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

Thats absolutely right...no marketing guru will ever reveal his or her marketing secrets.

That's an absolute fact James. Reading these emails takes away major chunk of my time. I think, the time could be better utilized. I'm one with you.

I've unsubscribed from many lately.

You just gave me further reason to unsubscribe from even more.

Thanks!

Just for a day or so - keep a note of how long it takes
you to read your inbox and follow all the rabbit holes
it produces.

It will Frighten most people.

I have been stuck in the loop of checking emails
and never getting anything for MY business done.

This is truly the biggest time thief of today.

I try and run my inbox at Zero now.

People have to send me good stuff for
me to stay on the list. No exceptions.

Thank you James! This is a powerful piece of advice. It's okay to be on many lists if you're just starting to learn and want to study other's marketing techniques, but the sooner you get OFF those lists the more productive you'll be.

James, this advice is pure gold. I'm going to go on an unsubscribing expedition this afternoon!

Cheers, Rich

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...

Good advice. As I'm working in the IM niche I want to be aware of what's going on so I'm subscribed to a couple of these lists. However I end up reading like 3 of them a day and just mark the rest as read. Usually it's enough to read the subject line to know that it's the same as every other guy that's emailing you...

Good advice, I have only a couple of emails that come into my main email account and they are good quality.

Interesting that google puts most emails from marketers into my spam folder.

I now have a couple of throw away accounts, and I don't even bother to unsubscribe from them. I check it once or twice a week, and then a two minute scan to see what is in there. Normally I might find 1 useful email, the rest is deleted immediately without being read.

How do I know they are not useful someone might ask? Simple when you get 20 emails all with the same title, it tells you that some promotion of other is happening and people were too bone idle to write their own emails.

Thanks man,

makes sense.

Hal

Excellent advice James! Goes hand-in-hand with my plea for newbs to "FOCUS"...

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?

I concur.. completely...

You know James.. as a sidenote..

A customer of mine recently told me... They un-subscribed from every I.M. list aside form me and YOU

They said our "approach" was refreshingly honest and helpful... how about that, eh?

Peace to ya James

Jay

Good, solid advice! There are far too many distractions (especially for newbs). It's easy for the mind to make up excuses to why they can't get on to the real work of building a business. Of course, some could argue that along with all those emails and newsletters, that forums like this one should be minimized too (no arguing that they can certainly be a time suck if you let it!).

Ironically, I've just opted in to your list James

Yes, generally "Less is More" however, it is important to note TIMING with this advice. A complete newbie may need to be on many (many!) emailing lists. But at some point when you are done exploring the waters and find your niche, then it may be time to start trimming the inbox. That time is different depending on the individual.

Peace,

Roey.

PS- Of course, before you get to this point, when you do have a ton of emails, it's important to learn to skim, and be disciplined with the time you spend on your emails. Think of it as a big buffet on a cruise - do a quick walk-thru, and then choose the best ones to taste.
-r*

Man, hit the nail on the head with that comment!! I'm taking your challenge and deleting the guru mail/junk mail sooner than later. I'm sure I"m going to be shocked at the time I save each day.

I think it is even more important for newbies not to be on these lists as it sends them into information overload and quite often buy the junk. In the end they would be far better off to find a mentor and just follow them then branch out.

What we actually do with our new students is get them to download a good RSS reader and give them some key feeds.

These are usually much more informative than emails and also they can do everything inside the reader.

Not only that but if the presenter goes off the rails it is very easy to unsubscribe unlike many of the email lists that may unsubscribe you from one but can then update you to another.

The other beauty with rss feeds is you can quickly glance over the topics and if they do not apply then can delete. Also most are informative and not full of sales copy if you get good ones.

I get James on my RSS and always good info.

Quentin

Billy boy it is not that email lists are bad. Just when all that people do is send out offers continuously then it becomes worthless.

There is no substitute for good solid information but so many of them have lost site of this.

Quentin

Very good technique.

It would be interesting to make a note of how
much quality info is garnered from this list.

What I've been doing for about 2 years now is creating a folder for each marketer. In the past I had 70+ folders collecting emails. It keeps it out of my regular email box, and once in a while I go into each folder, quickly run up and down the list of emails from that particular marketer, read only the ones that look somewhat important and delete the rest. As time went on, I kept removing one marketer at a time if they were not of value to me. I'm now down to about 10 that are keepers, but even at that I only look at their folder full of email once a week or so.

Then I have folders that are important to things I am involved with directly -- programs, paid subscriptions, forums, etc.

Nice system Gene.

I have three folders.

Inbox / Storage / Delete

Inbox is empty

Storage is a 'keeper'

The issue here is time management.. whether it's your email, the WF, or whatever.

To turn this into the typical "i hate it when marketers market to me" forum rant is not only irrelevant, it does a huge dis-service to this very important point.

What people say they respond to, and what they ACTAULLY respond to, are usually 2 different things all together.. want proof? How well has Saturn done with it's no-haggle pricing, and a sales staff that doesn't sell? They have given the car buyer everything they said they wanted, and yet they have struggled from day one. As nice and touchy-feely as it is, their business model is a failure.

haha.. I love it... because it's really true!

I've actually put every marketers newsletter into my gmail's spam folder, and I get to check out they're emails from time to time to see exactly what they are promoting and I also like to see how they work they're product launches and how they frame they're promo letters.

Yeah, other than that get off they're lists because you'll end up broke really fast!

Great tip James.

Alex

So what you have done is basically transferred your time allocation to forum posting.

In either case you need to allocate a specific amount of time each day to both e-mails and forums. Start with 15 minutes each day.

Frank Bruno

Great post I don't necessarily unsubscribe, but I never read them...

Of course - but unless the thread members here are clinically insane, they're also on this forum to (at some
point or another) market products and mail to their own lists too.

Thus, most of us are both receivers and senders.

EDIT:
What am I talking about - reading through some of the threads here it's
pretty obvious that many members clearly are clinically insane

we are indeed.

What I found effective was to take less in and put more out.

Less In More Out is a formula for success.

(It also applies to giving which I do a LOT more of these days)

I use the emails to build a swipe file of great subject lines. So I think they're useful.

/2 cents

This thread is coincidentally timely for me.

For the last year or two, I've had all my email subscriptions filtered into individual folders by 'guru'. Every so often, I would open a folder and go through the posts. Last month, I started weeding out and simply deleting the messages (unread) inside folders that gave me an "oh god, I don't wanna" feeling whenever I thought about opening them and wading through the posts. That move gave me instant lightness and air.

Last week, I started unsubscribing from everything except a few really good newsletters that I consistently look forward to and open as soon as they arrive. I deleted everything else sight unseen. It's like cleaning out your clothes closet - if you haven't worn it in a year, you're not going to, so get rid of it.

If anyone is interested here are the only newsletters that survived the purge:

- Jonathan Baskin-Salem's "Dim Bulb", a brilliant perspective on advertising.
- Iconoculture, top-level trendspotting and culture flow tracking.
- TheGrokDotCom, core competencies for corporate-level marketers.
- Jerry West, SEO magician.
- Nick Usborne's "Excess Voice", copywriting genius for the rest of us.

This week I found my productivity has actually doubled. It's as though the act of not only freeing up the time it takes to go through emails, but also freeing up the mental and emotional energy they eat up as your brain chews the info, allows you to divert those resources to truly useful areas.

Fast, cheap, easy and profitable - now that's what I really like

I couldn't agree more James.

No one is going to reveal a 6-8 figures business model entirely, unless they charge $10,000+ for it (that's what I would do if I ever sell mine. And the less sales I get, the better it is for me).

If you want to tap into such a business model, be prepared to invest in overpriced consulting/coaching. You are not going to get it from their lists or from their $100 products, not even from their $1997 products.

Therefore, unless you are prepared to invest extremely large amounts of money to get your hands on a powerful business model, you better get started making your own right now.

I'm not bashing on anyone here, some of those lists/products do give powerful tips & tricks per say. But if you don't stick to one thing and do it yourself religiously, you won't be getting anywhere.

Most lists, however good they may be, are just a HUGE distraction. FOCUS!

I guess I'm surprised that so many people actually get distracted by this.. I get probably 100 a day - and might open 5 a week.

Well James, I don't know if you convinced me or not, but I did just subscribe to your newsletter. :-) Actually I think you have a good idea, sticking to it will be hard for me tho.


NOTE TO JASONI70: You're right. I recently visited my local saturn dealer. Walked the lot for almost 30 minutes and no one ever approached me....then I left.
_____
Bruce

How 'bout that I'm not the only one getting a ton of useless e-mail from every guru in North America and beyond these days. Luckily, I keep my business e-mail separate from my personal e-mails. Keeps me sane that way.
I appreciate this thread as it is very inspiring to learn that you were in my shoes three years ago and now you're giving out success tips. I like the authenticity in your entries too.
Keep up the good work and I wish you continued success.

This is one of the time management "secrets" I used to just about double my income a few months ago.

And it's an ongoing process -- even if you unsubscribe from everything, over time without even realizing it you'll soon be subscribed to a whole bunch of lists that quickly add up and suck your time away.

Almost every email I get I'm asking "is this guy providing any real value" -- most people aren't and that was one of the main reasons I started my own newsletter.

But it's amazing how much work you get done when you focus on YOU and YOUR business.

Thank you James! This is a useful piece of advice

Tom

Newsletters, sales emails or both etc...

It's like most things in life, either pointless, time wasting and non rewarding or it's worth your while - ie your getting something of greater value from it than your time spent on it.

You decide. If you don't like what your getting then unsubscribe.

One of the most important things I've learned over the years from the hundreds of messages my inbox folder is...

Who's just in it to 'back end you into the poor house' and who's genuinley trying to help.

Chris W (Read My Newsletter) ;-)

Good advice. I never stay on email list. Congrats on being self employed and having some success.

Thank you for this information. I always feel there may be something i'll miss out on if i unsubscribe. Now i know what to do.
Good advice about a 1 month trial.
Viryabo

Thanks, I am unsubscribing from several list now.

Hey! I just did that yesterday before I saw you thread today!
I was receiving more and more junks email and it took me an hour plus to unsubscribe from them. What piss me off is that some of the junk mail does not provide unsubscribe option

You know, I never read the emails, but there are so many of them sometimes I just give up on the email and start a new one

Great advice James!!!!

I am a newbie to IM (been running a online business for 5 years now full time, ask some days how, with out this IM/SEO implemented).

You did touch on browsing WF, however where else would you suggest to get your info on whats new and out there for Internet Marketing??

I did it! Took myself off of Joel Comm, ETR, and all the others!

I have found it easier to just delete all the spam than to keep unsubscribing.

I have become very skilled at scanning 100 emails and unchecking the two real ones in about 15 seconds.

Getting rid of all those emails is a good idea, except for the most important emails.

Start with your own product, not affiliate. Domain, Host, Script, Site Design, Site Writers, etc..

Hi James,

I have read with interest your and other WSO's forum comments. I have been on a reducing campaign for about a month now and I have reduced my 1000+ emails / day to less then 20 and I have a empty email list. I have created batches (folders) within my gmail email account and I have filters that sort it for me. I have found that I have gone from 5-6 hrs a day to 10-12 minutes per day checking emails. Now I have a life.

The advice by James is really Great. Thnx a lot mate.. And I m gonna look into this and wud see that its really effectve 2.!

I generally try and stay off email lists and if there are people I want to follow, then I try and follow their blogs (if they have one) via RSS reader.

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!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

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.

Glad to help!

Yes that must have been old!

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

Well put Andrew.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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?

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

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

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 ..


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.



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.

Luckily I haven't subscribed to any yet

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.

This is why I have 2 different emails. 1 primary email where I get stuff done and an alternate where all the opt-in "get to this if you get a chance emails" go - this has been working for me for a long time...

It is also a good idea to tag each subscription with an ID for the guru. Then you know when your details are being traded.

Example
---------

I might put my first name plus the name of the marketer like this:

James-smith

or

James-jones

or

James-citizen


etc....

Now you want to tell me you actually spend (spent) three hours/day reading junk mails?

I actually dont, and i get LOOOOTS of junk since i have many sites tied t emails, and some of them i actually check. (for sales inquiries and so forth). And each of the emails gets junk. LOTS. However, it doesn't take longer than a few mins/day to read my real email.

It would be wrong to focus work/time on fighting spam, deleting spam..things like that. It will NEVER stop. I could spend a few hours "unsubscribing" now...but the real life benefit of this is...uhm..questionable.