An interesting post about corporations doing business with small niche bloggers was posted at the Blog Herald. The post discusses niche bloggers getting free stuff from corporations in return for reviews.

One of the funny things about PageRank is how it can influence companies. Literally 5 days after this site was given a PageRank of 4, I started getting bombarded with e-mails from SEO companies, marketers, etc asking for product reviews. It got a bit ridiculous at one point - over 20 e-mails from them per day. Thankfully it has cooled down, and presently I get maybe one per week. I ignored nearly all of the e-mails - the products the companies offered were pretty lame. So far no major corps have contacted me (actually one did, but that’s another story), but if they ever did I’d probably go along with it if they offered some nice rewards (a check with about 6-figures on it made out to “Jeremy Steele” should do the trick).

So, have you ever been contacted by a corporation about your blog? How did you handle it?

Being blacklisted is never a fun experience. You are fairly safe from this if your site has its own IP address, as is the case for dedicated and semi-dedicated servers, however, it can still occur if you have an insecure contact script or server. In a shared environment there can be dozens or even hundreds of customers per server - so if it gets blacklisted odds are a bad apple decided to send out some spam. In either case, there are certain things you can do to help speed up the process of delisting your server from an ISP’s blacklist.

Here’s a simple 5-step procedure to help improve your chances of getting your server whitelisted once again:

1. Find out if it is a blacklist issue - Try sending an e-mail to yourself at various addresses to find out if the issue has to do with a blacklist or if it’s a basic server issue. If the service that is blocking you is open like AOL or Yahoo, get an account and try sending a message there. If you get an error message along the lines of “message rejected” then it is probably a blacklist issue. If your e-mail is simply delayed, it is most likely a communications or server problem.

2. Contact your web host - Once you have a general idea of what the problem is, it is time to contact your host. Be sure to inform your host of any error codes you may have received and let them know which server you were trying to send the e-mail to (Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, etc). Odds are they already know there is an issue, but letting them know you are having problems might put more pressure on them (and possibly the other ISP) to take action.

3. Inform Visitors - If after a few days or weeks the problem persists, inform your website’s visitors on your contact page that you won’t be able to respond to them if they use that ISP’s services due to ongoing problems with them. This is a good way to ensure no e-mails are lost before the issue is resolved.

4. Send e-mail to ISP - If your server is still blacklisted in the following weeks, it is time to send a nice aggressive e-mail or message to the ISP that is blocking you. Be sure to send it from a non-blacklisted address though - I usually send mine through my Gmail account. Most ISPs offer some sort of way to contact their postmaster, either through a form or through an e-mail address. Be nice, but at the same time let them know you’re losing patience with their unwillingness to fix the problem. If your own webhost is mediocre in the support department, I’d also send the e-mail to them.

5. Send another e-mail to ISP - If after a few more days or weeks your server is still blacklisted, send another e-mail or message that has a slightly angrier tone. There’s no reason to curse like a sailor though - simply tell them you’re utterly disgusted with the company. If possible, I’d send the second e-mail to the abuse contact for the ISP - since they tend to pay more attention to e-mails sent there. Every time I’ve had a blacklist issue reach this point in the past it has always been resolved within a few weeks of my sending the second e-mail. Either it is coincidence, or my e-mail convinced them that I was ready to start dropping exlax in their postmaster’s coffee.

The main thing to remember is be patient - these issues are normally resolved with time. Jumping the gun and bitching 2 days after you’re blacklisted will do nothing to help get your site whitelisted again. Oh, and if you run a bigger blog or website use that to your advantage. Just think about it and you’ll understand what I mean

One of the most hotly debated topics in the past year is about whether or not “reputation defenders” are damaging the free Internet. These companies make money by charging consumers a fee (usually hundreds of dollars) to remove defaming and reputation-damaging information. I am not sure about all of them, but I know the ones I have dealt with either directly or indirectly have used some fairly fishy techniques to remove information.

Takedown Notices

Back in May of 2006 an online friend of mine asked me about a notice he received. It was a fairly well written takedown notice that demanded him to remove a comment about a company he posted on his website. I checked his post and there was nothing even remotely defaming in it, yet the notice claimed there was.

Because he ignored it they claimed they contacted his web host, but apparently they didn’t do anything either. The use of takedown notices to remove anything other than illegal content is incredibly illegal (they are, after all, legal notices!) and quite frankly the use of it in this situation made me feel sick.

Harassing E-Mails About E-Mail Content

When I first started blogging I received an interesting e-mail from one of those “reputation defenders” who claimed I posted defaming content about one of their clients. I asked them for a link to the source, and they sent me an e-mail I sent to the person (just that person) in which I said, “Sorry, I just checked your site and it doesn’t look like something I’d want to link to”. Apparently that is just horribly defamatory and caused the guy/girl/it to have horrible nightmares. Well… too bad… it was a spam site and I didn’t want to link to it.

I replied, “You do know there’s nothing bad about that e-mail, right?” The fool who worked for the reputation defender then said he was going to sue me for calling him a liar. My reply to that was blunt, “try it, that way I can record you getting laughed out of the court room”. Haven’t heard back from him since then (Yeah Bill, I’m still waiting for the summons, where is it?).

Blackhat SEO

While I have not personally done an investigation into this, from what I have heard “reputation defenders” do some pretty nasty blackhat SEO to get their client’s sites to the top, while attempting to get the supposedly reputation-killing content either removed from or pushed down in the search results. Based on my experience with those companies, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if it were true.

Conclusion

Those are just a few quick stories about my experience in dealing with “reputation defenders” both directly and indirectly. There’s many more I could share, but unfortunately that would make this post ten times longer than it already is.

While I do think the concept of those companies is good and honorable (if content is horribly defamatory it should get removed!), I do think for the most part they don’t care about their clients, they simply want to make a quick buck, and they are willing to lie and intimidate to get it. I think the problem is there are sick people out there who hire these companies with a malicious intent. They don’t want bad information removed, they just want to silence their critics, which is about a stupid as you can get. As long as those people exist malicious companies will also exist.

Have you ever dealt with companies who claim to be reputation defenders? If so, which side were you on and how did it go?

In a previous post I asked whether or not news bloggers should do more fact checking. In this post I’ll share a few tips for fact checking. Most of these are easy to follow and take little time, but will help ensure what you are writing is as accurate as possible:

1. Depending on the subject, Wikipedia may or may not be a good source, but it is almost always a good basic reference.
2. Find the blog/site that originally posted about the news item, and read it there, not on the blogs that link to it (but feel free to give them credit by posting a “found via” link). Most of the time the original article is more accurate than the derivative articles on other blogs and sites.
3. If a post is about a company releasing some new product or service, check their website and other sites for a press release
4. Sites with good track records can be trusted, but even they can get it wrong.
5. Even big media can toss opinion in a news article or make it appear to be a very one-sided issue. Depending on the topic, if an article is one-sided then some facts were probably removed to make it so.
6. If you received a tip and are writing about it, remember, an anonymous source or an insider telling you something is not a confirmation. It should be treated as unconfirmed gossip, not as fact. One of the biggest problems with the Internet is so many news sites treat rumor as fact.
7. In the case of rumors, the source’s accuracy in the past should play an important role in whether or not you post about it, nobody says you have to post every bit of info just because some random blog wrote about it.
8. Surveys can be quite misleading, especially when reported in news articles. I could go out and survey 10 people in San Fran or NY City and ask if they use Macs. Let’s say 7 of them say yes. I could report “70% of people use macs” and quote the survey without lying too much. This is an extreme example, but you get my point. Look at the raw data for a survey, not the summary about it.
9. If it seems too amazing to be true, it’s probably false. Would you believe a news article that claims George Bush is a space alien? Unfortunately a lot of foolish reporters would.
10. Use your brain. Look at the source and use your gut feeling. Being a reliable news source is more important that posting about every single thing 10 seconds after the news breaks.

When I used to run a tech news blog I followed all of those tips and was only wrong 2 times out of 300 or so posts. Not too bad. There were several dozen occasions when news I omitted wound up being false (it gave me a nice warm feeling knowing that). I will admit that sometimes fact checking is incredibly difficult, and your own instinct will play a good role in how accurate your reporting is. Sometimes you will still get it wrong, it happens, but at least if you practice good fact checking procedure you will be right most of the time.

Oh, and one last thing. “It takes too much time” is about the lamest excuse in the book. At one point I used to post 8-15 times per day on that news blog. Even with that many posts per day it only took 45 minutes to an hour to go from reading about the news to writing about it. It literally only took 4-8 minutes per post to do any research needed and write it. “It takes too much time” is not a good excuse.

Most passionate bloggers would love to be able to blog nonstop without encountering any issues, but unfortunately that is impossible. Sometimes problems may pop up that can only be solved by going on hiatus. Other times a break may simply help you relax and regain your stamina. Here are 6 reasons why you should take a blogging break.

1. Personal Issues - The reason why I took my break in December was because of personal issues. I was getting impatient, which made me a bit angry, then my family seemed to ignore everything I said which ticked me off a bit more, then we got into a yelling contest. I needed some time to cool off, so I took a break.

2. Vacation - Planning a trip to Aruba or Cancun? Don’t bring your laptop! Enjoy your vacation! Get some guest bloggers or simply ignore your blog for a week or two. Nothing is worse than working during a vacation.

3. Too Much Work - Unfortunately most of us make little (if any) money from blogging, so we have to make money from other things like freelancing. If your work life begins to take too much time and you can’t work on your blog at all, take a little break until you catch up on your work. There’s no reason to let the quality of your blog suffer as a result of your career.

4. No Ideas - The infamous blogger’s block will affect most bloggers at some point. When you run out of ideas contact some of your peers and try to get some guest posters for a few days. You’ll get inspiration again at some point. Oh, and don’t forget to keep at least 3-5 completed posts handy.

5. Lack Of Interest - Sometimes blogger’s block can become a long-term issue and completely kill your interest in your blog. Usually you will work harder to get ideas, which causes blogging to take up a bigger chunk of your day, and if it continues you’ll lose all interest in it. Sometimes taking a break to rethink your blog’s topics can be a good way to get back into it.

6. Obsession - There’s a fine line between being passionate and being obsessed. I think the main difference is passionate people love doing one thing, but they also do other things as well (such as freelancing), but obsessed people focus just on one thing and don’t care about anything else. Obsession is never a good thing, especially if you are obsessed for years and years and then finally realize the fallacy of your beliefs. If blogging is overtaking your life and is causing you to make strange decisions - take a break.

Can you think of any other reasons to take a blogging break? Have any opinions about the items I listed? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.