Do You Have Self Inflicted Email Spam?
What is self inflicted email spam? You may be wondering where I come up with weird terms like this. 
Self Inflicted Email Spam is the process of subscribing to an email newsletter or mailing list that you end up never reading and it does nothing but fill up your email inbox along with the million and one other email subscriptions that you subscribe to.
It’s not really spam because at the time you did have an interest and you decided to opt in. Secondly, unsubscribing is very simple to do, but for whatever the reason may be, you can’t seem to break that connection between yourself and the person sending the emails.
You may be thinking… “well, I don’t want to unsubscribe because I may be missing out on something!” Yet, that “Something hasn’t happened yet” and you have just deleted about 100 emails in the process of waiting for that picture perfect email.
Here is my problem and I am spending a lot of time today towards correcting. A big chunk of my daily email comes from newsletters. Don’t get me wrong, these are things that at the time interested me, but because I am so busy I don’t have time to read. While I have nothing against the publisher, remaining subscribed is simply nonproductive as it hinders my ability to use my email account effectively.
So anyway, when you find something that interests you, before you subscribe to it, really consider whether or not that the subscription will really help you in the future and also consider if you’ll be able to contribute or be active with the subscription.
For me, I run a mailing list and I think that I am really learning a lot about maintaining it just by being on the receiving end of many others. What are your thoughts?
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Date/Time: 6-23-2008 16:38:07 Comment #15970
“well, I don’t want to unsubscribe because I may be missing out on something!” - Lool that is exactly how i think!
Date/Time: 6-23-2008 16:45:09 Comment #15971
Believe me Huge… I know the feeling.
I just spent a lot of time today cleaning out my inbox. When the next round of emails start coming in, I am going to have to really carefully consider which subscriptions I am going to keep. I started with about 500 unread emails and when it was all said and done I was left with about 125 emails that actually needed my attention. 75% of my email was all self inflicted spam while 25% of the email was important stuff that could have been processed much quicker if it wasn’t mixed in with that other stuff.
The same goes hand in hand with my Google Reader too. Last month I got that cleaned out and its back up to 1000+ again.
For me, it’s like I don’t want to miss a friendship that could be made or an opportunity that could be achieved. But all in all, it just really might not be worth it.
Just FYI, I just received 5 emails as I was writing this comment.
Date/Time: 6-23-2008 17:38:34 Comment #15982
I get about 150+ daily e-mails all from different blogs telling me to “JOIN THIS SUPER AMAZING INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY THAT CAN ONLY BE ACHIEVED ONCE IN A LIFE TIME.” which is pretty annoying seeing that most of these offers are just e-books that contain common sense and cost about $150 dollars.
I have also seen an increase of e-mails coming from the prince of africa and the lord of zimbabwe. Apparently I have a large inheritance from them of 2 million 500 thousand to be exact.
Gosh… I should stop signing up to newsletters.
Date/Time: 6-23-2008 17:40:45 Comment #15984
I hate those and get them too… those aren’t typically opt in emails those for the most part are true spam.
Sometimes I like to mess around with those emails and make them sound like I am interested and just waste their time by asking stupid questions.
Date/Time: 6-23-2008 18:26:26 Comment #15989
Hahaha I know it’s hilarious they actually reply and I give them random numbers of bank accounts and they tell me that the account number is wrong.
Date/Time: 6-23-2008 18:32:24 Comment #15995
I am glad to discover that I am not the only one that gets kicks from messing with those folks.
Date/Time: 6-23-2008 17:39:37 Comment #15983
I had the same problem. I got off most of the lists I was on, keeping just a one or two favorites, a few months ago. I find it a lot less stressful.
Now I have that old feeling of not having anyone sending me email.
Date/Time: 6-23-2008 17:41:28 Comment #15985
Bitter sweet isn’t it?
Date/Time: 6-24-2008 15:26:45 Comment #16076
I keep signing up for newsletters to get the “Free $47 ebook!” or the “7-day affiliate marketing crash course!”
Some of the attached newsletters are worth reading, but many are the self-inflicted e-mail spam you’re talking about. The daily self-promotion, etc.
Great post. I hadn’t considered how I’m spamming myself. I should realize that when some of the marketing newsletters go straight to my “Spam” folder.