Blogging is not always horny groupies and lucrative product endorsements. Sometimes you have to deal with what could be generously described as ‘douchebags’. It used to be that the majority of them were ‘producers’ from hole-in-the-wall ‘production companies’ who somehow could never be bothered to have email addresses that were from real domains. They would say how they were developing a ‘survivalist’ reality show and blah, blah, blah. I haven’t gotten one of those in a couple years, so I suppose the trend finally died down.
However….I get emails from people every so often saying how they think the blog is terrific (although they can’t mention a single post they read on it) and how they’d love to submit a ‘guest post’. Usually this ‘guest post’ topic is only vaguely related to the normal content of the blog. So..whats the angle? Probably some sort of affiliate linkage on the ‘guest poster’s part or some other scheme. But what do I, as the blog owner, get out of it? Good question. So, when one of these parasites emailed me asking if they could do a guest post, I asked them about what was in it for me…
We’ll make up a name for our intrepid huckster…oh, lets call him ‘Danny Major’. Disco Danny sends me an email that contains this:
I have been reaching out to sites in the prepping and survival
> categories regarding the potential for offering guest posting
> opportunities. Unlike others who tout for guest posting opportunities
> I actually visit sites before I contact them and although I couldn’t
> find anything on COMMANDERZERO to suggest you accept guest posts I
> couldn’t find anything to say you don’t either, hence the ‘shot in the
> dark’ of the subject line!
My reply: Whats in it for me?
Danny Boy comes back with this: Hi, thanks for replying Commander Zero. What are you suggesting? Or is it a case of me misunderstanding your mirth and you are actually responding in the negative with a question?
Ok, let’s suss this out. I reply: I spend fifteen years working on a blog and you want to use that work and brand-building as a forum for your guest posting…thats great for you, but what do I get out of it that I can’t do myself? I’ve been posting for 15 years, I can come up with posts pretty easily. So, why would I let you post there? How does it benefit me?
If someone wants to advertise on the side of your building it would be reasonable to not give them that space for free, right? Surely Dan-O must recognize that. But….I get this non-answer: I fully understand any hard working siteowner being protective over their website. So thanks for taking the time to reply, and keep up the good work on commanderzero.com
Well, geez, thats not an answer. So: You havent answered the question. What are you providing to blog owners in exchange for the platform they are providing you?
At this point the novelty is wearing down. There’s a bit more back and forth and I tell him: Okay. I’d be happy to accept a guest post from you but I’ll need to strip it of any affiliate links.
And then…:::crickets::: silence.
It’s a pretty sleazy thing to do…you whip up a generic post that might fit the topics of a half dozen websites, load it with affiliate links, and then trot it over to some blogs to try and get the blogs owner to post it so you can collect on the links. And the blog owner gets…nothing.
I’m telling ya, this blogging thing sometimes puts you in contact with some pretty weird and annoying people.
Is it possible that you were exchanging emails with a bot? The responses back from this alleged person sound like canned responses. Sure, there is ultimately a person or persons behind it somewhere, but it sounds like the initial solicitation and somewhat vague responses and non-answer answers were generated by a software program.
Not a bot.
Then besides being a douche, this individual is not very bright. To have no prepared pitch as to what is in it for you, even if it was pure BS, seems like abysmally poor planning and non-existent salesmanship.
BTW, I found my way here from Aesop’s place.
No shortage of ‘Nigerian princes’ in this world.
Internet panhandler.
Wants something for nothing.
If you offer to fill their begging cup, and then start to unzip your trousers to supply your intended delivery, they usually take the hint and move away at a rapid clip.
I’m pretty happy with my own spam filters.
A short fuse and a mean disposition where such panhandling are concerned generally suffices for what little gets through.
I doubt idiots like that have any idea how toxic their proposals are; once Blog X becomes an “embedded advertising” site the owner will have lost control over it, and lots of former readers to boot.
I understand where they’re coming from – the MSM is famous for simply re-printing press releases from their politically-favored organizations, so if it works there….
Well damn. I hope disco Dan doesn’t try to make a career in sales. Not very good and probably on purpose so he can get his foot in the door so to speak. This is another example of a punk ass POS wanting something without working for it.
Some people’s kids……
Yah, I get about one of those a month. And if I don’t respond to their first email they send a second with the subject line “did you see my email?”.
You could always “accept” his guest post, then change the links without it appearing to a casual observer that you did so.
And if you have that Amazon deal where you get a kickback for traffic on sales, it would benefit you and not him. Prob not worth the work longterm, but might be some shits and giggles in there for a time or 2..
Yeah back in the day I went with the “any and all links will be solely at my discretion.” It worked ok.
Loosely related would you be interested in guest posts from folks not blatantly trying for SEO optimization? I’ve been thinking that a post a month or so might be a good idea but have no interest in going back to having a blog.
Figured I would give you the offer first.
I appreciate the thought, but I think I’m going to pass. I think putting in guest posts, in my particular case, kinda dilutes the ‘flavor’ of the place.
I wonder if there’s room in the blogosphere for a combined contribution blog by former survival bloggers who don’t want to get back into routine blogging but rather have one or two posts a month or so that they want to get out there.
“American Partisan”, anyone?
Glad you’re alive, Ryan.
Just because you have a blog doesn’t mean you have to put up a post every day.
Not everyone is Glenn Reynolds, nor like me and are humanly incapable of shutting up for very long.
And even I have days when I’m too busy, or just not feeling it.
Remus does once a week. Some people submerge for months at a time. It’s all good.
Put whatever you want up, whenever the mood strikes you. You’re not getting a paycheck, and you aren’t the NYTimes, with a daily deadline.
But your stuff was always worth looking at.
Ask around, or be the bulletin board you want to happen.
Aesop, I’m alive and well.
Don’t regret pulling the ripcord on the blog. It sort of finished its lifecycle. My heart probably wasn’t in it for the last year, the choice was definitely deliberate.
I certainly could find a pretty chill “Send them stuff when I write it” kind of deal at one of several places. The only real reason I brought this up today is because Zero was on the topic. If I decide to actually get serious and write some posts I’ll find somebody who can use the content. However that hasn’t happened yet so who knows if it ever will. That may stay in the conceptual phase as my energy is spent on more useful things.
If you have an email you use leave it here and I’ll drop you a line.
Be well,
Ryan
> every day
Bless you, my son.
You belong to the shrinking number of people who know the difference between “every day” and “everyday”…
Cool. It was one of those “I doubt he’s interested but want to give him the first shot” kind of things.