The other day, one of my online subscribers, CR, complained about the e-mail marketing of a famous Internet marketer.

 “I unsubscribed from his list,” she told me haughtily. “As soon as I joined, I got e-mails from him once or twice every day – and there’s no one I or anyone else needs to hear from that much.”

 That begs the question: how frequently can you e-mail your online subscribers?

 Or: how much e-mail is too much?

 People have lots of opinions about this issue, which they support with arguments that are both passionate and logical.

 The problem is: their opinions are wholly subjective.

 The fact is: there’s an easy way to objectively and accurately determine the optimal e-mail frequency for your online subscribers.

 How does it work?

 Well, every time you send another e-mail blast to your list, a small portion of your subscribers will opt out of your list.

 Why?

 They decide that your content is no longer of value to them … or you are doing too much selling … or they don’t like your style … or you are e-mailing them too often.

 The “opt-out rate” is a Web metric that you can measure: the percentage of online subscribers who unsubscribe from your list per e-mail blast.

 A 0.1% opt-out rate means that if you have 10,000 online subscribers, 10 unsubscribed after getting your most recent e-mail.

 When your opt-out rate is around 0.1% or less, you can rest assured that you are not sending too many e-mails to your list too often.

 If you were, the opt-out rate would be higher.

 On the other hand, when your opt-out rate gets much above 0.2 to 0.4%, you are losing subscribers at too rapid a rate.

 For instance, if you have 10,000 subscribers and an opt-out rate of 1%, you lose 100 subscribers every time you send an e-mail to your list.

 You should measure and keep track of your opt-out rates with every e-mail you send.

 Adjust your e-mail frequency, ratio of sales pitches to content, message length, and topics until your opt-out rate hovers around 0.1% to 0.2% or less.

 Now, watch what happens if you increase the e-mail frequency – for instance, go from one e-mail per week to two e-mails per week.

 If you get a sharp upward spike in the opt-out rate – double or more – your subscribers are telling you they don’t want to hear from you that often.

 And you should probably eliminate the extra e-mail.

 On the other hand, if you add an extra e-mail per week and the opt-out rate does not rise significantly, you are safe in continuing at the higher frequency.

 But should you?

 Yes.

 We have lots of preconceived notions about what our market wants — and doesn’t want.

 And one of these preconceived notions is that people don’t want too much e-mail.

 But when the opt-out rate is low, your subscribers are telling you they DO want to hear from you often via e-mail.

 That’s important, because the more times you can reach out to your list with a valuable offer or content, the more money you make online.

 My colleague Amy Africa, a top consultant in B2B e-marketing, says that one of the most common online marketing mistakes is not e-mailing your list frequently enough.

 And by making that mistake, you are leaving money on the table.

You frequently hear digital and new media evangelists say that print in general and direct mail in particular are dead.

If that’t the case, how do you explain the Winterberry Group’s forecast that direct mail spending will grow 5.8% to $47.8 billion this year?

Why would marketers spend nearly $50 billion this year on direct mail if it doesn’t work?

Here’s my pet peeve: being sent books I didn’t ask for.

If you are an author, don?t send me a copy of your book unsolicited in the mail. Ask me for permission first.

My office is overflowing with business books authors have sent me ? books I will never have time to read but hate to throw out, thereby resulting in annoying clutter. (You should see the place!) One author sent me 2 copies of his book after I asked him not to.

If I agree to review your book and it is an e-book, don?t e-mail me a PDF; send me a hard copy print-out in the mail. I don?t want to consume my paper and ink printing out your book.

Fair enough?

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, we lost Internet, fax, PC, and power for 2 days, not to mention we had 18 inches of water in the basement and no hot water.

Having? your data backed up doesn’t do much good if you can’t turn on your PC. And my UPS (uninterruptible power supply) kept the PC going for only 20 minutes or so.

That’s why I recommend you get another back-up device for your PC: a portable generator.

Every homeowner reading this should own a generator. The time to buy it is now, before the next power outage. Once disaster strikes, you won’t be able to get one.

Note: You also need a 5-gallon gas can to transport gasoline and several long extension cords. These too will become sold-out and impossible to get when the next crisis comes.

Lately we’ve been hearing about proposals to abolish the United States Postal Service (USPS). Is this a good idea?

Proponents of getting rid of the USPS point out that (1) bills can more cost-effectively be paid electronically, (2) correspondence is sent today via e-mail, not letter, (3) packages can be sent by alternative delivery services including FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS).

Those who favor keeping the USPS operating point out that not everybody has a PC and an Internet connection. Some people don’t want them and others can’t afford them. Does the federal government have a right to force everyone to buy them?

My Uncle Paul is in? his late 80s and loves to send us letters with newspaper clippings; he doesn’t use a PC. Should he be shut out of communicating with us because he is low tech?

What about greeting cards? Yes, there are electronic greeting cards. But these are difficult to place on the mantel.

Many advertisers depend on direct mail for their business; they cannot get the same response or reach as broad an audience with e-mail marketing.

If it were up to you, would you keep the Post Office operational? Would you downsize it? Or would you close its doors forever?

For an article I am writing, I would like to hear of your experience marketing professional services on LinkedIn.

Specifically:

1. HOW do you use LinkedIn to promote yourself? What tactics are successful?

2. What is your goal? To build relationships? Or do you actually produce leads and sales on LinkedIn?

Thanks!

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I won?t deny cold calling can work.

Yet in 99 out of 100 cases, I tell people who ask for my advice never to cold call.

The reason is that, even if the prospect on the other end of the phone expresses interest, the very fact that you cold called him puts you in a weak position ? for three reasons.

First, people by and large want to deal with vendors who are busy and successful, not those who are desperate and need the work, right?

Well, when you cold call, your prospects assume that you are not busy and you need the work.

After all, if you were busy, you would not have time to sit there calling strangers and asking them for their business, right?

Second, cold calling puts you at a disadvantage when estimating prices and quoting fees.

A large part of what determines how much you can charge is the law of supply and demand.

When the demand for what you sell outweighs your supply, it?s a seller?s market and you can name your own price.

By cold calling, you are signaling to the prospect that the demand for your services is less than the supply ? the amount of time you have available to render those services.

Therefore, prospects generated by cold calling are more price resistance ? and more likely to haggle.

Third, cold-calling puts you in a weak position as you close the sale and negotiate terms with prospects.

Again, cold-called prospects know you want and need their business.

You are perceived as being easy to hire, and therefore prospects feel they can dictate deadlines, payment schedule, work arrangement, and other terms.

Why is cold calling so ineffective?

Because it violates the ?Silver Rule of Marketing.?

The Silver Rule is a universal principle of marketing and selling, first stated to me many years ago by my friend, marketing consultant Pete Silver.

The Silver Rule of Marketing states: ?It is better for them to come to you, rather than for you to go to them? ? where ?them? is your potential clients.

You can see why the Silver Rule makes sense.

If you go to a potential customer, seek them out, ask for an audience, and plead with them to buy from you, you are seen as needy and desperate.

Your prospects think you can?t be any good at what you do.

After all, if you were good, your book of business would be filled to overflowing ? and you wouldn?t be spending your valuable time on the phone, dialing for dollars.

The only prospects who buy from needy and desperate vendors are those looking for the low-priced bid.

So cold-calling risks dooming you to being the low-priced provider.

When ?they? ? prospects ? call you, instead of you calling them, the dynamic reverses.

They call because they have a need or problem ? and because they are hoping you might be able to give them what they need or solve their problem.

But how do you get prospects to call you?

There are two methods. The first is good, and the second is better.

The first method is to generate inquiries through traditional marketing.

This includes Yellow Pages advertising ? magazine ads ? TV commercials ? direct mail ? radio spots ? billboards.

When someone calls in response to your ad in their industry trade magazine, you know they have either an immediate need — or at least have some interest in what you are offering.

Otherwise, they would not have called you.

However, all they know about you is what they read in your advertisement.

Therefore, they may not be convinced that you are the right one to hire.

The second method of getting people to call you eliminates this problem.

This method is to establish yourself as a recognized expert or authority in your field.

You can do this through such activities as: writing articles or a column for your industry trade publication ? being interviewed as a guest on radio talk shows ? writing a book (e.g., Tom Peters writes books on management) ? giving speeches as industry meetings ? writing a blog ? distributing a podcast ? publishing an informative print or online newsletter on your specialty ? writing a white paper or special report.

When people call you because they read your book, they ? like prospects who respond to your ad ? are telling you that they have a definite or possible need.

However, the people who call after reading your book ? unlike those who merely saw your ad ? are already predisposed to buy from you.

After all, your prospects are skeptical of advertising claims.

But authors are perceived as experts.

You?ve heard the phrase, ?We wrote the book on it.?

When you are the one who wrote the book (or the article or column or content-rich Web site) on the topic your prospects are interested in, you will be the one they call first when they need help solving problems in that area.

Action step: Think about how you can establish your reputation as a leading expert in your field or industry. Can you volunteer to be a speaker at the next big industry conference? Publish a white paper on your area of expertise? Write letters to the editor? Start a blog?

Best place to start: write an article about the solution to a big problem your prospects have and publish it in a magazine, periodical, or on a Web site where they are likely to see it.

The overwhelming majority of e-books I see fall into one of two categories.

The first category is lousy quality in writing, editing, and page layout. They?are extremely amateurish?and therefore not worth reading.

The second category is e-books on the same? old topics that have been done 1,000 times before — topics like leadership, marketing, sales, starting a small business, how to get rich online. Not only are they on topics that are already overdone, but they repeat virtually the same information as other e-books on the topic.

If you are going to write a crappy e-book … or write an e-book that simply regurgitates other e-books on the same topic … I would urge you not to. The world doesn’t need more mediocre content.

On the other hand, if you think you can produce a quality e-book with original ideas, analysis, strategies, and content — fresh thinking the reader has not encountered before — then I say go for it.