martharichardson.com

Posts Tagged ‘Adswaps’

Don’t know about you but I have trouble asking for help especially since I took over this business with there being so much to learn and know to be successful.  I don’t want people to think I’m dumb and for the most part I’m still not sure what sort of help to ask for so I’ve just been doing what I can.  But that hasn’t been working out very well for me so far to bring in more income.  It has been mostly a hit and miss thing and that isn’t good at all.

I do get some input, suggestions from other IM’ers, which is great and truly appreciated but I just don’t know how to keep it going.  Or which skill is important for me to be working on right now, sometimes I think I’m trying to do too many things at one time, other times I don’t seem to do enough.

I’m still having trouble engaging my subscribers, even when I send them a “free gift” not many take it or I get a lot of unsubscribed.  I’m feeling more desperate now than when Barry first died.   It has been over a year and I should be much better at this or at least my understanding should be better but I don’t feel it is.  I’ve had people tell me I’ve come a long way since March 2009 and yes I have in some respects but not in others.  Some days I just stare at my computer not knowing where or what to do, I’m sure some of you felt the same way when you first started, at least I hope this feeling isn’t just mine.

I’m not looking to make millions although that would be nice but I just want to be able to pay my bills and have some left over instead of struggling to pay my bills.  I’m not mad at Barry for dying so suddenly anymore but I am still a bit disappointed that he didn’t make sure I knew what I needed to to continuing running our business.

 

Yes, I’m UPSET (No Furious) about them and I feel they have no place in Internet Marketing. I take a great deal of pride in NOT using them. I hope this matters to you. It sure does matter to me.

I have seen them for quite some time, but in the last few months, they have been EVERYWHERE!

You know the ones:

“CREDIT PENDING On Your Account”
“Download Request: ZH74L96WE – Please retain for your records!”
“RE: Refund”
“RE: DELIVERY NOTIFICATION”
“Order Confirmation – please save this email”
“Verification Email (Action Required)”

…and the list goes on.

What? Do these “other” marketers think everyone on their list is stoopid? (yes, I know I misspelled stupid) Did you really order something and forget that you did? Did you “REALLY” ask them for a refund?

They are simply playing with your mind just to get you to open their emails and that is WRONG! In my opinion, this is deceptive, unethical and ridiculous, maybe even cheating. You be the judge. They may and I said may even be breaking some of the rules in the can-spam act which is a law not just an “act”.

It is also giving us (myself included) a bad name in this business.  I’m fighting for every “opened” email I can get and yes, people in general are not opening as many emails as they once were. I am not a rich man monetarily, not even close. I am though “rich” in my beliefs that being honest, ethical and sincere is what is expected of me. It IS the right way to conduct yourself both in business as well as your personal life.

I will always believe that a subscriber list whether it be 100 or 10 thousand and worked hard for in a honest and ethical way is better than a “list” of 50 or 100 thousand that was achieved through deception and/or unethical practices or shall we say “TRICKERY”.

Which list would you be proud of? Do you like this being done to you? Do you feel insulted by this kind of marketing?

I bet you don’t care for it and I’d love to hear from you about it.  In a fairly short even one sentence statement, I would greatly appreciate your input.

I have set up a dedicated email address for this and if you would be so kind, please click the link and send me your thoughts on this matter. I will compile all responses after 5 days or so and share them with my fellow honest and ethical marketers plus send them out to you as a newsletter so you can see what other’s thoughts and opinions are.
A fellow IM’er,  Randy Koehler, wrote this email and I agree totally with what he has to say.  If you’ve been on my list for any length of time, you know that I have never sent subject lines like those and never will. If you would like to comment on these subject lines, send Randy and email at
goodmarketing@marketing-your-way.com

Any and all comments are welcome even if you think this form of  marketing is acceptable, I’d like to hear from you because I value every single person’s opinion that this letter will reach. Heck, tell a friend about it if you’d like.

I ask that you not be offended in any way by this email, but if you are, I’d love to hear from you as well. 

————- My thoughts on this subject…..

What I’ve usually do is go through and delete the emails with these or similar subject lines but now I will just be unsubscribing from them even though some that I’ve received have been from well known Internet marketers.  I know they are human just like me and there is no excuse for these sorts of subject line but it is still disappointing to see them using these.

I have received some comments so far from my mailing today on this subject, here is one and I will post more as I receive them.  Please feel free to post your thoughts about this subject and to send Randy your comments as well.

“Hi Martha,

YES!!!!!  I am VERY tired of those kinds of subject lines!  I have
tried to complain to marketers about it but most of them can’t be
reached easily and the few that have replied to my complaint always
defended their actions – so now I handle it much differently…

Whenever I receive emails from marketers with misleading subject lines
(and those I’ve listed below especially!) I ALWAYS do 2 things…

FIRST – I unsubscribe from any and ALL lists I may be on that belong
to that marketer…

SECOND – I delete every single email I ever got from that marketer
(often there are hundreds!).

Extreme?  Maybe – but that’s just how much I do NOT like those kinds
of tactics and if that’s the sort of thing the marketer is teaching then I do not want his emails taking up space in my inbox!
Some of the subject lines that irk me the most (in case you’re compiling a list) say something like…

“Paypal Payment Received” (or some such wording to imply you made a
paypal sale)…
…since I have a couple of websites that take Paypal payments this type of email always feels like a mean, juvenile prank.

“Clickbank Order Received” (or wording to that effect to imply a clickbank sale was made)…
…I also sell a product through Clickbank so these are just more mean, juvenile pranks.

“Re: Fill-in-the-blank”…
…any email with “Re:” in the subject implies that it’s a reply to something I sent (and it never is) – very misleading!

“CANCELLED By myName”…
…then after opening I find it has nothing to do with anything I may have cancelled – I’m relieved at first (because I don’t remember canceling anything) and then I feel angry that someone got me concerned and worried for nothing!

And like you said – the list goes on.

Please forward my thoughts to as many marketers as you wish – post it
on as many websites as you wish – or whatever.  You have my permission
to do anything you wish with any part of this email if it will help with this problem – it really is getting out of hand.

Thank you very much for allowing me to rant and share my irritation -
I feel much better now.

Have a terrific day today! 

Lynn”

Here is another comment…

”

Hi Martha.

Hope all is going well for you. Nice to hear from you.

I cannot agree with you more about these email subjects!

There have been many marketers doing this. I had been on one very popular marketers list since 2007 and got one from him a few days ago. Opened it and unsubscribed without giving it a second thought.

I am a really busy person and do not have time to read emails like these. There is a time set aside to read marketers emails.  When I get one that makes me think I need to stop and take action right then and there, ticks me off big time. Disrupts my time and thoughts.

Very glad you brought this up and as always, enjoy reading your emails.

Sincerely,

Terry Jett”

 

My son bought my a new hard drive for my PC since that one only had 80 gb, yea I know but when it was bought years ago it wasn’t  going to be use just for business.  Now that things have changed, I need more space so he bought me a 500 GB, which is great.

Once I put the new drive in and booted up my PC and installed my windows xp, things seemed to be going well.  I started doing the Windows updates and after the first set of the updates and the reboot, my monitor was totally messed up.  So I rebooted again, but it didn’t fix it.  I went and got my disk that came with my monitor, no download/install files on it, it just had the manual on it.  So I found it on the their website but my computer would not unzip it. 

 I made sure to add the pc back to “My Network Places”, went to my laptop, downloaded and unzipped the files the put a copy in My Network Places and I got my monitor back.

 I also did a back up of my old hard drive but after I did the restore, none of the files seemed to show up even though I said to put them in their original place.  Well so I started doing them one folder at a time, thought that would make it easier on the computer and in the report it gave after it was done, I saw that yes they were put in their original place, Windows just decided to take the long way there.  When I check the files using the long way, everything was there.  By this time I was getting tired but I didn’t go to bed because I wanted to get this done.

But late yesterday after getting all the updates and downloads done I realized that my “Program Files” were not included in the backup even though “C” drive was clicked so today I will reconnect my old hard drive and and check it for anything else I or the back up might have missed, then I wipe it out.

 This month I also did 3 adswaps and have 1 more set for the 31st.  That is the most I’ve done so far.  I think that I need to start working on a new squeeze page so that one doesn’t get used too much.