I’m not against the idea of making money. Other people do it, I do it, maybe you do it too. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But sometimes I visit a website and I feel like I’m being sold to ALL THE TIME. There’s no break in the sales pitch. Everything is done to move towards one goal: making money.
All those “free” things are actually tools to… yep… make money.
- FREE WORKSHEET! …Is actually an attempt to get your email address so you can be sold to later.
- FREE COURSE! …Is actually a hope that you’ll sign up for the paid course afterwards.
- FREE WORKSHOP! …Is actually an attempt to sell you something towards the end (oh, and get your email, see #1).
- FREE ADVICE! How to choose the best email list platform! …Is an intro pitch to entice you into buying the “grow your mailing list” e-course.
Am I totally against all those things individually? Not necessarily.
Those things are basically a way of marketing, and they work. That’s why people do them. Even I’ve done one or two.
But every now and then I come across someone that’s in sell mode ALL THE TIME. Every single piece of content and advice has a purpose—a motive. All those motives lead back to more income, more profits, more sales.
I look around and feel like I’m in an ad-network. It’s pure sales.
I don’t really want to bash those business owners. That’s not the point of this post. I don’t want to tell them what to do or say they’re “doing it wrong”. Heck, they’re probably the people making six figures—good for them. Let them do what they want and move on—that’s my motto, right?
I guess my point is: do you ever look at your Twitter/Facebook/Feedly/Instagram feed and feel like everything is fake?
- There is no “free”, despite what the name says. Everything has a price, even if it’s not in dollars.
- There is no genuine “I really want to help you” advice, there are only pitches and sales funnels.
- The freebies are shallow. A “behind the scenes of my 5-figure launch” e-book just ends up regurgitating the same pieces of advice you’ve seen everywhere else… With no exclusive, behind the scenes info. Over-promising and under-delivering, just so they can get my email.
- Everything is split tested—from copy to colours. All to find out what results in more sales.
I’m sick of businesses. I want people.
Of course not everyone is doing this. There are some truly awesome people out there who deliver quality content, pitch-free workshops, and awesome 100% free advice (and still manage to make money—high five, rock stars!).
Really I’m talking about a handful of people. And it’s not that those people are doing something wrong, it’s just that I have this reaction to what they’re putting out and that reaction is tired.
I turn my head and just see sales, sales, sales. Pitches, pitches, pitches. It makes me want to close my eyes, shut the computer down, do something else.
I’M TIRED.
And you know what? That’s on me.
Those people are free to do business how they like. And hell, it’s obviously working for them; a lot of them are rakin’ in the cash.
It’s on me because I chose to follow those people (usually). They’re in my Twitter feed because I followed them at one point. It’s up to me to unfollow them if their business practices no longer impress me.
This gave me the opportunity to reflect on my own business.
As I said before, I have done a few of those things.
- I have added content upgrades to help me grow my mailing list.
- I have released ‘free’ email series, and those people got added to my mailing list.
- I have given free advice that led into a pitch or affiliate link.
But I like to think that I do them in moderation. I’m not on sales mode all the time.
That being said, I think this whole tired feeling I’m experiencing has made me want to re-examine some of my methods. I used to 100% operate under the idea that people will subscribe/buy if my content is awesome. That means:
- I didn’t have content upgrades that required an email.
- I was never pushy about joining my mailing list (no pop-ups or obtrusive opt-ins, etc.).
- I didn’t create anything for the purpose of building my list.
I literally just believed that if my blog posts were awesome then the traffic would come. The sales would come. And for the most part, that was completely true. My entire business started accidentally. I didn’t try to start a business or make money—it just happened. With no marketing, no yucky sales stuff, no promoting.. Just a blog post here and there saying, “Hey look! Here’s this new thing I made. Buy if you want, yo.”
Have I seen growth since I changed my methods? Since I added content upgrades and “free” courses? Yes. But I also haven’t felt as good about it. I’ve barely even emailed my mailing list, and I think that’s because I feel uncomfortable about how I’ve grown it.
I didn’t lie to anyone about how they were getting on the list. I didn’t trick people. I’ve always been up-front. But that doesn’t mean I like it. I still feel a bit yucky about it.
I miss my old mindset. I want it back.
And you know what? Helping people just for the sake of it makes me happy.
While writing this post, I realized that one of my favourite things to do is to help people on Facebook. I chill out in Facebook groups, seek out questions, and answer them. Why? Because I fucking love it!
Previously I might have said that answering questions in groups helps establish you as an expert and can lead to more traffic/sales. But I realized that when I answer those questions, I never promote myself, my site, or my work (unless it’s totally relevant). I don’t do it to establish myself as an expert. I don’t do it for sales. I do it because I just love helping people. And I’d continue to do it, even if there was no way for people to connect my Facebook profile to my website.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s that I’m not a sales person.
Those people who are in sales mode all the time are business owners. Like, when you get to the heart of it, that’s who they are. Epic, successful, business owners. At least that’s how I see them.
And yeah, technically speaking, I’m a business owner too, but I don’t think that’s who I am at my core. I’m a business owner because I’m an independent girl who wants to make money in her own way—not as an employee. But at the end of the day, I’m only a business owner because making money is required for me to pay my bills. Making money isn’t my passion.
So thinking in line with my goals for 2016, I don’t want to be in sales mode all the time. I definitely believe I could ditch the content upgrades and sales pitches (at least most of them), take a more relaxed and subtle approach to sales, and still earn enough money. For me, that’s good enough. That will make me happier about how I do business.
I don’t want all my content to be curated towards one goal: making sales.
I don’t want every “freebie” I release to require payment in the form of an email.
- I want to help people just for the sake of it—no pitch.
- I want to give advice that’s ACTUALLY free. Not only free to people who hand over an email.
- I want to post about random shit that doesn’t always somehow tie into something I’m selling.
What an interesting read. I totally don’t mind if a person offers a free ebook, or free ecourse and if I had to join their list to get it. What I do not like however, is if they become pitch mania on trying to sell their next latest and greatest course, or basically always sound like a shopping mall.
I myself totally suck at doing any sales pitches in my email. I much rather just help folks, and genuinely build connections. I offer a free ebook on my blog, and also on my design site, and that’s it, no strings.. just materials they can use to help themselves.
It’s tough for us though who don’t have much traffic/eyes on our content to build without sometimes using the “Join my list! Join join!”, but I imagine it can be done. However, I hope I never become salesy on my pages across social.
What are your views then as well about offering promos for sales you may be having on your social channels?
Yes! Always sounding like a shopping mall!
I’m fine with all these things in moderation. I mean, they’re marketing tactics and they work. So when people need to make money, those things come in handy.
Similarly, I’m fine with advertising sales and such. Again, I guess it all comes down to moderation. I like a good balance between business/sales and a real, genuine person. A little bit of marketing—no problem. Marketing 24/7? Not for me.
When someone is doing these 24/7 I no longer see them as a person—I just see a business, and that disappoints me I guess.
I’ve noticed this a lot recently. People promoting free webinars, worksheets, and so on. It’s becoming an unfortunate trend. There is a person who fits this mold exactly. ALL of the person’s content is geared toward getting people to sign up for their course. ALL of the person’s blog posts are about their launch or something to sign up for.
In my opinion, the reason this has become an increasing problem is due to the rise of the “bloggers who blog about blogging”. These people release courses and do webinars to people looking to make money off their blog. The advice has different perspectives but is essentially the same: “Offer freebies, get people’s emails, do webinars!”
So then all the people who are followers of the bloggers who blog about blogging, start following the advice to T, and all of their sites, social media posts, and blog posts end up feeling the same.
I’m not trying to knock the these bloggers. It’s great that they want to make money from their blog (gotta pay the bills!). What they need to do though is take a step back and seeing how they can be authentic and create their own variation of doing things.
For some reason, pop-up opt-in’s have made a come back. I’m seeing them on more and more of blogger’s websites. A lot of the times, they pop-up before I even have a chance to read the content. what the heck?
Like you said, these marketing tactics are bad. However it becomes a problem when blogger’s use them all the time. Ease up.
There are people I follow who do do a great job of being authentic and helpful (and not in sales mode 90%+ of the time). Regina from Byregina.com is a great example. As well as you!
You’re so right, Colin. The advice has different perspectives, but ultimately we’re all talking about the same thing.
* Create a passive income product.
* Offer freebies to gather email addresses.
* Create a sales funnel.
* Sell to people on your mailing list.
* Host a webinar using LeadPages and Google Hangouts.
* Sell to people at the end of the webinar.
We’re all following the same formula.
Everything in moderation is key. I have no problem with making money. I have no problem with webinars. I have no problem with content upgrades…
…But when you put them all together and do ONLY those things 24/7… you’re no longer a person to me. You’re just a business. And I guess I’m just not interested in following people who are PURELY about their business.
For me, I’m not passionate about business. I have something else that I’m passionate about and made that my business. But my passion still remains that ‘thing’—not the business itself. I like to follow like-minded people who have a good combination of business AND a real, genuine person behind the business.
If it’s 100% business then it just no longer interests me.
(And I know there are a ton of people who are passionate about ‘just business’, and that’s fine, it’s just not for me.)
Ashley, I have to say this was one amazing blog post. I’ve seen a lot more people offer free webinars to then pitch their paid webinar at the end. It doesn’t bother me — I want to learn from these people, even if I pay for it. Coming from a sales background before I launched my freelance career, I totally get the e-mail lists and freebies. But it did get me to think about my own business and how I want to share what I know with other. Great read!
Thank you Melissa!
I don’t have a problem with any of these tactics in moderation. I guess I’m really emphasizing that moderation is key for me.
Webinars are fine.
Content upgrades are fine.
Blog posts related to a product are fine.
But when you combine all those things and then do ONLY of those things, I feel like I no longer see a real, genuine person in there, you know? I just see purely a business and I suppose I’m just not interested in following people who ARE their business. I like people who have other interests and personality sprinkled in.
There’s nothing particularly wrong with being focused on purely business 100% of the time, it just doesn’t align with my personal interests.
Hey Ashley, (and potential cousin?)
Another great read! I feel like that ALL the time on so many sites. I’m all like….I know what you’re trying to do 😐 . I started yes supply in the opposite way, I went after my inner passion (which im pretty sure is my callng) which was to motivate people to go after their goals, find confidence and inspiration, and be happy. Now, I love working on my blog SO much, I want inspiring others and helping them achieve their yes to be my full time job (not just something I squeeze in after work, waking up at the crack of dawn, and on weekends). I’m in the midst now of determining how I can sell my help to the people who think my help would be valuable, but also continue inspire and help the people that don’t want to pay a dime, and not alienate them into feeling like they’ve entered a slippery slope of sales pitch.
I’m breaking into podcasting soon (after I get some of the technical things sorted out) and I think you and your story would be such an amazing one to share. You definitely sound like you’ve found your ‘yes’ in life 🙂 Let me know if you want to catch up for a skype session too to meet, and do a podcast interview with me 🙂
Cheers to doing you,
Reese
Reese! Lovely to see you again. 🙂
I love the path you’re putting yourself on. I think the difference is that you have something you’re incredibly passionate about and you’re trying to make that your business.
But a lot of the people I described are passionate about the business itself. There’s not a separate ‘thing’ that drives them. It’s the thrill of the 5-figure launches and 6-figure years. It’s the business strategy and marketing and all that jazz.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Being passionate about business is fine. It just doesn’t align with ME and who I am. I like to follow people who have a separate thing they’re totally passionate about, because I see more of myself in them, I suppose.
I love the idea of podcasting! I’d be happy to connect with you on that. 🙂
Great read! It’s nice to know there are people out there blogging for passion and connection rather than just the $$
Thank you Felicity! 🙂
I’ve signed up for free webinars (and, in effect, mailing lists) and yeah they always end with pitches to their products (paid courses, books, etc.), but so far I don’t mind most of the time ’cause I learn something new from the webinars or email courses. So far. There is a lot of that going around though (free webinars, etc) and, you’re right, it can get tiring, but I only really pay attention to two or three folks who do this because they’re folks I’ve been following for a while. I guess you just need to filter out these things, too.
Yeah I don’t have a problem with any of the things I mentioned individually. I think it becomes a problem for me when I see someone doing ALL of those things and ONLY those things.
Their blog/business becomes about selling ALL THE TIME. That switch never turns off. Every single blog post leads to sales. Every single email is about signing up for a new course/webinar/etc. I lose sight of the PERSON behind it all, you know?
I guess what I’m saying is “everything in moderation”.
I get what you mean! And I agree completely. I’ve ended up unsubscribing to some of that. 😛
This was such a good read! I only recently (like a week ago) created my email list, but I haven’t decided how I feel about offering content upgrades yet. I have just a few worksheets out right now, but as I was making them I couldn’t help but think that writing a post about the topic would benefit my blog more than making a freebie. I’m not selling anything either, so there isn’t as much incentive for me to pitch my list! All in all, I feel like in terms of content, I’m better off writing quality posts than saving the best stuff for just a few people, so I love what you said about helping people just for the sake of it!
Thank you Jessica!
I totally agree with what you said about writing quality posts, rather than saving the best stuff for only a few people.
I have a mailing list but I practically ignore it. I think that’s because every time I think of something awesome I want to share, I’d rather do it on my blog where EVERYONE can benefit than only send it to a select number of people. So that’s what I end up doing.
Love it!This are the thoughts I have about one webinar few days ago,it was supposed to be a free, but only free in it is to watch nothing else.
I so agree with you! It’s getting quite old especially when you receive the same sequence of emails from people who clearly took the same course on launch tactics.
I too signed up for these but At the time, those people (who still have very interesting things to say) didn’t do as much of those sales push.
I love your stance about helping people and I’m sure that over time it’ll bring you a steady business of loyal clients.
Best of luck
Exactly, Stephanie! I feel like there are a bunch of people who are all following the same tactics. And I’m sure they’re doing that because those tactics work, but OMG I see the same thing every where I look.
* People using the exact same process for webinars. Even sometimes the same WORDING. It comes time for their pitch and it seems like everyone starts by saying, “OMG now for the best part! I have this insane, exclusive deal for you. Even I can’t believe how good of a deal this is. People keep telling me I’m crazy to offer it. What if you could do xxx? All without yyy? Well guess what…!” Ugh.
* The same kinds of blog posts funnelling into their products.
* The same method in their sales funnels.
I guess it’s the wording that gets me. I look around and see 10 people using the same wording or formulas and I just get this overwhelming feeling of, “We’re all the same!”
Great publish, Ashley. So much of running a business is about balance, and I’m not talking about the mythical work/life balance! 🙂
Of course, as business owners, we have to earn money to offset our expenses and pay the bills – with, hopefully, enough left over to enjoy our lives away from work. But, there has to be a way to do it without selling your sole or becoming a used car salesman.
There’s no one correct way for any of us to create the “proper” balance of sharing to selling. We each have to find our own way, for ourselves and our prospects.
I totally agree Mallie!
I’m 100% fine with making money, and 100% fine with marketing. But I think it’s key to keep everything in moderation.
Sales 24/7 will look like exactly that—sales.
I like to see a sprinkle of the PERSON behind the business. I suppose it’s easier for me to relate to and makes the person (and their business!) feel more genuine.
GACK. Sole? No one’s selling the bottom of their sneakers – at least I hope not. GROSS. My only excuse is rainy nasty morning and commenting before a full cup of coffee at just past 6 AM.
Sigh. There’s no excuse. Soul. Selling your soul. LOL.
Haha!! Totally forgiven. I can’t even wake up at 6am, let alone start commenting on blogs. 😉
People first, before “faux-marketing”. Thats what I got from this post, and its sooo refreshing!
A lot of online sales/marketing tactics being taught wrong, and are simply *overused*, or *not used correctly*, by folk who are not qualified to use them.
These techniques are meant to help build a relationship between a business or service/product provider and their customer; but the “relationship” part seems to be lost.
The noise is truly tiresome, plus a lot of these entry level offers, promotions, and freebies have no added value…at all. Its the same content that one can find on every other blog on the web-planet. At most one gets some fancy graphics and fonts added on.
Having said that, I still enjoy being sold to. I think we all do. Somehow it makes us feel special. I just want the selling to be done with a bit more class. Not like a random, cacophonous marketplace.
Personally, I think newer bloggers and entrepreneurs are more guilty of this overselling than others. I know we’ve all got to eat, but folk are learning and applying the wrong techniques from the wrong mentors: essentially, they’re “doing it wrong”.
When applied correctly, people actually like the signups, the lead funnel freebies, and the conversion optimized sales pitch.
PS: the sales noise has caused me to switch Twitter and Facebook off mostly. Just …tired, really.
CJ! Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂
You’re right—these tactics are so overused! It feels like everyone is using the same method, and in some cases, even the same script! I can literally see them working through the same formula and it makes me see right through it.
And I agree—I don’t hate the idea of selling or anything. I just like it in more moderation and with more class. It’s not something I want to see 24/7. I want a real person coming out in between sales pitches.
Ashley, I am in love with this post. I just found a bunch of people who does all those that you mention recently, and I caught on that pretty quick. I go on those webinars and I get so disappointed because they are usually the same thing. Offer freebie, ask for an email, sell to those people. :/
I tried the content upgrade and get a subscriber thing, and I did not feel good at all. I guess my blog is my main platform to sell myself to people, and while I understand the value of email, it’s not a path I see myself taking. And it’s like all the advice I see is simply that, nothing new at all. And honestly, if that’s your only advice, I don’t see why your course is worth getting when I’ve gotten it from other people. I honestly quit the webinars when I start hearing them go, “It took me a long time to get there, but you can do it faster!” The pitching has begun.
Don’t they literally feel like badly scripted TV adverts or something?
It sounds like everyone is using the same formula, the same script, the same method. God it’s starting to get old.
Sometimes, I don’t mind it, but after you send in your email, and continue to go back to the site, the pop up still comes up, which is annoying. I’ve been trying to think if there’s anything I’m interested in offering to people, but there just isn’t. I don’t teach anything, but I write stories. I’ve thought about offering a free novella. But that means I need to write one. I hope my posts are interesting enough to get reads, but who knows, honestly?
I’ve stopped following several bloggers because of the constant spam for things like shakeology (shudder). Their blogs are their space and they can post whatever content they want, but I also have the choice to not read said blogs. I also don’t follow blogs that have a lot of advertising on them (google ad sense kind of junk). It just makes the blogs feel icky. I’ve run across a few blogs/sites that offer ebooks and such, but I don’t hang out on them long enough to even see what they’re trying to sell 😉 Having said all that though, I’ve never gotten a bad vibe from your blog Ashley, you don’t come across as trying to constantly push sales stuff on your readers. You can tell that you’re sincere and genuinely like helping other bloggers, and aren’t just doing this to make a buck. I think you’ve found a good balance!
Thanks so much for saying that Sara! 🙂
I’m not a fan of advertising either.
I don’t care how frequently you sell me as long as you sell me well. Like, if you promote your course in every single email and add a freebie to every single post, but there’s other stuff in there too and it helped me a lot, I’m cool. Unfortunately, a lot of the bloggers and entrepreneurs I’ve tried following don’t, and it’s more like a blog post is a 2,000-word ad for their product.
The emails and blog posts sound like use car salesman copy, are all about WHAT A SPECIAL UNICORN FLOWER the seller is instead of being relevant to me, and I’ve found myself unsubscribing to a *lot* of lists days or weeks after I first join them. I feel like a lot of people have like all bought the same sales copy template and are using the same formula that leaves a horrible taste in my mouth and/or brains.
But then there are others who use freebies for every single post, hold tons of webinars, and email me weekly, with some kind of sales pitch each time. But it’s subtle, and that actually draws me in more. When I think about the digital products I’ve bought where they were things that I wanted and were interested in for a long time, they were all products that I was never given a “hard sell” for. Instead, they’re just mentioned passively but very frequently.
As for my own business, that’s where I would eventually like to get to. One of my goals is to start creating freebies for every post, yeah. But I email that list 52 times a year with no hard sell at all, promoting content that’s not even mine, so it’s hardly a sales list. I like think when the time comes to officially launch, they receive enough value that they won’t mind a few sales emails.
I do talk about my products pretty frequently, but in passing and briefly. and although I’m extremely new to the product side of online business, it seems to be working fine so far, and doesn’t make me feel like a demon.
At the end of the day, inbound marketing is supposed to *replace* a hard sell to pull people into your funnel. It’s not just one more channel to push, push, push.
I guess you have a good point Brittany. A lot of what I see are “hard sells”. I just look at them and the whole thing feels like a big advert. Or the free content is completely shallow, because they obviously just wanted to quickly post something that’s relevant to a bigger product in order to promote said product.
I’m mostly sick of different people who seem to use the exact same script/method/formula. I feel like I see the same thing everywhere, you know?
This totally hit me while reading it. For someone like me who always gave away way more than I should (according to my hubs and accountability partners), I’ve been putting my toe in the water—so to speak—of requesting email info for some of the free stuff I give. This is definitely growing my list pretty fast and I make sure it’s very clear that by getting this free thing, you’re being added to my newsletter and email list. I definitely don’t want to fall into the category of “this girl is just trying to make money off me” but I do want to grow my biz and make more money. So I feel stuck in this eerie in-between, totally working from my heart and wanting to help people, but also knowing that getting paid helps me too. While reading your post, I couldn’t help but make the instant connection to several sites/facebook that I follow that do make me feel pitched to all the time, and just how much it irritates me. I would love to find the balance with this—one that shows I genuinely want to help, but this is also my career.
Ash, you’re definitely someone I look up to in the ‘girl power home biz’ world. You have a beautiful way of not making me feel “pitched to” but yet I have never had an issue paying you for your work. You deserve it! So I truly do hope as I continue to grow and learn, that I’m able to follow your lead with that. Thank you so much for everything you do! ~A
Thanks Ashley! You’re right that it’s all about finding balance and that happy medium. I think it helps if you focus on the thing you’re passionate about.
A lot of the people I described seem to have a passion for the actual BUSINESS process, or the MONEY they make. For example, they release an e-course on list building. They’re not super passionate about list building, they’re super passionate about the money they can get from list building.
The fact that their passion comes from the money or the business practices is what makes it feel like business 24/7.
So if you’re focusing on health and wellness, your passion can either be for the massive amounts of money that the industry can make you, or your passion can actually be for health/fitness/wellness. See what I mean?
I think as long as you stay true to your passion, you definitely can make money from it and still come across as completely genuine and a real person.
Hey Ashley, I’m totally with you on this. I’m getting kind of fed up with being bombarded with sneaky sales content all the time.
I feel like maybe people often seek out small/one-person businesses rather than larger agencies for the very reason that they believe it’ll be a more personal experience and potentially less salesy. But more and more I see these one-person businesses doing more sales stuff than big agencies etc.
FYI I have never felt ‘sold to’ by you, and I respect all the time and effort you put into actually helping people out in your Facebook group (including myself! Thanks!).
Anna
This was a really great read, Ashley! I’m not a salesy kind of person either, and although I wanna start teaching courses and selling products, I don’t think I could be in sales mode 24/7 either. However, I do think it’s possible to be salesy 24/7, make six figures, and still be genuine in wanting to help people. In fact, I bet those six figure bloggers/sellers spend a lot of time researching what their audience needs and wants.
I don’t mind people selling on their blog all the time. It doesn’t bother me at all, and I’m happy to see all of these ladies (I follow mostly women) doing their thing and making an income, especially if they can do it and still remain down to earth like most of them are! Doesn’t bother me at all. There are some people I follow that I miss their old content (back when it wasn’t as strategic and salesy), but I get that people gotta make money.
All the recent “free” stuff, email marketing campaigns and funnels… it is exhausting to be sold to. But if you’re not interested in what they have to sell you then it’s a good time to unsubscribe and free up your mind 🙂
OMG! Thank you for writing this… I totally feel this way at this exact moment! I don’t know where the true creatives are… everyone is so busy selling I don’t see how they could possibly be creating. I miss the old blogger days 🙁
I feel EXACTLY the way you do. Blogging used to be fun … not so much anymore. Everyone is trying to sell you something and I’m totally guilty of getting sucked right into that, too. I started up an email list (which I don’t enjoy mailing to), I joined an over-inflated and insanely popular “How to make money with your blog” course (for $500) which is bringing me down. I love making and selling clipart and blog designs, but I don’t enjoy the marketing AT ALL! You have totally inspired me to chill also. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Barb! It’s definitely easy to get caught up in the whirl wind that is mailing lists, content upgrades, courses, and more. I got caught up in it too. Then I realized that I hated where I was going and needed to take a step back!
Remember why you started and try to enjoy the process. 🙂