An interesting e-mail exchange

I have had a fascinating e-mail exchange about this blog. It went like this:

From: Craig Hall (craig.hall@mediaworks.co.uk)
To: Me
Date: 8 November 2012
Subject: Advertising on your blog http://tworoutes.blogspot.com/

Hi

I noticed your blog and I’d love to work with you and your blog http://tworoutes.blogspot.com/. My colleagues and I work with a lot of outdoor websites and we’re looking for top bloggers to help promote our clients through advertising on their blogs.

If you’d be interested in an advertising opportunity with us, all you would need to do is quickly talk about some of the items from our clients website i.e. tents, hiking boots, camping stoves…

Please let me know if you’d be interested in working with us on writing product/brand promotions from time to time for your blog and I’ll be able to send over the first one for you.

Regards

Craig Hall
Online Marketing Executive



Well, I thought about this for quite a while. I wondered whether I could really deliver what they want - the blog may have had over 20,000 page views, but that is actually only because I can't master the finer points of blogger, and have a separate post for each photo. The actual average page views per page is only about 20. Still, I figured that it was up to them to research all that for themselves. If they hadn't got it figured, that was their problem not mine. And although i don't want adverts on my blog (indeed, I nearly didn't open the e-mail at all because of the misleading title suggesting it was about advertising rather than gear reviews) I decided that if they wanted to send me some gear to test and review, I would not be averse to doing that.

So I sent the following reply:

From: Me
To: Craig Hall
Date: 2 December 2012

So ... you mean doing some product testing and write-ups?



Now, this is where it gets interesting! Because although the e-mail of 8 November had spoken of "getting the first one over to me" ... he now came clean about what it was that he was REALLY asking for.

From: Craig Hall
To: Me
Date: 10 December 2012

Hi Jeremy

Sorry for just getting back to you. I had a week off from work and I’ve been trying to catch back up.

Yeah we’re be looking for review write up’s. We aren’t able to send out stock from our clients but our clients stock a wide range of items so you might own something that they’re already selling to write a review about.

Would you be interested in doing something like that.

Regards

Craig Hall
Online Marketing Executive



So ... it appears that what Mr Hall wanted me to do was to change the style and content of my blog to include gear reviews of gear that he was being paid to promote ... provided I already owned that gear!!!

Needless to say, I did not find this a particularly attractive offer, and so I wrote back:

From: Me
To: Craig Hall
Date: 10 December 2012

To be frank, Craig, I'm having difficulty at the moment seeing where the attraction in this arrangement lies for me.

At the moment the blog covers the subjects I want it to cover, and I'm happy with it. If I want to talk about a bit of kit I've been using, I will do. But I don't involve full-on gear reviews.

Now, if you were to ask me to start including full gear reviews on normal review terms, I might consider that. It would change the style of the blog - but if there were something in it for me then I would certainly consider it. But writing reviews to suit your customers' agenda with no obvious payback for me? I think the expression that covers that suggestion is "get real".

Thank you for taking an interest in my blog.



Since sending that e-mail, I have heard nothing further from Mr Hall. I somehow doubt that I shall. However, I appreciate that other bloggers may take a different view of the attractiveness of Mr Hall's offer. So if there are any other outdoors bloggers who read this blog and are just itching for a chance to write gear reviews of their own gear to please Mr Hall's clients (for which those clients will presumably pay Mr Hall, but not the blogger) ... here are his full contact details from his e-mail signature block:

Mediaworks Online Marketing
Princesway North
Team Valley
Gateshead
Tyne & Wear
NE11 0NF

Email: craig.hall@mediaworks.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)191 404 0100
Fax: +44 (0)191 40 0199
Website: www.mediaworks.co.uk
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mediaworksuk

Meanwhile, don't call us, Mr Hall ... we'll call you.