- When your article pisses off more people than it helps, it’s failed.
- In the future remember that side hustles are more about the job over the product – something I grossly missed with this one.
- If you ever start or join an MLM business, make sure the products are cheaper, verified better, and that you take the MLM part out ;)
- Trust your gut.
And with that, the very first post after 4+ years of blogging has now been taken offline… sorry to those who were offended!
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proud of you, friend. regardless of the post, i know this was a hard decision for you….
I catch up on feeder late for the first time in weeks, and THIS happens? ;) And I second @trinnie’s comment above – sounds like a hard decision. Can’t wait to read what’s up there tomorrow. :)
Keep doing what you’re doing, we love reading!
Vaguely skimmed through my readers this morning, thought it looked weird your were promoting multi-level-marketing, come back later today to find this…BUMMED I didn’t click on the OP earlier to see the comments.
Don’t worry – mistakes happen ;)
I left for a bit and came back to it gone. I know it was hard for you to pull it down but I think at least for the those of us that had posted on it, it was the right decision. The article didn’t match with what I had to come to know from Budgets are Sexy. I
What is wrong with your readers? No one has the right to “not be offended”. People are ridiculous. If you don’t like the article, don’t read it. I personally skimmed it, wasn’t interested, so moved on. MLM marketing, while people don’t like it, is still a viable side hustle for many. Yes, the article could have been more towards the job aspect rather than the product (which you mentioned in this post), but it still is a side hustle for that woman, and she has every right to share it. Anything anyone ever says is going to offend someone somewhere. People need to get over themselves. I’m so sorry you even had to deal with taking that article down.
I wasn’t offended but couldn’t come up with anything positive to say about it so I just refrained… sorry you had to pull it down but you have to do what is right for you.
The problem that I and others reading that article had was not the MLM, it was the product that a nurse was touting as a wonder drug and encouraging people to look the other way at lack of information on it. I wasn’t offended but I have concern about someone using trust of a profession to make money off those that trust the medical community.
I would actually kind of like to a side hustle about Mary Kay, Thirty One bags, or something similar. Those are things that I invited to all the time and I sometimes wonder if people can make enough of them to be worth it.
Doh, I missed it dude. Please repost! :)
I feel that if you feel it’s a good enough post, it should be up. It’s your website, and you should be able to do as you please, unless the post is seriously offensive!
Found it in the reader. Interesting product Cil! Never heard of it, but if you think it really works and has helped people, then I don’t see why it’s wrong to help spread the word.
Anybody who is offended by an article can simple click away. I didn’t find the article offensive at all. There’s so much about health we have yet to discover. Who knows what awesomeness could be out there? So many great inventors were deemed quacks during their day. Look at Einstein, Marie Currie and Benjamin Franklin now.
I guess I missed why you pulled it down? Aren’t most of your readers offended when there is a guest post for the most part? I would put it back, because offended people cause alternate points of view. I am bummed I never got to say anything, because instead, I came up with an idea to streamline my studying. Damn ideas, always make me miss drama lol jk (I am very thankful for all my ideas, even the insane and boring ones.) Besides, if people were offering views against the side hustle, wouldn’t it educate those who wanted to do it, either for or against the idea? And isn’t that better than removing the post in whole? You can always put a disclaimer that you neither are for or against the idea and hope the post brings education to everyone who reads it. At least that is what I would like to see you do instead…
Just read it (hadn’t refreshed my RSS reeder since this morning)
It was pretty bad, but we all make mistakes! No harm no foul ;)
I skimmed it this am but lost interest because it did not appeal to me. That being said, all kinds of articles on many diff blogs also have the same affect. I just leave the page and move on never really giving it another thought.
Exactly how many comments did you get before you pulled the plug?
@jp
“If you don’t like the article, don’t read it.”
If you find a song or some form of entertainment offensive, I agree with this. The problem was that it was spreading potentially very dangerous misinformation. Even if you click away, it doesn’t mean that others will… or that they’ll go elsewhere and get the correct information.
“MLM marketing, while people don’t like it, is still a viable side hustle for many… and she has every right to share it.”
Actually some of the claims she made was against the FTC endorsement guidelines and FDA laws for marketing supplements as drugs. Maybe she has a right to share it, but she has to do it within the confines of the law.
@Jessica,
Mary Kay is interesting. It takes the health scam out of the MLM scam. It’s a little better, but you still have a very dangerous “business opportunity” that ends up destroying people’s lives. There’s a lot of information at the Pink Truth and particularly this article. If you are the type to pay for content, I suggest that you read this this Harper’s article on Mary Kay.
@Financial Samari,
We have a simple way of proving whether medicine really works. There’s are very specific methods such as those explained here. If any product wants to go through those steps and prove that the product works, I’m sure that no one will have any problem with it. In the meantime, products that haven’t completed the tests favorably aren’t able to make claims they help people. Otherwise, it would open the door for anyone to sell any kind of snake oil and we’d have chaos of misinformation with no one knowing what really works.
Also, I’m not sure anyone considered Einstein or Franklin a quack in their day.
Now I’m disappointed I missed out on the comments as I saw it super early before there were any comments. I thought it was a bit out of character for your site, but wasn’t offended.
I would have kept it on your blog. Haters gonna hate.
Thanks for the (mostly) kind words everyone! :) Really means a lot that you took the time to say something whether you read the post or not. I really am lucky with this group.
A few thoughts since I’ve stepped away the past few hours:
1) Once the post was down I just felt relief. Not so much in that there was differing opinions on the subject, or even that people told me they unsubscribed based on this 1 post alone (people are bound to hate something when you’ve written over 1,600 posts! Haha…), but more so cuz people wouldn’t be offended anymore and the negativity was gone. Both on the site, and against Cil – who I mentioned was a friend of mine and who I knew only had the best intentions. It’s totally cool to have an opinion on a product or a post/etc, but when personal attacks come it turns into something else. And that’s the last thing I want for anyone posting on my site, whether you’re a blogger, reader, etc. And with the post live it would only continue coming.
2) The post, let’s face it, didn’t convey at all how it was intended to. And that’s totally my fault for not catching it sooner. I’ve stood my ground on many a blog posts over the 4 years doing this which I thought were good battles to fight (I’m sure some of you will remember!), but this one in the end was just not one of them. I really couldn’t find any wins from it, so I just let it down to rest and I’m fine with that.
3) It’s nice to be shaken from your cozy world every now and then – especially as a blogger :) As much as I hated the outcome of everything here, it did remind me that you’re “never safe” when putting opinions and thoughts online and to always be conscious of what you’re doing. Not in a super paranoid way or anything, but just that you can’t take your normal rhythm for granted. Just like on those AWESOME days when the media picks up your posts (in a Good way, haha..) or you get your biggest trafficked day! It’s these big swings – the ups and downs – that keep us in check. And I think we all need it at times.
Okay, that’s the end of that. It really isn’t all that dramatic as it may seem to be playing out today, but nonetheless it does feel good to “talk things out,” if you will, and then move on. Which I will be happily doing tomorrow :) In the meantime, you guys have yourselves a great night! And thanks again for all your support!
-J$
PS: As ironic as this may be, I’m about to launch my newest project on how to blog sexier ;) It’s safe to say you’re always learning…
Just read it on the RSS reader and it was HILARIOUS. Not offended in any way, shape, or form. I wish we could have read the comments! This seriously made my day.
I had read the post but had not commented…although when I read it no one had dared to say something. I can understand why you felt the need to pull it down just to remove the negative energy surrounding it…the post wasn’t anything that was of particular interest to me therefore I had nothing to say. For those who felt the need to completely bash the post I really didn’t think that was necessary.
Thanks guys. Just one of those days, eh?
I read the post but not the comments. I think that at the beginning of the post you wrote that you weren’t sure if you should post it or not. Next time trust your instincts.
the post just didn’t interest me, deleted it and looked forward to today’s post.
I’m with Holly. I want to see the comments. :)
(I didn’t think the post was that interesting, especially not comment-worthy, so I’m curious what got people so riled up.)
Haha sorry! the comments come and go with the post ;) I don’t think it was as dramatic as it may have come off though, so you didn’t miss much.
J,
While I thought the post was HORRIBLE and borderline criminal I don’t think you should have taken the post down. People probably could have learned just how blind the product/mlm could make someone of reasonable intelligence.
I would have loved to (and I intended to early on), but when it turns to hatred towards specific people I have to jump in.
Nice, J$. I appreciate your integrity and honesty. I think I skimmed the post, thought, “weird”, and moved on. Thanks for protecting your guest poster from unnecessary bile, too! Like you said, it’s one thing to dislike a product, another thing to dislike a person. See GRS here: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/08/14/grs-comment-policy-updated/ . I thought JD said it nicely.
“it’s one thing to dislike a product, another thing to dislike a person” – I like that, thanks :)