(Latest updates at the bottom of this post.)
Some blogger drama happened again yesterday then went viral thanks to the EDMW forums. Incidents like these really annoy me because its always just a handful of bloggers with unprofessional behaviour that end up giving bloggers a bad image. Largely because Singaporeans can’t distinguish power bloggers with real influence from random no-name bloggers. They just lump them in the same category.
Long story short, this no-name blogger called Janice Leong got her emails ignored by a salon shop owner. She was impatient because she had to attend an up coming fashion show and wasn’t getting any reply. She threatened to hurt the reputation of this company by making a blog post about how rude he was, presumably by ignoring her.
If you read the email carefully, she was not saying “Give me a free haircut or I will badmouth your shop.” She was saying “Give me a quick reply or I will tell people how rude you are for ignoring me, which will end up hurting the reputation of your shop.”
Still a terrible move to pull. And the first headline sounds so much more juicy so that is what you will hear on the news.
This also falls under extortion but I believe it was an empty threat more than anything. She just wanted a reply and was getting desperate because of her upcoming show date.
Update: Conrad has clarified the deadline had passed at the time of her email.
The screenshot that Conrad the Salon owner posted of their private emails. It doesn’t reflect well on you too Conrad, tsk .
There has been some debate on whether Bloggers requesting for “Free” services are being shameless. And I’ve been wanting to address this topic for some time so if you don’t want to read it just skip to the Conrad’s behaviour part at the bottom.
Are bloggers being shameless if they request free services? No.
If you look at it, it’s basically prospecting. Companies do the same thing too and spam emails to media publications, bloggers and journalists hoping one will bite. This is not called being shameless. There occasionally are matches that’s why Bloggers AND companies occasionally get a freebie.
Companies like Nuffnag and Gushcloud have entire teams of salespeople that go out generating leads with cold emails / cold calls. This is business, they are not being shameless. Bloggers don’t have a sales team so they do it themselves. Especially the newer / unknown ones like Janice who have to start somewhere.
Though if you’re this type of blogger I highly recommend you not to even start a blog. If you think blogging is the secret path to riches you’re in for a big wake up call. It is something that should just be enjoyed as a past time hobby.
Even if you evolve to the next stage and start getting free things, they will not pay your bills. And blogging will still consume a huge chunk of your time. I say less than 10 bloggers in Singapore can make a decent living blogging full time. Read more on the secret to successful bloggers in Singapore.
If you’re a blogger making a proposal to a company, you should at the least have something of value to offer, which most of the time is online readership or social media influence. I am sure they have been propositioned before and your “500 hits a month” is not going to cut it.
To give you an idea of some numbers – You need 10,000 visitors bare minimum in a highly specialized market. i.e Food, beauty, whatever. If you get 50k+ uniques a month your blog is already in the top 20 of Singapore.
For social media you need to be getting 100+ likes on instagram at the very least per photo to even call yourself an influencer on instagram. If I was an advertiser, I would only do a paid instagram campaign with someone that averages over 500+ likes per picture.
If you don’t have either of these numbers you are not giving the company any value and should not even think about bartering. So yes, it is pretty shameless to make such a proposal if you know you have nothing to offer to them. It’s basically free riding. And hey some businesses are clueless about these metrics and just want to engage a blogger so they can feel trendy so you will occasionally get some.
If you genuinely do have good readership and social media influence I don’t think its an issue at all. How do you think Nuffnang, Gushcloud, omy.sg and all these blogger agencies get money? They have an entire sales team selling bloggers collectively and they provide real value to advertisers. And new media services are way more cost efficient and effective than traditional media ones.
And it goes the other way too. If you run a big blog, you will get a crap load of emails everyday wanting “Free” coverage from marketing folks. Sometimes these companies will just add you to their mailing list without a proper introduction and spam you with press releases thinking you’re some free marketing tool to use.
So can you call these businesses / PR agencies beggars too for wanting free coverage?
Definitely not. It’s prospecting.
Now the tables have turned. You get so many emails, why should you be blogging about them? They have recognised your value and want “Free” coverage on your blog / portal. If you choose to do blogging full time, ultimately this is the position you want to be in.
So newer blogs should instead be focusing on growing their traffic till they do get all these invitations and are in this position so they have bargaining power. This is the only way bloggers can make money.
Because if you get so many requests this is the point you end up charging them because at least some of them will be willing to pay you. And sooner or later congrats, you’re a full time blogger. The exposure you are giving them will be well worth it and justified.
And there are also times when there’s an overlap for a barter. Maybe its a high-end restaurant you have wanted to try or a product you wanted to test and they are now inviting you.
We get a fair share of emails everyday and when the invitation is worth our journalist’s time or relevant to our readers we will gladly share it. If we find out we are dumped on some PR mailing list we just delete it right away / ignore.
That is just how prospecting works. When there is a match, you will get a reply. If they are not interested you will get ignored. Janice got ignored, did not realise that and made a fuss. Yes, there are some people who will be nice and give you a short rejection reply. But often that ends up leading to more trouble. That was actually the third email from Janice, after an initial rejection. So if Conrad ignored her initially, he won’t be in this situation now.
So people are conditioned to ignore right away to make it easier. And it works both ways, blogger ignoring advertisers and advertiser ignoring blogger. In fact, a PR from Sony recently contacted us requesting a meet up, promising an ‘amazing opportunity’. Then she ignored us after we gave her what she wanted which makes me think she just cold emailed several blogs to see which one was willing to do the most for her as it was a barter for an overseas trip to the states.
Welcome to the world of business.
Now that falls under another category, if you initiate something then suddenly go into ignore mode half way into the discussion that’s just plain rude. But I didn’t throw a tantrum or issue them an ultimatum. I just sucked it up and got over it. It’s just business, nothing more. The lesson to learn here is if they ignore you it basically means they aren’t interested. Don’t make any silly threats and don’t lose any sleep over it. Just move on.
If you work hard more opportunities will always come your way.
His email which he proudly showed off on his facebook. Fully grown man tearing apart (18 yr old?) girl.
Yes, Janice was in the wrong and she got destroyed on EDMW. But most people overlooked Conrad’s behaviour which was pretty terrible too. For a business owner, his reply was unnecessarily snarky and long. Some would say hes even damaging the reputation of his own business by making such remarks.
He could have just done a “Apologies for not getting back to you earlier, but we are not interested and wish you good luck in your show“. Which makes me think he wasn’t posting the leaked emails as a precautionary measure because he panicked. He wanted to humiliate her for pulling such a move on him. How dare you call me a “jerk” on an early Monday morning! (screenshots below)
He came off to me as an opportunistic business owner who turned this into a marketing opportunity for himself. Much like the PR lady in the ladyironchef drama case who saw an opportunity to market her restaurant at his expense. Till today, everyone on EDMW still gets the ladyironchef story mixed up.
Anyway, Conrad seems to have several high profile blogger friends and he should be well aware he did not have to humiliate her like that. It was an empty threat that would go nowhere cause she has no influence even if she did carry her threat out. All she wanted was a reply.
Calling lawyers over a no-name blogger. Threatening to go to the mainstream press. Are you kidding me? You saw her traffic stats. What are you worried about?
Looks like he will be getting a lot of publicity for his saloon at her expense. Her life and reputation at this point is basically destroyed and she’s closed down her blog.
So he did end up using her. Though not in the way she envisioned.
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Update: 1 To keep this balanced I’ve also added Seth’s take on this which is another perspective.
“I however, support Conrad’s move as a threat on his business was made no matter big or small. To us business is like our baby. Even if someone with no actual power makes any threat to my baby, I will take every possible action necessary to take.him.down and protect my baby.”
He seems to be reveling in this moment, enjoying the negative attention he has brought onto her and commenting with very sarcastic remarks. What Janice did was bad but I don’t think anyone should take pride in ruining someone’s life like that.
I’ll let these posts from his facebook wall speak for themselves.
Expect it to hit mainstream print media tomorrow.
That is a really bad move if its not true. I don’t believe it’s true.
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/blogger/6_-8B1mr-1Q/eibKUNZmW4UJ
I understand the owner was protecting his business but he should have had the maturity to resolve it as a private matter since he is not an 18 year old girl. And his reactions after that reveling in the misfortune he caused her was not cool.
Janice, despite her age clearly needs a reality check, she could have still salvaged the situation without all the hacking bullshit. She got the fame she was so after. Think Paris Hilton or even Perez Hilton. But with all the “police reporting” it just got worse for her.
Conrad and friends explain the reasons for his behaviour in the comments below. Decide for yourselves if you want to believe them.
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Disclaimer: This is a commentary piece by me, not reflective of TSL.
Other links: Conrad’s facebook page | EDMW thread
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