I am setting up a blog for copywriting. So it may in some sense be a promotion of my services, is it cool just to click blog as unlisted to abide by these rules???
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Great question, I’d like to know the answer to this too. It’s worth noting that making your blog Unlisted only unlists it from read.write.as, not from the search engines and the Web. So maybe its name is what is confusing but it should simply mean you merely aren’t sharing your blog with the write.as community but everything else is the same as any other public blog.
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@matt most likely would be best person to answer, sorry to @ you.
I went ahead and made my blog anyway ( https://writecropley.blog ) I unticked to have it as public, and even though I am offering writing services, its not 100% correlated to my blog like that, maybe only slightly though on future posts as would be hard to avoid.
I think that should be ok within the guidelines??? I am not writing spam or adverts or anything like that.
Great question. So there are a few angles to this that I ask when figuring out if a blog is “self-promotional.”
TL;DR for your blog: if you sometimes mention your services but mostly write worthwhile articles, remember where you’re writing, and invest time in the platform (as I believe you are), then you’re fine to make your blog “Public.”
For a more detailed explanation, here’s how I look at things:
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Are the articles interesting / worthwhile / genuine with a coincidental relation to some commercial aspect? Or is it just content marketing? (And we all know what content marketing is.) I would really, really like to avoid hosting content marketing in the Read Write.as (RWa) community (though of course this is fine on Unlisted blogs).
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A lot of commercial content on the web isn’t conscientious of social context – it’s just about reaching as many people as possible, no matter the cost. So, does the writing show awareness of its social surroundings (i.e. the RWa community and guidelines)? Or is this an article that was probably posted on several different sites on the web?
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Does this user contribute and participate in the community, e.g. via Remark.as conversations or other personal blogs on the platform? If so, there’s a little more lenience when it comes to more commercial content.
Basically, we all know that commerce is a part of life – my goal isn’t to ban it, even in our “public” community. But my concerns with are that:
- We, as a platform, aren’t just used for cheap advertising
- Writers are writing for other humans, not for search engines
- Readers don’t have to see pure advertising disguised as a genuine, human article
- Readers see more interesting, genuine, human, and (really) non-commercial writing – the world is plastered with enough advertising, imho
- Writers are participating socially in the platform when they decide to make their blog “Public” – it’s not just drive-by posting without considering readers on the other end of the screen
Hope that helps. Let me know if you still have any questions!
I think I will keep it unlisted in this respect. As the blog is about me writing professionally and writing guides more than anything, this should be fine and comply with the list above.
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