Bad Public Relations

This is an example of what not to do:

Return-path: emily@perennialrelations.com

Hello, 

My name is Emily Olsen and I'm with Perennial Relations, a PR firm in NYC.

I have a client who is in the spirituality and personal growth industry, and is interested in doing a blog post on astrofish.net.

We're happy to write the post on any topic you suggest, or have you write the post that we'll sponsor (please just let us approve the topic prior to writing). One important note is we'll need a text link back to my client's website within the article.

I'm authorized to offer up to $40 for the post, and can pay via Paypal or check. Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you!

Emily Olsen

Since there’s been a recent spate of these things, I thought I would take time out of my busy schedule to return the note.

I suggest an article about doing research on websites, as a topic in general, and then, to get granular? How about research on websites that have material all by one author, no ghostwritten material, no other material on that site, and how receptive the author might be to such a query.

Not totally true, a portion of my bio was originally penned by an editor, but —seriously— the content on my sites is mine. By me.

Even a cursory examination would reveal that. So, my guess? It’s a numbers game. Probably have some canned material, with links back, it’s like a “link farm,” or a similar concept.

When I tried to chase down the website, that dead-ended pretty quickly on a Hostgator site. I liked Hostgator, not quite as much as I like my current host:

We Host Great Ideas.

I looked it up: one year, almost to the day.

Seriously? Previously?

So these dribble in, but every once in a long while, maybe once a year? It causes enough consternation that I’m willing to poke back.

#haricort fou