Pax,
Matthew
–
http://matthewebel.com

Wait, “a guy like you?”

Umm, I’ll take that as a compliment!

Go sign up at grandcentral.com

In a way, I’m a bit disappointed that nobody has really disagreed with my premise that forcing opt-in is bad!

Of course in the above-linked forum thread, there are a few chuckleheads making comments like “Gee, I bet your list is tiny.” but the lion’s share of comments seem to view this as not only bad for the marketer’s reputation, but an affront to purchasers as well.

Good for you, Really Long Sales Page™ guys!

Oh, and Justin HAS revised his web page, so it no longer recommends forced opt-in. Good for you, too.

Just like paying your taxes or stopping at a stop sign, any ethical marketer will follow the CAN-SPAM laws because it’s the law.

Besides, CAN-SPAM doesn’t really prohibit spam, if you read it carefully. I’d like to see it made stronger.

The $7 dollar script, which I purchased but never used, is, in my opinion, designed to create a mailing list of buyers.

I agree that holding a product hostage until a person opts in to a mailing list is not a good practice. I use the Rapid Action Profit script, and while I do “encourage” opt-in, it’s by no means required when you make a purchase.

Best regards,
Tom Brownsword, CISSP®

P.S. — DISCLAIMER: I am a member and moderator at the Internet Marketing Inner Circle and a friend of Willie Crawford.

“If someone buys through a shopping cart of any kind, they usually need to enter their contact information and opt-in to that product’s list anyways. The only difference here is that it’s before the purchase instead of after it.”

I have to have my doubts. Yes, you usually have to supply your email addy so you can be emailed the download link, but in the wide world of marketing aside from what you folks do, mandatory opt-in is unusual.

If I’m selling downloads of say, my band’s album, rather than an internet marketing strategy ebook, or “special report” or somesuch, I doubt mandatory opt-in is usual. In fact mandatory opt-in is actually opt-out: “You don’t like it? Opt-out of buying the product!”

I’m glad you are considering editing your blog post. Since the script in question is user configurable, I hope people are smart enough not to use that option.

1. First, when using the $7 script, though it’s strongly suggested, it’s not required that you opt-in to download the product. Perhaps, I should reword that part of my blog post to be more clear.

2. If someone buys through a shopping cart of any kind, they usually need to enter their contact information and opt-in to that product’s list anyways. The only difference here is that it’s before the purchase instead of after it.

I’m not a big believer in making someone opt-in for something they’ve already paid for if they don’t want to, which is why there’s a link on the $7 script’s squeeze page to bypass the opt-in and just download the product.

Though I’d prefer that they opt-in, if they don’t want to be on my list, then there’s no reason to have them on it.