List Building and List De-Building

How much time or money have you thrown at building your list? Did build an irresistible squeeze page? Have you placed ads anywhere you could afford? Or, have you paid for co-registration? Did you write some killer autoresponder messages and give away a bunch of free stuff? I mean, you've done it all right. You're chugging along, and BOOM! you start to get unsubscribe requests.

Does it depress you?

Probably.

But here's the thing... you shouldn't even be getting those messages. They are depressing! So, turn the option of getting a notice every time someone subscribes from your list off. Just turn it off! Th1C4Een, you won't know when someone does unsubscribe and you won't have to worry about it. The last thing you want to see in your mailbox are unsubscribe notices.

Don't take those personally, if you do insist on getting the messages. It could have nothing to do with you, personally. People often get the idea that their mailboxes are too full of stuff they signed up for a will just opt-out. No big deal! Replace the one or two you lose today with three or four tomorrow.

There is a way to check your unsubscribe rates over time, and that's by going to your autoresponder and looking at the stats. A good one will tell you which message is causing people to opt-out, if there is one. Then, you'll have to ask yourself, "Why?"

Could it be one of the messages in your series? Perhaps. If so, you need to figure out at what point the user unsubscribed. Which message might be turning people off. Your autoresponder may have a feature that tells you which message people drop out at, over time. If you take a look at this after a few months and see that message 3 is turning people away, look at it and decide why. Maybe you need to rewrite it or perhaps you need to change your offer. Or, it could be the subject matter. You may have to come up with something completely new.

But you'll need to test those things. First, try changing your headline. Wait awhile. If people are still unsubscribing, then rewrite. If that doesn't work, try changing your offer. Only test one thing at a time. But don't try to save time by just coming up with something new because you really don't know what's sending people away, until you test.

The thing to remember is that you will always have unsubscribes. You just will! Rather than taking them personally and allowing them to drag you down, approach them like a businessperson. Figure out why it's happening and fix it! Since your list is the most valuable asset you have, it's well worth the time and effort to keep it running smoothly.

Tellman Knudson is CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc. and a master of list building. Build a massive responsive list at MyFirstList.com.

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