No Such Thing as a Free Link?
Image by AirMe
No such thing as a free lunch?
How about, no such thing as a free link.
Christopher Ross publishes a web design and marketing blog I read and comment on frequently. The blog has a lot of useful content, including tips, how to lists and recommendations for online marketing and site/blog design. In fact, I list it on my blog roll here.
One of the tactics Christopher has used to drive comments on posts is a free page rank 5 link from his site to the top 10 commenters – by number of posts. Interesting idea. Incent visitors to comment – those that comment drive traffic – both his site and his top commenter’s sites’ page ranks go up as a result.
Only one small problem. There was no subjective measure of a post’s worth. And as a result, many virtual spammers (my words, not his) climbed to the top of the top 10 commenter’s list. Comments soon became more about quantity than quality. Those looking to grab a spot in the top 10 barraged the blog with short comments that best case had little to do with the post, and worst case were completely devoid of any type of thought about the topic at hand.
So Christopher made the tough call of taking down the backlink incentive.
The reaction – entitlement.
For some reason, people had come to believe they were entitled to the links – regardless of the quality of their contribution.
As a frequent contributor, but someone who never scratched the top 10 list, it seemed a reasonable thing to do. After all, a comment that actually contributed to the topic of the post was less valuable under the old system than a quick and dirty comment posted to get into the top 10. The assumption being that more comments were better than quality comments.
So I wasn’t really that surprised when the practice was dropped.
The same cannot be said for many of the other visitors to the site. Christopher actually chose to address the issue in a post following a number of emails and posts from commenters who felt they had a right to their links. They had grown accustomed to getting the links, regardless of their contributions to the blog community.
In other words – they felt entitled.
To me, entitlement is lazy. It fosters a belief that no matter what happens, you deserve whatever benefit, right or privilege you currently have (or think you should have).
In business, entitlement is deadly. And from a marketers perspective, will almost certainly lead to the loss of sales, clients or your business.
So how do you fight the entitlement urge?
Constantly deliver value. Whether it be new and better products or services, impeccable customer service, or relevant and valuable web content, the idea that you have to earn your clients and their continued business every day is a hallmark of a successful and enduring company.
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