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Those of you who’ve been following me for a long time know that I don’t do rants. But I have to make a small exception now.
As you may have noticed, I welcome guest posts on my blog. This is mainly to help writers who’re looking for a break, as I know how hard it can be to build up a writing portfolio.
Somewhere along the line, I started getting requests from people who are mainly looking for a way to enter backlinks leading back to their website, in the hope that this will help them gain visibility with search engines. Publishing something to help others with their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes is fine by me, as long as the content they provide me with is of interest to you, my readers. That’s why I stress that any post will be simultaneously published on both my nicholasrossis.me and my nicholasrossis.wordpress.com blog, something that’s not ideal for SEO–but great for you guys, as you can find my content on both media. This dissuades most marketers, but that’s fine–all I care about is offering you quality content.
By the way, this twin-blog policy has led to some trouble in the past, and I’ve had to draw the line a couple of times when people asked me to remove a post from one of the two destinations after it was published, even offering to pay for me to do so. This would be disrespectful to you, so it’s never happened, and it never will.
Strange Requests
I always make a point of responding to any legitimate queries for guest posts but have a couple of pet peeves.
One of them is people who ask me to host their guest posts and provide me with the wrong email address. That way, I waste precious time checking them out and responding to their email, only to discover that such an address doesn’t exist. Even funnier is when they then contact me again and ask again (often asking whether I read their original email)… still using the wrong email!
Also, I find it hard to respond to emails with poor grammar, typos, or bad English. When the query is poorly written, I know from experience I’ll have to spend hours cleaning up the post in order to make it good enough for my blog. Still, I often shake my head and allow a guest post in the hope of my blog serving as a stepping stone in their journey toward better writing.
Then, came the strangest request I’ve seen todate. I just had to laugh when I received this:
Hi Nicholas,
I am a theo đây có blog và tiếp tục nó quá thường. Bạn blog không đủ quyền để cho bạn.
I operate a website for [guns and hunting]. I would like để ghi một người dùng blog đăng nhập hay một các liên kết liên kết mà đang gắn với blog. Would you be willing to accept as a guest blogger?
Nếu bạn được phép bạn thì này là ít đề hình học cho bạn blog.
I mean, come on. I get it that English isn’t the first language for some of you. But is it so hard to at least try and send me a mail that is actually written in English?! What am I supposed to do with this one??
Sigh…
Charles Yallowitz said:
What language is that?
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Wish I knew!!! It’s too soft for Klingon, so…
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Charles Yallowitz said:
Can google translate do anything?
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Probably. But I confess I lost patience when I saw the email!
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Charles Yallowitz said:
Seems to be mostly Vietnamese. Also some gibberish and a concern with geometry.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks for taking the time to check it out 🙂
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Charles Yallowitz said:
I was really curious.
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The Story Reading Ape said:
Yep, Vietnamese for sure – although my first try was Tagalog (Filipino)
I like the ones that start ‘Dear Story’, or, ‘Dear – ‘, refer to a particular blog post and give the home page http address.
You just KNOW they’re fishing (phishing?)
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–sounds like you’ve got your own experience with them 😀
What do you do with such emails? Ignore or respond?
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The Story Reading Ape said:
I usually respond, saying Thanks, but No Thanks – haven’t come across a faulty email address yet though 😃
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lucky you 😀
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coldhandboyack said:
I understand completely. Also this should be a two way street. I expect my guests to actually show up and participate in the comments. When I have something new, it’s nice if they are available after I opened my door to them. Maybe I expect too much.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I’ve given up on the hope of my guest posters actually showing up when their post is published. Only a handful of them have ever done so, when I’ve hosted over a hundred guest posts…
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coldhandboyack said:
Me too. I try to revisit for days, even if it only drives traffic to my host.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
It’s the polite thing to do. Also, I tick the “notify me if someone leaves a comment” tickbox to be able to respond to comments.
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Staci Troilo said:
I find it incredibly rude when these things happen. People often contact me out of the blue with requests to be a guest on my blog. While I’ve never gotten one quite so foreign as you did (Nicholas), I usually receive poorly-written ones. And if I take a chance on them, they seldom answer comments. “Rude” might be a harsh word, but it is accurate. I know Craig’s been burned in the same way.
I love this post. Makes me angry these things are happening to you guys, too, but at least I know I’m not alone.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
I think of them as kids who’re still learning the ropes. That lets me be less angry and more bemused. Having said that, I have told off a couple of them in the past, when they crossed the line 🙂
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Staci Troilo said:
That’s actually a kind way to think of them. Certainly kinder than what I think. I need to adopt your philosophy.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
That’s a sweet thing to say; thank you 🙂
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rijanjks said:
Ha Ha, Nicholas! I have no idea what language that is, but I would have immediately deleted the email! You have valid reasons to rant!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Thanks! Turns out it’s in Vietnamese but it makes almost no sense (something about my blog continuing too often… and an unhealthy fixation on geometry) 😀
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tracikenworth said:
Reblogged this on Where Genres Collide.
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tracikenworth said:
They must have seen your previous posts on guns being they mention guns and hunting in their post, which is all I can get out of it, lol.
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Holy cow, you’re right! I hadn’t thought of that. Dammit, Bill 😀
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Priscilla Bettis said:
I’m flabbergasted. The request doesn’t even make sense unless it’s another language I can’t identify, and if that’s the case, how would the sender know you speak this other language? Well, I’ve never been brave enough to ask another blogger to host me as a guest, but if I ever do, I’ll know to double check my email, write in clear English with decent grammar, and participate in the comments!
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
As a host, that would be awesome. And you’re more than welcome to send me a guest post, if you wish 🙂
Oh, the language on the email is believed to be Vietnamese… although either the sender’s not fluent in it or Google is really bad at translating it, as it’s almost gibberish!
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nganbalo said:
haha I’m Vietnamese and I don’t understand the Vietnamese in the letter also. It looks weird. It seemed like they used google translate for the vietnamese haha
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Nicholas C. Rossis said:
Lol–that is so weird! Thank you for letting know 😀
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