#59: A PR tip, don’t beg for links

So a week ago, when according to his blog, you asked your son to link to you how did you ask? Beg, order or "here is something I think you will be interested in?" :-)

Are you sure it is PR people that are begging, or other bloggers? Don't be too quick to condemn a full industry for a few people's transgressions.

Jeremy: it's PR people AND bloggers. By the way, how can you tell them apart?

This is timely. I received my first PR “here’s something you might find interesting” e-mail yesterday via the e-mail address on my blog (it was done the right way).

The funny thing is that I have briefly met this PR agent before but I don't know if he knows it's my blog. Good question. Although the PR agent who e-mailed me stated his afiliation, it's not exactly clear in all cases. I need to think about this more. -K

Scoble,

Here’s something you might find interesting.

http://labnol.blogspot.com

:)

PR people will tend to email you with a corporate email address, while bloggers use Gmail or Hotmail? ;)

I know you don't paint the whole PR industry with a wide paint brush, but just want to make sure your readers don't jump on a "PR-people-suck-and-email-us-stupid-things" bandwagon that sometimes spirals out there in blogs.

Blogs are open, and have contact information, for better or worse. We all are going to get pitches from PR people, or requests for links from other bloggers.

Plus, you can always tell when it's not a personalized email, but just a mail merge. That's usually a good sign.

Heres something you might not find interesting
http://cheesyface.wordpress.com/

Wow. This blog is great.

I just got a PR email and I used it because they used my darn name and url in the email. It was personal and that was obvious. So, I read it and ended up posting on it.

I don't mind the "hey Robyn, you'll find this interesting" ones, what I really hate is the formal, spam-like ones that are obviously from someone who has never even seen my work.

Those bug me. If you have something to say that I'll find interesting, I truly want to see it. If it's all about you, then you don't understand how the web works now.

Mutually beneficial relationships are what makes this online world work. You give me a tip and I'll link back. You give me a good idea for content and I'll link back. Oh, and spammers are evil. That about sums it up, huh?

BTW, sorry for the thesis. It's a *tad* long...