How to protect yourself from annoying "gurus"

22 replies
Most of us get endless promotional e-mails each and every day. It comes to the point that those messages are just flooding your inbox preventing you from seeing good stuff.

Also it is not that difficult to notice that some "gurus" bombard your inbox more often than the others. And that is where it gets super-annoying.

And the worst case scenario is when your adderss is shared between "gurus' or they put you on every list they have which floods your inbox with identical messages.

Quite often it gets so frastrating that you have to change your e-mail address to stop it all. But when you do that you lose all the other connections which are good and useful.

Here is the trick how to stop all those annoying messages without changing your e-mail address wasting your time on unsubscribing from numerous lists.

- When you sign up on any website make sure in the Name field you indicate the name or URL of a website you are signing up from. This way you can easily track who is sending you e-mails.

- When you notice that you get too much mailings from some "gurus" and want to stop them all you do is to set up your e-mail filter to block all mails which contain your coded "name" you used to sign up from that particular website.

This way all mail containing your "coded name" will be blocked while the other legit mail will go through.
#annoying #gurus #protect
  • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
    You know this type of whingin really pees me off.

    What's probably happened is you've subscribed to a marketer's list several times because he/she has offered a different incentive to do so on each of their websites.

    They then send out their emails, and because you've signed up several times, you get the same email several times.

    All you have to, is unubscribe, no drama, no fuss.

    I certainly don't share my lists, and I'm sure most other people don't either.

    Why is it marketers always moan about being marketed to!!

    Kim


    Originally Posted by Click Cutter View Post

    Most of us get endless promotional e-mails each and every day. It comes to the point that those messages are just flooding your inbox preventing you from seeing good stuff.

    Also it is not that difficult to notice that some "gurus" bombard your inbox more often than the others. And that is where it gets super-annoying.

    And the worst case scenario is when your adderss is shared between "gurus' or they put you on every list they have which floods your inbox with identical messages.

    Quite often it gets so frastrating that you have to change your e-mail address to stop it all. But when you do that you lose all the other connections which are good and useful.

    Here is the trick how to stop all those annoying messages without changing your e-mail address wasting your time on unsubscribing from numerous lists.

    - When you sign up on any website make sure in the Name field you indicate the name or URL of a website you are signing up from. This way you can easily track who is sending you e-mails.

    - When you notice that you get too much mailings from some "gurus" and want to stop them all you do is to set up your e-mail filter to block all mails which contain your coded "name" you used to sign up from that particular website.

    This way all mail containing your "coded name" will be blocked while the other legit mail will go through.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lance K
      Originally Posted by Kim Standerline View Post


      What's probably happened is you've subscribed to a marketer's list several times because he/she has offered a different incentive to do so on each of their websites.

      They then send out their emails, and because you've signed up several times, you get the same email several times.

      All you have to, is unubscribe, no drama, no fuss.
      Very true, but it would be better if people just learned to segment their lists and use auto responders correctly.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
        Originally Posted by Lance K View Post

        Very true, but it would be better if people just learned to segment their lists and use auto responders correctly.
        Yes you're very right Lance, Unfortunately I have an acount at aweber and 2 at 1sc, so it gets a little problematic.

        I'm actually looking at this problem when I get home from vacation, I'm going to transfer most of it to Neil Morgan's autoresponse plus

        Kim
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        • Profile picture of the author jane74
          That is right ... clicking on the unsubscribe link and you are off the list of the guru.

          I had done that a while ago and unsubscripted from all list from joel coom. I had just signed up on to many list of him.

          Be careful though ... there are spammers out there that claim to have an unsubscribe link ... but once you click that link you will be activated on.

          always watch out for youname at the start of the email. if the name is not there ... its a spammer and do not clik on the u.link.

          cheers

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  • Profile picture of the author PotPieGirl
    Personally, I simply un-subscribe. I'd hate to 'mark' another marketer that way. We're all doing our best... and besides, I DID sign up for it in the first place.

    I have to say tho... I love these emails. It's a good experiment for myself each morning when I log in and see all those subject lines. Which one do I want to click? Which do I just delete? WHY did I do that?

    Just my two cents...

    Jennifer
    ~PotPieGirl
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    • Profile picture of the author wordwizard
      yeah, I like them too. I can't bring myself to unsubscribe in most cases.
      But when I get 4 or 5 or more emais per DAY from some people, it does get
      a bit much...

      And I also can hardly find my non-guru mail anymore. I"m losing importgant mail
      in the clutter.

      One solution I came up with was to change the address to a different account
      so I can get more breathing space in my personal account, but it turns out
      that quite a few of the emails do have an unsubscribe link but no "change email
      address" link... And I didn't want to unsubscribe. Oh my!
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Kim,
      Why is it marketers always moan about being marketed to!!
      Whenever I hear this, I wonder: Why is it that marketers don't understand the lessons in these comments?

      Here's a dirty little secret for you: Marketers are people, too.

      Notice that the OP specifically mentioned two things that aren't really related to marketing, but rather to excesses or abusive behavior. The first: Tons of emails, including multiple copies of the same message.

      That's annoying, no matter what field you're in.

      The second: Someone trading or selling your email address to a person or company you did not give permission to mail you.

      That's spamming for the second company and, quite often, fraud for the first.

      Sure, a lot of these comments are just whining. Some of them are reflections of the legitimate concerns of the people we send mail to. And these folks are not isolated cranks. They're representative of a lot of our subscribers.

      I agree that unsubscribing is the right move if the issue is just frequency. Adding filters to block or delete the mail is just as bad as extreme overmailing.

      If unsubscribing doesn't work, then you do more extreme things.

      I subscribed to one fellow's list, bought something from him, and then got hammered with two and three emails a day, plus voice mail blasts. I emailed him asking to be removed from the voice mail blasts, and they continued. I unsubscribed from every list of his I was on and got resubscribed after he moved to a new provider.

      I sent the details to the new provider, warning them that they might want to vet the guy's list, as I had properly unsubscribed and didn't want to start getting hammered by him again.

      He bitched that I should just click the unsub, rather than complaining. Awww... Poor baby. You spam me and then insult me for reporting it? You're no better than the other spammers that waste my time every day, and make people paranoid about email.

      He basically said what you've just said and what so many other people say here: That, as a marketer, I should have better things to do than waste my and his time complaining about being marketed to.

      One fellow had a problem de-duping his lists and, if you unsubscribed, removed you from ALL OF THEM. And blocked you from signing up again.

      Buy three products, get three copies of everything he sends. Try to get it down to one copy of each on your own, and you can't. It's all or nothing. Doesn't make buying from him an attractive proposition. (It appears he has since taken steps to fix this, but it went on for years.)

      Unauthorized selling and trading of addresses is, in some countries, a crime. It's considered spamming in any country.

      If you want to accuse me of whining, go for it. You're not going to convince me that telling people how to deal with abuse is a bad thing.

      And good luck convincing anyone that I'm complaining about being marketed to...


      Paul
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      • Profile picture of the author abelacts
        Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

        Whenever I hear this, I wonder: Why is it that marketers don't understand the lessons in these comments?

        Here's a dirty little secret for you: Marketers are people, too.

        Paul
        Paul, I have to agree with you. You couldn't have said it better. Being a marketer doesn't mean you can receive all the crap from other fellow marketers. Furthermore, to make things worse, how could you share the list with other marketers without permission in the first place.

        When a marketer sends nothing but pure sales pitches (it's been a lot lately), I don't even open his emails. Let alone buy from him. Once your respect for a person is screwed, that's the end of the story.
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        • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
          Originally Posted by abelacts View Post

          When a marketer sends nothing but pure sales pitches (it's been a lot lately), I don't even open his emails. Let alone buy from him. Once your respect for a person is screwed, that's the end of the story.
          If you don't open the emails, how do you know they are all pitches?
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  • Profile picture of the author Kim Standerline
    Hi Paul

    I was answering the OP under the assumption the marketer has acted ethically and legally, (Obviously in your case they didn't), I also appreciate there are some unethical marketer's out there, but I would imagine most are very careful about their lists. (I know I am).

    I've been on the end of abusive emails from people who are quite happy to dowload the freebies I offer them from my different sites, yet when I send out a mass email they moan because they've received the same email a couple of times.

    I don't share my list with other people, and I certainly don't sell email addresses. In fact I rarely send out emails. (maybe twice a month or so), so I get a tad fed up when I'm accused of spamming people when a subscriber receives an email more than once.

    If you subscribe to a marketing newsletter (or whatever), its obvious you're going to get marketing emails, (Its the nature of the beast)

    My point was and is, just unsubscribe from them. If you then get a series of problems as you've described, then thats a different issue and obviously needs to be addressed

    Regards
    Kim
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  • Profile picture of the author George Wright
    Funny thing,

    The MOST emails I get are from a Marketer who I "hang on his every word," his multiple emails are all different and I get 3 or 4 a day. I wouldn't think of unsubbing.

    However I always wonder are these multiple emails as welcome by all of his list.

    The reason I ponder over this is because the content is so good that I want everything he sends. And I wonder how I could be as "well loved" by my list.

    George Wright
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  • Profile picture of the author lotrforlife
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Caldbeck
      Howdy

      Some people just don't know how to treat this. If you signed up for something and you do not like it anymore then just unsubscribe. Give the person the benefit of doubt even if you do not remember signing up for something. Now if it is true spam, then nail them if you can.

      A while back when we were using AOL, my wife marked everything as spam, even stuff she signed up for. Well at least until I told her what she was doing to the inocent sender. I am sure there are many more out there that just do not know the trouble they can cause someone by falsely saying they are a spammer.

      Well that is a bit off the subject of the OP, sorry.

      And Kim, why do I get two of all your email broadcasts See it does not bother me, but I understand why I get them.

      Kevin
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      • Profile picture of the author sylviad
        I might have made this comment last time this topic was covered, so please excuse the duplication.

        Speaking of duplication...

        There are about 3 top marketers who send me emails that come in groups of 3,4,5 or more. For awhile, I thought it was because my internet connection kept getting cut off during the download. It happens so regularly that I'm now convinced there's another reason. And I don't think it has anything to do with spamming in the typical sense.

        Perhaps those marketers have their auto responders set to allow multiple opt-ins. Get Response gives you the option to allow or disallow this. I choose disallow because I don't want the same person on my list more than once.

        Now, this presents another problem that I've encountered with other marketers.

        They send me an offer, I sign up and get the product. Then, I get another email with a free download offer but when I go to claim it, I get the message that I'm already registered with that list. So I can't get that freebie.

        My suspicion is that marketers are allowing duplicate opt-ins, which allows them to provide more products to the same person if they go and sign up again.

        The obvious way around this would be to have one page without opt-in for current list members, and another for non-members to opt-in. There are probably some tracking issues the marketer wants to capture that might be hindered by this method, but it sure would be better for his list members who don't want 5-6 copies of the same email loading up their inbox.

        Sylvia
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  • Profile picture of the author twistedpixel
    His method might be useful if you tried to unsubscribe and was not able to.. or they continue to send after you unsubscribed.
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    • Profile picture of the author innocent07
      Banned
      The blogging to the bank guy - 'Rob Benwell' sends sooo many emails.... he over does it..

      Anybody agree?
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      • Profile picture of the author sylviad
        Originally Posted by innocent07 View Post

        The blogging to the bank guy - 'Rob Benwell' sends sooo many emails.... he over does it..

        Anybody agree?
        No, I don't agree. I seldom get emails from him, which is why I read them when they do arrive.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Muir
    In the school of marketing there is a lot we can learn from some of these emails but I have to say that there is a couple of big name guys that I have unsubscribed from because every email is a sales pitch which is every day and well it gets real old!

    If they throw some content with a pitch well heck that is fair exchange but when it is the never ending top up my $$$ machine, with the gold old I am your buddy but buy now emails then I lose interest and hit the unsubscribe. There is the odd exception when I feel the writer has great copy skills that I simply store and when need to get ideas go to there file.
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  • Profile picture of the author SimonRiver
    I usually use an email I signed up for specifically for spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author Click Cutter
    The recent trend I noticed is to put word "Personal" in the subject line and NO UBSUBSCRIBE link. I recognize the sender names but they come to the e-mail I never use for subscribing but I did some purchases with it and not from those names.

    Go figure.
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  • Profile picture of the author Click Cutter
    I just want to clarify a bit. My post is related to annoying "gurus" who think that once you give them your permission to contact you they can do whatever they want.

    Do not mix it with legit honest marketers.

    And by the way, you never know who is going to be annoying until you actually subscribe.
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