This is becoming tiresome…
The following is a snippet taken from an email I received this morning, via the contact form on my blog. I have taken it not to show this particular example, but rather to represent what is one of the most annoying things that I tend to receive while I’m blogging. If you recognise your writing, please don’t do it again.
We are interested in forming a content relationship with mikejharrison.com.
Our writers can construct a carefully researched guest article for your site [...] that can naturally attract traffic and links. This way we both win! We just ask that we can place one reference in the article or bio back to our site.
No, no, no. I don’t even care if you think your site is related in terms of content to mine (it isn’t – you share and rank online courses). I don’t want your guest post. You obviously don’t read my blog, otherwise you would know I couldn’t give a stuff about traffic and links. This also goes to those SEO types promising me that I can ‘grow my traffic exponentially’ or whatever. Please go away.
These are the rules:
I will only ever publish a guest post here if…
- I have asked that person individually and politely whether they would write for me. (I have no idea who you are, so I won’t be asking you, SEO types).
- They have approached me and are someone who I respect. (You evidently get around with these offers of ‘content relationships’ and ‘SEO optimization [sic]‘, so I have little to no respect for you).
So, off you toddle, and I would be obliged if you stayed away, please.
To my fellow teachers and other people involved in educations who read this blog, apologies for the ranting post and I promise I’ll be back on form soon =)
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
YouTube
Vimeo
Well, if you ever need to approach me I am always approachable or if you wish me to approach you then I could do it in a stealthlike manner.
On another note, I’m a bit fed up of stuff like that, I got a lot of job offers on LinkedIn that only unravelled and turned out to be sales pitches in disguise the day of the interview. No thanks. Similar things on the blog and some weird stuff on Twitter. Perhaps we need to password protect all our stuff and form a secret society.
BTW, have a look in your blog Spam box. There’s some mad stuff there normally.
Good to know, Phil! If I can think of something appropriate (that you haven’t already written!), I’ll let you know.
The spam is unbelievable. Mostly it’s ok because it just makes no sense, but there are the bloody long spam comments that are obvious cut n paste jobs. I’m sorry if a reader’s comment has ever got lost in the spam, because I tend to just let it build up to 200, 300 and then click ‘empty spam’. I can’t waste the time to sort through it all. Even more desperate are those that go something like ‘I am so in love with your wondering writings here. Great job, keep up your blogging!’
Password protection is one way to stop it, I guess, but it would limit the ability to share things with each other =/
Yes and the ‘you’ve been nominated by a blog with other 3 hits to win….all you need to do is put this logo on your site, mail this to 500 of your closet PLN and get a tattoo of the blog address on your bottom and run naked through the streets of London. OK, maybe not the last butt, bit.
An understandable grievance. Of course, these irritants only bother you because there is a system of evaluation (Google) in which quantity is king and queen, and because the internet has allowed business to take priority over everything else.
By the way, you seem to have written nothing about Sugata Mitra. I wonder what you make of the hole in the wall?
Many thanks for the comment, Torn.
You’re quite right that the reason this grieves me is the fact that there is this system of evaluation in place and that success (for many) depends on how you rank within that system. I may operate inside this system (running a website/blog) so I am represented in some way there, but someone offering me a way we ‘both win!’ doesn’t really appeal. I would rather write for the sake of writing and sharing, not to generate traffic or links.
I haven’t written anything about Mitra, but then I haven’t read extensively about him and his projects either. Although I like to use technology in my teaching, and in my personal and professional development, I am certainly no expert. Nor am I well versed enough in educational theory to expound on possible implications of projects like those Mitra has initiated, at least with any degree of sophistication. Having said that, I do have to say that I find the hole in the wall project fascinating.
Hi Mike – yes, I’ve received a handful of these types of requests in my inbox over the last year or so. Initially, I inquired more about the company they worked for. Later, I politely declined. Now, I respond with “no thanks”. I’m sure eventually I’ll just not bother, but something in me wants them to know I got the request and hear me decline.
You’re a better man than I am then, Tyson. I don’t reply at all.
I get these a lot too, usually from people claiming to have written ‘high quality, well-researched articles about education’. Some of them are dumb enough to include links to said articles which for some reason take me to quite short, poor quality articles lacking in any kind of research… And then they email again a couple of weeks later asking if I’ve had time to consider their offer… All they ask is that I include one link – even if it was a high quality article, that part would still make me say NO.