My Biggest Internet Marketing Pet Peeve

This is something that's been bothering me for awhile and I just deleted YET ANOTHER email…so I'm going to take a minute to rant, then move on. 

Often times, when you buy internet marketing products or software, it's a good idea to keep yourself on the author's email list.  Maybe there are lifetime updates available for the product, updates for the software, bonuses given out over time, etc.  Either way, it's pretty common and a lot of times, it just makes sense to stay on the list.

What bugs the hell out of me is that more often than not, these lists are only used to send promotional emails.  You often get more promotional stuff than updates or (God forbid) USEFUL CONTENT!  So you're forced to either

1. Get off the list and miss out on the updates or
   
2. Stay on the list and have your email inbox junked up with more crap

It's not that I mind getting promotional emails.  If it's a good product and I haven't heard about it, I probably WANT to know about it, if for no other reason than to see how it's being marketed.  Heck, I may even decide to buy it.  But at the same time, I don't want to have my name on a list for one reason (updates), only to have it used for something else (affiliate promotions/JVs).

At the very least, list owners should provide the occasional CONTENT-only email, maybe set up a blog that they post to from time to time that actually contains some good info.  Maybe some extra tips for using the info in their course/ebook or best practices for using their software.

We all get enough email as it is without having to sort through a deluge of promotional stuff from people who otherwise provide very little value.  This is an excellent lesson for me to learn on this side of the fence before building up a huge email list and I encourage other marketers to keep this in mind as well.

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