Coping with YOUR "UN-Subscribers"

by Laurie Rogers Copyright July 2002

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.

Article by Laurie Rogers Copyright 2002 All Rights Reserved

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