My Views On Private Voting Networks
I am noticing a trend here in the blogosphere… and to be honest, this post will burn quite a few bridges. However, if you don’t like me as a person and don’t like me for the wonderful things I publish on the Internet and the only channel relationship I have with you is because you ask me to Digg, Stumble and now Sphinn articles. I am not for that. And to be honest, this is a bridge that I have no need for crossing anyway, so if it gets burned… so be it.
I have open doors to everyone. All my IM addresses are known, my email address is readily available… in fact, people can even call me on the phone or write me a snail mail letter if they wanted. The point is, I am here for my readers and fans. I am here to help people improve their blogging experience. I think for the most part, my writing reflects that.
One thing that has been bothering me for a few weeks now, are the secret developments of these offline networks designed for mass votes in popular sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and the newly introduced site, Sphinn. Regardless of my thoughts or opinions about this, I don’t say much about it… If people can successful get traffic to their blog by participating and becoming a member of these private offline networks, so be it… I am not here to say you should or shouldn’t do it. However, I am here to say, “please don’t contact me if you want me to participate”.
I am pretty old school. And I am pretty straight forward. I have earned every reader to my blog by my writing and hard work. I don’t look for an easy way out. I don’t look for a quick blast of traffic. If you find my site, I hope you like it, subscribe to the feeds, and come back for another visit. It’s pretty simple. But whoring myself out to stumble articles every morning and getting IM bombed every morning is for the birds. It makes you look desperate for traffic and it makes you look like a noob. My strategy is to make friends and acquire new readers the old fashion way… and that is word of mouth. I have started running some contests that help build more traffic to my blog, and there is a lot of thought, energy and effort that goes behind these contests and most important thing is everyone grows from them… not just me.
I am sorry if I have upset you with this post. But please don’t ask me to Digg, Stumble, Sphinn, etc… your articles. I will eventually find your articles and if I like them, I will vote accordingly.
Garry Conn is about hard work, making true and genuine friends, and contributing to a huge network called the blogosphere. My goal is to teach people more about blogging and how to find and achieve a personal win or a personal success in blogging.
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I agree, Garry. If everyone just concentrated on creating good content and took the recommended steps for getting new readers and subscribers (sometimes asking readers to subscribe is the easiest thing to do
) they would not have to worry about Digg or Sphere or whatever.
cctech
10 Sep 07 at 12:42 pm
Anthony,
I am glad that you made that comment. I am going out on the edge a little bit with the post. But, it really annoys me to be seen as a person that is worth only a vote. I think Digg and other places are great. I just don’t want to see them abused by masses of people voting for articles. If someone feels that their article is Digg or Stumble material, submit it… and see what happens. But when you create a huge network that consists of bloggers who will vote for things that they don’t even read, that is terrible and it degrades the quality of the content found on Digg and others.
Garry Conn
10 Sep 07 at 12:46 pm
I wouldn’t worry about going out on a limb. Your true readers will appreciate your efforts and the fact that you are so willing to teach bloggers how to increase / improve their traffic.
cctech
10 Sep 07 at 1:14 pm
Wow, this bothers me as well. I’m made most of my stuff available on my About page, and I tend to get those same requests (from that same person even!).
The worst spot is definitely on MyBlogLog where I get requests to Digg things from Geeks are Sexy, etc. I usually just delete them or ignore people on instant messenger who ask for stuff.
If the content is good, then it will get dugg/stumbled/sphinn’d without asking.
Kyle Eslick
10 Sep 07 at 1:36 pm
Kyle thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it. I feel a little nervous going out on a limb like this and publishing the post. But, all in all… it really bothers me to see the direction people are going with trying to promote their blogs and gain more traffic. And to be honest with you… I have had a Stumble account since April. I have never used it up until a few days ago. My traffic has increased quite a bit since then. And I attribute that to using StumbleUpon in a way that it was naturally intended for.
If there are private networks who sit there and vote for each others articles, that really doesn’t tell these people how well they are doing?
I want people to stumble my articles voluntarily… If readers like what I write, they can comment, Digg it, Stumble It, etc…. from there I have a wonderful system in place that tells me how well I do or don’t do…
If I have masses of people vote or stumble my articles just to do it… then I can’t learn from my blogging mistakes, nor can I learn and discover the things that people really want me to blog about.
Thanks again for your supporting comment… it means a lot!
Best Regards,
Garry Conn
Garry Conn
10 Sep 07 at 1:53 pm
[...] ventured to take much time into learning about it. There is a wavy of interest lately with both abusers as well as legitimate stumblers who really enjoy the service. With such hype about the service [...]
Syndicate StumbleUpon Using RSS
10 Sep 07 at 4:06 pm
I appreciate your honesty Garry, thanks.
Matt Jones
11 Sep 07 at 4:15 am
You are welcome.
Garry Conn
11 Sep 07 at 10:04 am
I have to commend you for coming out with this. I think there are a lot of people who feel this way, but not wanting to step on anyone’s toes, didn’t feel comfortable saying anything.
I will stumble an article I feel is worthy of being read, but if I don’t like it, I’m not going to send others to find out the same thing. I have to agree with you that it’s all about the content. If an article or posts isn’t worth a person’s time, there is no sense stumbling, digging, or even sphinning it.
Great read, and I’m very proud of you.
Christine
11 Sep 07 at 3:14 pm
Thanks so much Christine. Very glad to see people with the same views. And its OK for other people not to want to say much about it publicly. I can completely understand that. I try to be very careful when I express opinions or views that can create controversy upon my readers. However, sometimes there are situations that I can’t help but feel compelled to bring to the table. And this is one of them.
Garry Conn
11 Sep 07 at 3:32 pm
thanks for this article garry
it shouldnt “burn bridges” for your personal opinion. its respectable
Matthew
11 Sep 07 at 6:06 pm
Cool man… I am glad that you think so.
Garry Conn
11 Sep 07 at 11:44 pm
Gary,
I commented on a blog just yesterday about this topic. The topic was about a few big guys on some of the networks controlling the votes and traffic. The guy used an example of an article he wrote a month before and got 3 votes. The article he showed was the same topic a bunch of misspellings but it made it to the first page.
I do agree with you and I know of some very big marketers who preach against email spamming and blog spamming but have some of the largest private network groups you have mentioned. Some of these guys are put on a pedestal like they are marketing geniuses. They organize big seminars and summits. I wonder how many people who attend these functions know that they are not geniuses, they are just savvy spammers!
joejustin
16 Sep 07 at 8:30 pm
[...] Conn recently wrote a post on his views about private voting networks. To sum it up, he’s not for them. He feels that it’s basically cheating, or thats what [...]
Secret Private Voting Networks
17 Sep 07 at 5:27 am
finally someone speaks out about these underhanded marketing tactics
I don’t like these networks one bit, and while I don’t mind voting for an article once in a while don’t try to artificially influence results. If I read an article and like it please allow “me” the reader the option to vote for it.
Jamaipanese
17 Sep 07 at 8:21 am
Please. Give me a break. There is no special honor is building your blog by “hard work.” We’re all working hard.
It’s like saying it’s not fair to build your offline business through word of mouth. It’s just silly.
I understand your point is that you simply don’t want to participate and that you’re not judging others.
But my point is that maybe you should reconsider for your own sake.
All’s fair in love, war, and marketing. If your “stuff” is good any marketing tactic will work. If your “stuff” is crap, it will quickly get flushed no matter what marketing tactics you employ.
So why deprive the rest of the world of your writing simply because you think asking friends to get the word out is somehow wrong.
Why is it not wrong if I pay Google to get the word out?
When I ask a friend to vote for something I always say only if you like it. And conversely I have friends who’ve asked me to vote on articles that I didn’t feel comfortable voting for. I just said so and it was no problem.
Wishing you prosperity in whatever way works for you! Peace.
Anonymous
20 Sep 07 at 8:50 pm