I get it mostly from two lists I'm subscribed to. One of them is particularly bad about over-promotion and gimmicks, as seemingly ever email promises to solve a grand problem if only I'll pay for another product. It's a shame, because I might be more inclined to buy something if they offered at least *something* for free.

Instead, I've decided to spend more *doing* and less time reading what "experts" say about things.

Cathy, super comment. It's funny — I see others measuring against people with different goals. Sure, you can be just as successful, but is it what you WANT?

Cheryl, it's great to have free tips and advice, but you've nailed it — spending all that time listening to someone else's vision can blur your vision of your own business. Good insight!

Devon, I'm on your newsletter list and honestly, when your stuff comes in it's so infrequent that I think "Hey, that's right! I signed up for this!" and I OPEN it. Maybe not at that moment, but I do open it. There are some that come in that I just don't open because guess what? It's the third time this week.

Paula, we were just discussing the Kardashians last night! Muhahaha! I agree — Devon's tweets are a balance, and since Twitter is what I call fickle communication, the tweets aren't in your face constantly. I know another writer whose tweets were so obnoxiously promotional that I just tuned that person out (and unfollowed).

Wade, you did nothing wrong. You learned something too, I'd bet. It's just that too many "gurus" or "experts" don't understand moderation when it comes to contacting their email lists. It's clear you've learned one big item — over-promotion loses your audience!

I agree. You have to be genuine or you're not going to like your own results.

Being true to yourself is key. Do what feels right for you and be genuine.

Piggybacking on Devon's comment – she has a good balance of general tweets and promotional tweets. I've unfollowed a couple of writers who tweet links to the exact same blog post about 10 times in one day. I'd understand twice a day, in different day parts, but every other hour is a bit excessive – and off putting.

I also interact on Twitter and blogs and other media, on topics that have nothing to do with what I'm promoting, because there are a lot of interesting people out there.

I don't send people endless emails.

I've "unsubscribed" from a bunch of lists where the person just shoots stuff out to promote sales, but never has any actual interaction with the list.

I have felt that I must read them all in order to reap the benefits of their experience. While I do that, I'm cheating myself out of developing my own expertise! Thanks once again for reminding me of my own worth.

That sounds simple, but often we haven't really thought about it. And it can change.

If we don't know what we want, that's how we fall into living some other person's dream (or hype, as the case may be).

There are writers who are very successful now and they worked darn hard to get there. I say congrats to them. But, that doesn't mean it's what I want at this stage of my life. I don't want to work the long hours and I don't want to build an empire. And I really don't want employees. 🙂

Know what you want and then figure out what works for you.

You have to make your own path.

As for over-doing webinar promotion, it seems the webinar companies can get overzealous too. I held a webinar last week (my first ever – eeek!). It went fairly well, but the company sent me 4 or 5 emails reminding me of the date. I know the date, I scheduled it myself!