Why would any company doing business online today think it’s okay to interrupt one of its blog posts with a sales offer—even before the reader finds their way to word one?
This happened to me just moments ago.
I was so offended by the untimely interruption that I had to stop what I was doing and capture the experience and its takeaways in a blog post—this post you’re reading right now.
Before the infraction, I had been happily minding my client’s business, researching content for an ebook I’m writing.
I clicked in to a blog post and before I had time to bling, I was served a full-page pop-up:
Yep. Just that.
It filled the entire screen. There was a scroll bar on the right side, and, although I could scroll up and down, the view never changed.
I couldn’t “x” out of it, either. My only options were to select “YEAH!” or “No Thanks.”
Dear Reader, please give us your money. K? Thanks!
And that’s okay … except … um … may I ask:
What is the YEAH! actually for? What would I be saying No Thanks to?
Honestly, I didn’t even know who owned the blog post. I simply typed a search query into Google and then clicked through on the results that sounded most relevant.
Result 1 — nothing good here; move on.
Result 2 — some interesting content; take notes.
Result 3 — this mind-boggling interruption.
I was dumbfounded.
“What is this?" I asked aloud to the empty room.
"What is L❤️VE?"
"And Get Started… get started with what?”
That's the point where I grabbed the screenshot and then quickly opened my blog editor.
And here we are right now.
The moral? Date your readers before you propose to them.
This message does have a point; it’s not just a rant.
The point is that it's way, way, WAY too early to be asking me to part with my money when as soon as I land on your blog post—especially if I've never been to your site before.
Whether I've been there before or not, it's still far too soon to be asking me to shell out $5 per month for 12 months when I have no idea who you are or what the thing is you're selling.
If you really must disrupt my experience, the least you could do is to offer me INFORMATION—something related to the topic that brought me to your site or to the content of the page I'm on.
Woo me a little bit.
Hold my hand.
Let me discover who you are.
Show me what you have to offer.
Don’t just ask me to marry you.
Let me get to know and love you first.
And then, my friend, anything is possible.
Even $5 a month.
