Yesterday I wrote about an “unwilling unsubscribe” issue that’s been haunting me for a few years. I asked readers for suggestions on how I can keep good subscribers from getting accidentally kicked off ActiveCampaign.
Lots of people replied with lots of good ideas.
But a fair number of people also pitched me on switching from ActiveCampaign to Ben Settle’s BerserkerMail service.
From what I can tell, many of those people don’t actually use BerserkerMail themselves. Instead, they just berserk on behalf of Ben about how great BerserkerMail is.
I’ve never used BerserkerMail and have no plans to switch. I thought somebody out there might want to know why. Three reasons:
#1. Switching would be a pain in the ass.
One reader wrote me yesterday to say how easy it is to switch over to BerserkerMail “in just a few clicks.” That sounded like a kid trying to sell his parents on a weeklong trip to Disneyland by saying “it’s only a 4-hour flight away.”
Looking at the flight time only ignores all the packing… the booking of the hotel… the taking of the dog to the dog kennel and watching his big eyes as he accuses you of abandoning him… and the fallout at work after a week away and a few thousand accumulated small fires that have gone untended.
In less Disneylandy terms:
I have a few dozen automations set up in ActiveCampaign that run a large part of my product delivery.
I have a few dozen integrations with my website membership software… with optin forms in various places… with my cart software.
And I suspect that, in spite of the “just a few clicks” to switch my contact list to BerserkerMail, I would still be left with days of prep work and weeks or months of things breaking and me having to fix them.
And if that’s not enough…
#2. BerserkerMail has the same problems I want to run away from.
A couple people tried to sell me on how “simple” BerskerMail is to use. But I’ve never had a problem with ActiveCampaign because it’s complex.
I have had a problem with ActiveCampaign when it crashed right when I ran a classified ad and got hundreds of new subscribers in a matter of hours.
I’ve had a problem with it when I scheduled an email that never got sent out — still my one missed day of emailing in the past 5+ years.
In other words, I’ve had a problem with ActiveCampaign because of occasional reliability and tech issues.
But BerserkerMail has its own reliability and tech issues. I know, because people who use BerserkerMail have told me so, and because Ben has written about BerserkerMail’s tech issues in his own emails.
It’s kind of like that famous Disneyland commercial on TV:
“Are you tired of your kids screaming at home? Take them for a weeklong vacation to Disneyland and have them scream here! It’s only a 4-hour flight away and buying the tickets is super simple.”
(By the way, as for unsub issue I wrote about yesterday, it seems the most likely culprit is simply Gmail and Apple Mail unsubscribe features. If that’s the case, it would affect BerserkerMail emails the same as those sent from any other service.)
#3. I already have an easy-to-use, technically reliable alternative to ActiveCampaign.
It’s not BerserkerMail.
Instead, it’s Beehiiv, which I used for my health newsletter.
I loved everything about Beehiiv so much that I actually thought about switching this newsletter to use Beehiiv. I decided against it because of point 1 above.
However, if I do ever start any new newsletters, they will go on Beehiiv by default.
If you want to start a new newsletter, you can try out Beehiiv at the link below.
I won’t try to sell you on Beehiiv, beyond saying it’s free — not just during a 30-day trial period like BerserkerMail, but forever — as long as you’re below 2,500 subscribers, and you don’t start coveting advanced features like the referral program and the ad network.
If you want to try out just how simple it is to sign up to Beehiiv, and how pleasant, and how short of a flight it is: