Let's start with the link parties... How fun is it when you complete a project that your ever so proud of and can't wait to show the world? It's great right? A total euphoria. And then you head over to a few parties and they are like, you have to follow me, you have to post my button in your post or on your page, you can only post "this" type of project oh and if you wouldn't mind sacrificing your first born, that would be great too.
So much for euphoria right? Forget it, I just lost interest. After reading all the "rules" I forgot what I came for to begin with!
Or how about contests? Same thing. They have this great item they want to offer some lucky winner. And they write half a novel getting you pumped about winning it. Then come those damn rules... You must follow this blog. You must follow their blog. You must post on MyTwitterFace about it three times do six jumping jax and spin around ten times until you vomit.
What was I entering for again? Let me just give you my opinion. First of all 99% of the blogs I enter a giveaway for I am already following. I am not just a blogger, I am also a mom and wife and school volunteer and sister and daughter etc... I don't have time to run all over the internet advertising for a give away. I also loath the thought of being forced to "like" someone or joining their blog simply for a "Chance" to win. If I win and the product does what it's advertised to do and exceeds my expectations then don't you think I might follow them because the product is so great? I think so!
I don't know about you but all these conditions are making it less and less fun for me to participate in anything around here. I just want to stick to my projects, show them off and live my life without the stress of doing the blogger dance each day.
~Sommer
14 comments:
Hi Sommer, You voiced it well. I too do not enter some contests if they have too many conditions. So when asked to do a small giveaway I only asked for folks to leave a comment for me on that post. Followers are great but I only want them to follow if they really like what I am writing about or sharing and are not pressured into it. I may not get many entries but I know they are there because they want to be before I dangled a carrot. I enter a lot of linky parties but that takes me to them (like a catalog full of links) and I have found so many great tips, ideas and techinques that way.
It is not just you! I wish there were a place to showcase projects just for the sake of sharing. The other problem I find with the linky parties is that the thumbnails are so small, sometimes it's hard to see what they are offering. I don't have time to click on multiple links only to find it was not something I was interested in. I have had only one giveaway, and that was because I had inadvertently won something on someone else's blog without realizing I was entering a contest. I DON"T generally enter contests, just skip over them. I had my giveaway just to give forward and I confess I did ask for people to follow, just because I think there are a lot of people out there who enter every contest they can. I would like to have a party to let people share their projects, but I just don't have the followers to pull it off. I think this could be done tastefully without all the hoops and bigger pics, so people can see what is being shared. Thanks for letting me vent as well.
P.S. I am a follower of yours.
Well said, I have a giveaway going right now and it's for CSN, I had to change my blog 3 times so far and make sure I had this phrase in it and mention that item and kinda work it in here and only link this one link, take that link out and mention the amount of toilet tissue used at your last bowel movement! All for what? $35 and if I post within 24 hrs they will add $5. BFD!!!!!!!
What the H can you buy for $40? Tea kettles are more! Ok, this got away from me a little....I am a FRIEND and I LIKE and also follow your blog. Thanks for letting ME vent. >8>0
ok well i am going to go against the grain here... i host parties and i have all the rules ou mentioned besides the sacrifice of fist born of course. my party is specific to furniture- i started it and kept it that way because i wanted a place where those who refinish furniture can share ideas. it's not to be exclusive, but the parties where there are over 300 links i frankly do not go through and wait to see what the host features. as for being a follower, i think that is just common courtesty... if a blog is good enough to have you at their party, then they should be good enough to follow. there i smy two cents- sorry sommer but i don't agree at all here.
Whew. Thanks for all your comments thus far! I'm wiping a bead of sweat off my brow now ;P Maybe more people will read this and more people who feel the same as we do will start speaking up and together we get back to the fun of blogging!
Cassie- Thank you for voicing your opinion. I welcome them all. And everyone is certianly entitled to disagree with me.
My issue comes from a respect stance. When blogs demand I follow a laundry list of rules and procedures to participate I feel like they don't respect the time investment it takes me to do all that. My time is valuable and doing projects and posting about them and linking up takes a ton of time as you know.
So when you come across a laundry list of requirements to participate on another blog, it's quite frankly a turn off.
Just my $.02
And I still love ya ;P Even if I don't have a furniture project to link up each week.
i agree and disagree. sometimes the rules for give aways are a lot. but when it comes to my party, especailly now that i have to pay to host one, i really appreciate being followed. plus i just makes sense, if you want to party every week it's easier to find. i don't care if you link to you post, as long as my link or button is somewhere on your page, or it's own page. i'm good with that. xx
Tammy I agree... When the "rules" are flexible I'm more likely to participate.
I agree! If there are too many rules then it's a waste of time.
I love your honest post about all the parties and the rediculous rules. What I think is excess is linking to more then 3 parties.
When I see that I just move on.
x
Carole
Carole you bring up a good point. I've wondered recently as well if I really need to link up the same project to soooo many parties each week. But then I ask myself if readers look at all the blogs I link to or just a few and if it's just a few then they could miss my projects all together.
Sommer- I don't have a personal blog so 'linking' my current project is not an issue. However, I do enjoy perusing various sites and seeing what lurks in the creative minds of all these talented bloggers-DIY'ers. Gotta say, though, all those linky parties are getting to be oh-so redundant, and frankly a waste of time to wade through. I like to bookmark blogs that I feel will be of value to me or my creative aspirations. Periodically, I go back and re-visit those blogs, and if I see anything remotely devoted to 'linky parties,' I delete, delete, delete. Enough already! I find your blog exceedingly refreshing, you seem 'human' to me, if you know what I mean. Also, a huge blog-following dealbreaker for me is reading an incohesive, poorly written and, clearly, NON-spell-checked blog. It gives me a huge headache and hurts my eyes! Your blog is impeccable in every way. Just saying...
I hear ya!!!
I'm so glad to hear someone just say it like it is. Thank You! I'm a new blogger trying to get my name out there and hopefully build it into something big one day. So as far as I can see the best way to do that is through link-up parties. But I soon discovered that all these rules are just too much! I can understand that they want to build their site as well... but it takes too much time to figure out who requires this and who requires that. There was one party that specifically said you must display their button on your post... not on a sidebar or put a general message on your post saying to click here to go back... and if you didn't follow the rules you couldn't join the party. Well forget it! Cause that's what I was doing.... a click here message that took them to one page with everyone's button. There are far too many parties that most of us are linking up to to keep track of all of it, or to have to put linkbacks in each and every one of our posts. I agree Sommer, it takes enough time doing the project, taking pictures, loading them on the computer, fixing them, posting them, keeping the creative writing up, and trying to build your own site. Screw all the rules! haha! Just kidding. I think you said it best that if a blog is interesting enough to keep you coming back then you will follow it anyway. Not just because of a weekly party or giveaway. Anyway, great topic, glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Keep up the good work! :)
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