3 years later - My biggest Success Tip For $$$

[freefor15.com]

I only am a on one e-mail list and only open it every other day to see what resources it gives but other than that it is just a waste of time

[NewbiesDiary]

Originally Posted by James Schramko

Wow edd666666!

Go for it!

I just unsubscribed from a marketer who helped me
double my business a year ago. He was a super
marketer who had incredible lessons to share.

Unfortunately he has lost his way and only sends
promotions these days. I think he may be burnt out?

His recent product launch flopped and his projects
are never completed on time.

I am just NOT putting up with it. I am ruthless with
my time.

Who can You Zap today?

haha I have this problem with a couple of HUGE gurus!!
They used to have great info - but now it's just pitch, pitch
pitch and the worst part is its the same pitch every second day -
literally!! No content, no help, no advice, nothing good!

I don't unsubscribe - takes too long haha - I have a few disposable
emails and every now and then I go thru the list and RE-SUBSCRIBE
using a new, clean disposable email & the other one I deactivate!

Much quicker only having to resubscribe a couple, rather than unsubscribe
from heaps

[Rich Williams]

Setting up a secondary email was the best move I made. It frees up so much time and I just check it every now and again. I've got about 5000 unread emails sitting in there at the moment.

[James Schramko]

Smart move.

I only ever use a Gmail for marketers lists. At least you can cut it loose whenever you like.

I must say The Poll result so far is interesting.

More than half the people say they are in control - I don't believe that!

[SFranklin]

thanks for the tip! I am kinda new and I get 50 plus emails a day...yikes! I have pretty much quit reading them cause they all just want to sell me crap. Thats what i will do today, UNSUBSCRIBE! Thanks again

[Joe Stewart]

Apparently I've given out my email address to a LOT of people! I unsubscribed from several newsletters the other day right before I read this thread, but I've still got stuff coming out of the woodwork. I honestly can't call any of it spam either. Somewhere along the way I actually signed up for information from these people. That's the problem right there. I signed up for "information", but now all I get is offers from most of them.

I think that flogging some of these people would be appropriate. :-)

Anyone else?

lol

[primeelite]

I agree with you. I am making good money now with my businesses but I would never give out the main information that allows me to do what I do. No one who is making great money online will tell you how they did it because there are only so many spots available in many industries. I limited my lists to around 4-5 RSS feeds, the people who I receive feeds or emails from are those who are successful in my niche and I pick up a few things from them from time to time. I know many who have 10-20 they read daily to try to find the big piece of info and I hate to tell them but no huge answer on how to make millions is going to be revealed.

[Peggy Baron]

I think just about everyone jumps onto a lot of lists when they first start internet marketing. Then at some point they realize they have way too much mail and information and it's time to trim.

Who do you stop following and why? Ask yourself this and learn about email marketing from your answer. Turn it around and only send emails to your list that you like receiving.

I'm not on many lists anymore - just the ones where they give me great value. At first I was afraid I might miss something, but it turns out I didn't miss a thing. I was too busy gettin 'er done.

Peggy

[Kyle Tully]

Originally Posted by James Schramko

I must say The Poll result so far is interesting.

More than half the people say they are in control - I don't believe that!

No I'd say that's about right...

They're in full control of their inbox, just don't have any time left over to actually run their business

Another reason to unsubscribe is many people are pumping the exact same info to their email lists, RSS feeds, blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc.

So you can unsubscribe from their email list and still keep up to date -- but on YOUR terms -- via RSS or whatever.

[stayfocused]

Today feels like a new day. I can't even tell you how much more productive I have been.

3 days ago I went on an unsubscribing binge. Of course it takes a few days for all of them to kick in and actually stop sending emails.

Well today I woke up and checked my email. There where only 2 IM related emails there. These 2 I decided to stay on because they don't pitch products all day long but actually give out great advice.

I honestly think I was wasting 2+ hours every morning checking my emails. Then clicking on links in those emails. Then exploring from there.

It was like I would wake up and fall down a rabbit hole and disappear for hours each morning.

Thanks for the advice.

[shan beach]

wow! this is a good idea! as a newbie, i thought that by signing up for everyone's program, i would be "ahead of the game" - NOT!

i've wasted so much time and email space...plus they all promote each other! i am already overwhelmed!

thanks for the heads up, it make a "hell-a" lotta sense! lol

[Sean Hoffman]

I don't subscribe to mailing lists. You really think you yourself would give away your secrets?

[Roey Pimentel]

James,

Thanks for your buffet comparison. That brings home the point about how personality and work habits play into how to be successful. There isn't one right or wrong way to be successful in internet marketing.

I'm not the kind of person to overeat at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Peace,

Roey.

[Diver's]

Hi James...great post here... ! 'Time Management is important...!'

[maxyip84]

thank you for your powerful advices. It seems really true that by ignoring all those email scraps, you can save up more time to do other things that are more important.

No internet marketer will really reveal the strategy or secret by emailing. You must buy their works or you close down your email account then only those email will stop sending to you.

[Eric Louviere]

congrats James, I always thought you'd do very well, and obviously you are. You can just tell with some people, I'm serious.

I think your advice works for those it works for because of one main reason IMO.

And that one main reason is what has to happen in order to make big money.

I think just getting off of people's lists can make a huge difference, but I think one thing must happen still.

that one thing is...

they have to become sellers.

not buyers.

focus 97% of your time on selling stuff

not 97% buying stuff

you can still buy stuff here and there, but it should not be your focus once you've learned the basic fundamentals of marketing and owning a small business.

anyway, just wanted to throw that out there.

Eric

[Dean Shainin]

I'm in the habit of dumping all top marketers emails into folders I've created many moons ago thinking I can emulate some of their headlines, etc.

It's so tough to unsubscribe thinking I'll miss some BIG.

Wondering how much time each day I spend on putting them all into their special folders.lol

Cheers,
Dean

[mastermoog]

Originally Posted by James Schramko

I just noticed I joined here three years ago.

Back then I was working full time and trying to
figure it all out. I have since quit working for
someone else and have my own IM business.

I have several six figure business models running
now and this was only possible because of the
following action I took.

Since doing this one thing I have had several
six figure months.

Here it is:

** Get off all those email lists **

Yes - as soon as you unsubscribe from every crap
email list you will free up three hours a day and
you can get into creating products.

You will be able to implement many of the ideas
and training materials you have bought along the
way too!

Seriously - Your output will be inversely opposite
to the number of email lists you subscribe to.

Don't fool your self into thinking you will miss an
important message or technique. Many marketers only
have one technique - greed.

Try it for a month and tell me what happens!

Thanks James,

This really is a great way to improve efficiency and optimize your output. I recently read and whole heartedly recommend everyone interested in becoming more productive to read Timothy Ferriss's book The 4-Hour Work Week It is a great insight into how people accept working for works sake and how we let ourselves waste time and procrastinate, when we could be achieving so much more while actually working less.

Do it, get it. read it.. good stuff.

Thanks again,
Simon

[nicholasb]

I have an email address that I use just for opting in to list's, I can't remember the last time I checked it there has to be at least 4,000 emails in there by now

the only time I really check it is if I am in the mood to buy something, other than that just reading offers is a waste of time, sometimes I get some good tips but not really anymore

[chemmyvick]

Originally Posted by James Schramko

Have fun

Thank me in a few weeks when you actually close your
inbox and it is empty. That is freedom.

I should also mention that Twitter is an easy
way to get your information.

Also use Google Alerts if you have a special
keyword, product or competitor URL you need
to keep tabs on...

You are 100% right. I'm signing to mail now and unsubscribe to all those junks. The are just time waster.

[Hail-To-The-Redskins]

This has been perhaps one of THE most therapeutic things I've done ... and I was simply amazed by just how many lists I was on.

It feels like a big weight has just been removed from around my neck

Thanks James, I think your post prompted me to do something that I should've done a long time ago

I have also read the "4 Hour Work Week" and although I would not totally agree with everything Tim Ferris outlined, he did have some sound ideas to create a more efficient way of doing things.

Cheers,

Simon

[Barry Plaskow]

Originally Posted by James Schramko

especially if it is :


"keep emailing until they buy or die'

(Direct quote from a well know guru)

Wonder who that was?!!!

[hfm]

I couldn't agree more. I had so many emails in my inbox once I practically spent the better half of my day going through emails, reading them just to find nothing beneficial. I opted out those I didn't particularly enjoy, saved myself loads of time and increased my productivity.

Great tip.

[SimpleCash]

youre right I recieve hundreds of emails a week and most of them seem point less.

[dave147]

i'm gonna try this for 30 days

[tamaradaria]

I just took this advice and
unsubscribed to some emails
and it was LIBERATING!

When I unsubscribed to
one list, a questionnaire came
up and asked why?

I thought about it long and hard,
and said...you send too many emails
in one day...you are clogging up my
email box.

This one guy was sending at least
5 emails a day when I began to
check out it!

That's 140 emails a month from just
one person!

And it's not "spam" b/c I joined the list
to get the freebie...

From this point forward I'm staying off of
any list that isn't helping me achieve my
goals!

[nvs74191]

James

What a coincidence and perfect timing of your post!

I had started just now with a resolve to clean up my inbox and get off everyone's list.

I particularly like your suggestion of getting a separate mail id to study some marketers' mails.

Hooray!

Thanks again. Wish I could stay away from Forums too.

[James Schramko]

Glad to help!

[Bennette]

I took your advice James. I do have to say that I did read and email from Andrew and you 2 days ago about "how to get started in offline marketing" that was good. I think it was an old New Years report.

[James Schramko]

Yes that must have been old!

[psyclone]

When I stupidly lost my main domain name I also lost my very first email address and hundreds of messages a day.

After the initial shock is was quite freeing.

s

[James Schramko]

Originally Posted by psyclone

When I stupidly lost my main domain name I also lost my very first email address and hundreds of messages a day.

After the initial shock is was quite freeing.

s

That is hilarious!!!

Less is often more.

Or the one I like is:

Less in More out

[AndrewCavanagh]

I gave this some thought and this is my feedback:

# 1: When I was starting out many years ago I got a whole TON of VERY useful information by being subscribed to multiple email lists.

Many marketers do indeed share genuine marketing knowledge freely to their lists (names like David Frey, Michael Senoff and Jim Edwards spring to mind).


# 2: Being on so many email lists also educated me on how these marketers were using email as a marketing strategy.

I also managed to get on (and off) the email lists of some marketers who seem to think it's their duty to pound you relentlessly with offers.

I doubt that I ever bought anything from these people.


# 3: After a couple of years the information started becoming repetitive.

At that point I started to unsubscribe from a lot of lists.

These days I very rarely read emails from other marketers and in many cases if their subject line is trying to trick me it's just so I can click on the unsubscribe link.

Once you have some basic skills spend your time TAKING ACTION as James says in his original post.

It's pointless gathering more information when you're not taking action on the information you already have.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

[James Schramko]

Well put Andrew.

The same is true for info products too. More in the start, less as you know more.

[Bennette]

AndrewCavanagh;801025]I gave this some thought and this is my feedback:
It's pointless gathering more information when you're not taking action on the information you already have.

I agree. I did take action yesterday with no site, cards or anything in place yet. I know things will come together and I just have to keep talking to business owners because they need me and my 1st deal will come.

Btw thanks for the report Andrew!

Now if I can just find someone to set me up and inexpensive blog, I would be happy.

[Shane Hale]

I guess this can be a catch 22 because I like to read different email swipes from the gurus out there especially when a launch is happening to get ideas. I would love to see which emails out of convert the best. Sometimes you can get affiliate feedback from the launcher saying who sold the most if your lucky to be an affiliate on a big time launch. But, overall I have had it affect productivity and decided to opt out of several lists and stay with some of the ones who I would buy from their link.

[Dally137]

Hey man I am a newbie here just started doing affiliate marketing still in learning curve and your suggestions or tips are good to have at this stage for me. Thanks.

[RatherBeSkiing]

Originally Posted by Dean Shainin

I'm in the habit of dumping all top marketers emails into folders I've created many moons ago thinking I can emulate some of their headlines, etc.

It's so tough to unsubscribe thinking I'll miss some BIG.

Wondering how much time each day I spend on putting them all into their special folders.lol

Cheers,
Dean

Dean,

Like you, I get some value out of swiping the odd email. There are some occasionally gems there.....though very rarely are they so time-sensitive.

So the key is to control how (and when) i choose to look at these emails.

And trust me - above anything else, let go of the fear you'll "miss something big". It just won't happen.

How I handle my email?

Like James and some others here, I use Gmail accounts for receiving (and filtering) most of my IM stuff.

From there, I forward only a small % to my Outlook where it again get's automatically filtered into two separate IM folders (A MUST LOOK Pile - viewed once a week, and a MAYBE LOOK pile (viewed Fortnightly)).

The rest in my gmail I look at maybe monthly for at most one hour in "skim mode". (And this is after I unsubscribed from a a variety of other IM lsist too.)

I also took a leaf out of Tim Ferris's (4 Hour Work Week guy) book and now only open and check my Outlook twice daily. It's a discipline - but getting on top of your email is definitely worth doing as the other posts have pointed out.

Mate, doing some of the above doesn't take long to set up and your time saving will be amazing.

Before applying the above system, my email USED to be a burden - but thankfully not any more

Cheers and good luck with it,

Ivan

[John Durham]

I wholeheartedly agree with OP!

My progress has quantum leaped since I did the following things.

1: organized my email box into folders.
2: Began immediately dispositioning every new email into proper folder after reading.
3: Keep an empty inbox and also empty sent box.

Note: It's also amazing how much time we spend "re-reading" and "editing", instead of quickly "reading and responding and putting it away".

Here are the benefits I've experienced since I decided to keep a "clean inbox":

A: Zero Clutter

B: I engage in much more productive dialogue throughout the day, and send more emails that actually matter.

C: It helps me to stay focused only on what is hand at that very moment. I hit all the target areas and disposition emails faster throughout the day. Tend to disposition anything that doesn't apply to the most important business to the "misc" folder more quickly, and move on to responding to something meaningful.

For some reason it just makes me more apt to get meaningless things out of my site quickly, and stay on the real issues.

Just find that I am generally 100% more effective now.

whudathunkit? Something so simple as keeping your inbox clean?

Having a clean inbox is AWESOME!

Honestly it feels good to open your email box and not see clutter.

If you shut out all miscellaneous activity outside of the warrior forum I'd say you'd be good to go.

There's my 2 cents!

[SpeakToTman]

Unless the time you take it to learn their mailing list techniques...

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Hey James,

very true. When you free up your email
box, suddenly you feel like a huge stone has
been lifted of your chest. It really is amazing
how "many emails" can serve as a stepping stone to
success.

Igor

[Scott Lundergan]

I have a gmail account set-up for being on lists. It's awesome because I know that when I go log in to that email, I realize my mindset is switching to being on the receiving end and there is nothing wrong with that.

AND....

with my business email that is connected to clients, paypal and authorize.net, I WANT that email inbox to be FILLED as much as possible with new business and "Notification of Payment Received".

It is SUCH a liberating feeling waking up and seeing MORE emails FOR business and payments to ME. This motivation can STAY with me because my mindset is in business mode without being blended with email subscriber mode.

Splitting the time/lists up can do wonders for the mindset.

[John Durham]

Originally Posted by Scott Lundergan

I have a gmail account set-up for being on lists. It's awesome because I know that when I go log in to that email, I realize my mindset is switching to being on the receiving end and there is nothing wrong with that.

AND....

with my business email that is connected to clients, paypal and authorize.net, I WANT that email inbox to be FILLED as much as possible with new business and "Notification of Payment Received".

It is SUCH a liberating feeling waking up and seeing MORE emails FOR business and payments to ME. This motivation can STAY with me because my mindset is in business mode without being blended with email subscriber mode.

Splitting the time/lists up can do wonders for the mindset.

Indeed. Focus. You get rid of everything else that isn't relevant to that part of your day. Then you switch gears at your own discretion as opposed to being emerged upon by all these different irrelevant gears every time you open your email box.

[Christie Love]

You're absolutely right. I have a ton of subscriber emails coming into my inbox each day, but NEVER have the time to read them all. So, they are usually skipped, while I pin-point the important messages. Does this count?

[Terry Hatfield]

I think my biggest tip would be don't sign up to them to begin with, then no need to unsubscribe from them.

[Tyrus Antas]

Let's be honest here: information wise there's very little going on these people's newsletters. However, there are some lessons to be gained by observing how they do things.

Please note, that not all things they do should be done by you. I certainly wouldn't build my "relationship" with my lists doing what they do.

How I deal with all those emails: I set up an "Internet marketing" label on Gmail and forward all IM newsletters there. I then proceed to "read them" when I have time.

Tyrus

[MaskedMarketer]

I'd have to agree reading tons of worthless emails can be a huge time waster for anyone in this business... at this moment i am recovering ..

Originally Posted by kanwarjot

no marketing guru will ever reveal his or her marketing secrets.

This is part of the reason why people stay subscribed, is they think they will learn THE secret, or they don't want to miss something BIG.

(the "gurus" DO reveal there secrets all day everyday if you just examine there business models)

The only truth is, there is no marketing secret. You can find most of the stuff you need to know for free.. the only problem is it will take a lot longer and you'll probably get info - over load as most do.

Originally Posted by James Schramko

The situation is that it works in the short term.

If you get 1000 opt ins a day - you might be tempted to burn through them faster.

If you burn threw them quicker, then you can make money quicker

Thats what some of the biggest names in direct response on the web do... they email there list every day and make the "gurus" look like complete amateurs.

[samuelbell]

Luckily I haven’t subscribed to any yet

[njaad]

well, then there is the idea of setting up a gmail address for all those email lists... and when you need to set up an autoresponder, you can easily backtrack the whole salesprocess of all the gurus + their affiliates.

[John Sullivan]

Hi James,

Couldn't agree more, I must get 200 emails per day from the same people promoting the latest answer to instant wealth. I must get round to unsubscribing to them but don't have time even to look at the messages.

John