Do you know why gyms prefer annual contracts and auto rewnewal options on credit cards?

Sorry, I know, never open with a rhetorical question.

It’s because auto-renewal is a business model. It’s based on people being too busy/lazy/apathetic/whatever, to cancel that automatic monthly charge.

Let’s say for instance you made a New Year’s resolution to go to the gym every day. You went and signed up for a gym membership and gave them your credit card and said “of course charge me every month.”

And in January you use the gym like nobody’s business. You’re there twice a day sometimes. And then February hits and you don’t have time one day. And then you miss an entire week, and by June you haven’t been back in two months.

But you let them continue to charge your credit card every month. Occasionally you’ll look at your credit card bill and say “I never go to the gym any more, I should cancel that.” But so many people will never get around to it. All of those un-cancelled, unused gym memberships are what keeps them in business.

Same for any recurring monthly fee. Games, video rentals, online services, all of it. A part of their business model is based on how many people will sign up, pay the monthly fee, and never use the product. Because they get paid regardless.

Ever see those writers on Blogger/Word Press/Twitter/Facebook/Google +, etc, who have tens of thousands of followers?

Some of them have really good content online.

Some of them, this is what their social media feeds look like:

“I wrote a blog post about how awesome I am”

Ten minutes later “I wrote a book and it’s awesome”

Ten minutes later “I wrote a blog post about how awesome I am”

Rinse. Repeat. And Repeat. And Repeat.

You may have followed this writer because they followed you or because one day someone retweeted one of their links and you said “that looks interesting.” You read the blog post. It wasn’t bad.

Except then you notice the next day that they’ve got the same links on their social media feed. And the next day, etc. Those links continue to draw in new followers, because the article is good. But the person never seems to say anything else.

Eventually, you learn to ignore anything they post. That’s the awesome thing about image avatars, our eyes recognize them and we just scan past that information. Maybe sometimes you say “should I unfollow them?” and you decide maybe you’ll do it later, or that maybe that would be rude, or whatever your excuses are.

You continue to let them clutter your feed, because it’s easier to just not do anything.

But would you buy their next book? Or have you taught yourself to ignore their feed to the point where you don’t even register if there’s new information in it? (assuming there ever is new information).

If that writer automatically made even $1 a month for every single follower, that would be a fantastic business model. Similar to the gym membership business model.

But last time I checked, unless your job is gathering online followers, we don’t get paid a fixed rate for each follower. And if all of your followers are ignoring you because of repetitive static, you don’t get paid at all.

I think posting a blog link multiple times is acceptable. I think posting links to your book multiple times is acceptable. But…

If it’s the same blog link five times a day every day for four months, and the same book link five times a day every day, and there’s nothing else coming from your feed…

Does it really matter how many followers you have if they all see you as is an unused gym membership?