Blog
I did not start blogging yesterday, folks.
Every once in a while I get an email from someone who wants advertising on my site or, at a minimum, a link to increase their search engine rankings.
I don’t know as much about online advertising as, say, Learning Horses, but I know a little. Enough to know better than to fall for these things, anyway.
For instance, the latest one that came in asked for a link exchange. If you don’t know, search engines (particularly Google) give significant weight to certain types of links when determining search engine ranking.
Although they want me to link to them, they are against reciprocal linking “for its limited search engine value.” Gosh, that sounds like no one will benefit from the reciprocal link, right? Wrong. So very wrong. In actuality, the “problem” (from the company’s perspective) is that they will receive far more benefit if they have lots of inbound, non-reciprocal links. They would still benefit from reciprocal links, just not as much. You know who would really benefit from reciprocal links? The bloggers. I suspect that the only “limited” value here is that the bloggers would benefit more from the arrangement than the company, and that would be tragic, as we all know.
Ok, so no reciprocal links. I’m still a money-grubbing capitalist: what am I going to get out of this deal, then?
They offered “a guest Blog post or article written by our SEO-savvy staff - many of whom have a professional writing background.”
Oh my gosh! A real professional writing background! I don’t know anyone… like… that… oh, wait. Me. I’m a professional writer. But maybe that SEO-savvy stuff will be useful. You think? It’s not like my blog posts (or other sites) ever appear in Google’s top ten. Uh, right. Guess I’ll have to pass on the SEO stuff, too.
But there’s an alternative! They will also compensate me for writing a blog post that links to their site. This one made me laugh out loud, and I don’t use that term lightly in this age of “I am typing ‘lol’, but I am actually only humoring your non-funny statement because I like you in an electronic friends-list sort of way.” Didn’t pay-per-post get drummed out of the blogsphere in 2006? No? Really? Fascinating. Even more fascinating: the rate they offered for said post. I’m offended. Ok, I’m not. Like I said, I laughed as soon as I realized they were talking about a pay-per-post situation. But if I had it in me to be offended by drive-by advertising solicitations, that rate would have done it. What is it about the total lack of advertising on my site that screams “offer me your lowest possible rate! I’ll be so enthusiastic to be paid at all that I’ll jump right on it!”
It must be the color scheme. Do you think my shades look desperate?
People, don’t fall for these sorts of offers. The company is going to benefit a whole lot more than you will, and some of the options (e.g. anything smacking of pay-per-post methods) will affect how others view your credibility.
I’m not wholly against advertising, mind you. I’m just against being taken advantage of because someone is assuming I don’t know my own worth. I do. And it ain’t (ahem) per word, I promise you that.
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Comments
You can pretty much assume that anything that shows up unsolicited in your email box is not going to benefit you nearly as much as it would benefit the person on the other end.
For the rest, even though I hate pay-per-post techniques, there are those who are ok with them. I’m ok with Google ads, but I know several people who are vehemently against them. You just have to decide which policies you are willing to live with.
Personally, if someone emailed me and said, “Hey, Halt Near X, you write this awesome dressage blog, and we have the world’s best dressage saddle. We will send you a saddle for your own use if you’ll post an exclusive ad in your header for three months,” I bet I’d agree.
Heck, I’ll find a way to work the brand name in to every post I write: “Today I did not get to ride in my [brand] saddle, and that made me very said. In other news…” or “I was watching TV and cleaning my [brand] saddle, and all of a sudden I remembered this thing I have to tell you all…”
*cough* Yeah, we all have our price.
You are one of the few horse blogs that doesn’t maintain a blogroll of other sites. Which isn’t the same as advertising, of course. My blogroll is made up of non-commercial horse blogs. Quite a few of them don’t provide a reciprocal link, mainly because I haven’t asked for one. A blogger who asks for a reciprocal link is one thing, a commercial site is another. I just want to be a good blogging citizen. I don’t have a lot of control over the ads that appear with my blog since I’m actually part of the newspaper, but I would never purposely place an ad in or on my blog, unless of course, there was a free saddle involved….
The practices of sponsoring posts, link building, guest blogging, and advertising on sites aren’t inherently bad. What’s so bad is the way a lot of people go about it. There are a lot of legit partnerships out there that do benefit us as bloggers, but they have to be presented well for us to even think about it. I don’t mind doing a sponsored post here and there, but only if the subject benefits my readers or if it was something I was intending to write about anyways. On the flip side, I’ve gotten a bunch a pathetic pitches that go straight to my trash can.
This is, however, a great message for marketers—if you want this kind of partnership you have to go about it carefully. Marketers need to show that they’ve actually read your blog and know who you are, what you write about, who your readers are, and what’s in it for you. Here’s a great article on a search engine resource site about how to pitch a blogger http://www.searchengineguide.com/mack-collier/so-how-do-you-pitch-a-blogger.php (and things for us to watch out for when people try to pitch us!).
OK, I recently got an email and had a conversation with people from Adify. What they had to offer sounded good at the time, but reading the info here now I am wondering. Has anyone heard of them/ about them? Did I potentially get myself into a pickle here?
On May 13, 2008, Mrs Mom said:
Well, from one who IS so new to blogging that I still squeak, I surely appreciate your thoughts on this matter. Knowing what pitfalls to watch out for is a huge help in reducing the amount of insanity in my life, as well as keeping a cleaner blog.
Thank you!
Oh- and no- your colors do not scream “Desperate” to me…. http://halt-near-x.com/images/smileys/wink.gif They say, “Marches To Own Band”!