Dear friends ...
As many of you know, I have been very absent for a while due to committments offline. I am slowly but surely now trying to catch up with everything; especially replying to people who have sent me messages and emails and left posts in my forums.
I was going through one of my forums and I noticed that not only had it been spammed with blatant unsolicited advertising, but two of my nicest friends had left posts complaining about the same thing. This was my reply tonight.
<<I know this may seem cruel and heartless but I have started going
through all my forums and deleting anything that remotely looks like
blatant advertising. I realise everyone has a product to sell. I
accept that everyone wants to find ways to reach a maximum number of
people to advertise their products to ... but ... you ... the
advertiser ... if you are reading this .... PLEASE RESPECT THE FACT
THAT A FORUM BELONGS TO ITS CREATOR .... BE POLITE ... BE RESPECTFUL
.... DON'T BLATANTLY POST YOUR ADVERTISING ...
If you haven't
got it by now ... let me explain this in simple terms. When a new post
is created in someone's forum ... the notifications get sent to the
forum creator's friends list ... if you don't have access to that list
(which you don't) chances are the post will not get seen by many
people. So, in essence, you're not going to get the views you're
hoping for.
I will repeat myself again from an earlier post.
There are appropriate places in AdlandPro to advertise your business.
There are free options as well as paying options ... do yourself a
favour and save yourself some time and disappointment and GO TO THOSE
PLACES ... That's where you and your advertising WILL GET MORE
EXPOSURE.
If you need more creative ways to advertise, NETWORK
WITH THE PEOPLE YOU SPAM INSTEAD OF SPAMMING THEM .... They may just
have some brilliant ideas that could be helpful to you ... and a I have
found ... with (for example - in this case) Robert and Thomas as so
many other people here ... they become GOOD FRIENDS ......
Friends
and business go hand in hand ... think about it ... would you buy
anything from a spammer? .... I didn't think so .... so don't be
classified as one if you want to do business online and be taken
seriously.>>
... and ... just for the sake of those blatant advertisers out there ... here is my original post from many many moons ago but it seems to be just as valid today as it was back then .... It's just a little friendly advice that concerns two issues:
1) Forum information &
2) Consideration for other community members and their opinions.
Forum information
1) I, personally, and a lot of other members, like myself, do not
allow blatant advertising posts in our forums. There are plenty of
appropriate places to advertise on AdlandPro. You can advertise in
your "About me", in your "Have and wants", in the traffic exchange, in
the advert section, you can create your own web page here and there
are a number of forums that invite you to advertise your
opportunities. Check out LaNell's forums, she has one specifically for
business opportunities.
2) If you reply to a post in a forum that is likely to be deleted
for being out of context, or rude, or blatant advertising, then your
post will also be deleted because it is considered part of the thread
... so my advice ... reply to the original post ... so you don't risk
being deleted in total error ... as happened to some very nice friends
of mine.
3) Before you just add a thread to a forum, other than your own, it
is common courtesy to ask the forum owner if you may post. It is a
common courtesy and a sign of good manners and who knows .... maybe you
will end up with a good ally in networking. When you post in a forum
that is not yours the forums owners' contacts will not receive a
notification and your readership will not be as good.
Collaboration, communication and
manners are the way to network and remember that the way you behave,
reflects the way you do business and people will NOT do business with
people they do not like. Before you sell anything in this world YOU
HAVE TO SELL YOURSELF .... You may think you are losing one potential
client but that 1 potential has 100 friends and they have 200 more and
they have 2000 more again .... so before you know it ... you just lost
10,000 potential clients.
Also, please read my dear friend Marilyn L Ali's post on forum etiquette:
http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/429321.aspx
Consideration for other community members and their opinions.
1) Although I, like many others, do not moderate our forums on direct posting from friends, we will not tolerate posts that are rude or disrespectful
of any other friends in our network, especially if a valid comment is
made about another inappropriate posting. We are adults and we are
professionals, again I repeat think about your business first and
foremost before you post.
I wrote this article for the AdlandPro Community Newsletter ... If you haven't read it please do so ...
My message, this issue, is going to be a little different to all
other issues as I feel that, in the light of events, in my absence, I
would like to remind everyone about the meaning of a true community,
whether it be online, such as here at AdlandPro or offline, in your
neighbourhood, your community.
In every community there are
members who are closer than others, just like family members, there are
always certain rivalries and competition, which is healthy, in
measurable doses. There is always some degree of discord and some
degree of misguidance and misleadance but the one thing that holds a
community together is mutual respect and respectful communication.
Respect
and respectful communication are the foundations upon which human
relations are built. Listening is more important than talking, when you
listen you show you care. Talking is a way of sharing, understanding,
enquiring and equalising.
Every word has a powerful meaning
and each one occupies its own space and time and has its own,
appropriate, place for expression. Hurtful words attract hurt, happy
words attract positivity, sad words attract tears. Freedom
of speech does not mean the freedom to hurt others and there is no
excuse valid enough for such a gesture, not even envy or
competitiveness.
It takes a stronger individual
to be kind than it does to be harsh but being kind should not be
confused with being insignificant. Just because a person says only a
few words it doesn't mean they are not hurting. Just because some
shouts, it doesn't mean they don't love.
Remember the old saying: "Do unto others as you wish done unto you"? and
have you heard that a drop in the ocean, on one side of the world, can
cause a tidal wave on the shore of another side of the world?... well
... this is true enough for words as well... One word can spark a flame
that can, eventually, cause a war.
The real significance of our
AdlandPro Community is to have a place where people can come to, to
chill out, to network, to show off their talents, to learn, to share
but most of all to meet other people. Even if you only joined for
promoting your business, remember ... nobody does business with people
they do not like or do not trust...
AdlandPro
is very visible on the Internet, so any outsiders looking in see what
you have to say, they see your profile and your business, as well as
our community ... so please ... think wisely before you post, for the
sake of being a respectful to others, for the sake of making our
community a place where outsiders would feel welcome to come to,
(remember, more members equals more business opportunities), and for
maintaining the integrity of your business, as well as your own
personal integrity as a human being.
Namaste
Venerina