wiseoldone

In my continuing series, I am discussing events that are not obvious to eveyone, but have changed the industry and resulted in lower sales over the past several years.

In part 1, we talked about the credit card companies, and how they are rejecting more transactions.

In part 2, I will discuss (much more briefly this time - as I am trying to learn how to shorten my posts. Shit, just by discussing shortening my posts, I'm making them longer. I'm still doing it . . . )

Anyway, in part 2, I am going to discuss the proliferation of double-opt-in lists.

I must admit that when the first double-opt in email program started out, I was very impressed! It was cutting edge, and I had wished I had thought of the idea myself. (I wish I could recall the name of that program. It was created by a partner of Intertain. . . ) Anyway, at that time I made the prediction that sales in the very long-term were going to suffer as a result. I think I was right.

What happens with these email collections is that all the new, prospective customers are given a "gateway" porn membership (think gateway drug, except for real, not government BS). They haven't yet decided to put in their credit card to buy a membership just yet, but they get induced to give up their email address for some free porn by email.

I'm generalizing of course - some surfers go straight for the sale. However, we've all seen how much easier it is to get someone to give us an email address (and get paid about a buck) than to get them to give us a credit card (and make $30-$60 bucks).

The problem for people who don't run double-opt -in programs, though, is that the best newbie surfers in every niche are getting put on email lists before they buy a membership from clicking on an ad. The result is that the best prospects start getting lots of email, and they become much more likely to buy from the emails than from surfing back to a free web site and clicking on an ad.

Of course, this is a tradgedy of the commons. What I mean is that for each individual webmaster, they make more money by just going with the flow and promoting these programs. It would be best for all of us if nobody promoted the programs, but as long as a few people do, then everybody has to if they want to stay competitive.

Please don't get me wrong, I think the idea was brilliant, and it obviously works well even to this day. Still, I do believe that it is the second major reason why free web site owners are finding it harder to make sales today than in years past. (The first being the topic of my prior thread).

*** In part 3, I will again blame credit cards, but for a different reason ***