Unsent Letters by Heather Mark

Dear Cheru Jackson,

I first learned of your website AlphaInventions.com when I saw an incoming link on one of my blogs. Curious to know who you were, I clicked on it and was immediately confused. I watched dozens of blogs cycle through a rotation on your AlphaInventions.com website and read your miles and miles of blog but I still didn’t understand what you were trying to accomplish.

Sometimes, you just have to experience something to truly understand it. So I plugged the URL of one of my blogs into the AlphaInventions “Notify People About My Blog” field and within an hour I had 150 hits. Concerned that it was some kind of scam or link farm, I started reading around.

What I learned is that you, Cheru Jackson, have created an ingenious way for bloggers to read and comment on blogs we may never have known about before. By listing my blog on AlphaInventions.com I have received hundreds of hits.

I now understand that AlphaInventions works like a string of toppling dominoes. I enter my URL, then I’m taken to a link for the blog I bumped out of the rotation. I read, leave comments, and that’s it. It’s a feel-good method of blog networking.

Thank you so much, Cheru. Your hard work has definitely made this blogger a believer in your mission.

All the best in the new year,

Heather Mark

Dear [Name Redacted],

Who the hell do you think you are? Your job posting on Problogger.net throws mud in the face of every self respecting freelance writer on the face of planet Earth. I thought I was pretty well suited to your job listing and I was eager to apply until I came to this line:

My name is [Name Redacted]. Find my email and email me.

We are writing professionals, [Name Redacted]. Do you really think we have time to scuttle all over the internet to find your stupid e mail address? Is it really such a privilege to write for the illustrious [Name Redacted] that you’ll pay us a whopping $20 per post? You pissed me off enough not to want to look for your e mail address but to find out who you think you are. A quick Google search for “[Name Redacted]” told me all I needed to know–you’re a stuck up, barely 21 year old wannabe internet sensation. You think you’re the bee’s knees because you’re big on StumbleUpon.

Reality check, [Name Redacted], no self respecting freelancer is going to “find your e mail”. We have better paying, more reputable publications to write for than your dumbass website that doesn’t even exist yet. Good luck finding your perfect candidates.

Truly enraged,

Heather Mark