The Neon Hippo

I happen to subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog and today’s article said, “A tiny business can write a better newsletter than a big one.”  The word newsletter is a hyperlink.

Oh boy!  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and research on newsletters in the last week or so and was excited to see a link off of Seth’s page to a keyword “Newsletter”.  I clicked and it took me to a web store selling a messenger bag.  I went back and clicked on a few other links.  The keyword “website” took me to a site selling guitars, and keyword “customer support” takes me to high end tube audio gear.  WTF?!

He probably earned a few pennies from those clicks, but I felt betrayed.  Like I was tricked into helping to support his site.  I buy his books and I read his blog all the time.  If there is an interesting ad on his site, I click it.  I do NOT like being tricked into clicking on an advertisement, though.

Historically, text links are for useful and mostly non-commercial information related to the word or phrase that is the link.  That’s the foundation of the web.  If I’m reading an article about marketing and “newsletter” is underlined, I expect the link to take me somewhere related to newsletters - not a freakin’ advertisement for a bag.  I might even accept an ad for a place that produces or prints newsletters, but a messenger bag?!  Come on!

Sorry Seth, but your credibility just took a huge hit in my mind.  I would have left a comment on your site, but didn’t see a way to do it.  I hope you read this.  I haven’t looked around to see if this is the latest trend in advertising, but if that’s the case, it’s a sad day for the usefullness of the Internet.