What the hell is this? An advertisement?
Do you follow my blog? If you do, you know my latest post started as a humor-based personal essay and ended in a sales pitch. I tried to sell tickets to an upcoming event—a virtual author-talk by New York Times bestseller Jamie Ford. Let me assure you, I knew I was breaching accepted conventions before I even started writing.
I’ve been blogging for seven years. During that entire period, my day-job job-title has been Nonprofit Finance Director. A senior management position at three separate companies: a YWCA, a domestic violence shelter and a public library. I also endured a three-month stint at a bilingual charter school, but the executive director turned out to be the wicked witch of the east. I couldn’t leave that job fast enough.
At each of these companies, part of my job description was/is varying degrees of fundraising. I’m expected to use my contacts, business and otherwise, to secure donations. In many situations, I’m the person who writes the solicitation letter. I think I’ve shown remarkable restraint in never asking my blog followers for donations. Until now.
Before I hit publish the other day, I made careful note of my number of followers. My pitch was so distasteful, I fully expected to lose five or ten followers. Imagine my surprise when I gained six. I didn’t sell any tickets—well, I might have sold one: somebody my organization has never interacted with before bought a ticket that night, but she’s reasonably local, just an hour away, so more likely she’s a friend or relative of someone we already know. No one bought a ticket from, say, Australia.
Back to those followers—what did they get from my commercial break that made them want to follow my blog. I’m picky about who I follow. The writing must be clean, concise and readable; of course, I need to find the subject area interesting; but most importantly, the blogger can’t be trying to sell me anything. A blogger writing a post for the sole purpose of making a sale is possibly the last blogger I would ever follow.
Taking a walk with Susan this evening, I mentioned the how strange I found it that my followers increased with that post. She’s great at not rolling her eyes or showing any frustration when I bring up blogging as a conversation topic, and she almost always offers some intelligent analysis that I overlooked. “Maybe they like Jamie Ford.”
See! She should be reviewing my stats instead of me.
Thank you for not dropping me when I made my solicitation. WordPress is a sacred space. A place to escape from the crass commercialism of everyday life. You don’t need or want to be blindsided by some dude hitting you up for money. I’ve learned my lesson—for now. Never say never, but I don’t think it will happen again. We now resume our regularly scheduled program.
The Other Stuff 
My friend, we live in interesting times and you are a good man, it never occurred to me. Keep putting it out to the world
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Kim.
LikeLike
It was a very soft sales pitch. If it was an author I was interested in (or had even heard of😮) and I wasn’t in a time zone three hours earlier than you, taking care of an autistic eleven year old with ADHD, I might’ve even been interested.
I’m still following 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wait, you don’t want to crack open a bottle of wine at 2:30 and start tailgating? As a nondrinker, the sales pitch of ‘enjoy the show with a glass of wine’ bummed me out a little bit. My work is engaged in a lot of internet-delivery of programs, and everyone joining in a glass of wine seems to be a constant. Feeling a little left out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not much of a drinker🤷🏼♀️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Honestly I didn’t even read that as a pitch because it felt natural and fit in with your interests. I kind of like it when people I follow talk about real events they’re doing bc there’s usually a lot of passion behind them. I’m with you on product pitches though – not a fan.
LikeLike
No one commenting seemed particularly bothered by it. Lots of worry for nothing. You’re right though, I’m writing from my life, and this is one of the things going on right now. Also, I like to offer glimpses of my professional life because I appreciate it when other bloggers do that. In many cases the picture we’re presented is pretty narrow.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read the complete post when it came out. If I was offended I would have simply stopped reading. You write about too many other things I find interesting to unfollow you because of a single post. If anyone was bothered by what you wrote they should simply have stopped scrolling.
LikeLike
Well, like everything else, I seem to have overthought this. Once something starts nagging at me, I need to write about it to get it out of my system.
LikeLike
No harm done here. I enjoy reading your perspective, Jeff. Hidden in your post is one important fact: seven years of blogging. Wow. That’s quite an accomplishment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
7 years is a long time. It’s turned into something of a diary for me. I use it to verify dates and of course I look back at events in my life. It’s nice to have a reliable storyteller present so I can always get the straight dope.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, it is a legacy of sorts.
LikeLike
Don’t be too hard on yourself. All good. But I can completely relate. When the kids have those school fundraiser things – I’ll buy something but I will never solicit a neighbor, co-worker, or family member to buy something. I don’t like asking others for money. I don’t follow blogs that focus on selling things either. I don’t usually read those blogging awards either. I felt like I wasn’t true to myself after doing that last one but I felt obligated. Anyway, all good!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, we won’t do that sports fundraiser solicitation thing either, We usually just make a donation. When Sophie was little, Susan went to a PTA meeting where they were planning a fundraiser. Susan said ‘why don’t we just ask people for money’. Lots of angry looks. Ultimately as part of the fundraiser they added “or, if you like, just donate to the cause”. They got an extra couple hundred dollars that way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have major anxiety issues about blogging at times… but no I saw nothing untoward about your post at all, and any ticket sales didn’t seem like they would benefit you personally so seemed nice actually! Even if you did want to promote something of your own that would be totally normal. I always like reading your perspective, I think we have some similar worries at times so it’s soothing to read your versions of things.
LikeLike
You weren’t selling, you were sharing an opportunity!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A nice way to look at it.
LikeLike
It was not an obnoxious pitch and selling things isn’t the point of your blog. I wonder if the increase in followers could just be a coincidence?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Possibly a coincidence. Six is a lot for a day. I used some different tags, so I probably hit a new ‘market.’
LikeLike
I really didn’t see it as a sales pitch. Guess I was more interested in the man-crush thing. LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that’s that’s the meat of the matter.
LikeLike