Since creating our blog, I’ve not been the most dilligent blogger out there. Probably like most, I posted a bunch early, and have “gotten busy” and not posted. Another factor is on each of my posts, I find I receive very little good constructive responses. I get quite a few, but 90% of them are just promoting their own blogs, or at least that’s what I think. The response might be like:
I like your blog. Check out ours at….
or
Pest Control is important, as we state at www…
It won’t discourage me from blogging, but I screen the responses and don’t release them unless:
- They add to the discussion, and
- They don’t reference their own site (with some exceptions).
I figure it is better for our readers to so the signal to noise ratio remains high.
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I think you bring up a very interesting point. Most are trying to promote their own stuff. Even though posts and links help its the engagement that matters. Do you guys have a facebook and twitter account i can follow you on?
While I have an active Facebook account, it is more toward the personal side. You are welcome to make acquaintance. I am minimally active on Twitter. While I do have a budget and some vision for social networking, I don’t want to be up there with simply a fan page.
You can certainly track me at my blog (link above). We are very active building deep-content websites that interlink and hopefully will provide passive worldwide income as well as local pest control referrals. You are also welcome to follow me as an author of Pest Management Professional (PMP) magazine and “web exclusive” articles that have been appearing most months since January 2009. You have direct access to these articles on my blog.
But I don’t claim to know it all. I’m just learning like the rest of us.
Regards,
Gerry
FYI, I have added Adam’s pest control and Arizona pest and termite to my heartspm.wordpress.com blogroll.
Hello Todd,
First, I want to thank you for including my discourse in your blog.
I applaud your sense of fair play and search for quality in your blog. It is easy to get frustrated by the spam and self-promotion on the web in general and blogs in particular. I’d say 50% of my blog mail is easily deletable spam. I haven’t really seen a lot of selfish self-promotion on my blog. I hope you do not go too far away from allowing some self-promotion and I’ll tell you why.
Let’s look at advertising in today’s world. Print advertising is dead or on ventilation support. Even being on the web is far from satisfactory. Too many people with little understanding of the web think that just having a page, or having a set of pages from some company that promotes itself with a set of webpage templates available for pest control companies is not very productive.
Good web development today takes into account several factor: vision, website look and feel,the need to advertise and purchase, informational matter and speed of delivery. But to reach your customers, they have to find you. Building page rank is critical to an organization today. Some people will pay a fortune for PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising. Others realize that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is absolutely necessary. This too involves development and maintenance cost. But whether you go PPC (also known as SEM), SEO or a combination, you are attempting to sway people to your page by word manipulation, link building, web social networking,blogging, etc. I think you need to expect this. Think of it this way. Instead of someone saying, I’ll give you a dime to check out my content if I check out yours, you have an exchange of intellect with a friendly link (yes, self-promotion)
Companies need to find appropriate ways to advertise in the new advertising world. For example, this blog encourages people to go to your website. But, if the blog becomes a monologue, you will not get very many contributors. I’ve been to one pest control blog, the name I won’t mention, that takes comments, but often deciphers comments line by line, rage after rage. Why? Because the guy is not interested in discussion, but rather political ranting.
I think you have something good here, but it is ok to expect some self-promotion. Many books have stated that we operate from our own self-interest. Hopefully, with maturity, we use “enlightened self-interest,” or helping yourself by helping others. Otherwise put, “Help me help you help me help you.”
So yes this is self-serving to a degree, but I think it is better framed aspresented as mutually beneficial.
I look forward to reading your posts and I look forward to the back and forth of ideas. Best of luck going forward. Don’t give up the blog!
Regards and best wishes for a successful 2010.
Gerry
I agree with both comments, I also get a lot of remarks obviously towards promoting business. Most is picked up by my spam and since I have to approve it anyway it’s like a 2nd chance to stop it. This is the way I have been handling it, I only approve comments from pest companies outside my area generally unless their remarks are not intended to solicit customers and if there is anything like marketing (you know the stuff - medicines) I never approve that. I frequently get remarks from colleagues and I love it (since it makes me feel like I’m on the right track). I get comments all the time from pestcemetery.com, AZPest.com in Tucson and Clarks in California and you are welcome to read and comment on mine.
Hi Todd,
I agree with you and most time I catch some responses as spam. The way I deal with this - is to see if they are selling anything, or if they are a pest company are they going to compete against me right in my backyard. I allow a few on my blogroll from Fl, Tucson and CA (I even promote them and allow their comments). I like to read blogs from all over just to see what kind of problems are happening across the U.S. Great articles and thanks.