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Last month I posted about Barnes & Nobles tedious process for unsubscribing from their email newsletters. It was so complex that I honestly coudn't even figure out why I was receiving emails to begin with. By all appearances I was not subscribed to anything. This was confirmed after a couple of submissions to tech support, they also told me that I had already unsubscribed. Phew!

But then today, guess what lands in my inbox? Too easy, huh? It was yet another email newsletter from our friends at B&N.com.

My first thought was, "Here we go again." I quickly scroll to the bottom of the page and find the so-called unsubscribe links:

How to unsubscribe: This message was sent to stoney@polepositionweb.com on October 9, 2007. If you no longer wish to receive promotional email from Barnes & Noble, please click here [link removed]. If you have a Barnes&Noble.com account, you can also log in [link removed] to your account and follow the instructions under Change Your Communications Preferences.

I didn't notice if that was any different than the message at the bottom of all their other emails so I simply hit the "click here" link. You could say I was surprised when I was taken to this screen:

Barnes and Noble Unsubscribe

Could it really be this easy? I mean, yeah, it should be this easy, but it was so haaaaard before! Sure enough, one click and I'm told that I'm unsubscribed:

Barnes and Noble Unsubscribe

Though 10 days does seem long a long time to be removed from the list. That should be automatic. But still, I'm impressed.

So, just for fun I wanted to see what the process was like by logging in. I clicked the "log in" link in the email and was brought here:

Barnes and Noble Unsubscribe

Well, this is new. I logged in and was taken to an account screen. I quickly found the "Communication Preferences" area that gave me a couple of options:

  • Change Your Communications Preferences
  • Change Your Keep Me Posted! Newsletters and Alerts

The first option sent me to a page that le's me change if or how I want to be communicated with. Notice the yes/no options about receiving any kind of communications at all. By default my options were yes and well, contact me any way you can. Not what I expected to see after unsubscribing, but they did say it would take ten days!

Barnes and Noble Unsubscribe

The real disappointment set in when I click the link to change my "Keep me Posted" options. As you can see below this is the same sorry "we'll email you a link" scenario that I came across before.

Barnes and Noble Unsubscribe

Barnes & Noble needs to take a lesson from itself. All communication options should have a two-click (or less) unsubscribe option. But for now, I'm just happy they got it half right.


Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

Comments (2)

Have you checked to see if they have an affiliate program? I have had this same thing happen with other sites. As soon as you unsubscribe, it seems that another affiliate picks up your info and runs with it. Barns and Noble must be saving your info in their data base and passing it along.

I'm certain that I don't have an affiliate account with them, but Not sure what they are doing with my info.

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Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.

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Stoney deGeyter founded Pole Position Marketing in 1998 working from a home office and has since turned it into a leading search engine marketing business with a small team of seasoned Reno SEO and marketing experts. Stoney pioneered the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing which is the driving philosophy on how Pole Position marketing helps their clients expand their online presence and improve online conversion rates.

Stoney is a moderator at the Small Business Ideas Forum, a regular contributor to the Search Engine Guide blog and has a monthly column on Search Engine Land. He posts his SEO and business insights at the E-Marketing Performance blog where you can also find his e-books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective Strategies for Building, Optimizing and Marketing your Website Online and Keyword Research and Selection: The Definitive Guide to Gathering, Sorting and Organizing your Keywords into a High-Performance SEO Campaign.

Stoney is married with five wonderful children and, if away from the computer long enough, enjoys riding his dirt bike, watching DVDs, reading books and spending quality and quantity time with the family.