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Why I'm Deleting My Email List (And What I'm Building Instead)
Last Updated April 1st, 2014

After careful consideration, I’ve decided that building an email list is one of the DUMBEST business decisions you can make.

And the world’s smartest marketers are, instead, focusing on building their Facebook page exclusively.

Why?

Because it’s the RIGHT thing to do.

Sure, Facebook has allegedly admitted that they’re going to drop the organic reach of Facebook pages to 1% (or 2%) of fans.

But that’s neither here nor there.

If you spend MORE money on building your Facebook page, 1% of 1,000,000 is 10,000. And 1% of 1,000 is 10. Unless you’re an idiot, you’ll know that 10,000 people is a lot more people than 10 people. So it makes sense to pay to build your page from 1,000 to 1,000,000.

Duh.

So go like the Social Triggers page on Facebook right here.

And after you do that, if for some reason you didn’t realize this was a big April Fools joke, know that I’m laughing right now 😉

Kind of like this:

Derek laughing

Anyone who builds a Facebook page (instead of an email list) is asking for a world of headaches.

And the people who were dumb enough to believe otherwise are feeling the hurt.

But that’s why I’m here. To help prevent you from making the same mistakes some of these other people make.

You SHOULD build your email list.

Now if you want to try and “trick” your friends, here are two share links:

And if you’re looking for help on how to build your email list fast, I’ve got a FREE ebook that you can download.

It’s called How to Get Your First 5,000 Subscribers

And if you’er still not sold on “building an email list,” watch this video:

Why You Must Build Your Email List

It never fails. Every month I get a question from someone and they ask, “Derek, should I be building my email list or my social media profiles?”

And you know what? Here’s the answer:

If you’re not building your email list, you are an idiot.

How do I know this?

I’m Derek Halpern, the founder of Social Triggers. And I still want to hit my head against the wall for not building my email list sooner on every single one of my websites.

So, let’s get into it.

I got two numbers for you: 300 and 4,200.

Okay, a few months ago, when I updated my Twitter account and I sent the link to my Twitter followers, I sent about 300 clicks to my website.

But when I shared that same link to a similar amount of email subscribers, I sent 4,200 clicks to my website.

Now, I know you can’t spend clicks, but those clicks are people. The more people you get to your website, the more money you can make.

More people, more clicks, more money.

Why does email outperform Twitter by such a large margin, even though you are sending links to the same amount of people?

Look at it like this. How many e-mails do people get per day? A hundred? How many Twitter updates do they get per day? Thousands?

What’s more likely to be seen? One in one hundred or one in one thousand? Obviously one in a hundred.

That said, I know I’m talking about Twitter right now, but I’ve seen the same exact thing with Facebook and Google+. If I send an update to my Facebook or Google+ following, I find
that it drastically underperforms email as well.

Now, since email performs so much better than social media, you would think building an email list is harder. But in my experience, that’s not the case.

As a matter of fact, I think building a social media following is harder than building an email list. I’ll explain…

When I sent about 1,000 clicks to an opt-in page, about 50% of those people then went ahead and opted in to my email.

So, 1,000 people, 50%, 500 people became email subscribers.

On a whole other twist of fate, when I sent 1,000 clicks to my Twitter page, I didn’t even gain
500 new followers. The Twitter page actually underperformed an email opt in page.

People were seemingly less likely to follow me on Twitter than they were to subscribe to my email. Now, this is strange because e-mail crushes social media.

The question is, how can you begin growing your email list?

It turns out that people can start growing their lists today with these two simple strategies.

1. Add opt-in forms to the right places on your website.

Alright, that’s seriously it. Just add opt-in forms to the right places.

One of my readers, Laura of Momables.com, followed my advice on where to place opt-in forms,
and here’s what happened:

She went from getting between 5 and 8 email subscribers per day – new email subscribers, between 5 and 8 email subscribers – to 25 to 38 email subscribers per day. That’s a huge increase. All by adding the email forms to the right places on her website.

So, where are the right places to add the email sign-up forms?

I’d add one to the top of your sidebar, one to the top of your pages, and one in your about page. And I’d even consider using a pop-up.

As a side note, you can find a bunch of conversion site review videos I did right here. These will show you that putting opt-in forms in the right places really works!

2. Eliminate clutter from your web design

I believe clutter is the number one conversion killer on web designs. Alright, and I talked about this study before, but to really drive this point home:

Sheena Iyengar did this famous jams study, where she discovered that people, when confronted
with too many different decisions to make, too many options, tend to walk away from
that decision process and choose no options.

So, when you have a cluttered website and there’s too many things for people to click on, people often decide to click on nothing and leave your site, never to return.

And check it, the same goes for email sign-up forms. If there’s too much clutter on your website, people are not going to sign up for your mailing list because they’re going to be overwhelmed with too many options.

So, are you building your email list as your main priority?

If yes, congratulations! Go ahead and leave a comment below this video letting me know how it’s working for you.

If no, I want to hear about that, too. But I have a fair warning: I might make fun of you.

That said, do you know anyone who is not building their email list as their main priority? Go ahead and send them a link to this video to help change their mind. They’ll probably thank you and me later.

And here’s my blatant self promotion telling you to go to SocialTriggers.com to get on my email list because building my email is priority number one. Not only are you going to get more SocialTriggers TV episodes just like this, you’ll gain access to premium training material that I only make available for email list subscribers.

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143 comments Leave a comment
Lucky

This article was particluarly funny to read AFTER APRIL FOOL’S! LOL!! Totally bought it! Great April Fool’s post!

Dermot Gilley

Thank you for corroborating my thoughts (after initial worries as per your title …). Email is a one-on-one communication channel. Unlike blogs or Facebook or social media in general, tweets etc., which go out to anyone and contain the same content, emails can be sent to parts of your list with a twist. Once you know, the addressee is young or old, has a Ph.D. or dropped out of high school, is poor or rather rich, lives in a rural area or in a big city, depending on which way you can slice your email list, you can then serve individual content. If you know they bought a certain product you want to address them differently than if they haven’t yet. The list goes on. Any “public” media cannot do this. Which is why newsletters, by the way, are not exactly the same as email (if you don’t treat them the same out of laziness).

Aloha

For a minute I thought you were serious and wanted to slap myself! Im a complete Noob and am researching on how exactly do I build an email list -no, I dont have one yet, but if I did I was ready to delete it because if the beginning of this article. Building a Facebook paged seemed much easier to me, but thank you for breaking it down – makes sense now.

Nour Zibdeh

I’m in B-School and was listening to your module just today… and I thought, what? Why is he teaching me otherwise??? Nice joke, now off to learn on how to build my list. Thanks for the great module! Nour

Mas Elias

I TRUSTED YOU!!!!!!! ;__;

Hehe but you’re right. Download the ebook yesterday, so far so good. Thanks mang, love you (no homo).

Mike Pitt

Hi Derek,
I was thinking to myself, What? Derek Halpern ‘fell off!’ This is NOT right. Very glad that it was just a joke. Keep crushing it. Best, Mike

Julie Brett

I like you Derek. Every video I watch I suddenly have another thing to do. A good thing to do. Thanks.

Suzanne Perazzini

I shared this with my subscribers and clients and one of them emailed me to scold me for telling her to build her email list because Derek Halpern says not to. Some people only read the headlines. LOL.

marquita herald

Okay I admit it – I really hate April Fool’s – tell me the value outside of making outrageous declarations with the intention of pulling goofballs in who are silly enough to actually be focused on reading, learning and growing. Yes, I’m all for having fun – but there’s a time and place and I’ve decided from now on 4/1 is going to be designated a an “unplugged day.”

Fee

Whoa!! I waited until the end of the week to read your email because I thought WTF??? is this guy talking about. I have been absolutely horrible at building my email list until 2 months ago. I haven’t made much progress, but taking steps to get that fixed. My goal is to get 1,000 subscribers by June 1. I will start by reading and actually doing what is in your report !

AJ & Serenity Services

Hey Derek great April Fool’s joke! I definitely agree that it pays to build your email list and deliver great value to your subscribers. I for one thank you for all the value you deliver to us.

I also agree that you don’t want to have too much clutter or too many calls to action (CTAs). Otherwise your website visitors may end up confused, leave, and never return. I know my partner and I try to ensure a favorable visit for those that check out our website.

Kara Sorensen

Derek,

I just sent to my list for the first time in 2 years! I was afraid I would annoy my list and was too shy, so I avoided it. Foolishness! My people wanted to hear from me. I will work on building my list and sharing awesome content that helps my subscribers to help them make peace with food.

I have a very small following on my FB page, so I’m glad to know that email is QUEEN, ’cause I can do things to build it, whereas FB leaves me powerless.

Again, thank you for your video and expertise! It helps me help my people.

Best,

Kara

Kevin

This has to be the worst advice I’ve heard this year. Deleting your email list and replacing it with Facebook marketing is madness. Jumping onto the social media bandwagon, excluding other forms of marketing is the worst possible advice. Endless studies have confirmed that although Facebook and other social media channels certainly have an important place in marketing, email marketing, when done well is many times more effective than most. And to those that say email doesn’t work, simply aren’t doing it right.

As someone pointed out, the headline is likely an April fools joke. I hope so.

Fiona McAllister

I admit I was very skeptical, and I thought since you generally give sound advice, I thought I would read all the way through to see what your reasons were.

Because of you I have been inspired to get working on my email list. I don’t have it yet, but I soon will!

Patrick

I like to zig when everyone is zagging. So it got me thinking if everyone is focused on online conversion who then is being left on the opposite side of the spectrum. And i’m pretty much every marketing experts email list at first to gain advice but I started to notice a pattern. What about the local coffee shop, the mechanic, the barber shop…? If they are willing to shell out booku bucks for a crapy site, that let’s face it they only paid for because at the time everyone said you had to just get one and put it up. Forget that it doesn’t convert or attract traffic…hell in most cases in my town of 100,000 they haven’t been updated since I watched the Power Rangers. Then surely they would be willing to pay someone to show them how to convert foot traffic into an online email list and in the process develop a noteworthy online presence.

Right?!

So here’s my question…

How or what do you see your video benefiting the offline business? Do you know of any one helping those guys out specifically? I have no idea of what i’m doing yet but i’m starting some research on the subject of offline business email marketing list building and how to apply advice like yours for the local business who primarily depends on customers coming through the front door.

Kate

Haha! 🙂 That was so funny – I thought you’d lost your marbles for a moment there Derek. Pleased to hear you’ve still got them 🙂 and happy spring!

ScrewtheSystemJoe

Would be interested to see what, if any, value you place on Facebook Page Derek?
I get the primary importance of email list but how important do see a Facebook page as?

salvatore

Oh no,
I read only first part and removed my email list from my website and closed account on aweber. Only this morning I read the following … How I can recover my email list?

Jane

I love this!

David Boozer

Awesome! Or, in the 80’s phrases, RAD! Great piece Derek….

Devlin

HA, you definitely got me! The first thing I thought to myself was wait, how am I going to get updates from socialtriggers? Even though I clicked through from FB, haha. -_-

A question about email lists though, have you noticed a drop in opens with people using gmail. It seems like people start to forget the stuff that shows up in their promotional tab. I know you can move an e-mail to the primary tab, but I doubt most consumers actually now and/or do this. Just wondering what your thoughts or anyone else’s thoughts on this might be.

Denise

This was funny! As soon as I started reading I was already starting to wonder why you would do such a thing. I figured out a long time ago that Facebook page likes mean essentially nothing if they people aren’t engaged or really care about hearing from you. They ignore it or maybe look at your post but don’t interact so the insight numbers are skewed. I agree with you that focusing on an email list is a better investment of time and energy!

Janice

I’ve been totally focusing on Facebook and have been disappointed in the slow increase of “likes”. Time to start hitting e-mail hard. Thanks Derek.

Michael Ferguson

I am beyond furious with Facebook. I put enormous effort and money into creating my ‘like’ list only to have them destroy the ability to communicate with them and raise their ‘boost’ CPM to an unprofitable level. I wasted six months with them and there is nothing they can do to placate me. Even before I subscribed to social triggers I started transitioning my followers to an email list.

Oddly, with the potential of the Internet, finding your audience is still, by far, the greatest challenge.

Mike Gonzalez

When I started reading this via email I thought you’ve lost your mind.

Then I was questioning how dumb I was for falling for this.

Thanks, Derek!

Chris Green

I just deleted my list after reading your first paragraph … damn you !

Adam Connell

One of the better April Fools jokes that I’ve seen recently, Derek!

I wonder if anyone did actually just delete their email list – ha!

Angela

LOL that was hilarious!! I had suspicions it was an April Fool’s joke from the beginning though….

Joab

I love your stuff, but I almost lost complete respect for your judgment! Not the best marketing tactic…

Luke Coburn

I just followed you on Twitter but not email…just to screw up your stats 🙂

Dawn

That was hysterical Derek! I was thinking … I usually agree with you but this is so messed up … I can’t believe he is saying this. Then I read the punch line … i.e. APRIL FOOLS!

So perfect! Thanks for the laugh today!

Carol Amato

I can’t believe I believed that for a brief minute – I basically clicked to see who the idiot was… 😉

Stoked to focus on listbuilding, revving up for second quarter!

Have a good one!
– Carol Amato

Andrés

I almost delete you from my address book haha. I thought you were working for FB or they were pushing you against your will U got me on this one. Thanks for your great work.

Gabe

I started building my email list and two things happened: 1) More feedback about my products and 2) Started building REAL relationships with my customers. I never want to assume that I know what my customers what, I want to LEARN what my customers NEED and provide a real solution to help them through.

Liza Ingram

I’m just on the verge of launching my business and I’ve been studying your material for a year now. I’ve been building my email list according to your advice.
Very clever, I was completely fooled. But I wasn’t going to delete my email list. I thought that facebook must have started paying you. A lot.
Good one!

Amy

I’m loving your training vids and info! I’ve only just been introduced to you! I totally thought instagram and Facebook were number one priorities! I’m about to add opt in on website.

But im interested in if you think there is any point having a Facebook account at all?

Thanks!!!

Geniece Brown

Good one Derek! I seriously laughed out loud on this. I was thinking: “Oh no and part of my business is about email marketing so I’m doomed!” Funny. Your emails and blog posts are not only helpful but hilarious. Thanks!!

Matt

Copyblogger recently decided as an expiriment to eliminate comments on their site and to bring the conversations to social media. I really thought that this was just another new innovation. Talk about headlines that grab attention.

Mark

Best piece of content marketing I have ever seen. Headline. Delivery. Content. Timing. Twist. Call to action. I liked and commented on your page and here is my blog comment.

Tracey Cooper-Durrani

I had to go back to the top of the email and double check who had sent this ..I told myself, this can’t be coming from a very successful and well known internet marketing? Has he lost his marbles?? hahah
Thank Goodness it was a joke phew… Good one!

Vicky Lyashenko

This is, by far the best April Fool’s Joke ever!! But I knew it 😉 ha ha! Great stuff, as always, Derek!

Lynn Thames

Reading this I was thinking, “Gee, I thought Derek told us to build our email lists, not our Facebook pages.” Duh. April Fool’s to you too!

david

I was about to start a rant that would make even my face turn red! Got me!

Vera Raposo

I think this marks my first comment here. At first I was thinking … well he still has his pop up thingy going so he hasn’t gotten to that yet (lol) then as I read your post I thought …. was the heck has he been drinking? and then … your picture laughing …. that is THE best! Thanks for the laugh!!!

Richard

ok. so I’m in Australia and it’s not the 1st of April , but the 2nd of April……

so yesterday i was on Guard for this sort of stuff ….My BS meter was on “FULL”

so I’M reading through my morning emails ….and BAM …. Im reading , reading …and thinking “WHAAATT”…… has someone hit Derek with a “DUMB” stick or something….. and then you got me ….I had my guard down , and he sucker punched me……. Dude that’s like getting two bites of the cherry……the 1st and 2nd ……., ok …you win !!

Cheers

    Geof

    Richard, I’m like you in Australia and I read it on the 2nd. I wasn’t on the look out for April Fools jokes either. I read it twice and then read it again as I thought a)Derek was either having a breakdown b) the world had changed on its axis overnight, or c) someone from Facebook was doing another round of investing this time with Derek.
    So congrats Derek, USA:2 Australia:0

Sam

Too funny, Derek, but I’m glad that I got to the punch line before I hit unsubscribe. Haha I had just decided to quite reading and unsubscribe from you mail list, but alas, I hit the punch line. I’m a newbie here and I thought that I miss read your genius! Seems you are still on point! Rock_On! -Sam

Jamie

Jeez. I thought I was going to have to stop following you. Facebook indeed. Best April Fool’s ever! (Except for that time I filled up my Dad’s sugar bowl with salt. That was good.)

Jen

I thought you’d gone crazy for a minute…awesome joke!

Robb Gorringe

Derek,

Does anyone know how to re-activate my Aweber account?

Sweet post. 😉

Robb

Christine

We have over 10,000 on our email list and have no idea what to do with it. We send out a newsletter – nothing happens.

Benny

GREAT email! I almost fell for it… pulled a joke on my own FB followers on my personal page telling them I sold my toy shop to a bigger company for $750K… so many people believed it, it got me thinking about the value of my own shop. Really crazy,. My family is emailing me telling me they’re proud of me… I’m like “Guys, it’s April 1. Nothing happened.” sheesh. Anyway funny email, keep it coming. I’m tossing around the idea of JUST using G+ exclusively as a newsletter-style system for updates from my bennykline.com website, which is a new property for me… wonder what your thoughts on that are? I’d be building a list, same way. Except it’d be a Circle in G+.

Darlene

That WAS NOT funny! Actually, it was VERY funny. Thanks for keeping all of us on our toes!!!!!

Jay

Searched for the “search” box on your site did not find it. Forgive me if you have already answered this.

What email programs do you suggest?

Michelle

Holy shizballs, you bugger!!! You got me BIG TIME!! I started reading and threw my hands up in despair!! I was thinking “are you KIDDING me?”, “why is he jumping to FB?!?! What??!!

Colette Nichol

Two lines in on this e-mail and I was about to send YOU an e-mail telling you that deleting your e-mail list was the stupidest thing you could possibly do and that focusing on Facebook over e-mail is essentially deciding that you want to go work for Facebook. WOW, was I relieved when I discovered you were kidding!

Bianca Forbes

Man you are too funny Derek! You had me fooled for real.
Nice one 😀

Sheikh Basit

I DELETED MY EMAIL LIST BECAUSE OF THAT! OMG! I DIDN’T EVEN HAD A BACKUP!

Cynd

Fun! I read the first few lines and thought “ohh, umm, okay. I trust this guy, so…. And besides he pays $300 to his stylist, and I am a stylist so I love that”. lol

Bharat Tekwani

As so many comments already mentioned this…

You got me on this one – I was like “WTF, why would he do it? Let’s see if he has done some interesting test to figure-out that says fb pages are more reliable than email list or something…”

Phil

I was like, what the hell?

I read a little further down the page and…

You got me!

Vinny O'Hare

Well played! Totally got me, and yes I can see you laughing at me.

Alice Dymally

LOL. When I read the first half of the email I was like – what the heck is Derek talking about? Why would he tell people that?? LOL. Good one….

Edwin Soler

Ok, you REALLY got me on that one. I was like, what the heck is Derek doing?!?!?!?! I almost unsubscribed because I thought you were really serious but then saw the prank. Then I kept reading and said, good, he’s not serious.

Star Khechara

Blimey Derek!

Seeing this after just watching your video in B School nearly gave me apoplexy!!!!

Crisis averted 🙂

Kater

Oh man! And I just added 75 loyal buyers to my email list this week! I’m so glad I don’t have to tell them to go “Like” my goshdarn Facebook page. Love your mind. Maybe your fushia shirt too.

Switchtoecig

Well I got my share of April Fools joke, so nobody can fool me. (Yeah, right. It’s a good thing I read everything to the very end:)

Max Minzer

Derek, do you mind sharing a link to the “attention” study that you mentioned in the video? Thank you!

Gavin

Wait. What?!
Oh, I see what you’re doing there.
Tricksy Hobbitses!

Marian Strickland

Haaa haaa! For a brief second I bought into your headline, then, as I just got back from a meeting with my web team about implementing every single thing you suggested on the second module in B school, I figured it out!
I am definitely an E mail list for business believer.

Robin

Building an e-mail list is IMPOSSIBLE!! I’ve been beating my head against a wall for two YEARS and I’m LUCKY if I get one sign up a MONTH!! I have an opt-in box at the top of my side bar, with links on my home page and About pages to blog updates. I’ve paid so-called internet marketers to analyze my site to see what’s wrong, and no one comes back with anything constructive! I’m ready to fling the whole thing into the river! HELP PLEASE!!! ;-/

    Derek Halpern

    I write about this extensively on ST. Read through some of my past articles and watch some of my past videos.

    Bianca Forbes

    Maybe it’s because your banging your head against the wall! You need to use the computer not throw it in the river….unless of course…your pulling an April fools joke too 😉

      Derek Halpern

      killing me bianca. lol.

William Williams

Wow! I was fooled! I’ve just finished doing everything you’ve said to increase my mailing list signups including a beautiful new (and annoying) popup.

And I was having exciting results: 4-5 signups per day, which is great for my niche.

And then… wah wah Throw away my list?? AAAAAaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!

But you’re right having a specific list of targeted readers is the best.

Thanks for the joke. I trust your advice so much, I totally bought into the joke!

Paul Colaianni

Dammit, I was hoping this was for realz! It’s so much easier to build a FB following…

ɯooq oɔɯǝɹ

(-: ʞǝɹǝp uʍop ǝpısdn pןɹoʍ ǝɥʇ sɐʍ sıɥʇ ʇɐɥʇ pǝɹnbıɟ ı

Kali

Haha love it! And totally agree with everything said about building an e-mail list. Thanks Derek!

Zybella

I loved your e-mail – real creative. I never tried e-mail marketing before,- but you kind of made me curious. How do I build an e-mail list if the websites I advertise don’t offer news letters?

Lou Johnson

Derek, I’m now in the habit of taking satisfied client’s e-mail addresses and putting them into my e-mail program. Thanks, Derek.

Kelly Edmonds

You brat!!! I just took your ‘blog that converts’ course and was thinking… what? Just about had kittens.

Kelly

Robbie

Lol, I thought your account had gotten hacked. Dumbass

Glen Craig

It’s obvious Derek is way behind. The thing you want to build these days is a MySpace account! Those guys rock!!

I didn’t concentrate on my email list enough when I started or even later on when I knew I needed one (but didn’t really know what to do with it). But I’ve slowly come around to really putting time into my list to see what works.

Wendy Tomlinson

Ha ha, I was shocked when I read the beginning. Made me read on though. I so wish I’d started my mailing list sooner.

Teresa

I forgot what day it was and got totally sucked in – then laughed hysterically. The photo of you bending over laughing at dummies like me was a nice touch. Good one.

Jason Gracia

You got me. I opened up the email with my eyes wide and jaw dropped.

Nice one…

    Derek Halpern

    Yes!

Dodie Jacobi

I read quickly to see what on earth would inform your recommendation!
Two years ago, I committed to building my email list and blog followers, and the results are in: 30% increase in gross income the first year; 40% the second – all while working less and increasing my overhead only nominally. Though my site’s visitor can choose to signup for blog OR email, I drive traffic first to the email list for all the reasons you know; the powah to instigate and engage conversations via email. When I want to try something new: I turn to my email list. When I want to promote an event or campaign – my favorite audience is ready to read and react. This year, with room for only a handful more face-time clients, I’m projecting at least 100% increase as I’m finally ready to use these tactics for the new scalable part of my business. This is so much fun experimenting and winning.

Lynsey

Derek, I was afraid you’d fallen and hit your head! “Is he ok? Do I have to help Derek understand his own advice?” “ah, April 1st. Thank God!”

Happy April Fool’s, cheeky monkey!

Ingrid

I was thinking… is he being sarcastic??…. Oh April fools! That was a good one.

Well, I had only started to build my facebook page in Oct of last year, so I have only wasted 4 months of my life. What’s worse is that I can’t even pay to advertise on facebook and frankly I feel to exhausted to figure out what they want. I rather invest in building my email list and giving my peeps what they want instead of what facebook wants.

Thanks for the jokes!

Zach

Derek thnx, brotha, hilarious and you almost got me!

I need to add my drop down box again. I tested a landing page but it didn’t convert too well…. Gonna get that drop box / pop up again

I made my blog much cleaner as well, but, ryan diess tested this as well and survival life blog did better when it was busier / cluttered

I’ve noticed my comments are WAY down compared to maybe 6-12 mos ago

I feel that peeps have a tougher time commenting now that they are so engaged on facebook….

Any thoughts here, brotha?

THNX!

Joy Healey

Oh for goodness sake !!! I actually went sick in my stomach after I’ve been banging on about how important list-building is.

You certainly “got” me LOL.

Thank goodness I read to the end 🙂

Joy

Tegan || Happy Healthy Whole

I cant believe I fell for that even though it made NO sense at all!!!

Grace

You are one sick puppy, Derek Halpern. Guess that’s why I luv ya kiddo! LOL

Michael M Dickson

Haha, I thought you finally lost your damn mind!

By the time I got to the end of your post I had two or three potential ideas how I was going to pick up the members of your email list you just pissed off!

But then…drat.

🙂

Antone

april Fool!!!???
nice one

Jessica

Aw man, I get suckered by one of these jokes every year! This was it, Derek.

But hey, it sure shows that you’ve built up enough credibility that so many people took you seriously, even if only for a minute. Nice!

Dan

Sure glad I caught the end of your email as I was scrolling down to unsubscribe from your email list. For a minute I forgot what day it was and you were almost history for me. I thought – this guy has really lost it. If I EVER even considered doing a Facebook page – someone has permission to shoot me. Whew!

Donia

Wow – you actually got me! I was reading your email for this blog post and thinking “What the frack? This guy must not be as smart and savvy as I thought when I first subscribed a month ago… I’m obviously going to have to unsubscribe!”

BUT because I’m someone who actually reads something relevant to my art business in its entirety, I didn’t just click “delete” and “unsubscribe” …and so I have to say thank you for making me smile this morning 🙂 Well played.

(and I guess, the joke was on me twice, because I wouldn’t have had to “unsubscribe” if you were deleting your list anyway 😛 )

Chris

Frankly, even from a business perspective it doesn’t make much sense to me that Facebook is doing this. I understand that they want people to pay for ads, but there’s got to be a better way to accomplish that to make a win/win situation. In the long run, they are likely going to do more hurt to themselves than good if they keep this up.

Inesa

Well done, you got me there.
I thought to my self, no way he just wrote that… I’m building my list and he goes FB? no way.
So happy to realize it is an AF joke.

Cheers,
I

Bryan

Got me. This made me laugh hysterically. Not sure I was laughing because it was so amusing or because I was so relieved you weren’t serious. Probably a little of both. Thanks for the laugh!

Vernon

Yeah for a second I thought you had jumped the shark and gone crazy. Good joke that I just stole for my list. I send people to your video about building an email list often. Still very valid.

Andrea

When I opened up my email, I thought you lost your mind! Good one Derek! Made me smile to say the least

    Derek Halpern

    Haha

Tamara McCleary

Dang it! For ONE minute I felt smarter than you! (Super bummer!) THAT was a good April Fool’s joke! I actually just ditched my fan page and started a personal page to be able to communicate more directly with colleagues and an audience devoted to biz, entrepreneurship etc. At least with a personal page there’s the ability to reach OUT to people of like-mind and interests. Hey… if you want to FRIEND me instead of FAN me… look me up! I just started the page so I’m super popular with 7 friends already! Watch out Derek here I come! 🙂

Ann

As I was reading, I was thinking….He’s lost it.

Sergio Sala

This just in:

Aweber and Mailchimp are suing Derek Halpern for losing hundred of clients.

Frank

Despite thinking I was prepared to avoid falling for an AF joke, you got me – good one!

Susanna

Hahaha, too funny. When I saw the headline my first thought was, “Derek has lost his mind.” Then I realized what day it is. . . 🙂

Maia

Well, I knew there was something to that email. Totally forgot about today being that day you can’t believe any internet headlines 😉

List building is the priority.

    Derek Halpern

    😀

Carrie Jolie Dale

You got me….I actually found myself triggered by social triggers. Good one!

Trevor

I deleted my email list when I read you headline… After reading your email I wish I hadn’t done that…

    Derek Halpern

    lol

erin pickering

LOL! I thought you had lost your mind – or else FB had paid one awesome sum of money to say that!! 🙂
erin

Sarena

I almost fell out of my chair.
Good one!

Cathy

Good one! You almost had me!

Jill B

You have ingrained into me how important an email list is, so I saw the joke coming- but it is still an awesome one.

    Derek Halpern

    That means I’m doing my job 😉

Rachel Amanda

Well played sir, well played. My favorite April Fool’s joke so far.

Nikol Murphy

Derek,
What is up with not having a sharing option for Google+?
Now I have to copy the link… and then paste it…
So. Much. Work. 😉

Kenneth Holland

For a second I thought you were sniffing glue Derek!

    Derek Halpern

    IF this was serious, I was probably sniffing something a lot more serious than that.

Fit Missy

Great joke!

totally fell for it! 🙂

Shaun

You’re hilarious. I was like “what?! Is he serious.” Then laughed when I saw you laughing. Lol. Good one Derek.

(Btw, I got here from your tweet on my mobile device. Just FYI)

Matthew Kostanecki

Nice Derek!

Love the “Clutter is the #1 conversion killer” quote too.

Gabe Johansson

This is just pure epicness.

I’m about to drop everything but YouTube, but that would almost make sense because I’ve chatted with many who do YouTube full time.

But really, I won’t. Email + blog + YouTube is a good combo though. Ha.

Ross McCay

When I first saw you post this on Twitter I was very intrigued. Now I know why, haha. Good post Derek.

    Derek Halpern

    🙂

Sean

Stay tuned for Derek’s next post:

“How I got 452 new subscribers from a joke, OR, making April Fools work for you.”

🙂

Luke Guy

For a minute there I thought you had lost it Derek, don’t scare us like that 🙂

    Derek Halpern

    If I ever say something like this seriously, I would hope one of my friends would punch me in the stomach.

Tung Tran

Lol I almost deleted my email list

    TJ Nelson

    Just deleted mine actually…. Damn….

    😉

    Of course not.

    sean vosler

    this kills the internet marketing

    Win

    Well well you’re smarter than that! 🙂

    Derek Halpern

    No, don’t do that.

      Shun

      LOL…you got me…I knew something wasn’t right about this!

      Josh Isaak

      Tung! haha

        Max Nachamkin

        Haha got me, Derek.

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