Went for a bike ride this morning. It’s where I typically get some of my best thinking done.
I came up with the best idea I’ve had in months: To opt-out of damn near every op-in piece of email spam that I am currently getting.
I am sick and tired of getting pimped every new ebook, software or membership that comes out. I guess I have no self control and keep looking for that one thing that will help me more than the last to make some money. This PLM and IAT mess and the 500words pitch was the lightning strike that shocked me out of my zombie like approach to consuming all this crap. Argh!
For those who like to keep score, here are the ones I opted out of today: Keith Baxter, Cody Moya, Charles Ryder & Justin Blake, Yanik Silver, Affiliate Classroom, Internet Online Marketing, Mike Filsaime, Joel Comm - InfoMedia, Rob Benwell and Ken Reno.
There will be more. I’m sure it will take a week or so to clean the pipes of the remaining sludge.
Feels very refreshing. However, I won’t have anything to bitch about to prop up this weblog.
A few of note that I kept include Michael Campbell, Allan Gardyne and Brad Callen. They pitch alot of crap but I think they offer some value with every email.
Mark Ling from Affilorama is helping me alot through emails and his videos. I’m a fan. I am going to stop looking for help outside of Affilorama as it’s not going to be better nor will it be worth the money spent.
I am opting-in to my reality check. I have opted-out of the promises.
Update 7/10: For those that are following my lead and opt-ing out where possible, there is a site that will pretty much give you all the pimping you need, want and desire in one special location. Internet Marketing Newswatch collects all the flotsam from the hoppers and posts the package pimping without you having to collect the email. Nice. And with that, anybody notice Joel Comm is selling words again, half price, on a “sister site” of 500Words? Milk it while you can, yo…..That felt good.
17 responses so far ↓
Splork // Jul 10, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Add Andrew Fox, Michael Cheney, Mark Hendricks and Sean Hu to the list. I am basically out of the loop now.
James // Jul 10, 2006 at 7:35 pm
You should set up your blog as a newsletter to sign up to, this is just the kind of newsletter I want to be on. You’re honest and a real person not pimping ever product under the sun.
Keep your values. I know being an aspiring marketer you’ll be selling products at some point, just keep only promoting products that are the truth and not the bs.
Love your blog, keep up the good work!
Splork // Jul 10, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Thanks James. Folks have told me to set up an opt-in newsletter thingie for this site. “You can sell stuff while letting them know you have a new post out.” Eh, I must be a dumb-ass cause I just can’t bring myself to do it. I hate getting those type of emails personally. And I really don’t know if I have anything more to say than what is already on the blog.
But keep reading just the same. If something works for me then, trust me, it will absolutely work for anybody else. I’ll let you know when it does and what it is.
Thanks for reading.
Hock // Jul 10, 2006 at 11:55 pm
I came upon your blog searching on Google about the IAT fiasco. I like your writing style and your honest approach. Very refreshing. There’s definitely a lot of what I call “incest” in internet marketing. Gurus promoting other guru’s stuff. Basically all the high priced items I’ve come across in the few years I’ve been in internet marketing were mostly “deals” where gurus that you mentioned are given a huge cut of the sale price to help promote the product. I’ve opted out of a lot of gurus’ lists but some I keep just to keep track of what’s going around and to inform my readers and subscribers.
James // Jul 11, 2006 at 4:27 am
With a newsletter, I didn’t mean anything other than what is in the blog. Just a short email kinda reminds me to read the blog, like just have the first paragraph of the blog and then a link back to your site if I want to read more.
You don’t have to sell products, makes a nice change if you don’t. But if you do ever find something that really is good (which might be once in a blue moon), then I don’t think you should feel bad for promoting it, especially if you do it sparingly. At least I know you are someone I should listen to, rather than a lot of the product pimpers out there!
mark ling // Jul 11, 2006 at 11:45 am
Hey Splork, well one obvious way of making money from your blog without actively promoting other products is simply by having some adsense ads at the bottom of each page.
I mean, that’s about as tame and out of the way as it gets.
Splork // Jul 11, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Hey Mark. It would be and is. We gotta talk because I’m not sure how I want this to be. I don’t want adsense splashed all over this thing. Sure I want to make money. Who doesn’t? I mean this blog is hardly classic literature, but I just don’t want it polluted. I never intended this site to be more than my thoughts about what I’m doing on the net and the things that I see being a soldier down in the trenches of IM. I’ve got to figure out how I can make money and not be like a guberu. I don’t want to be a hypocrite is basically the bottom line.
Splork // Jul 11, 2006 at 12:47 pm
James, I guess I need to do something. You’re probably right.
Splork // Jul 11, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Hock, thanks for reading. Yea I started recognizing the incest as well a few months back. Lots of crappy product being sold and a whole lot of people trying to sell it to their lists. And the same people doing the pimping time and time again. I’m working on ignoring it all.
Sam // Jul 12, 2006 at 12:35 am
Man… I thought I was the only one getting pimped by the gurus.
I have become more skeptical as the days go by, every time I check my inbox I have all these “Gurus” promoting each other’s stuff.
Anyways… starting my own Opt-Out list
Great blog by the way.
Splork // Jul 12, 2006 at 1:27 am
Hey Sam. A lot of scepticism is a good thing these days in this business. I’ve been removing about one a day since the big purge. Jeff Dedrick, or whatever his name was, bit the big one today. I still have Keith Baxter, Joel Comm and other residue to mop up. Seems I was on mutiple lists.
Thanks for reading. I’ll try to keep it real so you won’t opt-out of reading my blog.
Sarah and Matt // Jul 12, 2006 at 1:36 am
Add Ewen Chia to that, that guy never gives away any free tips, everything is a sales pitch! Me too, I’m sick of it.
Splork // Jul 12, 2006 at 2:24 am
Excellent! We have the makings of an uprising. Let’s clean it up!
Bonusdays // Jul 16, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Well, I haven’t cracked the code yet, but…
I did the same thing (mass unsubscribe) several months ago for the same reasons.
It had an immediate benefit in that I started to focus; something I greatly lacked up until then.
In relating it to your site… I tend to look up more… over the top of the high weeds and eyeball my goal more often. This tends to keep me more on the path and I’ve greatly reduced the number of times, I’ve stopped to look at shiny rocks along the way as I walk through the tall grass aka high weeds.
You’ve made a direction change for the better.
You can always resubscribe and in two cases I have. BUT I did it to study their very effective marketing. I’m an observer NOT a participant.
Kaj Westergard // Sep 24, 2006 at 11:16 am
Thank´s for a good read.
As a newcomer to the blog I´m reading it backwards.
(therefore this late comment)
You could propably add half Singapore and half of the mainland of Honkong to the list not forgetting D.Valliere and M.Sanders.
I think Valliere was good a year back, now he´s only pitching affiliate links and Marlon Sanders makes it impossible to ever get satisfied with his products as he, or his copywriters, are the best in the industry and crank up your expectations in a way that even Jenna Jameson couldn´t satisfie
I myself deleated more than sixtyfivethousend (65.000 !!!) newsletters/mails from my computer just the other day.
I just do not want to waste my time for a couple of good laughs anymore.
Like the Valentines Day when sixteen different “gurus” assured me (with identical letters) they loved me (J.Vitale and Crawfoord and maybe even Pierce among them)
keep up the good work
regards
Kaj
Splork // Sep 25, 2006 at 12:12 am
Hey Kaj. Thanks for dropping by and having a read. 65,000 newsletters. Wow. That is a huge amount. You’re better off now.
Esther Baxter // Nov 10, 2006 at 9:03 pm
andrew baxter…
Interesting post. I came across this blog by accident, but it was a good accident. I have now bookmarked your blog for future use. Best wishes. Esther Baxter….
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