told directly (but asked not to say by whom) that they are aware that affiliate marketers ARE using their system for that purpose and they generally don't bother with them if they don't get a lot of complaints.

YMMV of course, but personally I really like what MailChimp offers (especially for someone who only plans to run the occasional affiliate campaign). Anyone marketing their own products with MC should have very little cause to worry, naturally.

That said, I personally only ran a few small lists off MailChimp after I decided to stop self-hosting my own mail server. I tried MC, Mad Mimi, and a host of others before settling on ImnicaMail as my primary provider.

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bay37

13 years ago

I used MailChimp and never ran into any problems. But then again, I only sell my own products and email general stuff such as newsletters, etc.

To be fair, I didn't really know about this policy, I guess I need to look into switchign to ImnicaMail (read good reviews) or something else. Just in case they decide to shut me down one day.

Sucks, because I really like their interface.

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Raindance

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

FYI:

MailChimp is positioning itself as serving the "higher-end" of e-mail marketing. I know a number of companies in the mainstream corporate world who have similar anti-affiliate marketing policies. Let's face it, there are plenty of unscrupulous affiliates out there, and MailChimp is looking to protect its own interests.

On the other hand, because they offer a generous free option, a number of my marketing students have used MC for affiliate marketing without a problem. In speaking to MailChimp reps directly, it seems that their prohibition is there in order to give them the ability to shut down shady operators -- I was told directly (but asked not to say by whom) that they are aware that affiliate marketers ARE using their system for that purpose and they generally don't bother with them if they don't get a lot of complaints.

YMMV of course, but personally I really like what MailChimp offers (especially for someone who only plans to run the occasional affiliate campaign). Anyone marketing their own products with MC should have very little cause to worry, naturally.

That said, I personally only ran a few small lists off MailChimp after I decided to stop self-hosting my own mail server. I tried MC, Mad Mimi, and a host of others before settling on ImnicaMail as my primary provider.

I know no business online works 100% on its ethics. Some mastermind from some part of the world is always successful in cracking the system. But its too much risk involved in this one. If you happen to build a list of 200, you can lose it all in a snap if the ape gets angry.

Originally Posted by bay37

I used MailChimp and never ran into any problems. But then again, I only sell my own products and email general stuff such as newsletters, etc.

To be fair, I didn't really know about this policy, I guess I need to look into switchign to ImnicaMail (read good reviews) or something else. Just in case they decide to shut me down one day.

Sucks, because I really like their interface.

I totally agree. Some of the features which they provide aren't available with big names like Aweber.

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Steven Carl Kelly 13 years ago

Originally Posted by Raindance

If you happen to build a list of 200, you can lose it all in a snap if the ape gets angry.

I'm really not sure I understand the idea of "losing" your list. Under what circumstances could I, or any IMer, lose our list due to the actions of our service provider?
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ultra7800

Banned 13 years ago

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Steven Carl Kelly 13 years ago

Originally Posted by ultra7800

I'm really not sure

I mean... list owners ARE backing up their lists, right?
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- Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly
  
  I mean... list owners ARE backing up their lists, right?
  
  If you'd read some of the posts referred to above, Steven, you'd know that many are not. Clearly they ought to be.
  
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  Steven Carl Kelly 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
  
  If you'd read some of the posts referred to above, Steven, you'd know that many are not. Clearly they ought to be.
  
  Right, Alexa. I consider my lists among my most important business assets. Why would I want to risk them?
  
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Emilis Strimaitis

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Raindance

I recently came to know about MailChimp on one of the conversations in the forum. I know they are totally against affiliate marketing but can you not sell even your own products using their service? Can I send a link to my paypal "buy now" to my list using mailchimp? In their list of abominations, I found the last one confusing:

Illegal goods or services
Escort and dating services
Pharmaceutical products
Get-rich-quick or work-at-home schemes
Online trading, day trading tips, or stock market related content
Gambling services, products or gambling education
Multi-level marketing
Affiliate marketing
Credit repair, get-out-of-debt content
Mortgages and/or Loans
Real estate prospecting or listing
Nutritional Supplements, Herbal Supplements or Vitamin Supplements
Pornography or nudity in content
Adult novelty items or references in content
List brokers or List rental services
Marketing or sending commercial email without proper permission

Does this mean no selling whatsoever? Not even your own stuff?

No, this doesn't mean that.

This means you can't add random people to your list (you've bought the email list from some webmaster, you generated emails, you crawled web with spider to generate the list etc) that haven't subscribed to your list.

If people have subscribed to your list it's a green light, because they gave you the proper permission

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Selling on MailChimp

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