The One Reason Why I’ll Never Share Your Blog or Articles

This goes to content marketers out there, anyone who wants their website content to go viral. It probably also goes to people whose websites are already going viral.

I get that we’re all looking to make a living. I also hear the same advice you do when experts tell us what converts visitors into email list subscribers. You need to hear the other side of this situation, pronto.

I’m creating an online writing school, and there’s a feature that aggregates blog feeds into a daily newsletter for my students. So, given writing is my target market, I wanted to find quality writing blogs for the daily newsletter on this website. What’s an instructor to do?

The Search for Great Content

I searched Google for top writing advice websites and found articles such as (paraphrased) The Top 10 Writing Advice Blogs or Top 20 Must-Subscribe Writing Websites, etc. So I visit the blogs that were suggested.

Truly, nine of ten have an email list subscription pop-up, or even worse a full-page list subscription page before you get to the content.

You have lost my traffic. Period.

For my purposes, of disseminating relevant information to my tribe, you have completely lost me. I might give away my email address, or strain my aging eyes to hunt down the X or the No Thanks link, but I won’t force my readers to do it.

I won’t hand my trusting students over to premature solicitation for their email address. You’re asking for something precious before they know whether they give a crap about what you have to say.

You’re asking for something precious before they know whether they give a crap about what you have to say.

I don’t know how many of your website visitors are turned off by this. I can only tell you that I was turned off by this. To the point where my choice of which little x to click was the one for the entire tab on the browser.

I don’t care if there’s a way to exit the request. Whatever you have to say doesn’t matter to me as a feed aggregator. You have put me in the position of not being able to refer you. You obviously care more about your email list than you do about disseminating your message and helping my students.

It’s one thing for me to trust you to write a halfway decent article I haven’t personally read before the automatic aggregator puts it in the newsletter. It’s not giving away too much of my own credibility to do so. But to send my students to a subscription form and an unknown number and type of email solicitations just isn’t going to happen.

Are you the guy who hands out their business cards before shaking someone’s hand?

Doesn’t it make you wonder whether there are other people who hand-curate content who won’t share your article or post? Could this be a deal-breaker for someone who aggregates dozens of feeds to their own lists and buddies?

An aggregator sends you people from their tribe repeatedly. I only want a short list of feeds in my newsletter. If you keep writing interesting content, my students will see what you have to say on more than one occasion. You might not capture their email address the first time around, but after reading 2–3 of your posts that change the way they look at writing (or whatever the topic is), they’re going to want more of you.

When you prematurely solicit for email addresses you might get more sign-ups as a percentage of your traffic, but you may be limiting your traffic. You want people to share you, you want to leverage their connections.

Low Quality Lists

Also, look at your open rates and unsubscribes. Especially amongst the people who recently signed up with you. They’re not fans (yet), they’re hostages. They’re probably the poor unsuspecting folk who didn’t realize they could say no to your pop-up. You’re a stranger to them.

If you held them hostage in return for an email address and your post wasn’t thrilling, they’re going to leave your list. And never click on your articles again. They extended a little trust before you earned it. That’s hard to come back from.

Establishing Loyal Followers

Loyalty is an extension of trust. You have to give some to get some. By having a premature request for someone’s email address, you’re not trusting your website visitors to fall in love with you.

If you have terrific content, they won’t want to walk away. They’ll want to stay in touch. They’ll click through to related articles and spend time on your website. They’ll happily give their email address, or write to you on your contact form, or write in your comments. That’s also when they’ll be ready to drop some money in your bucket if they can, whether to sign up for a product, to sponsor you on Paetreon, to attend your next webinar, or turn off their ad-blocker.

I get that content is your bread-and-butter. You’re blogging and writing for a living, and goodness knows money can be hard to come by. If you want people like me to recommend your content as a top-10 or top-20 in your field, you’d better think twice about premature solicitation.

It’s about the quality of your list, and the trust you build with your following. Trust has to start somewhere. Trust that your name will come up again and again in aggregated feeds in your topic. People will recognize your name.

What do you want people to think when they see your name?

Release the hostages, and fire your pop-ups and full-screen article blockers. You might just go viral.