Block Annoying People from Your List
Get Rid of TROLLS!
As you build your list, you may acquire what is commonly referred to as trolls. Simply put, these are people who have nothing better to do than annoy others or cause trouble of some kind. When it happens – do not panic. Everyone has them – even the marketers who are incredibly careful, and do nothing wrong. The good news is you can block annoying people from your list.
Here is the reality. You are paying for your subscribers. For example, if your autoresponder is AWeber, you pay $1 for the first month, then $19/month for up to 500 subscribers and it goes up from there. In other words, there are levels of payments for the number of subscribers on your list.
For example: Let’s say you have been sitting with under 500 subscribers for a while and then on Monday of last week, your number jumped to 501 subscribers – and one of those subscribers is a troll. That one trouble-maker on your list just bumped you up to the next pricing tier. It works essentially the same for any autoresponder service.
Let’s take a closer look. As your list grows, you add on small additional fees, as shown below:
This 501st subscriber is rude and annoying. She follows you to every blog post you mention and harasses you. She hits the reply button to argue with you about your content. When you announce a new product, she buys instantly, downloads, and asks for a refund five minutes later. In other words – she is nothing but trouble. So what do you do?
UNSUBSCRIBE her and block her from ever signing up to your list in the future.
Log into Aweber and click the “Subscribers” tab. Then, choose “Search.” The box below will appear.
Choose how you want to search. If you know the individual’s email, choose email – is – and then add her email. Click the “Display Segment” (green button near the top) to get the results.
What if you know her name is Tiffany – but you are not sure how the name is spelled – Tiffany, Tiffiney, Tifany? You can use this option:
Type in Email – “Contains” – Tiff. This narrows your list of subscribers to those that fit the spelling.
Find the person you want to delete and check the “Stop” box on the left and “Erase” box on the right.
Do not forget to click the green “Save” button when you have finished.
If you want to make sure the person never signs up again, you can also block her when you unsubscribe her. If you know her email address, click the “Subscribers” tab at the top and choose “Unsubscribe.”
Enter the e-mail address and check the two boxes shown below.
Click the “Unsubscribe” button at the bottom of that page and it is done. AWeber is great because they allow you to remember why you blocked someone from your list. This is useful because there will be people who want to continue being a “pain in the you-know-what” and ask you nicely to let them sign up again. They may sound so nice that you go in manually and add them because you cannot remember how awful they were three months ago when you unsubscribed them.
To add a note when you block someone, all you have to do is:
Go into the “Subscribers” tab and choose “Block.”
Enter either their email address or their domain and add a note to yourself explaining why that person does not deserve to learn from you (now or ever).
Additional Blocking Feature
If someone complains about getting too many emails, you can suppress your interaction with them by blocking them from receiving broadcast messages. This leaves them set up to receive only follow-up, scheduled emails that may be sent out a little further apart.
This is done on AWeber by using the “Suppress” option under the “Subscribers” tab. If you need help be sure to call the AWeber Help Desk – they are great.
NOTE: If you have joined us for the first time, the series starts with: Building Your List – Finding Gold vs. Doing Good.
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