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Would this Get Me Banned from Aweber?

by The Oilman
12 replies
Hey guys

What I do with Aweber is have a "hotlist".

People come to my site, and, in order to get to my order page, they must enter their name.

Then if they abandon the order page, they get an email trying to get them back to the order page.

My product is a product of desperate need and not a product of irrational passion, so that means that these leads get cold fast. So each month I must manually delete tons of names on this list..

But I was wondering --- could I just email these people tons of unrelated offers to get them to manually unsubscribe? I mean, I am going to be DELETING them anyway -- so I was thinking of just trying to make a few bucks on them if possible... and if they make me a buck, great.. and if they unsubscribe, well, that saves me some time.

I realize I am gonna get the people on here who will say not to do this (since people wont like it), but please, realize I am going to delete these leads anyway. Also these will be single opt-in, not double.

What are your thoughts? Could aweber ban me?
#aweber #banned
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Hi Oilman,

    If you ask Aweber and they do say "no" to this, you wouldn't want to do it anyway, I think?

    My guess is that (i) if they think you're sending people promotional email, who haven't actually opted in to receive email from you, they're going to take a very dim view indeed of that (I can't quite work out from your post above whether that is what you'd actually be doing, but I'm enough of a skepchick to imagine - at least - that it might be?), and (ii) if it's been done on a single opt-in basis, even if they don't close your account, your single opt-in facility will be gone, at account level, pretty quickly. But hey ... I may be totally wrong (as might many others replying) which is why you should be asking Aweber, really? It strikes me you actually have nothing to lose, here, by asking Aweber directly? :confused:

    if they unsubscribe, well, that saves me some time
    And if they hit the "spam" button instead? ...
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Originally Posted by The Oilman View Post

      Hey guys

      What I do with Aweber is have a "hotlist".

      People come to my site, and, in order to get to my order page, they must enter their name.

      Then if they abandon the order page, they get an email trying to get them back to the order page.

      My product is a product of desperate need and not a product of irrational passion, so that means that these leads get cold fast. So each month I must manually delete tons of names on this list..

      But I was wondering --- could I just email these people tons of unrelated offers to get them to manually unsubscribe? I mean, I am going to be DELETING them anyway -- so I was thinking of just trying to make a few bucks on them if possible... and if they make me a buck, great.. and if they unsubscribe, well, that saves me some time.

      I realize I am gonna get the people on here who will say not to do this (since people wont like it), but please, realize I am going to delete these leads anyway. Also these will be single opt-in, not double.

      What are your thoughts? Could aweber ban me?
      If you start intentionally sending out unrelated offers
      then your spam complaint rate will likely exceed the
      0.1% figure deemed permissible by AWeber.

      Do that over an extended period of time, and you put
      your entire AWeber account and ALL lists at risk.

      Your time would surely be better spent focusing your
      efforts on converting people who do want to hear from
      you on the specific topic.

      I'd rather put my time into an effective plan than to waste
      it on a definite piss-poor strategy from the outset.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
      Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author The Oilman
    Yeah I did ask Aweber directly and they seemed pretty lenient on it.
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  • Profile picture of the author The Oilman
    From my experience and communication with them their 1% rule is more for broadcasts.
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Originally Posted by The Oilman View Post

      From my experience and communication with them their 1% rule is more for broadcasts.
      Firstly, it's a 0.1% rule, not a 1% rule because they start
      to get concerned if you start to get more than one complaint
      in a THOUSAND on a regular basis.

      Secondly, it doesn't matter if a spam complaint is made
      against a broadcast e-mail or via an e-mail from your
      autoresponder series because it still affects the
      reputation of the AWeber e-mail servers.

      If you get too many complaints then they'll do something
      to rectify the situation.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
      Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author The Oilman
    And the offers wouldn't be completely unrelated...
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  • Profile picture of the author imsas
    I don't think you'll get banned unless the unsubscribe rate is high.. One way to minimize this is to maybe email them a coupon/discount for acting right away on your offer..
    Signature
    GablesFurniture.com
    furniture deals - home decor blog
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
    I don't think you'll get banned unless the unsubscribe rate is high.
    The unsubscribe rate is irrelevant. If you get 100% unsubscribes and zero complaints, you're fine as far as pretty much any ESP is concerned.

    Spam complaints and violations of their terms of service are what will get you.

    All of which is a long way of saying "what Shaun said."


    Paul
    Signature
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    Stop by Paul's Pub - my little hangout on Facebook.

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

      The unsubscribe rate is irrelevant. If you get 100% unsubscribes and zero complaints, you're fine as far as pretty much any ESO is concerned.

      Spam complaints and violations of their terms of service are what will get you.

      All of which is a long way of saying "what Shaun said."


      Paul
      I'd just deleted my comment before seeing your more
      diplomatic response :-)

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
      Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author Kai Pei
    It's a pretty straightforward matter, the more spam complaints you generate, the more likely AWeber will shut you down.

    Shotgun blasting your email list with irrelevant offers will probably illicit a negative response.

    I wouldn't advise it.

    Hope you find a solution though. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
    Shaun,
    your more diplomatic response :-)
    Hey! You take that back!


    Paul
    Signature
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    Stop by Paul's Pub - my little hangout on Facebook.

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  • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
    if your spam complaints are not high, than I doubt aweber will be concerned. Their concern would seem to be for the reputation of their servers/ip's, which is effected by spam complaints. They may recommend you not send unrelated offers as a best practice (to keep your complaints down, etc), but I don't think it's a rule.
    Signature

    -Jason

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