This morning I unsubscribed from an email list and was warned that if I unsubscribed, I wouldn't be able to re-subscribe unless I first contacted their customer support.
When companies do weird things, I always try to figure out why. And most of the time, I find some convoluted logic behind even the most nonsensical policies.
But in this case, I'm stumped.
Where is the benefit to the company? How does it help them to make it hard for me to re-subscribe?
Until recently I stored and had my digital photos printed through FuturePhoto.com, a service of FutureShop.com.
A few months ago they sent me an email saying they were going to close down the service. No more photo storage and printing.
With most companies, this would have been step one in a painful process of transferring my photos elsewhere.
But the folks at FuturePhoto did things a little differently.
They did a deal with Kodak.ca. A free transfer of my photos.
That sounded like a good thing, not leaving me in the lurch. But I would still have to do the transfer.
Not so. They then told me they would do the transfer automatically. All I had to do was say Yes.
Plus Kodak would give me 100 4x6 prints free.
Nice incentive.
So I clicked the Yes button and anticipated spending a little time on setting up my new account at Kodak.ca.
Didn't have to.
I just clicked one button and was then told my photos were being transferred, my account had the same login and password as my old one at FuturePhoto and that I should remember to claim my 100 free prints.
Do I feel good about the experience? Sure I do.
So how come most websites make me work so hard to get what I want?
I can now tell you about the online copywriting course I have written. Finally, it is ready to ship.
It has been seven years since I wrote my book, Net Words. And in hindsight, writing the book was a lot easier.
This course takes a "how to" approach. So rather than just tell you how I think a web page should be written, I actually go through each web page step by step and write it. I go through that exercise for a number of different types of web page, and for emails and e-newsletters too.
Interestingly, while I was ready to write my book back in 2001, I haven't been ready to write a complete course until more recently. How come? Because to take a "how to" approach, I needed more test data under my belt.
Writing a book about how I think things SHOULD be done online is one thing. Writing a "how to" course depends a lot more on knowing what is actually proven to work, based on valid data.
Unlike most online copywriting courses, this one isn't all about writing single-page sales letters. Instead, I focus on the kinds of sites you and I work on every day...10-page sites, 100-page sites, 1,000-page sites and so on.
In other words, I address the full complexity of writing for the web...writing single pages, page sequences, link text, keywords, a variety of different kinds of email, e-newsletters and more.
The course comprises my complete body of knowledge on the subject of writing for the web. This is the whole ball of wax, presented in a sequence that makes sense from beginning to end.
Should you get a copy?
If you want to know everything I know about writing for the web, I think this course will serve you well.
I have written it in a way that will work for anyone who writes for the web, whether you are a freelancer, entrepreneur, webmaster or part of an in-house online writing team.
My intention was to write the first "professional grade" course for online writers and copywriters.
I think, and hope, I have achieved exactly that.
The course is being published and marketed by American Writers and Artists Inc and is available through the link below. You might find the title a little exotic, but between the covers it's all me.
Find out more about "Nick Usborne's Million Dollar Secrets to Online Copywriting" here...
That quote is, of course, from Henry Ford.
Which makes me wonder about the world of Web 2.0...where the customer's voice may one day dominate the "conversation".
Most companies are not very good at listening to their customers, which makes Web 2.0 a wonderful thing. For now. But what about the future?
What happens when more and more companies place greater and greater emphasis on meeting the demands of their customers?
Will the opinions of web users...aka customers...help us create something as remarkable as the automobile?
Or will they simply persuade us to create faster horses?
Or, to put it another way, is over-dependence on customer opinion going to take us down the road of mediocrity?
Last week I was watching some video clips taken from a high-ticket conference on how to make money online.
There were some very smart marketers featured, most of them making millions of dollars from selling products and services which promise to help regular people make money online.
Helping people make money online is a huge industry, and it is becoming increasingly sophisticated. The lure of being able to create a second stream of income is irresistible to millions of people who could use the extra cash.
Among the speakers featured was Jay Abrahams. Jay is not your usual "online guru". He is an elder-statesman marketing consultant with deep roots in the offline world, as well as online.
And he said something which I imagine some of the other speakers were surprised to hear.
He said, "You've got to be able to see things no one else sees."
While the other speakers we telling people they simply had to learn their "secrets" or follow their "systems", Jay let slip a profoundly useful and very basic nugget of business advice.
All great entrepreneurs "see things no one else sees."
It's what makes their businesses unique, remarkable and worth talking about.
The trouble is, 99% of us don't see things no one else sees.
Which is why 99% of people who invest in online money-making products and services don't see much of a return.
