43 Comments

  1. LOL I’ve yet to get a proposal from someone about my blog so I don’t know what I’d say but thanks for the tips in case one ever comes my way. Guess I don’t write anything interesting enough even for the losers 🙁

  2. Love the crapometer response! It would have served them right to receive some of those. Three bucks? That’s not a budget; it’s barely a coffee from Starbucks.

    Whenever I get emails like those, I ignore them…until an idiot follows up. That’s when I tell them that if they actually read my blog, they’d know I wasn’t a good fit and never posted promotional articles.

  3. Ha ha ha, oh it’s awful isn’t it. I received a email last week with ask the lovely sentences to start with, asking for a guest post or a banner. I replied that I only did product reviews and they replied with, I write exactly like they did: WE TOLD YOU TO PUT A BANNER!

    Wtf! I didn’t reply but this is very rude!

  4. I do receive some emails offering to write a post on anything I want if they can put in links to products pages. I explain that, 1. mine is a book blog, which is there to review books – children’s books. 2. I don’t do ads, ever, let alon allow someone else to do them. 3. I do all my own posts, thank you, apart from the occasional guest post by a writer who wants to talk about their books.

    That, of course, is when they address me by name, otherwise I don’t reply. And publicists for vanity presses – ack! No, no, no! Once a self published man impressed me with his nous, and I offered a guest post through his publicists, who asked me for a blog tour, warning that I don’t do press releases. He must write it himself and it must be something personal. And it would not be part of a blog tour, no time. Okay, they said… and sent me a press release and asked if it was going to be slotted into their blog tour. I said no. Thing is, they were being paid to arrange a blog tour, and I was presumably expected to do this for free. And they couldn’t even follow instructions… Since then, I haven’t dealt with publicists for self published authors. If they write to me personally and their book sounds like something my readers might like, I might offer a guest post. But no freelance publicists! Ever!

    • Oh don’t get me started on vanity presses! If they offered me double my fee I still wouldn’t recommend them!

      I’ve took part in two blog tours, but both of them been where the author themselves have contacted me directly. One was a not for profit book where the proceeds where going to charity and I made an exception and posted their press release. The other one was happy to do something personal and I sent her some interview questions which she answered. Other than that, I tend to avoid blog tours too unless they just want a review of the book. The one you dealt with sounds like a nightmare though!

      • I do sometimes take part in blog tours arranged by the publishers with whom I deal on a regular basis, but there are services out there I have unearthed which charge the self pubbed authors so much for a blog tour, so much for pestering 250 blogs for you, so much for nagging 500, etc. And, of course, you are expected to let their paying customers on your blog for free. When the sent-to-everybody email indicates that they absolutely love my blog and it’s just perfect for their client, when they clearly haven’t actually read it, I delete without response. Once I asked if the person had read my guidelines and got the reply, “Yes, but I hoped you might make an exception.

        • Some of them are so damned entitled aren’t they! I always thought the ones who charged authors paid the bloggers – I’ve almost booked one myself as an author, glad I didn’t now I know I’d basically just be paying for someone to hassle bloggers into doing free work!

  5. I haven’t had any offers — good or bad — but thankfully I would not be financially dependent on this kind of offer. However, I would not do any promotional ost for less than I would charge for an article written for a newspaper, which I have written plenty of. The thing is I would assume these people contacting you would not work for such poor money themselves, or if they do … #BlogCklubUK

    • A quick Google search says PR salaries are around 22-28K going up to 40K after a few years and some even earn over 100K so most of them are earning a half decent salary and they’re certainly not going to do the same work for free.

  6. I’m a new blogger but I’ve already come across emails like this. I know I shouldn’t be charging loads but I do what feels right for me the cost of my time writing a post, clicking photos, editing the photos, doing social media promotion. The genuine brands say yes please. But I love this and wish we could be honest!

  7. Aw Debbie this is too funny! But also really not funny at all, there are some crazy offers out there for sure. The worst is when you waste time looking at a site, picking things and emailing to end up with no agreement in the end!

  8. I used to respond to every email, if only to say no, but now I find myself just deleting and moving on. If they chase then I’ll reply to say yes I got your first email but frankly your proposal wasn’t worth the effort of replying to, if you have a genuine opportunity than feel free to get back in touch, for you reference my rates are…..
    It just gets depressing doesn’t it.

  9. Emma: Ettie and Me

    I love this…. its so infuriating! I once got offered a sample tube of nappy cream for a whole blog post with original photographs! I think your responses are very polite in the ciscumstances… but i love what you’d really like to say 😉

  10. You can see straight through the emails that don’t bother to even get your name right, I can understand why they’d provoke these responses within you #BloggerClubUK

  11. Oh Debbie, this made me laugh out loud! Fortunately I’ve not been in any of these positions yet, but I do love those responses! Such a shame we can’t just say it like it is! Next time you get an email like that, why not forget the reply and send them a link to this post instead?! Would love to be a fly on the wall when they read it! #BloggerClubUK

  12. Most of the ones I get are the “Free Product” incentives.
    I usually ignore them. But, a few were so unique in their delivery that I had to see how far they would take it before they offered any monetary value. I got one 2 months ago that I am still in “negotiations” with. They have yet to give me a number. :/
    I love this post so much. Thank you for sharing!

  13. First off congratulations that you get offers, even bogus ones. And let’s be honest they are bogus is they don’t show the respect to the blogger that they want FROM the blogger. But years ago I had a different genre blog called Mom’s Sunday Cafe, I would have a big Sunday dinner with my family cafe style and I would blog the recipes. I got an offer for a moisturizing feminine product to promote, now I have NO idea how that is connected to cooking for the family, but needless to say I don’t get offers anymore. And, I love your wanted to say list!

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