"Subscribing and Unsubscribing:
Why Make Life Hard for Others?"

As publishers, we're always on the lookout for new subscribers. Consequently, we all know how important it is to make things easy for people to get on to our lists.

Right? Well, I don't know.

Granted, most small-time list owners understand this basic rule of email publishing well. It could be because they see each and every subscriber as so valuable, or perhaps it's because, unlike some of their powerful and prestigious counterparts, they're spared the nightmares of over-complex technology gone wrong - or both. Be that as it may, they will generally go out of their way to ensure that anyone who wants to join their list can do so without a hassle.

With a few large companies out there, however, just the opposite seems to be true.

Sure, they may WANT to sign up people as badly as anyone else, maybe more so. All the more strange that they put such stumbling blocks in their way.

To mention one example, I signed up online recently for several of a chain of free newsletters put out by a large news-gathering service. I duly received a number of emails requesting me to confirm my subscriptions. Of course, "double opt-in" is a valid and often desirable precautionary measure.

However, when I hit my "reply" button and sent off the confirmations, they were rejected by the publisher's system. Had I not been in a particularly fighting mood that day, I would have surely given up there and then.

But I went back on line and repeated the process a couple of times, without any luck. Then eventually, it dawned on me that my email client had been chopping off the end of the mile-long code that was being automatically inserted into the subject field of my "reply" messages.

Admittedly, this kind of utterly frustrating experience is still relatively rare when signing up for lists. Unfortunately, it's very far from rare when the opposite process is set in motion - when people try to remove themselves from lists.

Recently, someone was surprised to start receiving a newsletter she knew she had never subscribed to. It was hosted with a major and well-established list management service. The recipient followed the apparently simple "remove" instructions - she hit reply with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

When the message was returned as undeliverable, she forwarded it to "abuse" at the hosting company. Again, the email bounced. She then tried addressing it to the sales department, and was at least a little relieved when it wasn't returned this time.

All the same, her message was never acknowledged, and the newsletters continued to pour in...

Too bad that this is no isolated incident. Many other publishers - including some of the most prestigious on the market - do have unsubscribe systems that work - when you eventually get there. Problem is, following all the complicated steps can be a major headache, and enough to give anyone nightmares!

Many publishers compel subscribers to go to a web form to remove themselves, with no option for unsubscribing by email. For people who read their mail offline, this can be more than an inconvenience. Not only does it take up unnecessary time, but in places where people pay for Internet connection by the minute, it's an extra expense. (By the same token, if you advertise a list without offering an email subscribe option, you may be losing more potential subs than you realize!)

What makes matters worse, some sites require people to enter a password to be removed from a list. Not infrequently, they weren't given one in the first place! If you're lucky, you can have a password mailed to you - just to give you extra work!

All too often, a company offering a valuable service makes it compulsory for its users to subscribe to its lists. If the service is one you don't want to do without, you're stuck with the publications whether you want them or not. What does the company really gain by forcing such material down people's throats?

As an enlightened list owner and savvy entrepreneur, never fall into the hard-to-unsubscribe trap. And even if you do have a simple remove procedure with clear instructions, always respond promptly and politely to those who approach you personally for help in removing themselves.

A really PR-conscious publisher will not think that someone who's leaving anyway deserves last place in the order of priorities. A person who's experiencing problems in unsubscribing is already an angry or frustrated person.

But even more important - people who don't want to remain on your list are not necessarily people who are no longer interested in doing business with you.

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