Spring is here.

And I finally decided to get my email life under control.

This may not seem like a big deal to you. But, let me put it in context.

Over the past 16 years, I’ve worked on accounts from ag to consumer packaged goods to tech to retail. And everything in between. Part of my job was to stay on top of those industries. So I subscribed to the key publications and newsletters for each. Rarely did I unsubscribe when the project were finished. It was all just so darn interesting and I loved keeping up on it.

And then there’s shopping. I don’t like to shop. But online? Much better! I’ve been an avid online shopper for many, many years. And each time I buy from someone new, they start sending discounts. Wouldn’t want to miss those, right?

And then there’s industry information. Research, search, and all the tech that goes with that.

And blogs. It seemed more certain I’d see the updates if I subscribed to my favorite (50 or more?) blogs.

Then there’s all the nonprofits. If I gave a donation or was interested in their work, add those on.

Of course, I also get email from friends, family, and clients. (I did not unsubscribe from these, by the way!)

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you I dumped more than a thousand newsletters and sites. Some, I am bringing in as RSS feeds now. But just the ones I love. Or need. Or am afraid to live without.

Now, that I’m the self-appointed expert in newsletter unsubscribe processes, I’d like to share a bit of what I learned for you folks out there with newsletters.

Only about half of unsubscribe links were truly one click unsubscribes. I love those people. Click. Done. But what about the others?

Some big fails:

Enter your email address (which one? why are you aggravating me?) Big issue. Almost 30% of newsletters required this. If you have one email address, I suppose it’s no big deal. This is not the case for me. This pushed my buttons.

Log in. Okay, as if I know the password. So now, I have to choose ‘forgot password’ and wait. Click on that. Then, unsubscribe. This tested my patience big time. I’m guessing that almost 20% of the newsletters required this much action.

And the worst offenders? The ones that said it’d take effect in 7-10 days. And frankly, even that wasn’t true. I had to try multiple times for quite a few. QUITE a few. And for some, such as Dominos, I had to tweet them to get me off the list after multiple attempts. And even THAT didn’t work. Shame!

But I persisted. And I’ve removed all traces of some of my old email addresses (remember @home? and I used to be @comcast and still get those, too). I also took the time to move my personal email back to gmail (from my biz account) and move my biz stuff from gmail. And voila!

I have a totally revamped email system. (Don’t even get me started on my folder system. It’s pretty intense. And I’m not letting that go for now.)

While I used to get 1000+ emails a day, I now get fewer than 100.

So if you send me an email, odds are greatly increased that I’ll see it!