Don’t Waste Money on Your Email List

Yes, I’m frugal, and hate wasting money, whether it’s a personal expense, or something for my business. So I was annoyed when I ended up paying extra for my AWeber mailing list service. Don’t get me wrong – there is great value in having an email list service, but don’t waste money on your email list!

Maybe this article will help you avoid that mistake, and a few others that I made in getting my mailing list started.

Getting Started Online

My Contextures Excel website started in November 2000, with a contextures.on.ca URL, and I was able to get the contextures.com URL in February 2001.

For years, I posted articles on my main site, and eventually started my blog, but never thought about building a mailing list, to keep in touch with people who were interested in my Excel tips. The sites were getting lots of traffic, but I wasn’t making it easy for people to get the latest news, or find their way back to my sites.

I remember learning about RSS feeds at one point, and managed to create a feed.xml file for my site, so people could get updates via RSS feed readers. Those were exciting times!

When I created the blog, there was a Feedburner option, so I set that up too, and it included an email alternative, so that was my first foray into the world of email lists. I didn’t do much with it – just a few customizations for subject lines, I think.

Setting Up a Real Email List

I had read about email services, and knew that it could help my business grow if I set up an email list, but avoided making a decision about which service to join. Eventually, I took the plunge, and signed up for a $1 trial month at AWeber , on August 3, 2010 – almost 10 years after starting my website. No, I certainly don’t rush into things!

For the next few months, I poked around the AWeber website, and set up a couple of sign up forms, and paid the monthly fee of $19. So, that money was pretty much wasted, because I wasn’t really using the email list service.

Finally, on November 29th, 2010, I sent out my first newsletter, which was just feed snippets from all the blog articles that I posted in the past week. It was better than nothing, but not much better!

Anyway, don’t delay like I did! If you’re worried about starting an email list, because you don’t know what to write about, this free guide from AWeber might help: What to Write in Your Emails.

Sending My First Real Newsletter

My first real newsletter went out on January 14, 2012, and it had some personal touches, and links to a few Excel tools at the bottom, with my affiliate codes. The newsletter was finally turning into a business tool!

I’ve been tweaking the newsletter format since then, and the subscriber list keeps growing. I have to pay more to AWeber when then number of subscribers goes over a set number, but it is worth it, if I’m reaching more people.

However, as I eventually discovered, at some points I was wasting money by moving up to the next level, when I didn’t really have to.

Unsubscribers on the Mailing List

If you make it easy and appealing to join your mailing list, people will actually subscribe. Woohoo! A few people will unsubscribe too, for a variety of reasons. Try not to take it as a personal insult, although it might hurt a bit when the first person unsubscribes.

To see a summary of your mailing list counts, log into AWeber, and scroll to the bottom of the Home page. The Unsubscribed column shows the totals for that category, so keep an eye on those numbers.

Why does that number matter? Well, those people are still counted as subscribers, even after they have unsubscribed, as I was shocked to learn.

So, when I got enough subscribers that I had to move up to the next payment level, I was paying for people who weren’t even getting my messages. Ouch! That hurt my frugal heart – and pocketbook.

If I had cleaned up my list when it was close to the 500 mark, I might have avoided that extra $10 fee for a month or so. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s money!

Video: Don’t Waste Money on Your Email List

You can see the steps for deleting unsubscribed names in this short video, and read the detailed instructions below.  That way, you won’t waste money on your email list!

How to Clean Up the Email List

Here’s how to get those Unsubscribed people off of your list, so you don’t waste your money on extra subscribers.

• On the AWeber dashboard, click the Subscribers tab
• If you have more than one list, select the list that you want to clean up, from the Current List drop down.

• In the list of Filters at the left, click Unsubscribed
• Check the list, before you delete it – you’ll see when people signed up, and when they unsubscribed. If several unsubscribed on the same day, maybe you sent an email or newsletter that didn’t have useful content.
• You can export the list in CSV format, if you want to keep those names. I did that the first few times, then decided that there was no reason for me to keep them.
• Click the check box at the top of the list, to select all the names
• Click the Delete button, to clear the list, and click Delete in the confirmation message.

Repeat those steps for the Undeliverable subscribers, to remove them from your list too.

Now you have a nice, clean list, and you aren’t paying for people who aren’t getting your emails.

Avoid My Email List Mistakes

Here is a quick summary of my tips for getting started with an email service. Don’t waste money on your email list, like I did!

• As soon as you set up your website or blog, sign up for an email service, if you can afford the monthly fee. The basic Aweber monthly fee is $19 (the last time I checked).
• Send out a regular email to your subscribers, even if it’s just a monthly tip. Make sure that the content is useful, and include a link or two to your products, or an affiliate product
• Clean up your subscriber list every month or two, to delete the unsubscribers and undeliverables. Be especially vigilant if you’re getting close to the top of a subscriber level.

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