Coping with YOUR "UN-Subscribers"

By Laurie Rogers
Posted Thursday, January 13, 2005

As your list becomes larger, you will begin to notice a few things that CAN and WILL happen at one point or another. I do not care HOW nice you are or HOW professional you come across as being, the fact is, there are a lot of very RUDE people out there -just as there is in the "real world." Take it from someone who knows from experience, I have seen MORE publishers get cursed at, falsely accused and abused - more than I can count.

The majority of the "rudeness" seems to peak when they are trying to unsubscribe and although you can tell them 100 times in 100 different ways - they just do NOT care! For some reason they feel it is THEIR given right to treat you like GARBAGE and I am here to tell you, do NOT put up with it! If it gets really out of control, REPORT them to their ISP. Send a copy of their subscription request (full headers included) with your complaint, so you have covered the possiblity of the old, "it was spam" routine.

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In my experience as a publisher in over 3 years, I have had this happen to me on two separate occasions and both times I reported the abusers to their ISP. I always suggest doing this, because there are some sick people out there, who INTENTIONALLY do this to publishers for the "FUN" of it. Remember NO person on this earth has the right to abuse YOU verbally or otherwise, I do NOT care WHO they are or WHO they "think" that they are. Now that I've made my point, let's move on.

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The trick to "avoiding" the majority of the rudeness that CAN arise from people trying to unsubscribe to your ezine, is to make it as EASY as possible. And if possible, provide an unsubscribe email address and "clickable" unsubscribe link in EVERY single issue. This way if one doesn't function there is ALWAYS an alternative that the person can use.

I also recommend that you use a "no-reply@yourdomain" to send your ezine from, triggered by an automated msg, so that way, you are less likely to have people using the reply function to unsubscribe. Your automated message should consist of "CLEAR instructions" on HOW they can remove themselves from your list - that is all it needs in order to be effective.

If your subscriber STILL does NOT get the hint on HOW to remove themselves from your list and decides to cuss you out - KILL them with KINDNESS. Although I do know there will be times when they will just get your blood in a "boiling mode" - be as POLITE as possible. Let them be the one to make a "MORON" out of themselves. But for some reason NOTHING gets under a RUDE persons skin, MORE than YOU being nice.

My last bit of advice is for you NOT to get offended at all when someone "unsubscribes" to your ezine. I have seen some people get down right "emotional" over the thought of this. Just keep in mind, there are PLENTY of GREAT subscribers out there that are MORE than willing to read YOUR ezine.

About the Author
Laurie Rogers is co-author of the Ezine Resource Guide, (http://www.zineadz.com/erg.html) She is the owner of Optin Frenzy - a paid list building program for ezine publishers (http://www.optinfrenzy.com) You can obtain more of Laurie's articles at: mailto:ezinearticles@optinfrenzy.com