An important lesson I’ve learnt from Alex Jeffreys is that your subscribers need to know you, like you and trust you if you are ever going to be able to market a new product to them.  If you are constantly trying to hard sell something to your subscribers then they are quickly going to lose trust in you and drop off your list.

Don’t forget, we are in the game of Internet Marketing, NOT Internet Selling.

The world of Internet Marketing is rapidly changing and the techniques that used to persuade people to part with their hard earned cash are becoming far less effective.

In these times of credit crunch and economic uncertainty, I for one am far more aware of the value of my money and I am a lot more careful in where and what I spend it on.

I’m certain I’m not the only one and I’m betting that my readers and subscribers are just as sick as I am of the constant barrage of hard selling that’s still prolific amongst some online marketers.

As an example, I’ve just checked my twitter account and I’d say 90 % of the people following me are only doing so because they want to pimp their products and affiliate links!

Now, don’t get me wrong… we’re all in this game to make money and I don’t mind a bit of soft selling and gentle marketing on twitter, facebook, blogs etc. but it really gets my goat when I this sort of thing:-

cb_earnings 92,000 richer in 8 weeks. I can show you how. – http://tinyurl.com/fdgbgdfbd (url changed to avoid making this person any money from click throughs!)

It wouldn’t be so bad if this one a one off, but this guy (or gal) has tweeted literally hundreds of the same kind of message, all containing the same affiliate link for Clickbank Code. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!

Needless to say, I no longer follow this person and have no interest in ever doing so again!

Point is, this person lost my trust and even if I wanted to buy Clickbank Code, I wouldn’t do it through their link because they have provided me with nothing of value and are just trying to get rich at my expense!

Now although I DO provide lots of free content and value to my readers and subscribers here, I don’t feel comfortable pushing big flashing ads down their throat just to make a few sales here and there.  If someone stumbles upon my blog, I want them to go away with nothing but good impressions so they’ll keep coming back.

I also want them to know that if I do recommend a product, it’s because I have complete faith in it… not because it’s been thrown up by an ad rotator.

Since I set up this blog and on my previous blog, I’ve had all kinds of Ads – some were for products  and services I used, others weren’t.  I’m now wondering whether it had a detrimental effect on how long people stayed on my blogs and how many signed up to my mailing list.

For the few quid I’ve made from Ads, how many readers/potential subscribers have I actually lost because they clicked on an Ad and navigated away from my website?!

Wish I knew the answer, but my gut feeling is that it’s a lot.

Ok, so what makes me think no Ads is the way forward? How am I supposed to make any money?!

Well, because my Mentor, Alex Jeffreys has proved it can be done.

He’s made $711,043.03 online, without selling one single thing from his blog, ever!

That’s some pretty convincing stuff, wouldn’t you agree?!

So from here on in you won’t see any Ads from adsense, paydotcom, clickbank, or even any banners for my affiliate products.  Just great valuable content because (to nick another of Alex’s phrases) “I’m Marketing With You, Not To You!”

If my free advice here helps others make money online, then it can only be good for my reputation – which means I’ll grow a big, loyal following of people who want to pay for my help, just like they do for Alex’s help!

Ok, I’m getting down off my soap box now :)

Seriously though, have a good think about whether those ads on your websites are really justified.

Are they making you a lot of money, or are they just encouraging people to navigate away from your site, never to return again?

Could you be using that ad space more effectively,for example, to grow your twitter following, to add a video, to add various opt in free reports?

There are blogs out there who have hundreds of thousands of hits every day, such as problogger.net for example.

Darren Rowse who owns the site, probably makes a fortune from advertising alone, but with so much web traffic, he can afford to lose a few readers  if they don’t like all the ads on his site.  Can you?!

I’d love to hear your comments on the subject.

Take it easy,

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Filed under: Blogging • Internet Marketing

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