I mean it. Seriously. Just don’t.

I’m not going to link to the site, nor am I going to name it. Yesterday, I spent some time reading about how to improve my blog. The blogosphere has shrunk massively since I last looked into finding readers, writing better posts, and related topics. Still, there are so-called experts out there claiming to know how it’s done. A blogging expert I am not, so I dug into a dozen or so articles, ready to learn something new.

But instead of finding enlightenment, I got hit with pop-ups. Every single article I opened came with the same intrusive ad asking me to sign up for a mailing list. By the eighth time I had to click “close,” I was so irritated that I abandoned the rest of the articles I had already opened in background tabs.

I couldn’t even tell you what the site was offering in exchange for my email. Was it an e-book? A newsletter? “10 secrets to building an audience on Twitter no one talks about”? It could have been a free Bitcoin, and I wouldn’t have noticed—because the pop-up was so distracting that it made me start to irrationally dislike the person behind the site.

We all want an audience. We all want people to join our mailing lists. But here’s the thing: nobody who hates you will ever sign up.

The internet has changed. Everyone is on social media now. And on social media, you follow people you like and block people you don’t. Reading a blog isn’t any different. Information is everywhere—thousands of versions on thousands of sites on the same topic. Why should I choose your blog to read? Only because I like you and not the thousand others writing about the same topic.

Treat your blog like a welcoming home, and people will stay. They’ll get to know you—and maybe even start to like you.

But if the very first impression of your site is an unwanted pop-up, most visitors will walk away and never give you another chance. Is that worth it getting a handful of mailing list sign-ups. I don’t think so!

To drive the point home, look at this:

Does that look like a successful club you’d want to be a fan of?