Sometime ago, I sent out an email to my affiliate marketing and blogging students pointing to an article I'd posted about 3 fabulous food bloggers.
The article took hours and hours of research before I could begin writing the profiles about those particular bloggers.
BUT, due to a big mistake on my part, the post went mostly unnoticed.
I made the mistake of including a link within my newsletter to a post on my personal blog about the terrible month I'd had (as an excuse for not having written for so long) BEFORE placing a link to the post in which they'd be most interested.
So, instead of generating lots of comments on this blog about those awesome bloggers, a few folks responded very kindly to my personal turmoil, and another responded with the following comment:
I’m delighted, of course about your mom’s health improvement. Obviously enough that you concern diminished significantly.
But, what was all this rambling about, about? Eh?
Could you add/integrate to your PERSONAL reflections with concerns from your followers?
You’ve rather left us in Limbo and asking “WHY†we should ever bother again.
UGH… it's never nice to receive a negative comment, but when you know that YOU were the perpetrator, that's even worse.
I replied to him with the following:
Hello David,
There were TWO links in the email you received. One to this personal post, which you could choose (or not) to follow.
The other was to a link about 3 fabulous food bloggers at https://rosalindgardner.com/blog/3-fabulous-food-bloggers/
Both were linked with specific text. What you chose to follow was up to you.
“WHY†you should ever bother again, is also up to you.
My explanation did little to direct my readers to the intended article, although there was a reply to the negative comment from a subscriber who clearly DID read the original email and did NOT appreciate the commment I received. 🙂
Anyway, lessons learned… AGAIN. 🙂
- KNOW your audience. In this case, the audience are students of affiliate marketing and blogging who want quick links to what matters to them most.
- GIVE them what they want. Don't muddy the waters with links of little or no interest to them and if you do include links to other material, do NOT place them at the beginning of your message.
Did you learn from this expose of my email marketing mistake? If so, please SHARE and COMMENT. I always appreciate hearing your thoughts.
Cheers,
