A few days ago, a visitor left a pitch for a new, anonymous blog as a comment on one of my posts. Here’s what ticked me off:
- It had exactly nothing to do with the post.
- It’s already been left word for word on at least one other blog (on an equally off-topic post).
- It’s written to sound like it’s left by some third party who just really loved the new blog, when it’s pretty obviously a B4 campaign. (What’s “B4” stand for? Blog-buzz-building bullsh*t.) (The asterix, by the way, is there for the children. They are our future.)
I don’t mind being pitched – quite the opposite. But this kind of approach, from the intrusion in another conversation to the fundamental dishonesty of its grassroots veneer, isn’t going to work for me, and it won’t work for most other bloggers.
What does work?
It depends on the blogger, but for me and for many others who’ve posted their preferences, here’s what you do.
- Read me. See what I blog about, where I come from and what I’m likely to link to. If that isn’t what you’re pitching, don’t try to sell it to me; you’ll just be wasting your time and my patience. Instead, wait until you have something that’s up my alley.
- Email me at rob@robcottingham.ca. Tell me succinctly why you think I’d be interested in what you’re pitching, give me an URL and point me to some added resources in case I’d like to write a longer post.
- Give me a week, and then poke me if I haven’t responded to you yet.
(Want to know something ironic? The B4 pitcher was commenting on a post inspired by someone who had pitched me the right way.)
How about you? How do you like being pitched… or don’t you?
Updated: Marshall Kirkpatrick has a great batch of bookmarked pitching tips.
Oh, I’ll click the link (unless it’s the more obvious kind of spam – you see one phenteremine site, you’ve seen them all). Even if the comment is obnoxious or the approach is hamhanded, I’m as vulnerable to curiosity as the next person.
But this time, it was just plain disappointing. If someone’s going to pitch me on something that turns out to be gratuitously insulting to clients and causes I support — and this was — it had better be a) awfully funny, b) incredibly insightful, or c) amazingly well-informed — and this wasn’t.
I don’t like being pitched. But if someone comes by my blog and makes a comment about something I’ve written, I’ll most likely visit their blog if they have one.
Same here. If they have taken time to make a comment, whether I agree or not, I will make a point of visiting their blog. Sometimes the pitches are just too obvious and that is upsetting.
I’ll guess that it was the spamming SOB who left the same comment at Just About Every politics/currents Blog in Canada. Seeing as they were (amongst other things) taking shots at a colleague of mine, I was less than whelmed.
Comments are a crappy way to “pitch” me; first because I don’t blog much — and my blog has at least two orders of magnitude less readership than some of my other activities. More importantly, you can send me more useful, readable information and pointers in email that will not bore the bejeezus out of the other people reading the site. It’ll also get to me quicker, so it won’t waste my time, your time, or readers’. Last, if you’re emailing me without trying to leave your URL in every comment, I will be more likely to take it as a sign of good faith as opposed to trying to drive up your technorati or ttlb ranking.
Please, please provide me some context if your cause or issue may be under my radar; don’t assume I follow some obscure web site or mailing list. It’s a lot easier for me to skip over a graf of stuff I already know that read through a bunch of disjointed statements and forwarded full-header emails, all of which leave me asking “What is this person trying to get at?” (Yes, I do get stuff like what I’ve just described.)
You’re right, Rob, that is ironic. Much more than, say, rain on your wedding day or even a free ride when you’ve already paid :)