Why Aweber Sucks and Getresponse Rocks My Socks

April 9th, 2008 • Donovan • Related • Filed Under •

Welcome to the fastest growing seduction tips website for men. Browse the menu above for tons of free articles, interviews and multimedia. Post comments and join with 3500+ regular readers and keep up-to-date automatically with the latest advice with our free subscription methods. Why not signup for a free account with our pickup artist forum that's just been launched? You can ask questions and get help from dating gurus that stop by regularly! -Donovan


I just got an email a week or so ago saying that my account was canceled effective immediately with Aweber. Now for those guys who aren’t in the internet webmaster world, Aweber is a paid email mailing provider. It’s how I communicate with you guys via newsletter.

Out of nowhere they cancelled me.

Why?

They said I had pornography or sex-related materials on my site in an unfriendly, not even considering my side of it email.

Ok… I was thinking about the content, you know David Wygant writes some pretty heavy stuff at times. But NO, it wasn’t a sex-related post. Over the phone they gave me the URLs for this post, this post, and this post.

aweber

I thought it was funny. Is this some crazy evangelical owned firm in Pennsylvania?

I read over the Terms of Service that they said I had violated and found this:

“Pornography and sex-related merchandising are prohibited on any AWeber Systems server. AWeber Systems will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.”

Ok, that’s fine. But are those photos pornographic? To my knowledge Maxim, GQ and FHM aren’t pornography. And if they really want porn, I’m sure we all can show them what real PORN is.

Onto the second point, NONE OF THESE IMAGES WERE HOSTED ON AWEBER SERVERS! None of my emails even mentioned those posts, so I was not in violation of their stated Terms of Service. So I’m filing a complaint with American Express and getting part of my money back.

I have switched to GetResponse, which I was thinking about doing a few months ago, and it’s system is so much more friendly to use subscribing/unsubscribing and SPAM features are superior to Awebers.

I highly recommend Getresponse for those guys looking for an email mailing provider and Aweber can kiss my “porn” anytime.

It’s such a hassle switching, because MANY of you guys aren’t yet subscribed to the new service and were confused when I resent an email asking you to confirm the subscription.

so guys take this opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter through the top right box that says “Downlaod Free Annihilation Report”. If you were subscribed before and you haven’t gotten an email from me lately, that’s why.

Popularity: 14% [?]



There Are 15 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Roosh on 9 April 2008:

    Crap i just signed up with aweber. Did they at least let you take your list with you?

  2. Comment by Donovan on 9 April 2008:

    I got them to export it for me, but I lost over 3000 subscribers. Yeah, ditch them immediately. Getresponse are great because they don’t require a verification email before their put on your list via a website signup (only when you’re importing the first time). If I could go back, I’d go with Getresponse the whole time.

  3. Comment by gigi on 10 April 2008:

    i just wrote my own send-mail program :) and if you’re careful enough you can get a better delivery rate than with an auto responder, even with a large list

  4. Comment by chev on 10 April 2008:

    That sucks… clearly they didn’t like the “dream” posts.

    I bet this lady runs Aweber: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris1/51853775/

  5. Comment by Donovan on 10 April 2008:

    Chev where do you find this stuff! haha

  6. Comment by Matt Savage on 11 April 2008:

    Wow that sucks man. I’m glad I saw this post, I was about to open an aweber account in the next few weeks. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll definitely check out the other company.

    On a related note, I’ve been arguing a lot with the Stumbleupon administration lately because whenever someone stumbles my page, it automatically gets categorized as “porn” regardless of whether the user submits to another category. It’s very frustrating because I have zero nudity/porn on my site. The only thing that comes close is a few pics of scantily clad women, but that’s certainly nothing new on stumbleupon. My guess is some feminist complained about my blog and managed to get it blacklisted…arrrghhhh

    Seriously, what’s a guy have to do to run a successful seduction blog without getting categorized as porno? I blame Dr. Phil.

  7. Comment by Mack Tight on 11 April 2008:

    “Seriously, what’s a guy have to do to run a successful seduction blog without getting categorized as porno? I blame Dr. Phil.”

    That’s hilarious Matt! I’m going to bite you and start blaming Dr. Phil for stuff myself.

    StumbleUpon traffic is rather “flakey” and low value traffic so you’re not missing much if it is any consolation.

  8. Comment by chev on 11 April 2008:

    Wow… Matt Savage, I just “stumbled upon” your website after seeing your comments (I don’t use stumbleupon, rather just clicked on your name because I used to know a “Matt Savage” a long time ago and thought you were him LOL) and you have a very nice site. Good stuff man, keep it up :-)

  9. Comment by Brad on 11 April 2008:

    Agreed on the StumbleUpon… the only real value that it has is when those people the “stumble” through link to your content because they like it.

    It’s virtually non monetizable (did I just make up a word?)

  10. Comment by Donovan on 11 April 2008:

    Yeah, I haven’t had much luck with StumbleUpon. The best sites are probably straight search engines, and other community blogs.

  11. Comment by Nirvanos on 12 April 2008:

    Oh man, you’re going to LOVE getresponse.

    I switched over to getresponse like 2 months ago, and it’s been a pleasure since. I didn’t need to switch over for a reason like this, but I thought i’d give them a try coz Eben Pagan’s quiz-opt-in script only integrates with GetResponse.

    Btw, have you tried that one? It tripled my optins. It’s true what he said. There is just something about (reveal your personality) quizzes that makes people go bonkers… Yes even men :)

  12. Comment by Bob on 4 May 2008:

    I’m with Aweber and they rock! Stop making excuses pal. You violated their terms of service. There are a LOT of very satisfied customers with Aweber. There’s always ONE bad apple in the bunch…you!

    Bob

  13. Comment by Donovan on 4 May 2008:

    Bob, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I explained the terms and conditions to you… yet you say I violated them. How?

  14. Comment by Mack Tight on 17 June 2008:

    I can see this from both sides…

    These autoresponders are treated well by large email services like Yahoo! and Gmail because they give the email services assurance that their email users actually WANT the email by enforcing a strict double opt-in. They also make sure the content of the emails or the sites sending the email are not smutty or scammy in order to further insure the integrity of their service.

    Aweber must strictly enforce it or else one of these email services might start sending Aweber email to the spam folder. This lowers their delivery rate which lowers their market power to customers.

    I hear that Aweber by far has the highest percent delivery rate but I think Donovan is right that if you are running a site about a topic that society deems “fringe” like seduction and pick-up it is best to go with a lower delivery rate company with a greater overall tolerance.

  15. Comment by Lisa on 1 July 2008:

    “Bob” sounds like an Aweber employee….Nice try, “Bob”…

Post a Response