I look at both the sender and the subject, too, before deciding which emails I’ll read.

The only problem with looking at just the sender is that I get a lot of valid email from people I don’t know, so if I see a message from someone I don’t know and the subject looks appropriate, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and open it.

A good portion of that is spam, but now and then it’s something I really want, and need, to deal with.

Act on your dream!

JD

I dont read email with bad subject at all.

In fact I read emails now by looking at name field rather than the subject. After I identify the person whose email I want to read then I read the subject.

Rest is spam for me.
Ravi Kuwadia´s last blog ..Backlinking Strategies that Work

I don’t think you’re making a big deal over nothing. I hadn’t even thought about the deliberately-misleading subject lines I’ve been seeing.

Over the years, I’ve joined lots of affiliate programs and now and then I get an email from someone I don’t recognize with a subject like, “You’ve just earned a commission,” or something similar.

Of course, I have to open them to see what they’re about, and almost always they’re spam.

(I’m not talking about the emails I get from people I recognize with that subject line. In almost all cases, that means I have money coming my way, for real.)

I’ve gotten that “we have a problem (serious)” email, too. I’ve put that person on my unofficial probation list, and if that continues, we’re going to part ways.

I agree with you absolutely about this: “Just because they’re effective doesn’t make it right.”

If they’re deceiving, they’re dishonest, and that is a direct reflection on the character of the person sending that email. If they’re dishonest in trying to get me to open their email, what else will they be dishonest about in other business dealings?

I consider it a serious red flag.

I agree with you, too, about Aweber. I’ve tried a bunch of other autoresponder/mailing list managers and it’s the only one I use now (aside from what’s built into my sites hosted by Site Build It).

I agree with you that it’s probably a waste of time trying to disguise words to avoid the spam filters. I think it makes much more sense to rewrite something properly so it won’t trip them in the first place.

I do have to admit that, as much as I like Aweber, I still have not learned to effectively use it for my business. A few months ago, I got pretty serious about setting up some lists, but I’ve since chosen not to promote those businesses, so I closed several lists that were starting to grow.

If I don’t feel 100% confident that I’m promoting the best products and services I can find, I stop promoting them. That doesn’t mean that they’re bad companies, it just means that they don’t live up to what I expect from companies and people I want to work with.

(It may also be a part of the reason my affiliate marketing commissions have plunged over the last year.)

Sometimes I think that email marketing just isn’t for me, but I’m going to keep trying until I learn how to make it work. In fact the newsletter I’ll be publishing at my new Murphy Gold site will be one of the most important features, so it behooves me to learn how to do it right.

You didn’t go on too long, at all, Brian. I really appreciate your comment.

Act on your dream!

JD

Yes, marking emails as spam helps, but it isn’t a total solution for many of us who get hundreds of emails every day.

Thanks for your comment.

JD

I do get very frustrated over misleading subject lines. Just recently I’ve received a couple of very disappointing subject lines from a very popular marketer that I’ve followed for years. If this was my blog I’d go ahead and name him but I wont do that here, it wouldn’t be fair even if you allowed it. I actually saved the emails planning to post about them in the future. They are:

“… ORDER CONFIRMATION: Your $97 CD - Paid”

and

“we have a problem (serious)” only to be followed by the first line in the email of “Sorry for the “shocker” subject line…” like that makes it ok.

I may be making a big deal about nothing but I just hate to see this from someone I somewhat respected for a long time. I almost unsubscribed but I’m hoping it was a temporary thing. I know these aren’t considered spam since I’m opted in voluntarily but it’s still very deceiving. Just because they’re effective doesn’t make it right.

As a side note, I use AWeber and it actually gives assigns a score to each broadcast we write before we send it. It gives the details and allows us to correct the issues to increase the odds of deliverability. It’s based on search engine rules about known span words and phrases and colors etc.. That’s why we see stuff like f*ree and make m0ney but I believe that’s just waste of time.

Sorry for going so long Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Extreme Ezine – Social Edition | Aug09

(Get ready for my shortest reply ever…)

I agree.

Act on your dream!

JD

Having said that, though you’re mainly talking about email, what I hate are the misdirects. For instance, if I’m going to get the “expose” on something, I’m expecting it to be bad, not a good sales pitch. Same with “shocking secret”. In essence, anything that begins with terms like that, and I don’t know the person, I pretty much ignore.
Mitch´s last blog ..My Big Poker Tournament

I haven’t tried using the email systems you mention, so I don’t know which of them are good or not.

I use a three-step system for managing my incoming email. I typically get 300-400 emails per day, sometimes a lot more. I think the record was over 2,300 one day when a spammer’s system went crazy.

First, I use a whitelist/blacklist system to pare out as much of the obvious spam as possible. I have no idea how many spam emails I would otherwise have to deal with.

Second, I scan the emails in my inbox using Horde. Typically, I click the box to select all of them (100 at a time) with the intention of deleting all the ones that are checked. Then, I go through them and uncheck the ones I want to read. Some, I know for sure, others I’m not sure of and I’ll see what they have to say, just in case they’re relevant and worthwhile.

At the bottom of every page of 100 emails, I click the delete link to trash all the ones that didn’t make this cut. I proceed through my inbox, 100 at a time, until I’ve scanned all of the senders and subject lines.

Then I purge all the deleted emails.

After all that, I download them to my computer using Eudora to manage everything. When loading them, my system applies several dozen filters on those incoming emails. Some are filtered into possible spam inboxes and others are filtered into high-priority and low-priority inboxes based on the sender, keywords in the subject line, or even keywords in the text of the message.

After that, I start with the highest-priority inboxes and work my way through my email. Typically, I only check email two or three times per day, and never when I’m working on a serious project.

Most people think my system is too complicated, but it works well for me. (Maybe I’m just a complicated kind of guy?)

I have used the old Yahoo system several years ago when my own email system was broken, but that was a very temporary thing.

I don’t have any experience at all with Outlook.

Thanks for your comment.

Act on your dream!

JD

It’s always great hearing your thoughts and I appreciate your comment.

Nothing in my world is an absolute, so I’m not saying I’ll never open another email with one of those words, just that it’s going to be harder to get me to open it. If it’s from someone I barely know or never heard of — *poof* into the trash it goes.

If it is from someone I know and respect, then I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt, as long as it’s not over-done over time. Maybe I’ll open it to see what he/she has to say, maybe I won’t.

I’m trying not to use them in my own writing, too.

But, as we all know, some of the best copywriters know when it is appropriate to break the rules and why, and I’ve learned a lot from them over the years.

Still, as a general rule of thumb, I won’t be reading emails with those words in their subjects unless there is some important reason to do so.

Wishy-washy? Maybe.

I never promised to be entirely consistent. I don’t think I’m able.

Act on your dream!

JD

One subject line that has annoyed me for years is, “Don’t open this email!”

So, I don’t.

I really try to stay away from negative people and anyone who is obviously spinning too much hype — to put it nicely. I don’t even like to write about things that annoy me, and it is a sign of how much it bothered me this morning that I even mentioned it, at all.

There may be times when some of these words are appropriate, but they are way over-used these days by people who either don’t know any better or don’t seem to care.

At least, that’s my take on it.

In my case, changing my email is not an option. I’ve worked hard to make it easy for people to find me and email me, but it seems that some of my recent updates have made it harder to find my email address. I’ve spent years trying to build a brand around “johndilbeck” and my email address is a part of that effort.

It’s always good hearing from you, Joan.

Act on your dream!

JD

On a personal level I agree with you. I get annoyed by certain things written in email subjects and sometimes avoid them altogether.

And yes, a lot of times marketers do go overboard and turn these “power words” into mere cliche.

BUT the bottom line is a lot of those words also still work. So as a marketer, I have to disagree. Plus, if one of my favorite marketers uses a subject line I’m not too fond of, I will still open it and read it because I want to hear from that particular person.

So yea, just thought I would throw that in there.

Solomon Huey
Solomon Huey´s last blog ..Get YOUR Voice Heard!