Promoting Your Products In Post: Terrible Idea
Okay, today we’re going to do something BUY MY BOOK ON AMAZON that’s a combination object lesson and general discussion point. I know it sounds like it’s going to be a little complex, but if GO TO MY CAFEPRESS LINK you’ll bear with me I think you’ll find that it really is going to teach you something exciting.
You’re going to see that, as much BUY MY BOOK as you want to promote your books, or your merchandise, or what have you in your blog posts themselves, you’ll see that GREAT T-SHIRTS AND MUGS NOW AVAILABLE it’s not a good idea to do so.
Oh, sure–you’re thinking that a small link to the Amazon page or the Cafepress page or something similar can’t hurt. And for the most part, BUY OFFICIALLY LICENSED STUFF you’re probably right. But, if you’re going to go that route, GO TO THE STORE PAGE FOR MORE you have to be subtle about it. There’s no choice. Be understated. If you put the links to your own merch, say, at the bottom of the post, or once at the top, you’ll get a lot more respect out of your readers than if you go for the hard sell right from the word go.
You’ve just seen exactly what I’m talking about. The hard sell turns off the readers, as surely as it would if you did what I just did above.
Your readers know you have to eat, too. You’re here to provide them a service, which they hopefully esteem enough to keep going by supporting you. But if you’re too focused on that support aspect, you’ll lose not only their support, but also the readers themselves.
