Unsubscribing, properly
Stop unwanted post arriving at all, instead of deleting the same email every week for ever.
If you delete the same newsletter every Tuesday, you will be deleting it every Tuesday for the rest of your life. The message was never the problem; the list is.
It is always at the bottom, in small gray writing, under the address and the legal lines. That is not an accident, but it is required to be there.
Key points
- Find the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of a marketing email and finish the job on the second press
- Tell the difference between a company you have dealt with and a complete stranger, and treat them differently
- Mark as junk, or block outright, without sending anything back to the sender
What to remember
- The link is always at the bottom, and the page it opens usually needs one more press to confirm.
- A store you have dealt with: unsubscribe. A complete stranger: mark as junk. That one line covers nearly every case you will meet.
- Marking as junk teaches your mail. Blocking is stronger and worth keeping for the ones that persist.
Try this
Pick the three newsletters that irritate you most this week and unsubscribe from all three. It takes about four minutes and the inbox is noticeably quieter within two weeks.
Practice: Unsubscribing, properly. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.