In a previous post, I asked all of you your feelings on advertising, sponsored posts and shameless self promotion. I found it a little amusing that ads (which might help me pay the bills) are right out, but me telling you about myself or my business is fine. It’s also fine for a company to promote themselves through us as long as I tell you upfront that they are doing so.
Companies that are trying to build a brand and or develop an audience send me links to their “blogs” on a regular basis, hoping that I will publish them to our network and get them more viewers. In cases like these, the businesses want ME to do the work of promoting their company or product, rather than get through to 500+ blogs and their readers themselves. Most of the time the decision whether to publish their link is an easy one- you guys are not interested in the products they are hawking, and so I give the link a big ol’ NOPE.
However the recent request I mentioned was a video game (but a bad one) and their blog did review games that might interest you folks. I thought about them for a long time and decided to ask you before putting them in the spotlight. If I put them on the rolls, I will be sure to tell you who they are so you can decide whether we should keep them or boot them to the curb.
A little bit ago I was contacted by a large, well known 3D printing company that wanted me to write an article or review of them and their services. I was pretty tempted- 1) it was a company I have actually ordered from and like the product and 2) it’s a HUGE company and being affiliated with them and getting their traffic could be huge for the site (assuming the site is running the way I want it to). It was because the site has been slow and the writing hasn’t been up to par as I normally want that I didn’t go forward with it, but I might revisit that idea in a little while.
Part of the idea behind the HoP is to shamelessly promote YOU and YOUR stuff, not me and mine. I mean, all of you know I own a game store and many of you know about the things that weigh on my mind. (These days it’s paying rent. There are some struggles at the moment and TheDude and I are exploring a lot of options to help increase our business.) Finding ways to engage you so that you will promote what you are doing is pretty important, and it’s worth doing.
BUT HOW?
One truth I have found to be universal is that asking questions almost always works. Sometimes I will put it in a post as a one off, and other times I will make a whole series out of asking you questions that is intended to get you talking about yourself and your experiences. (I know it’s sneaky, but it works!)
In light of this information, it’s time to ask you some more questions. I’m really curious what got you interested in blogging, and if there was a blog you looked at when you started with hopes of being like them.
I found this funny. I have a very strange sense of humor.
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