I often hear internet marketers complain that people forget they have subscribed to a newsletter so they claim that the newsletter is spam. I’m certain that this happens regularly. Who hasn’t forgotten that they’ve subscribed to a newsletter at one time or another?
One of the things that I have noticed though from signing up to 108 new newsletters at one time through the 117 Free Christmas Gifts is the annoying tendency of some of these marketers to use more than one email address to sign you up.
You see, I painstakingly white listed each of the email addresses of the newsletters or mailing lists that I joined as they came in. I was careful to watch for signing up autoresponder email addresses. I’ve watched each of these newsletters for a couple weeks to make sure that I got “all” the emails coming in.
What I’ve noticed is that some of them use as many as 3 email addresses. There’s the autoresponder address that helps you sign up. Then there’s the newsletter address where the newsletter comes from. Then there’s the default address (I’m assuming) that they normally use.
It gets even worse because with some of these marketers you get offers for more freebies. Those freebies require you to enter your email address again. Doing so subscribes you to yet another newsletter. Often they don’t tell you that you’re subscribing to a whole new newsletter.
My suspicion is that the reasons behind this are as varied as the marketers themselves so I don’t want to paint with a wide brush here. Yet, I can’t help thinking that this is a ploy by some marketers to keep me on their list forever without violating the CAN-SPAM laws.
When you unsubscribe to one of their newsletters they are not in violation to keep emailing you the other four newsletters you’ve inadvertently signed up for. Thus they avoid the claim of spamming you while effectually accomplishing exactly that!
To be fair to legitimate marketers I should also say that nobody twisted your arm to make you sign up for those additional offers. 
If your resistance to their high quality sales copy is so low that you can’t help but sign up for yet another newsletter then you probably shouldn’t be unsubscribing.
Their quality writing has you enthralled or you wouldn’t keep signing up. The freebies they’re offering must be something that you want or you wouldn’t keep signing up.
The internet is growing up and we all must grow up right along with it. Responsible internet use requires that we stop crying “SPAM” every time we don’t like something in our inbox. Commercials have been on the radio and the TV since the beginning and they’re never going away. The same is true of the Internet.
If you want off a list, unsubscribe. Keep track of that email address using a rule within your email program. Keep a folder of the unsubscribes so you can check it before subscribing again. You should not only have a folder for cancelled newsletters but folders underneath that cancelled folder for each one of the newsletters.
“But that sounds like a lot of unnecessary work!”
Yes, it is work. So is governing what you and your children watch on TV. So is governing the music you and your children listen to on radio. Grow up. The internet provides a vast playground for all us adults. Even recess comes to a close sooner or later and we must return to the business of learning.