Blog v. Spam
Yesterday I was told by a member of a social networking site that advertising a blog site with update blog posts was equivalent to being a Spammer! Truely, this person from America really thought that. She then proceeded to reiterate her feelings on that social network site and included a link to her own blog where she'd written an article reinforcing her argument!
I rather think the irony of what she did in advertising her own blog was lost on her and the size of her own ego as self-appointed arbiter of good taste got in the way of any sense of humour, or even of any good sense at all.
As a relatively new blogger, though with something to say that hopefully will be of interest to the audience at large, rather than just to myself, I know that a new blog has to be advertised and it's audience expanded by word of mouth / keyboard, so for the past two days if I have a new blog post I've shared the link with Twitter and Facebook followers and friends. If they're interested they'll go and look. If they're not, they won't. Hardly "in your face" spammer advertising. Needless to say the person who accused me of being a spammer was not on either of those two sites. Indeed that particular site is one I joined months ago and I've seen very little usage of it since, or increase in its membership.
So...what is a spammer. Surely that's someone who sends out messages to everyone and anyone, without any form of filter and without any thought for the destination. They know their target interest audience is very tiny, so as they aren't focusing, they blitz the world and annoy a lot of people in the process. My email spam filter is full every morning offering me patent medicines that may, or may not exist, lotteries that I certainly haven't won, let alone entered, inheritances I don't qualify for, and replica fake watches I certainly don't want. That is spamming and scamming (they often go hand in hand).
A blogger has a core number of subscriber readers, is not interested in making money from the blog, but does want to entertain, or provide thought provoking ideas. Oh, and bloggers always want a bigger audience....please!
I'm a Blogger, not a Spammer.
I'd be very interested to know what other people think.
Incidentally, you can subscribe to this blog site by entering your email address in the box at the bottom of the colunn on the left of the page.
Thanks!
Ignore it Richard. She probably only replied to advertise her own blog anyway.
ReplyDeleteAuthors have to try to reach their audience. The only way they can do it is to advertise. It has to be done, so do it. Good luck.
Interesting, Richard. I maintain three blogs at the moment, and when I post to them, I feed to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Goodreads and Triberr, which then feeds to twitter on my behalf. Does that make me a spammer?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. I don't email anyone, I don't try to con them into buying anything legal, never mind illegal. Certainly, my blog carries the cover images of my novels (and other peoples') and some of my posts are designed to advertise specific titles, but that is not spam. Why? Because no one any of those social sites is targeted. They see the tweet/post and they decide form themselves whether they want to visit the site and read what I have to say.
It's also WYSIWYG. I'm not prattling about the writing process while secretly trying to get you to buy fake Viagra. I talkk about writing and books because I am a writer and book lover.
It's my considered opinion that this person is talking out of his/her backside. (Note: I would have said talking out of her arse, but I know you prefer politeness.)
Bwah ha! She contradicted herself well and truly! :)
ReplyDelete