Fair enough, you vented and got it off your chest, I’m sure you felt better about it. You also asked for opinions, I’m pleased to see we all agreed with you and flames were avoided. You handled the situation in the most appropriate manner you could.

I take your point about people being understandably interested in your opinion, but as BobA pointed out the people who take you to task for not responding to them “are the very same people who explode when they are called out”. Taking a stand, and publicly drawing attention to your position is the correct action, and you can refer future troublemakers to this entry, in fact, it may even be a good idea to post a permanent link in your sidebar to this entry and not let it slip beneath the radar.

Bob, I do try to be responsive when I can help, and when I have time. I’ve always looked at that as a nice way to market and network, and it does work. But no one has time all the time. Here are a few definitions to help out. :)

SEO – Search engine optimization – when in reference to articles this generally means articles are written for search engines more than for the reader (shouldn’t be that way, and doesn’t have to be that way, but it’s the reality of what often happens and what a lot of webmasters want – articles that are keyword-stuffed).

PMs – Private Messages – these are like a private email system on forums where you have an inbox there and people can leave your private notes rather than posting publicly in a thread on the forum.

SchemingTurkey, welcome to All Freelance Writing. I hope you enjoy the blog. :)

For the record, I wasn’t trying to cause issues for the person to brought up the issue publicly. ;) He brought up a concern and misunderstanding that I imagine is pretty common for webmasters. You have to remember, when you go to a webmaster forum, you’ll have a lot of new service providers (whether that be PR / marketing, design, SEO, etc.) who really do run their business primarily through one or more forums. They’re also the type who are going to be there to answer every request coming in via PM, because they don’t take as many emails, phone calls, snail mail (which I get a LOT of btw in press kits I have to evaluate on the music side of what I do, although I forgot to add that to my original list). They just hang around posting ads and contacting people about gigs (they usually also either have fewer gigs and more free time, or they have to respond to everything in a desperate quest to jam their schedule just to earn enough at lower rates to get by). Then they do the work and resume that practice. That’s not how more serious business owners would run a business (and in all fairness, a lot who do are more hobby providers than ones trying to make a serious living). Clients can’t differentiate the two types of providers and business models, because both can be found in the same place. This post was more to satisfy my own curiosity on what others think is appropriate and what they do. :)

i just joined and wanted to say hi. :)

Keep up the good work!

Bob Audette

Taking the approach, bluntly, publicly, and with conviction that you will not allow these people to jeodardize the existing contracts you have or your valuable private life is the sanest approach. This is the approach I take with all of my clients.