Interesting. According to Jakob Nielsen’s

Interesting. According to Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox, email newsletter subscribers have a “high emotional attachment” to newsletters, which inhibits them from unsubscribing, even when they don’t read the newsletter any more. I’ve noticed this in my own behavior. I’m subscribe to many newsletters that I don’t read any more, but I stay on the list because in some future universe where I have infinite time at my disposal, I might read it…

At the same time, Nielsen notes that many years “fear that unsubscribing might not work.” This is because of the urban legend that spammers treat unsubscribes as proof that an address is “live.”

Aside: While I respect his work, I think Nielsen too-often prioritizes usability over commerce. He hates popups, for example, even though they are a proven method for driving desired user behavior. While I’m not a fan of popups as a user, neither am I fan of TV commercials or, for that matter, Wal-Mart making me go through a checkout line and actually paying for their product rather than letting me just pick out what I want and leave. TV commercials and charging for products are also proven business methods that, when you get right down to it, fly in the face of usability.

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