Sorry; the Gossip Train is not running through Blogging Tips today.
I shall not name said big brands specifically. No need to trash anybody or any brand.
I will give you examples of what not to do so you can avoid making these mistakes with your blog.
Both instances occurred during recent experiences I had dealing with each big time brand.
Why share? Because I care. Or, because I want you to understand that even big box brands make boo-boo’s that you need to spot and avoid to accelerate the business-growing aspect of your blog.
Brand #1
I just spent a good 45 minutes trying to remove functionality from my Smart phone.
You guys know by now that I am tech allergic. So I could see if you are skeptical about my claim, perhaps believing I am a dolt who doesn’t know my app from my elbow.
On the contrary, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of finding and deleting any traces of apps I am quite good. I hate distractions. So I am good at destroying distractions, quickly.
About 45 minutes ago I deleted an application from my phone. I did so by uninstalling the application. Good. All done. Not too much of a pain to uninstall the app although it could have been 10 times easier if some functionality to uninstall were built into the app itself. No problem though…..
….until 4 seconds after uninstalling, when I began receiving notifications again.
Unreal. I just uninstalled the app, putting it in the good old X/trash can, and I continued to receive notifications. 20, actually.
After installing the app again I found a sneaky little option NOT to turn off notifications – which would be clear and transparent – but to block all notifications from this app. Tricky, sneaky and totally non-transparent.
What’s the blogging business lesson here? Don’t be so terrified that you’ll lose a user/reader that you make it painfully difficult, incredibly annoying and a total pain in the butt to unsubscribe from your emails.
Give readers an out, and you will avoid the resistance and criticisms that build when your fear of loss damages your blogging business.
Brand #2
A well known community made it so hard from me to cancel a subscription that it’d have been easier for me to swim 11,000 miles to Bali, the next time I visit the Island of the Gods.
I attempted to cancel the subscription via a link, after I signed in. Fat chance. No link for that.
Turns out, you can only cancel your subscription by speaking to a live chat specialist during the Pacific Time hours of 9 AM to 3 PM.
I am not making this up.
After jumping through so many hoops I felt like I was a circus performer, the customer service representative put on the hard sell, telling me they want to keep me happy. I told them I had to cancel my subscription because I had a life crisis and stopped following sports.
He ignored me, completely, brushing off my request, telling me he’d offer 3 months for free.
I told him I had a dying relative to care for.
I could feel the shame and embarrassment through the internet, as he responded sheepishly, apologizing, then cancelling my subscription.
The only way to shake him was to lie about caring for a dying relative.
What does that say about this business’ terror about losing customers?
The blogging lesson?
Be quick to let go poor matches – aka, readers moving away from your blog – and be accepting of their decision through the power of mindfulness.
The easiest way to grow your blog and your blogging business is to befriend good matches and to instantly release non matches. The good matches hire you, endorse you, promote you and buy your products and eBooks. The non matches just fade away, finding the proper matches for themselves, and if you leave them be they won’t do their best to destroy your brand reputation.
Video of the Day
As an added bonus I wanted to share my video of the day.
I discuss how not making income claims grew my blogging business.