They come. They go. More come.
West Virginia is one of those places that guys like me from New York seem to forget exists. I don’t even get the name, since there’s no East Virginia. Nonetheless, we now have that little corner of the blawgosphere covered by John Bryan at his blawg, West Virginia Criminal Defense Law Blog.
John’s blawg notes that he practices “personal injury and criminal defense.” which means that he’s trying to cover his bases and not chase away any of those really good Pi cases while he’s having fun messing with the government. The blawg has plenty of self-promotion stuff on its sidebar, but his posts are beginning to have a little bite to them.
Hopefully, John will find his voice and start developing more original content and loosen his tie a bit. He riffed off one of my posts (that’s how I found him) and he even called me “Mr. Greenfield.” I felt honored. Usually, when people call me “Mr.”, it’s dripping with sarcasm. Good luck John, and don’t be afraid to let loose a little. Nobody around here has a clue what’s happening in West Virginia, and we’d like to hear about all the sexy stuff your little state has to offer.
Yesterday, I (as well as a bunch of others around the blawgosphere) got an email about a new New York criminal defense blawg. It was a pretty weird email, coming from the “Senior Paralegal and Editor” of the blawg. That is soooo New York. The lawyer, Charles Ross, was either too busy or too important to bother sending out emails to little guys like me, so he had his para do it for him. Apparently my time reading his para’s email was of no consequence, but his time is another matter.
The blawg is called “Exposed, a criminal defense attorney answers the question: what’s my exposure?” I’m not sure if anybody asked. You’re probably wondering whether this is another self-promotional blawg, and of course it is. But it’s got some beautiful pictures of New York interspersed with some pedestrian copy. While it links to newspaper articles, I couldn’t find a single story link to another blog, which suggests that he’s there to promote his own practice and he’s not giving anybody else a nod.
Another peculiarity, for a new wannabe blawg, in the email was this sentence:
We have included you in our very selective blogroll and would be pleased if you were to decide to reciprocate.
I felt so honored to be in their “very selective blogroll.” My blogroll, on the other hand, isn’t all that selective. I just include blawgs I read. Exposed has yet to make the cut. Reading warmed over news without any hint of actual thought isn’t my cup of tea. There’s a pomposity about some New Yorkers that’s just too much to take.
One last thing that sticks out. Charles Ross has a really nice firm logo on his blog, with the trademarked phrase “Trusted Criminal Defense.” While it’s not clear what that means, I wonder how he’s going to explain it to the disciplinary committee.
If you think I’m being a little tough on this one, forgive me. He’s clearly put a lot of money into his website and blog in order to promote himself amongst a very big criminal defense community in New York, and that’s understandable. It’s a tough market. But sending out that email via the paralegal, and with such ridiculously pretentious content was more laughable than anything else.
So I offer (the email asked) some thoughts. Chuck, if you want to crack into the blawgosphere, don’t insult others by sending your para to do it. Ever. Second, if you want anyone to read, then write something yourself and have something to actually say. And finally, we’re not interested in your self-promotion.
Show the blawgosphere that you’ve got the right stuff and you won’t have to lay the promotion on so thick. Say something and maybe people will read it, but don’t announce yourself by insulting others with this nonsense. It’s not impressive.
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Whereas you don’t like the impersonal letter, I want to get snarky about Google PageRank. His blog doesn’t have any. I sometimes get offers to trade links from sites with no PageRank, and it puzzles me. What do they think they’re offering me?
(To his credit, Ross has linked to you already, regardless of whether you return the link, which is the classy way to do it.)
In addition to your blog being PR5, you also come out way ahead in a search for “New York Criminal Defense Lawyer” as does, oddly enough, Jamie Spencer.
On the other hand, the content doesn’t seem too bad, especially for someone who just started blogging. It reads like newspaper copy, which feels a little funny, but I’ve subscribed, and I’ll see if it gets livelier.
(He is, of course, missing one very important name from his blogroll…)
As you know, most of us (who’ve been around for a little while) get these requests almost daily. Some are pure come-ons, like the requests from findadentist dot come or whatever, but some are legit and well-intended. I like to give newbies a look-see and a little help.
What got me about Ross’ effort was the arrogance of having his para send the email and his pomposity about his “very selective blogroll,” as if he’s doing me a favor. I probably would have viewed his effort a lot more favorably had his approach not been so absolutely awful. I’ve talked to a few of the bros who also received the emails, and most just deleted it. I decided to use it as a lesson to new blawgers. Don’t show up, act like a jerk and expect too warm a greeting.
Interesting approach. I can sympathize somewhat, being new to the world of blogging myself (pagerank 0). I’ve never sent an email to a fellow blogger flat-out asking to be added to his or her blogroll, mainly because I feel like I’d get a response similar to what Windypundit wrote above—what am I offering? That said, even Windypundit at some point had a page rank of 0.
I see what you’re saying, so let me explain. I don’t mind people asking for a link from my blogroll. It’s a perfectly reasonable request, and if I still like what I read after a few weeks, I’ll blogroll them.
Google PageRank has nothing to do with it. The last addition to my blogroll was Iowa Champion. He posts about once a week, but it’s good stuff. Because we’re talking about it, I just checked, and he’s PR 0. Didn’t know, don’t care.
(Laziness and distraction, on the other hand, has a lot to do with it: I just realized that Norm Pattis isn’t on my blogroll anywhere, an oversite I must correct.)
However, there are some people who operate an advertising or marketing site and send out spam email that makes grandiose claims about the website they’re building and how if we just trade links it will make us rich and famous. They’re pitching their site as a marketing tool, so when I check and find out that they’re PageRank 0, I get a bit pissed off. They’ve offered me a trade, but what they’re offering me is worthless. It’s insulting.
That makes sense. There was a post on CrimLaw a few days back discussing (bashing) those email link-trade requests.
Practical Blawgosphere: More Ebb Than Flow?
Granted, there hasn’t been a lot of criminal law news around lately, save the Fieger trial that Norm Pattis has been following (in a Gerry
Spence-obsessive sort of way).