Why do Ad Companies Take Liberties?

I get a lot of emails from affiliate networks and ad agencies via Blogging Tips, who want me to tell readers about the launch of their new site or announce a major update to their product or service. If the news is related to blogging then I usually cover the story as I like to tell readers about the latest blogging news.

These ad companies and agencies are really sneaky though. More than a dozen of them have signed me onto their company newsletter or press release list without my consent so I have to then go and unsubscribe. I did not even write a post about some of them, I simply emailed them saying that I didn't think their news was relevant to blogging so I wouldn't be covering it on the site. Clearly this was a mistake.

I absolutely despise spam. Affiliate companies have no right to sign me up to a newsletter without my consent. It really pisses me off, particularly after I did them a favour by writing about their news story.

But what can you do? I could remove the post I wrote about the site but I'd be shooting myself in the foot as I'd be removing another page for the search engines to spider. I'm not childish or scummy enough to put their email on a spam list either so all I can do is tell them to stick it next time they ask me to tell readers about their 'important news'.

You reap what you sow!!

Friends are the key to Social Media Promotion

I've been trying to be more active on Digg and StumbleUpon in the last few days. There are a number of factors which determine which articles get the most votes yet it's clear that those with a lot of social friends easily get votes to their submissions.

Take Digg for example. A few people voted for one of my posts last week so I added them as friends. A few accepted and in the last day or so I've had a few shouts (quick messages) from them to vote for their posts (which I did). At the moment I have 7 friends but I'm going to get more as more friends means more voting power. This is why regulars with hundreds of friends can get diggs so easily.

Imagine you had 1000 'friends' on Digg and you shouted for a digg. Even if only 100 or so friends gave your post a digg you would still get a huge traffic boost. Not to mention the extra diggs you would get from normal digg users who just liked your post. It's clear that one of the biggest factors in social promotion is to make lots of friends and to actively digg their posts.

Digg, StumbleUpon and other social sites have been cracking down on those who exchange votes but I think they turn a blind eye to a lot of it i.e. they know they would lose a lot of members if they really cracked down on it.

Until they do crack down it heavily I'm going to be Mr Friendly on Digg! :)

The need to be more active with Social Media Sites

A few days ago I talked about making money with mini sites. Whilst I am still looking to make money using this method, my priority at the moment is still to monetize and promote Blogging Tips and if I have more time, I want to start getting Electric Bandits off the ground.

One of the most effective ways to promote a blog is through social media. Although I've read lots and lots of articles on the subject, I still consider myself a novice in social media promotion as I have found it difficult to become active within these sites. To be perfectly honest, I find it time consuming and I don't like requesting votes for my articles. Most of the bloggers I know buzz me for diggs and stumbles frequently so clearly this is one important aspect of getting traffic from social sites.