“I have a confession!”

I have a confession!  In today’s world of digital marketing and mass emailing, I haven’t upheld a strict “opt-in” policy.  In the early days, if you emailed me, my email system was designed to import your information into my mass email distribution list.  As I later felt that was a violation of spam policies, I discontinued that approach likely 5 years ago.

However, what I felt was a fair approach was to import all LinkedIn connections to my mass email distribution list.  I intentionally added a “disclaimer” in the summary of my profile stating that LinkedIn connections were automatically added to my email distribution list.  I felt that you “opt-in” when you choose to connect with me via LinkedIn and further opt-in wasn’t necessary.  Periodically, my emails would get “spammed” by people on my distribution list, however, I didn’t have high “unsubscribe” or “spam” rates.  Thus, I didn’t give it much further thought.

Then, as you may have noticed, I transitioned to a new email system this past month.  In doing do, it caused a few people to come back and challenge me as to how they ended up on my list.  In particular, one individual noted that I openly profess my Christianity faith, however, “I don’t see anything very Christian about this method of sales pitch.”  As I shared with this particular individual, I greatly appreciate their feedback and it aided in moving me over the hump.

So, as of today, I’ve moved to a strictly “opt-in” policy for “non-active” subscribers and all future subscribers.  I didn’t ask people who have been reading my emails routinely to “re-opt-in” as my belief is that if you’re reading and not unsubscribing already, you’d like to continue.  That being said, please feel free to unsubscribe at any time as I completely understand the flood of emails we often see in our Inbox.

Right now, my master list is “Chris Arnold Blog Feed” which is the primary means by which I communicate these days.  I’m working on list segmentation in the future which is part of why I transitioned to AWeber.   That being said, if you have a specific list request today, don’t hesitate to ask.

Finally, I must say that the “opt-in” process has been very humbling.  In only the first few hours of the request, I’ve already had an unbelievable number of subscribers “opt-in”.  While I don’t consider myself necessarily being a “writer”, it is always encouraging to received feedback that my blogs are making a difference.  Candidly, my motives in writing have much more to do with sharing a word of encouragement in our journey together than anything to do with “a sales pitch”.

So, for any of you I’ve offended, please accept my apologies.  For those you who are “subscribers”, thanks for your loyalty and please let me know how I can continue to serve you best.

God bless!

Chris