Staying Savvy Series: It’s All in the Approach

This is Number Five in a series of posts, which will present some simple tools for protecting yourself from common mis-uses of your work. You can find the rest of the series over here.

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Chapter Five: It’s all in the approach.

If you have a blog, and you’re writing good posts and sticking to it, then sooner or later, you’re likely to be approached by someone.

Maybe you’ll hear from a publisher, who wants you to review a book. Maybe you’ll hear from one of the big indie craft fairs, wanting you to promote their next extravaganza. Maybe you’ll hear from a newer blogger, wanting you to exchange links.

And all of this is great! If others are approaching you, it means that your blog is becoming popular, and your work is getting noticed. Congratulations!

So, in general, as you’ve probably noticed, blogs are hot stuff. People who want to market things are increasingly seeing blogs as an excellent way to get free word-of-mouth publicity. And so more and more people are contacting bloggers.

Let me be clear: I have no problem with this. I am for anything that presents crafters with new opportunities. But I do think that there’s a lot to be said for the way in which we are approached. So when you are approached, I’d recommend considering a few simple things:

First, did you get a form email?
When you get one of these “approach” emails, take a closer look. Does it address you by name? Does it mention your blog by name? If not, then it’s could be a form email. This isn’t the end of the world, but it probably does mean that the same email appeal was also sent to a bunch of other bloggers.

Personally, I’m not such a fan of form emails. I believe that the blogosphere is all about personal relationships. So when I get a form email, I feel like the organization that sent it isn’t all that interested in me personally — I must be just another potential marketing channel to them. So I’m less interested in responding to form emails. But that’s just my opinion.

Did you get an email, or a comment?
If you’ve put your email address anywhere on your blog, then ideally, organizations will use this to contact you about their projects. If someone leaves a comment on your blog instead, asking you to participate in their project, this may tell you two things: 1) that the organization may not be too internet-savvy, and 2) that the organization may be hoping, by leaving a comment, to get their link onto your website. Again, this is hardly the end of the world — but it might give you cause to look more closely into whatever you’re being asked to consider.

Were you offered anything in return?
As much as I hate to get all “what’s in it for me,” I have to say, your blog is a valuable thing. Your written words are valuable. Your opinions are valuable. And any person or company who asks you to write about them will ideally respect that value, and offer you some small token in exchange.

In no way am I suggesting you should blog for money. What I am saying is that it’s possible for most organizations to offer you a link exchange. Or a review copy. Or a button. Or some good exposure. And their offer is a sign of respect for the value you provide.

. . . Now, these are just points to consider. If you get an anonymous approach from a company, and you really want to be involved in their project, by all means, go for it!

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In the next installment, I’ll talk more about the idea of exchange, and how to evaluate it.