Reframing spammers 🏞

As my blog’s popularity increases, spammers are starting to pay attention. By reframing them into prospects I try to validate a business model, instead of complaining about it.

With spammers, I’m referring to unsolicited e-mails for link requests and even link exchange requests (LOL, in 2020).

This is a sign that my blog might be monetizeable, something I’m trying to find out for several years already.

So I took this opportunity to validate the idea of selling native ads on my blog in the form of sponsored blog articles I’ll write myself.

I don’t really believe ads to be a good business model anymore, but native ads are an exception because they are relevant for an audience.

Native advertising is the use of paid ads that match the look, feel and function of the media format in which they appear .

Key is that instead of being annoying for visitors, native ads actually add value for them.

With sponsored blog posts I can assure this, because I can always decide myself if a topic matches my audience and is worth to write about, and if not, decline.

So that’s what I’m communicating on the sales page.

I made up two “packages” and chose high pricing that communicate exclusivity and exclude BS advertisers beforehand.

It took me ten minutes to build this sales page, so this was an easy way to set up this validation.

Now there are two possible outcomes:

1. The price discourages spammers and they stop sending me annoying e-mails and reminders.
2. The price is interesting, turns spammers into advertisers, and I found a new business model.

Let’s see what happens.