Just disinfect

I need to disinfect. Recently I've been receiving a lot of requests to publish blog posts from freelance writers. When I first began to receive this requests, I admit I was curious, because it made a change from companies trying to get advertising space on my site. So I asked to see some of the 'guest posts' that were being offered. What I was sent was disappointing. 

The 'guest posts' weren't written very well at all, looked rather formulaic, and as I suspected, many of them were trying to plug some kind of product or service. Some of the more subtle ones merely eulogised over the product or service without endorsing or naming it. It's apparent to me now that there are likely to be commercial companies lurking behind these wannabe 'guest bloggers', who are almost certainly as freelance as I am a Dutchman. 

I can see it all now: These companies must pay top dollar for their 'social media marketing' executives to sit down for hours on end in front of a screen fastidiously trawling the web for blogs that attract more than a thousand hits each month. When they spot one, the office lights flash on and off and the warning klaxon sounds. Then all the company's designated 'guest bloggers' run around like maniacs flash targeting the blogger's e-mail inbox to try to convince him that their 'freelance' post should be hosted on his blog. 

There's another name for these people - parasites (not to be confused with Parisiens, who are in fact the lovely residents of the capital of France). I name them parasites because they all want to cash in on the success of someone else's endeavours. They want a free ride on the back of a winning steed. They want to hijack popular blogs to get their message across to the largest audience they can, with the minimum of effort. 

I have a message for these parasites: Blog off! Don't try to cash in on the success of hardworking people. Go and get your own blog to play with. That way you will understand just how difficult it is to build up a decent following through hard work and a lot of hours of thinking, researching and writing you will need to do. 

Don't misunderstand me. I think guest blogging is a good idea, and if you can find someone you trust, who can write a great blog post or two while you're away sunning yourself on the Costa del Sol, then go for it. As long as they can maintain your high standards as a blogger, it's a useful strategy. But my advice for any decent blogger who receives an e-mail from one of these wannabe social media marketing guest blogger parasites, is this: Don't say no. Don't even respond. Just delete the e-mail. Then disinfect.

Image source (modified)

A shorter version of this post entitled 'Parasites!' first appeared on Learning with 'e's on 13 December, 2010.


Just disinfect by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.