The pitchforks and torches come out!

How’s this for a threat:

“c’mon – this is pure click/buy bait – wasted my time reading to learn something (the newsletter is called sublime text tips) and just got a teaze. Please refrain from crap like this – one more and I unsubscribe.”

And this:

“If you’re going to lure me into your reading your newsletter, if the content is just teaser for your book, I’m going to be pretty pi$$ed off at the end. And I assume most of your readers will be as well. Maybe chuck us all a bone with some actual free content instead of marketing spiel disguised as a content newsletter?”

Those are a couple of replies I got to the emails I sent out to my Sublime Text list over Black Friday.

Now I’d be lying if I said that comments like these didn’t bother me a little bit.

Even though I’ve sent something like 5 million emails now, nasty replies can still ruin my day if I let them.

But then I take a deep breath and look at all the sales those “spammy” emails brought in…

And I draw a couple of conclusions from this:

  1. Giving away free content does NOT make everyone love you.

90% of the emails I send to my Sublime list are pure content.

Some people will appreciate that. But for a lot of others, it fosters an entitlement mentality.

And when you do send a sales pitch they get OUTRAGED. They grab their pitchforks and take to the digital streets to “burn you in avatar.”

Don’t walk on eggshells to avoid their wrath—it’s impossible.

And my second conclusion is more like a resolution:

  1. I need to send MORE sales emails to weed out these whiners.

Here’s the thing:

You’re ALWAYS going to have whiners who complain if they catch even the slightest whiff of a sales pitch.

But my Sublime email list is first and foremost a business. It costs me $5,000-6,000 a year to send out those “free” content emails, not to mention the time I invest to write all that.

YOU have a lot invested in your business, too.

Far too much to let a few malcontents push you around and tell you how to pilot your ship.

So what do you do instead?

I’ll tell you what I do.

When I get a nasty reply like that…

I scroll to the bottom of the message and click the unsubscribe link.

Put ’em out of my misery, says I.

P.S. It’s times like this when you really benefit from having someone to keep your head in the game.

A good coach will prevent you from getting sucked into the drama-queen wormhole…

I’ll be opening up applications for my January coaching slots soon.

Contact me and I’ll give you an early heads up.

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