Kill the Golden Goose
When you have something good going on, it's best not to destroy a long term relationship for short term gains…in other words "don't kill the golden goose".
I am sure we've all heard the "Golden Goose" fairy tale 
As Internet Marketers, we should all be building a list of qualified prospects - these could be people who sign up for a mailing list, or people who have bought a product from you, or many permutations thereof. Once you have a list, treat it as you would a golden goose. With a bit of TLC your list can supply golden eggs for many years to come.
But if you abuse it, it can backfire. An Internet Marketer (who shall remain nameless) has sent too many messages over the past 3 weeks or so. Messages received on;
June
14th (twice), 17th, 20th, 21st, 23rd (twice), 27th
July
1st, 4th, 5th, today (twice).
This is just too much. After the second email on the 23rd, I responded pointing out that he is perhaps being a bit too keen sending all the emails.
Dude, too many emails to your list FFS !!!
Take it easier
But, my gentle prod obviously was too gentle. Today, I unsubscribed this list, and would not expect to be bombarded with turgid email anymore.
So, just how many times should an IM'er email their list?
Well, I don't know. I have a large list (numbering well over 1,000) all of whom are confirmed buyers of my products, yet I have never sent them an email, save for product update emails.
As a receiver of other peoples maillings, I tend to say that 1 (perhaps 2) emails per month is about right.
Any more than this and I am likely to give you a bit of a prod - if it doesn't slow down, I'll unsub. Just like I did today…
What's your thoughts on how many times a IM'er should email his list?
When is an email spam?
What happened in this instance is that I bought a product and joined a list in order to receive product updates. So, being added to a general mailing list was a bit out of order on the part of the vendor I think.
Now, because I unsubscribed, I suppose I will not receive product updates any longer. Does anyone see a fatal flaw here? Or is it just me?
Comment by SarahG — July 10, 2007 @ 8:46 am
I would say a couple of times a month. Doesn't fill the recipient's inbox with unread messages but ensures you're not forgotten. In my opinion you'll send out a better, more worthy email that takes 2 weeks to compose and/or 2 weeks of information compared to ones sent out every other day.
As for your spam, this is similar to what I wrote about with the Welsh business that signed up the email of everyone they did business with to their marketing email and then simply commented that they would 'break the business partnership' when asked to remove an email!
Comment by Gary — July 10, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
The Internet Marketer emailed me. Nice guy, in fact I'd go so far to say that I think he and I will do business in the future.
It seems I signed up for the "general" mailing list at a different time to the mailing list for the product sale. Hence I will still receive product updates and so on.
I cannot remember signing up to a miling list but it is possible - so some of my comments in the original post are erroneous. Ah well, no harm done.