Why would any company doing business online today think it’s okay to interrupt one of its blog posts with a sales offer—even before the reader finds their way to word one?

This happened to me just moments ago.

I was so offended by the untimely interruption that I had to stop what I was doing and capture the experience and its takeaways in a blog post—this post you’re reading right now.

Before the infraction, I had been happily minding my client’s business, researching content for an ebook I was writing.

I clicked in to read a blog post, and — before I had time to blink — a full-page welcome mat appeared before me.

It filled the entire screen. There was a scroll bar on the right side, and although I could scroll up and down, the view never changed.

I couldn’t “X” out of it, either. My only options were to select “YEAH!” or “No Thanks.”

Dear Reader, please give us your money. K? Thanks!

Um, excuse me, may I ask:

What is the YEAH! actually for? What would I be saying No Thanks to?

Honestly, I didn’t even know the company responsible for the blog post. I simply typed a search query into Google and then clicked through on the results that sounded most relevant.

• Result 1 — nothing good here; move on.

• Result 2 — some interesting content; take notes.

• Result 3 — this mind-boggling interruption.

I was dumbfounded.

“What is this?" I asked the empty room.

"What is L❤️VE?"

"And, ‘Get Started,’ get started with what?”

That's the point where I grabbed the screenshot and then quickly opened my blog editor.

And here we are right now.

The moral? Date readers before you propose to them

This message does have a point; it’s not just a rant.

The point is that it was way, way, WAY too early to be asking me to part with my money as soon as I landed on the blog post — especially if I'd never been to your site before.

Even so, whether I'd been there before or not, it was still far too soon to be asking me to shell out $5 per month for 12 months when I had no idea who you were or what the thing was you were selling.

If you really must disrupt my experience, the least you could have done is offer me INFORMATION — something related to the topic that brought me to your site or to the content of the page I was on.

Woo me a little bit.

Hold my hand.

Let me discover who you are.

Show me what you have to offer.

Don’t just ask me to marry you.

Let me get to know and love you first.

And then, my friend, anything is possible.

Even $5 a month.