What I’m reading: One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding by Robert Gover
What’s on the iPod: Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones
Before I forget, I have a post up over on About Freelance Writing. Please give Anne some comment love.
Beautiful weekend. It’s Tuesday and I’m just getting to it? Wow. That’s what happens when you get busy. Anyway, spent lots of time in the garden Sunday after chomping at the bit Saturday – it rained intermittently, wasting perfectly good dirt-digging opportunities. I got two beds cleared and made sure to clear out some of the daisies spreading like wildfire around my poppies. The poppies are loving the place I put them, so I’m thinking to get a few more this week.
And of course it was the first Sunday of the month, so we headed over to Molly Maguires for traditional Irish music sessions. Some Irish dancers showed up, having traveled an hour from Reading, PA. It was great fun, and the band responded by playing more fiddle tunes. We were also graced with some lilting (the Irish version of “scat”) by one of the band’s singers. He’s won some championships at it, and it’s great to hear such beautiful singing.
Plenty of you have received the same guest post requests from strangers that I get. Here’s a weird one, and honestly, it sounds way too organized and third party for me to take it seriously:
Dear Lori:
My name is E*** from A**** Writing Services. We have a client who would like to pay you for the opportunity to sponsor a blog post that you have recently written. We know that blogs can be expensive to run and our client would like to opportunity to support you in that endeavor.
In return our client is asking for one link that they specify placed into the body of the blog post(no porn or gambling). Feel free to contact me with any concerns or clarifications you may have.
If you would have any questions or would like to start the process, please email me at e***@a***-writing-services.org so we can begin.
Sincerely,
E****
Outreach Manager
I have no intention of saying yes to an offer like this for several reasons:
1. This blog’s idea-sharing space is not for sale.
2. This blog is a community. It’s sharing and discussing and debating. I will not be inviting strangers, who aren’t vested in the community, to blog in return for a fee.
3. I have no idea who this woman is, nor did she tell me who her client is.
I won’t sell this space – your space – to the first person who waves money in front of me (or the second person or 29th person, for that matter).
I have my own products and services now, and it causes me a little angst to even post them here. I don’t want you to think – ever – that I’m more intent on marketing to you than building a community with you. So I promise this – I’ll bring up my side projects, tout them for a day or so, then move them to a separate page with a link over on the left side of this page. It may not be “smart” marketing in the sense that I’m not beating you over the head with it, but I’d rather you feel comfortable being here.
Have you seen anyone who’s had posters that clearly have no relation to the blog? What did that do to your perception of the blog or blog owner? How many of these offers have you received?
11 responses to “Space Not Available”
Maybe I have stupid written on my forehead. I got almost the exact same comment asking if I was willing to have two posts placed on my site (from the same place as you mention) which they would pay me for. I was really hesitant because I'm am very anti marketing on my blog. I'm new to blogging so I had no idea.
Both of the posts they provided were emailed to me and were at my discretion as to whether I wanted to put them up or not.
I liked the posts they provided and saw no harm. If your're interested this is the address for one of the posts I put up.
http://fbiedermann.blogspot.com/2011/03/making-marriages-work.html
The link in the post was for an online schools website
People asking to guest on my blog when I don't even know them results in that old knee jerk reaction, *delete*. At the beginning I did provide links, but only if they asked very nicely. Only when I streamlined the links to writing-related only did I start to ignore or decline.
I've had 2 people ask if they can guest on my blog in the past few months. One, I suspect, was selling some kind of pyramid finance thing, the other did produce solar panels which was something I'd discussed on my blog.
However, my blog is my blog, my space, my opinion, my friends, etc, and it clearly says so at the bottom, right next to the copyright clause.
I get several of those a week, and I decline. If you're not going to tell me the client, or why my blog is a good fit for your target market, why would I think you're legitimate? You're writing me a pitch letter — pitch me more than you'll toss a few pennies my way.
Um, a blog is NOT expensive to run. WordPress and Blogger are free, it's the time commitment that's the expense, and the quality of the posts.
I've seen several of those posts embedded in other blogs, and I wonder "what the heck does that have to do with anything?" and I usually don't go back to the blog, because I feel the blogger broke my trust.
I've had a few of those as well and I just delete them. I can't say I have seen any appear on another blog. I hate when people take advantage of newbies-like what I call the "nice comment spammers." When I see them posted on someone's blog Really nice post – Great post-I am bookmarking this…yada, yada, yada… I empathize with the blogger. I remember how disappointing it was to realize it was just spam.
i'm still having trouble deciphering this woman's second sentence. they have a client who wants to pay you to sponsor a blog post you've already written? that makes no sense to me. it's either a poorly constructed sentence, or they want to go back in time to sponsor a past post.
Yeah, I've gotten a couple of those in the past two weeks. I was flattered for about a half-millisecond, then my B.S. detector started ringing — it's suspicious when it's someone who I don't know or hasn't commented on my blog previously.
Maybe I'm rude, but I didn't even respond. Seeing the volume of people who've gotten the same request, I feel more comfortable about that decision.
Jake-I filed mine with the requests for help from the dying rich person from overseas who needs my help getting his fortune to his loved ones because of the crazy laws in his country. They'll transfer the money to me and even give me a piece of it for my trouble. Who wouldn't do it?
Cathy, last week my 79-year-old uncle got a call from someone impersonating my brother (had his name correct, too), saying he was in Portugal with a friend, had gotten in a car crash, and they needed money. Mercifully, he knew enough to call my mom before doing anything!
When you inherit your Nigerian fortune, please remember to share…
I don't know about you guys, but when I see them I get a bit angry. It's a new twist on plastering useless content all over the Internet to drive search rankings. I don't care if they pay my bills for the next three years – it goes against my beliefs.
Fiona, that does seem very relevant to your blog – and we all become our mothers – FYI. :)) How do your readers respond to those guest posts? In your case, it seems to fit quite well.
Amen, Diane. I like the space here and the guests who do post know the blog and understand the readers.
Exactly, Devon. This blog costs me nothing but a few hours a week in "love" time – posting, responding, etc.
Cathy, I'd bookmark your posts.
Paula, that stumped me, too. I think the intent was not to post a new blog post, but to link ads all through my existing posts. BIG no thank you.
Jake, you're rude like I am. They didn't get anything but a delete from me. This is not, in my opinion, a missed marketing opportunity. It's maintaining the integrity of what shows up here.
And that's DAMN scary about the phone call! I'd heard that was happening, and maybe because we screen calls we don't get these. Glad your uncle wasn't taken by it!
Lori, both of the posts they provided me were good fits for my blog (I guess I was lucky) One of my readers actually thanked me for the interesting read.
Having said that, I don't think I would do it again. Put hey we learn from these things.
Cheers for keeping us informed on these things. It definitely helps my learning process
Fiona, I think your situation was quite different. This person here wanted to put ads on my site. Your person at least offered content that was relevant and readable.