When Readers Turn Into Lists
There’s no secret that many bloggers measure online success beyond dollars and cents. I suppose that even those ones who are measuring success in money are happy to see that their blog attracts loyal readers.
What does a blogger do after he gets his loyal readers?
Well, a piece of advice which is frequently encountered is to “make a list”. So people follow the trend and make a list out of their readers, either by bribing them into subscribing, or simply by the interesting things they write.
What does a blogger do with his list?
Once the readers are not readers anymore, but “the list”, the blogger starts sending them emails. He has their permission, so he feels free to communicate with his list as frequently as he feels like.
What does a blogger communicate to his list?
This is the sad part of the story: once you turned from reader into “part of a list”, you start getting advice about what is the next thing you need to buy in order to … (to whatever the blog you subscribed to was about), or about how lots of people are so cool and you are not, because you don’t have Y product, or because you haven’t read Z book.
The funniest thing is that most of the times, those bloggers get their offers from affiliate networks, and you find yourself every morning flooded with offers to buy the same product, but from a dozen of guys who all want your attention.
Do you want to be “a list”?
I don’t want to be “a list”, and despise the fact that I receive maybe hundreds of offers every day. I have never bought anything as a consequence of getting those messages. Am I a bad reader because I don’t make those bloggers happy and buy their stuff? Actually it happened only once that I bought something only because I wanted to reward a blogger for his efforts. I already had a cracked version of that stuff, but I felt good when thinking that the guy would smile when he sees that he’s got a commission, consequent to my purchase.
But you know what? That blogger never put me on “a list” and never sent me one email to sell me something.
Do you share my feelings against such lists? Let’s all have our say as readers, maybe internet marketers would end up listening.
Ronald Huereca says...
I know that if a blogger started e-mailing me after I signed up for a feed, I’d probably get a little irked. Or, if a blogger mined his comment database and started mass e-mailing, I’d be quite quick to press the spam button.
These types of bloggers are like the radio announcers that advertise products that they supposedly like. It’s a fraud from all angles, so I don’t really pay attention.
Simonne says...
Actually there are not so many bloggers who kill their subscribers with lots of emails, but I just happen to be subscribed to a few of them. The worst of all are the owners of link directories and article directories: just dare to submit something to them and you got yourself arranged of an always full inbox.
RT Cunningham says...
As a blogger, I’ve had thousands of unique visitors over the course of almost 2 years and I’ve never put even one on any kind of mailing list. Subscribe to comments and feed emails don’t count.
As a reader, if I get put on a list that I didn’t opt-in for, I’ll remove myself from the list and never visit that blog again.
Simonne says...
Yes, RT, because you respect your readers. And if you did that to them, I bet they would have removed their addresses from your list as well.
Jeffro2pt0 says...
Hmm, this article was great and I think makes for a good segway into the need of bloggers needing to write a clear, concise privacy policy if this is the kind of crap that is going on on someones blog. By the way, I have ronald on my %#%# list, you can fill in the blanks
I’ll take him off once he pays up!
Gert Hough says...
I agree with Ronald - though the blogger might be smart to “spam” his blog database mailing list, I would never do that. I have been using a professional mailing list manager and although you get plugins that can handle your users and send them stuff, I will always stay clear unless it is double-opt in. Never buy a mailing list or harvest it.
Thanks RT Cunningham, I’ve saved your site linked above.
I plan to create a freebie I can add to my blogs that would enable me to get a subscription form online very fast on every blog that I create. And I mean this will be the choice of every visitor and he/she double opts-in.