Alex Jones Banned.. Who’s Next?

It’s A Nightmare Come True — Alex Jones Banned

This week we have seen a First Amendment Nightmare come true. An American media company has had its online traffic attacked by being de-indexed, banned, closed up, shut down, or any other term you want to use for it, in a 24 hour period, by the Tech Giant Media Companies. In other words, someone has had virtually all of their online traffic shut down.

You may or may not know who Alex Jones is. He’s Infowars. Now whether or not you like or agree with the political stance or the programming style of Infowars, you have to be extremely concerned that the Powers That Be decided that they should suddenly have no traffic.

Within 24 hours they were banned from Apple, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, and yes, even Pornhub.  And what do you know, their comment system for their website, Disqus, as cancelled their account as well.

All of these publishing platforms have faced strong pressure from multiple sources in recent weeks to shut Alex Jones up. Apple was the first to cave in, followed by the rest.

Many of you are cheering, Yes! Death to the Tyrants!… BUT..

What If It Were You?

Your business probably isn’t remotely as controversial as Alex Jones and Infowars, but what if it were you?

I have advised clients and basically anyone who would listen to the dangers of relying on social platforms for your business traffic. It seems well and good for a time. But are you really comfortable knowing that your business fortunes rest on the whims of a third party over which you have no control? That scenario reduces you from a business owner to a sharecropper. You are never in full control of your own business. You are the victim of the whim of someone else.  Even paying for search traffic in Adwords is precarious.

What is to be done? Don’t we need the likes of Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Google bringing us new customers? Admittedly, their traffic is nice, till it’s gone.

What is the best way? The old saying, “Reach out and touch someone” is best. We all have customers that are happy. We all have clients that like us and we like them. It’s always been said that its easier to sell to a happy existing customer than it is to go get a new one. Why not figure out how to market repeat times to an ever-growing list of satisfied customers?

Enter E-Mail Marketing

If you do not have and maintain an email list of your satisfied clients that you can mail to on a regular basis, you are leaving money on the table and you are killing your best source of future business.

If you do not have and maintain an email list of your satisfied clients that you can mail to on a regular basis, you are leaving money on the table and you are killing your best source of future business.

Even in a world that is flooded with spam, it’s a proven fact that our happy customers do not mind seeing an email  in their Inbox from someone who gave them a good experience. Think from your own experiences. How do you react to an email from someone you like?

When you have a list with thousands of satisfied customers, you can reach out with meaningful new offers and continue a valuable business relationship, regardless of whether the big Tech companies want you to or not.

Google can choose to de-index your site. Facebook can ban your business page. Twitter can shadowban your account or totally ban its existence. Youtube can prevent anyone from seeing your videos. Apple can keep anyone from hearing your podcasts.  Google can see to it that you only end up on page three on their Search Results Pages.

Nobody, but nobody, can prevent you from launching an offer with email and serving your customer base. You own your list, and you alone. It would take a great catastrophe to physically destroy it.

Start Thinking About Your Email

Take some time to learn about email marketing. Contrary to many ‘experts’ it is not dead. In fact, it is thriving quite well.

Add a widget to your website to begin actively collecting email addresses. Develop a plan to make it a part of your business plan.

Of Course, Infowars Wins…

Back to Infowars. It should have been predictable, but their type-in traffic has skyrocketed. As it turns out, your tried and true supporters will find you. Their app is the number one trending app on the Google Play store. Alex Jones claims his newsletter subscriptions have grown by 5.6 million subscribers in 48 hours. I’d say the attempt at silencing has backfired.

Alex Jones claims his newsletter subscriptions have grown by 5.6 million subscribers in 48 hours.

In a world of quickly eroding First Amendment rights, email may end up as our only true weapon for online success.

There is a poem, written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

First They Came …..

First, they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

First, they’ve come for Alex Jones

Who’s next??