BEWARE National Gallery Members!!!

The National Gallery is doing something I am sure is illegal. 

My guess is James Beardsworth-Shaw, Head of Loyalty at the National Gallery has not read the law and regulations around ecommerce and subscriptions. 

I am pretty sure that my Art Business Info for Artists page about e-commerce for artists covers cover the specific aspect that went "Kerpinnngggg" about distance selling and ecommerce in my head when I read my subscription reminder from the National Gallery just now.

Here is what is wrong

This is what I read - in the middle of the letter. Not up top where people skim read before deciding to read the rest.  

It was the £185 which got my attention first. 

• I don't pay that amount of money to an annual subscription organisation I visit regularly - for exhibitions only. 
• The RA lost my subscription when they started a hefty building programme and getting silly with subscriptions. 
• Looks like the National Gallery will now go the same way

That's right it says 

To ensure you continue to enjoy everything the Gallery has to offer, your Membership will AUTOMATICALLY RENEW to a House Membership Plus Guest on 1 November 2025 for an annual payment of £185, so you don't need to do anything.

The extra bold and capitals and change of colour is to draw attention to the fatal flaw in what I'm sure Mr Beardsworth-Shaw will come to regret.

He's adding in an additional service without requiring explicit agreement - and automatically chargeing people for this service. That's FRAUD!

To continue on the current basis I have to fill in an additional online form.

To renew to Exhibition Membership Plus Guest, please complete this short online form. Your new Exhibition Membership would start on 1 November 2025 and cost £123 annually.

So basically - do absolutely nothing, as most annual subscribers do every year - and you will get charged an extra £63 for something you have NOT said you wanted or explicitly consented to.

I KNEW this was wrong.

IT IS EXACTLY THE WRONG WAY AROUND.

You cannot change the terms of a contract - which is what a subscription is - without the EXPLICIT CONSENT of the customer.

To confirm this, as a short cut, I asked Google this question

Can you upgrade a subscription via online marketing without explicit consent of the person who is the subscriber?

Google AI answer follows - and said exactly what I expected!

No, you generally cannot upgrade a subscription via online marketing without explicit consent from the subscriber. Data protection laws, like the UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), require clear, affirmative, and freely given consent before any direct marketing activities, including promoting upgrades. Simply sending an upgrade offer without active permission would violate these regulations, as consent cannot be implied, pre-ticked, or assumed from previous interaction

AND

Clear and Affirmative Action:
Consent must involve an active step from the individual, such as ticking an unchecked box, rather than passive acceptance or pre-ticked boxes 

Which means:

• I'm right
• Tomorrow I will be reporting the National Gallery to the relevant authority.
• I may just notify the news media re this - to access the membership at large

What they are doing is STRICTLY ILLEGAL. 

My recollection is such offences come  with a hefty fine and/or a prison sentence.

You must provide certain information if you’re selling goods or services through digital TV, by mail order or by phone or text message. This is called distance selling.

If you do not follow the rules you could be made to provide the goods or services as agreed, pay compensation or be given an unlimited fine or a prison sentence.

The National Gallery would do well to STOP ALL COLLECTION OF SUBSCRIPTIONS AS A MATTER OF URGENCY until such time as they have adjusted their system to only collect the ongoing exhibitions subscription.

I am not any sort of legal eagle but I'd recommend that the National Gallery read the 

• Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations
• the regulations relating to Sale of goods and services and data protection
• THE CONSUMER RIGHTS(PAYMENT SURCHARGES)REGULATIONS 2012

How to subscribe to "Making A Mark" - and get an email in your inbox

Would you like to get an email to your inbox every time a post is published on Making A Mark?

Earlier this year, I wrote about how the changes in the rules by Google regarding bulk emails sent by gmail were going to have a major impact on my blogging. I speculated at the time about giving up blogging altogether - as I originally built my audience entirely via the RSS feed.

See ALERT ALL SUBSCRIBERS: Blogging Service may be interrupted OR subscription mailing service changed

To cut a long story short since I only use gmail and have done for the last two decades, I wasn't about to give up on my very reliable, very efficient gmail service.

Instead:

• I gave up on Mailerlite which said I could no longer use a gmail address for my RSS Feed to Email sent to subscriber inboxes.
• I also continued to post regularly to my Making A Mark Facebook Page when a post was published - and all the conversations which used to take place in comments now take place there.
• ...and looked around for alternative arrangements - and was absolutely horrified at the prices being charged for people with as many subscribers as I have!

In the end I've settled on using Follow.it - which is not perfect. Mainly because it's got adverts which I dislike intensely but I have no choice about these for a free service. I may well upgrade - but this in part depends on how many subscribers I get. Believe me offering a subscription service does not come cheap for the more sophisticated versions!

However Follow.It works - and that's the main thing.

• I'm using it for my botanical art and artists website news blog - and have had no reports of any problems.
• it's been set up in the side column of this blog for a few days - and it seems as if people are starting to subscribing without any prompting and without any problems

So if you want to subscribe - or even resubscribe - to Making A Mark can I suggest you complete the form below (or the one in the side column to the right). 

What you have to do to subscribe follows....

READ THIS: If you get emails from Making A Mark

I've finally committed to a new email subscription service for Making A Mark - and I've decided to go with Mailer Lite. 

What I'd like you to do now - if you are an existing subscriber (i.e. receiving an email everytime I publish a new blog post) - is ask you to PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AGAIN  

This is because my subscriber list dates back some 15 years and I think a number of subscribers are no longer "live" - literally and/or figuratively - and I'd like to get back to a clean subscriber list. 

BELOW is what the top of the new email will look like - when you SUBSCRIBE to the new Mailer Lite Subscription list.

It will come from the email I use for contact purposes - and the sender is 'Making A Mark Publications'.

What the top of the email will look like

THE SHORT VERSION

 

If viewing on a mobile/cell phone 

please click the CAPTION underneath the image and this will take you to a screen where you see a live version of this email subscription form and can complete it

I'd like to complete this form

 
PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS when you get the verification email - otherwise you won't get email updates.

 

If viewing on a desktop or tablet 

Please go to the side column and use the subscription form there.

Or, do as suggested above and click the caption which says  I'd like to complete this form and complete the form on a separate screen.

If you're still getting emails via Feedburner

I'd be surprised - because the email subscription list disappeared today - hence this post. 

However, all you need to do is unsubscribe from Feedburner AFTER you have subscribed via the new subscription form - and that way you won't get two emails about the same post.

THE LONG VERSION

Today has been devoted to yet another attempt to find a substitute service for the really easy to use and set up Feedburner.

I've come to the conclusion - after seeing awful adverts on Follow.It that Mailer Lite is a superior service which offers a much more business-like service. Plus it gets a lot of rave reviews from people who have been looking in the RSS feed to email conundrum post Feedburner.

Mailer Lite is actually quite sophisticated - with some very helpful videos

SO.......

You need to resubscribe to Making A Mark

I could import all my current subscribers - and I've got nearly 2,000 subscribers (via Feedburner) 

BUT I'M NOT GOING TO ADD THEM TO MAILER LITE subscriber database 

This is because:

• I suspect there are any number of reasons why some are not opening their emails (eg changed email address / died / no longer using the internet as much or just not opening their emails!)
• I get charged if I go over 1,000 subscribers! So an incentive to stay under....

I've also got to sort out other email subscriber services for other sites and I still am not entirely clear whether the charge is per campaign site or per the overall number of subscribers - so I may well end up paying out anyway. However, I'd like to avoid paying out unnecessarily.

Profuse apologies to all those who signed up to Follow.it - I'll be writing to you all personally! 

and finally......

Mailer Lite is very new to me and I'm not entirely sure I've got it right yet.

DO LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS!

What next for Feedburner email subscriptions?

On April 14, 2021, Google announced that Feedburner would be losing its email subscription service. Which means that my regular email to those who have subscribed with the latest blog post title and the first 200 characters of the blog post will be no more....

If you’d like to continue using email subscriptions after the June transition, we recommend downloading email subscriber data so that you can migrate your subscribers to a new email subscription service. This data will also be available for download after the transition.

I'm absolutely sure I'm not the only regular Blogger and Feedburner user wondering what to do about a replacement.

[Note: Apparently Google intends to remove all non-core functionality and make it maintenance only - which conflicts with what they're saying re. the removal of the email subscriptions - because that's the only reason I used it - that and the fact it's free!]

Feedburner email subscriptions stop in July 2021

Switching to an alternative for Feedburner email subscriptions

What I want to do is migrate to a Feedburner alternative which

• Provides me with a free service (like Feedburner)
• Allows me to import all existing validated emails from Feedburner
• Allows a subscription for RSS Feed to email subscription option (i.e. replace what I've got at present)
• Works with all existing RSS services (like Feedburner) - for those who like to read blogs in Feedreaders (like Blogger's Reading List)
  
• Gives me some basic statistics. (I have other services which provide me with in-depth stats. All Feedburner tells me is how many subscribers opened the emails).
  

I'm still trying to work out what to do about the imminent (in July) demise of the Feedburner email to all those who have subscrived to date. 

I've actually got so many subscribers that it very definitely makes some alternatives rather expensive - and I'm running a blog NOT a business!

Some Issues

 

Email marketing is targeting ecommerce not blogger

Most of the email subscription marketing options are set up to provide an "occasional newsletter / marketing via email" facility for those who have websites and want to communicate with their followers from time to time

i.e. they're set up for ecommerce operations and not for bloggers

You know when you're dealing with one of these when:

• EITHER there's a limit on 
• the number of subscribers
• the number of feeds
• the number of emails you can send in a month
• OR you have to pay a charge - - which can mount up - to enable you to carry on as at present.

Another thing - not everybody opens their email

Why should I pay for people who do not open their emails?

As we well know, people are apt to sign up for email subscriptions - and then don't bother validating them and/or reading the emails. I certainly do NOT want to pay for a service which is charging me for those who have subscribed but do not bother to open their emails.

For me this is all the more reason to find a good quality basic service - or a very cheap one.

One more thing - migrate or sign up again?

I could migrate all current subscribers - BUT..... there's a bit of me which would quite like to get people to sign up all over again. That way I will know what the number of 'real subscribers" are.

Or maybe I should just use Twitter more to signal new posts

I already announce everyone via my FB Page....

 

Possible contenders

Below I tell you about my favourite option(s) to date 

There's also a summary of some Feedburner Email Subscription Alternatives - plus a link to a post which includes a very useful tabulation to help you decide.

Why email subscriptions make sense

In an era when the social media giants sometimes makes it MORE difficult to hear from people you want to read, email subscriptions provide a lot of value in terms of connecting to those artists and sites that you like.

I guess like many other people I'm finding it a LOT more difficult to connect with people on Facebook:

• I know people are posting on Pages that my Making A Mark Facebook Page has liked and yet I don't have a clue when that has happened or what it's about! I'm very miffed!!
• if you don't post very often - you're even less likely to connect with others.
• if your followers don't connect with you - by leaving a like or a comment - it's even less likely that they'll hear again from you in future.

In addition, I really don't have the time to read through all my different feeds on Instagram and Twitter (I do have lists set up) - so picking up news about what people are up to can be a bit haphazard.

However I do add feeds from blogs to my Blogger Reading List - which is great for picking up all recent posts. (Read Manage blogs you follow - to read more about how it works)

What I do like however are the emails to blogs or websites which have proved their worth in the past in terms of content and news.

Be smart and astute when signalling emails

Those who are astute enough to precisely signal what the content of their email about get my vote. 
Being "astute" means generating:

• a really good headline which clearly signals the topic of the email (or blog post)
• an "on point" first sentence and certainly first 200 characters
• focusing on one topic per post

Here's a couple of examples

The first is today's post on my Botanical Art and Artists - News Blog

Blogger allows 200 characters for a shortened feed
Using a shortened feed means your blog posts can't be used unscrupulously
by scammers - as content on blogs trying to make money

The second is what my last Making A Mark blog post looked like in my list of emails - note how critical blog post headlines are to the likelihood of being opened.

Really good headlines enable me to sift and sort those emails I want to open and those I'll pass on this time. Those who are "astute" - and think about their headlines - are more likely to get read.

I don't mind getting lots of emails from some people - because of the interest and value of content when I do - even if I don't always want to read everyone.

Why email marketing makes sense

Email marketing has consistently proven to be effective at connecting those who want to promote themselves or their product/service with those who want to hear about it

Any other sort of marketing is essentially has a scattergun effect. You pump it out and hope it gets seen by the right people.

With a subscriber list, people have expressed an interest in reading more about what you write. Although sometimes they don't understand the breadth of your blog and think all blog posts will be more of the same in relation to the one that triggered their interest

If you weed your subscribers periodically, (i.e. by deleting all those who have never verified) you know you are sending messages to those who WANT to hear what you have to say - and how many of them there are.

I go through Feedburner (which is an RSS feed service not a full fledged email service) and delete all those who have subscribed but failed to verify their email address i.e. the "passing fancy crowd". That way I can keep track of the real number of actual subscribers.

Set up an email subscription service

If you've not got an email subscription service set up on your art website or blog can I suggest you give this some serious thought.

The main reason I don't use one is:

• my current solution works - and has done regularly and reliably for the last 15 years
• my current solution costs me ABSOLUTELY NOTHING 
• I've got too many subscribers
• I write too often
• the next alternative would represent a considerable sum of money per annum!

I use Google Feedburner which is a FREE service for anybody with a Google account. It 

• routes the the short feed from my blog via an email 
• alerts people to a new blog post and 
• works automatically - sending out an email to all those who have subscribed. 

It doesn't cost me a penny even though I've got lots and lots of subscribers. 

It also works with non-(Google) Blogger blogs i.e. I use it for my other blogs which are on Weebly websites.

If you want to do more than burn a feed from a blog, you need to look at alternative services.

Email subscription alternatives

I actually look to see who uses what when I receive my emails from a subscription service!

The main alternatives that I see include:

• Mailchimp - it's been around forever and is very popular and used by lots of friends of mine - and the Mall Galleries for its Friends Subscriptions
• AWeber - completely free if you have less than 500 subscribers
• Constant Contact - used by Duane Keiser for "a painting a day". It covers all media marketing and looks very professional to me. It's more often used by those with big subscription lists.

Constant Contact, Inc. licenses a permission-based e-marketing software platform to individuals and organizations. We act as a service provider to these customers, most of whom are small businesses and non-profits. Our product helps our customers design email newsletters, share them on social networks, manage lists of contacts and marketing preferences, and track email campaign results. We do not have a contractual relationship with recipients of the messages our customers send with the Constant Contact software.

There are lots more and it's best to take a look at some of the round ups and reviews of alternative options to create a shortlist of the ones you might want to take a look at without it costing you an arm and a leg. (Remember that some of these are used by very large companies and are rather more than you need). 

MUST DOS AND MUST AVOID

The one absolutely ESSENTIAL feature of any email marketing service you use is that it must have an opt-in facility to allow personal data to be collected. Those who play fast and loose with personal data are NOT companies you want to be doing business with - because there are big fines now for breaching privacy laws in Europe and California.

Interestingly those who try to do it on their own invariably breach legislation and regulation relating to email marketing and distance selling. I could name names but I won't - but some of them are organisations you would think ought to know better!