How To Tick Off Your Advertisers….
…and ensure that they’ll never advertise with you again.
Am I starting trouble…maybe.
Do I care…nope.
I decided to try out Project Wonderful since I’ve been seeing it on a few blogs I read. I wanted to get the word out about my new project, so I focused on blogs that I thought fit that audience.
There was one blog that I thought was perfect, and really I would have paid a lot more than the bids starting price. In fact, after being outbid once, I set my maximum bid much higher so that my chances of being outbid were low.
Imagine my surprise when I received this very terse email:
Someone bought a RUN OF Site for the month so this has to go. Please reply if you’d like me to contact you as soon as we’re back.
Part of being a good business person is making smart decisions, you have to think about the bottom line. So I don’t blame the person for doing this, but I don’t like the tone of the email.
Why would I want to advertise on your site if you’d just kick me off and say “this has to go but I can contact you when I am done with my important advertisers.”
Wording is EVERYTHING, especially when the only contact you have with the person is via email. They could have written that email with the best intentions. They could have had the biggest smile on their face because they just sold some ad space. But do I, the person sitting on the other end of the computer, see that? Of course not. What I see is a person who is so anxious to snap up a little cash that they left their manners at the door.
Remember what I said about professionalism, that’s not just limited to when you have clients in the traditional sense. Be professional at all times and don’t annoy your advertisers because word gets out fast.
But I’m feeling nice so I’ll let it go…this time.
WOW. It’s so easy to forget that dealing with people via the Internet is much like being a person with Aspergers – you can have the best of intentions in your communication, but if they can’t see the emotion you’re, uh, emoting they will really be pushed away by what can come off as plain ol’ rude.
You’re so very right – that could have been phrased much more professionally/in a friendlier manner, so that you would hopefully be interested in working with them in the future. Bummer.
*pushing back an insane urge to insert gobs of happy face/winky emoticons here!*
Like I always say, the internet is a blessing and a curse!
Hey Sis,
Just wanted to let you know that you’re amazing! I read your bio on alldivamedia.com and I was so excited to see all the amazing things you are doing!
I found your blog through there, and I am going to link you to my public blog @ blogger.
Love you so much!
LD