That’s not super crazy huge, but it’s a pretty nice size. It’s actually a really nice size when you consider that I don’t really promote it at all beyond having a simple text box with something like “enter your email address to subscribe” written under it in my sidebar.

Anyway, I host this email list with AWeber (go ahead, click it… it’s not an affiliate link). In case you’re interested, anything I am doing or will ever do involving email marketing will always be done with AWeber.

They’re the shit.

One of the many things I love about AWeber is that they have this comment box on their unsubscribe page. So, when someone decides to unsubscribe from my email list, they have the option of leaving comments explaining their reason for unsubscribing.

Despite this being optional, I find that most unsubscribers do it anyway.

I think my unsubscribe rate is pretty low, which is a good thing, but I must admit… I get a sort of perverse feeling of excitement out of seeing someone unsubscribe because I know there’s a really good chance they left comments telling me why.

And I just love reading those comments.

While I do get the occasional “you suck, I hate you!” or the always entertaining “I didn’t sign up to receive ads” after the one time I link to a product, most of my unsubscribe comments have surprisingly little to do with me or the quality of my email list.

That seems strange, I agree, but let me show you what I mean.

In no specific order, here’s what I estimate to be the 3 most common comments I get from the people who unsubscribe from my email list:

1. My inbox is too full/crowded.

Like I said, nothing to do with me at all. This is just someone who is apparently getting a lot of email and for whatever reason lacks the ability to deal with it to the point where they are forced to unsubscribe from an email list they truly wanted to sign up for at some point.

I also notice that the people unsubscribing for this reason tend to be really polite and complimentary. As in: “Your site is awesome and I love the info in these emails, but my inbox is just too crowded. Sorry.”

Odd, don’t ya think?

2. I’m no longer interested in this information.

Again, really nothing to do with me or my email list. These are just weird people who either lacked the reading comprehension needed to understand what my email list was going to be about in the first place, or just people who truly lost interest in the subject my site/email list is about.

Fun!

3. I never signed up for this!! Stop spamming me asshole!!

This one always puts a smile on my face.

See, this is a real legit email list hosted by a real legit email list host. That means that this list is required to be confirmed opt-in.

And what that means is that someone had to fill out some sort of subscription form where they entered their email address AND THEN received a confirmation email at that provided email address AND THEN opened it up and clicked the unique confirmation link inside that email therefore officially confirming their subscription to this list.

So, you forgetful bastard, you did indeed sign up for this.

Either that or your email account has been hacked and the hacker had nothing better to do than sign you up for a bunch of email lists and then confirm the subscriptions.

At one point back in the day, I’d actually take the time to email some of these people to let them know everything I just told you. It didn’t change anything, of course, but it made them feel pretty dumb and that made me feel pretty good.

I’m such a people person.

What comments do you get?

I’m curious… do you have an email list? If so, what kind of comments do you get from the people who unsubscribe?

If they’re anything like mine, I think it’s safe to say you’re doing a pretty good job.

If they’re more focused on you, your content, and the overall quality of your email list, you should probably take that as a sign that it’s time to make some improvements.