I am aware that I sometimes come across as a grumpy old man on this website, but honestly I’m not… well most of the time. But I thought for those who are starting off with a new blog it would be good to pass on a tip about e-mail. Specifically using e-mail to promote your insightful prose.
I am always delighted to recieve e-mail from people who are starting new blogs, it’s a great way to let people know your site exists and is arguably a lot more effective than trying to subtly lovebomb trackbacks and comments (IMHO). Ideally a nice personalized note would be fantastic, however I realize that time is limited so I’ll even accept the old “no one in the to-line” e-mail informing me of your new PR testament. That’s absolutely fine. No problems. See I’m not always grumpy. Ahem.
Now once you’re underway you’ll find that posting a blog entry is a rather simple exercise. It’s not terribly difficult as the world’s ten year old bloggers and my good self can attest. So at this point stop and have a think BEFORE you send another e-mail saying “Hey I’ve written something on my blog”. That’s the wrong answer. There are over 200 PR-related blogs online. If everyone sent an e-mail everytime they posted a story I’d be getting over 1,000 e-mails from PR bloggers a week… not a nice thought.
Of course if you’ve written something you think is extremely noteworthy or relevant to other bloggers then by all means drop them an e-mail, we do it all the time. But there has to be some RELEVANCE. Remember that many people are now using RSS feeds, so once you’ve published your entry they’ll see it anyhow.
Given the Season that’s in it, I’ll refrain from naming and shaming the high profile newbie who e-mails me (and ten thousand other people no doubt) every time he hits the publish button, even though the content isn’t relevant to me – and isn’t particularly interesting. However, in the spirit of online learning, if he keeps sending, I’ll make this a more public tutorial with a real-life example – something blogging needs more of.
Maybe I am a grumpy old man after all…..
Murphy's Law 