I had a really ick situation happen earlier this year. I was asked to be part of a telesummit, and of course with my inclusion as a speaker I agreed to do some promotion for the event – including some solo email blasts to my list.
After sending one of these promotions to my list I got a response from a lady who essentially said:
“I don’t believe in what you are promoting here, and so I’m unsubscribing from your ezine [which I totally get and respect] and I’m also unsubscribing from the ezine of the person who connected me to you in the first place [eeek! this person lost a subscriber due to me!].”
Now I get that I can’t please everyone, but the thing is, you guys, is that I KNEW that this was not something I should have promoted. It just wasn’t my “thing” – and no offense to the telesummit folks themselves, it just wasn’t my style, my target or my message.
All of these things I knew the minute I was asked to participate and commit to promoting. BUT I still did it anyway.
Why? I was on automatic “yes” for being asked to speak. I’d fallen prey to the say-yes-to-everything-no-matter-what-it-is syndrome… not sure if that is an actual syndrome, but you get my point.
And because of this I sent something to my list that:
- Was not something I actually believed in or agreed with. (If i’m honest I actually cringed when I saw someone promote this series the year before.)
- Cost someone else – a biz colleague and friend whom I know and respect – a subscriber. That’s the part that hurt the most… I’m OK with me paying for my mistake but someone else also had to pay for it. Ouch 🙁
This one person spoke up, and who’s to say how many others didn’t speak up and simply hit the unsub button?
So from now on I’m committed to recommending ONLY stuff from people or companies that:
- I know and like/respect what they have to offer.
- I have had a positive experience with (either knowing them personally, as part of a program or having used their software, etc.).
- I know would be useful to the folks on my list.
- feel *right in my gut* – this has to be the final check cause it’s never wrong.
Oh, and it’s worth mentioning here, too, that affiliate commissions aren’t that important to me. If someone is offering an affiliate commission on something I want to recommend, then great… I’ll take it. And if not, that doesn’t stop me from making a recommendation on something I know you will find valuable.
How about you? What is your criteria for promoting/recommending stuff?