Unfortunately, many websites that collect email addresses do so without your best wishes in mind. Case and point: I decided to help meetup.com this evening by clicking on one of their sponsored ads. Because of the way Google AdWords/AdSense works, the ad hoster may not get any revenue unless the user takes a certain action on the advertiser’s site. The call to action on the landing page consisted of a form with fields for name and email address which one would submit in order to receive a free ebook.
Anytime you have to fill out a form with your email to get something “free”, alarms should go off in your head. They do in mine! And in this instance I’m so thankful for a free little service called 10 Minute Mail. Take a look at the picture below and you’ll immediately see why.
In two minutes I received three emails. I could maybe see why I would get two emails: one as a welcome and another with my free ebook. But why the 3rd? And if they did things right, why the 2nd? Why not just make the “free” ebook link in the welcome email be the activation link? I don’t get it.
A beautiful thing happened only minutes later. My email address self-destructed. Ahhhh the bliss! Never again do I have to worry about receiving spam from that awful company. Thank you, 10 Minute Mail!
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