You get a negative comment, or worse yet, a nasty comment on your blogpost… What do you do?
You could take the time to answer it, or you could just delete it. It’s up to you, but I look at it this way – I don’t have time for Negative Nellies. They’re upset because they don’t agree with my point of view, or I misspelled some words? Frankly, I think there are more important things to get upset about. Disease. Hunger. War. That sort of thing.
My life is too short to get bogged down by people who have nothing better to do than gripe. Yes, I know that sounds harsh to some people and you might not agree.
But think about this: You get an email from a jerk. I mean a real wanker. You read it and what happens?
Most marketers will dwell on it. They’ll think about it, let it darken their mood and even ruin their whole day. That night they’ll lose sleep thinking about that Negative Nellie. Maybe they’ll take 20 minutes to craft a well-worded reply. Maybe they’ll even try to change their business to suit this stranger with the potty mouth.
I remember my first negative comment. I felt terrible until I realized what I was doing to myself. How could I let a total stranger dictate how I felt? How could I allow myself to waste a day feeling miserable because of a lousy email?
So here’s what I did – I deleted that person from my list and blocked him from subscribing again. And you know what? I felt terrific.
I fired my subscriber. Think about that. It’s YOUR business. YOU decide who you do business with. If I hadn’t deleted that subscriber, odds are he would have written again. And again. And again.
I don’t need that. I have a family and a business and a life. Complainers, whiners and wankers are fortunately few and far between. But they are out there and they would love nothing better than to troll your blog and email account and ruin your day.
It’s up to you what you do. But I can tell you this – firing the tiny number of Negative Nellies that cross my path has been one of the best business and personal decisions I’ve made. It frees me up to feel positive, stay positive and be productive.
It’s your business. Dump the wankers, focus on the other 99.9% of your wonderful readers and customers, and I guarantee you’ll love yourself for it.
