While I’m glad that such a large number of these small business owners have caught up with the marketing benefits of newsletters, I’m dissapointed to say that many of these same folks have missed one very important element: the unsubscribe link.

Sure, you’ve worked so hard to build your mailing list, and you hate to lose readership (I don’t blame you) – but in addition to holding our mailboxes hostage, you are also violating CAN-SPAM law.

ANYONE that sends out email information; be it daily news, inspiring quotes, event invitations, or newsletters needs to read over the CAN-SPAM in it’s current incarnation here. You don’t have to use a service (even though it can be a HUGE CYA for all legal issues), just put a little note telling people to reply with unsubscribe in the subject line if they wish to no longer receive your emails. DON’T PULL A FAST ONE: you must keep track of the unsubscriber and not send them emails next time.

This is why I am a big fan of Vertical Response (or any other service for that matter) – their system keeps track of all my emails for me and the unsubscribes. I have great friends that have unsubscribed from my eblasts because they are admittedly on information overload. These pals want to get emails from me personally (thus I want to keep their contact info in my address book), but they just don’t want the eblasts. No biggie.

Treat your address book like gold, respect your subscribers – you can and will get a reputation as a spammer if you aren’t careful. Do you really want people to feel that your emails are “junk”? If the answer is no you’d better learn to use systems and respect the rules of the industry, or you’ll loose more marketing points than you ever gained by sending out any newsletter at all.

R