Following on from the comments made by the Nameless Libertarian yesterday, recent approaches cause me to comment on the matter of emailing me. Only a day so ago, I received correspondence from a conspiracy nut accusing me of being a Jew – even though a cursory read of my output will contradict that assumption. This despite the long closed post to which he was responding specifically said not to contact me on such matters as I am not remotely interested.
Today, I received an interesting missive from someone who wants to put up a guest post on this site. I presume that others have been approached as well. Actually, it appears to be a genuine attempt to ask for advertising space from a genuine company. Given this, I’m not going to be harsh in my response. Indeed, I am going to explain why it has failed so that the sender will realise what they need to do if they want to pull it off in future. So, Charlot, if you are reading, take note as this is why my answer is “no”.
Whilst reading your blog I noticed that you have used guest posters previously, and so thought I’d send you a quick email.
This sentence at the end of the first paragraph is where your appeal missed its target. Anyone reading this blog will realise that I have never used guest posters. The conclusion I reached is that you have simply used a standard template and pasted it to a number of blogs. You are asking me to do something for you for nothing – given this, an attempt at personalising it at least gives you a chance of a hearing. A cut and paste job means that it will be dismissed out of hand.
We’re offering to write you a unique 400-600 word blog post, which will be relevant to your readers and will enhance your website as the quality of the content will be very high. Hopefully the post will be helpful to your readers and also will help your exposure in the search engines due to having more content.
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All that we would like in exchange is to have 2-3 dofollow links back to pages within our website, written within the content of the article that we will write for you. I’m sure you will agree, this is a fair exchange which benefits both parties.
Okay, firstly, this is not a commercial site. Never has been. Consequently, my exposure to search engines is not particularly relevant to me. As it happens – and as you have probably realised or you wouldn’t be contacting me – my Google ranking is pretty high. On any relevant search, this place is usually on the first page and often in the top three or four. So, getting a post on here will definitely do you some good. On the other hand, it does nothing for me. You want me to allow you to shill your business – including links in the piece – all for free. Why should I do this? You are offering me nothing that I do not already have.
As I said, this has a feeling of being a genuine approach and I can visualise someone coming up with the idea given that blogging is often in the news these days. So, from your point of view, it makes sense. From mine, it makes none whatsoever. Frankly, if you want advertising – which is what you do want – then you will have to offer decent rates for it. It still wouldn’t work here as I’m not interested in commercial activity, but it might interest others.
Bottom line; contacting a complete stranger out of the blue and asking them to shill your business for no reward is doomed to failure, especially if you have failed to do even the most basic research.
Better luck next time, eh?
If they money’s right, they can get in touch with me. Otherwise, they can get in touch all the same – but mostly so I can have a laugh at their expense.
If they were offering money, they would stand a chance. Jackart, for example, will host commercial links for a fee. But asking us to advertise their business on the basis of a bit of flattery is on a hiding to nothing.