As a freelance blogger, I think it would be great if social media web sites didn’t matter so much.
I’m a freelance blogger. As such, I am well aware that submitting to social media sites is a must. But I’m not overly fond of doing it. It’s time consuming. Especially since each social media web site wants you to be part of the “community.”
But I try to be a decent member of the communities I belong to. I have a few core social media web sites that I submit to regularly. They are niche sites, since most of my freelance blogging deals with finances:
I also submit to my friend David’s site, Zoomit.ca, when something of mine is published on a Canadian-owned blog. And, occasionally, because I write about health, I submit to HealthBuzzing.
It’s on these niche sites that I feel a true sense of community. You meet people with similar interests. Yes, I have accounts on Reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg, but I don’t feel the same sort of connection to other users, and I don’t think it’s worth my time to build up a great account.
All that time building a killer account could be wasted if I am banned.
Banned from BlogEngage
I wasn’t exactly a model group member at BlogEngage. I voted for my friends, and submitted between one and three posts a day. However, I did take the time to look through the other submissions on the site and vote for items that looked interesting. I didn’t often make the front page on BlogEngage (which turned out to be a good thing, due a recent purge of people who — without using BlogEngage’s paid services — consistently made the front page).
As a result of my relatively low-key style on BlogEngage, I did manage to avoid the “purge” of accountholders earlier this week. The site owner claimed that he was getting rid of community members that didn’t contribute high quality items, and that he got rid of vote riggers. Fair enough, I guess. It’s your site; get rid of whomever you want. But in a community, you have to be prepared to explain why.
But why dump me? I’m not paying for the services he offers, true, but not a lot of my posts make the front page anyway. And I submit from a wide variety of quality PF web sites because I’m paid to write for them. They’re not paying me because my stuff is complete crap.
I knew I’d be deleted from BlogEngage the moment I submitted a banned friend’s side of the story: 2011 Social Media Fail of the Year. After watching the soap opera that was dealing with BlogEngage’s owner for weeks, I knew exactly what would happen if I submitted that post. But I did it anyway, and was proved right in less than two hours.
But, whatever. One less social media site to have to worry about.
Back to Why I Have a Hard Time with Social Media
Don’t get me wrong. Being a member of social media sites like Tip’d and BizSugar has introduced me to awesome people and has even aided my ability to land freelancing gigs. But I do wish that I didn’t have to spend so much time on social media sites to be a successful blogger.
And one of the reasons is that you can lose all your hard work in link building through submissions if the site owner decides to erase your account. Site owners can do what they want. I get that. They can erase my stuff at will, because they own the sites. But it’s nevertheless depressing to think that all my links and hard work — and social media submitting can be a huge time suck if you do it right — can be wiped out in an instant.
You have to decide what is going to be the best use of your time.
So, be careful as you choose your social media community. Personally, I’ve had better luck with small niche sites. Those are sites where you can really become involved and get to know people in your smaller area of interest. Bigger sites are easier to get lost in, and it takes more time and effort to become influential. As you decide where to contribute, take a look at the climate. You don’t want to get stuck losing everything on a whim, and you don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to be part of a community that rejects you.
Thanks for being so supportive, Miranda. You are so right that in most cases niche sites are worth more than The Diggs and Reddits where you and your material can get easily lost.
No problem, David. You’re one of my biggest supporters, and I like to think that, in some small way, I can return a little something to you.
I find social media to be a complete waste of time from a business point of view.
I like twitter for the (ironically) social aspects of it, but I hate the whole idea that you have to tweet your friends posts (and vice versa) in order to get ahead.
Link building is the same thing – create artificial links to try to fool Google.
Yeah, one of the reasons it took so long for me to start a blog was all the non-writing stuff you *have* to do. But, because I’m a professional blogger, everyone expects me to do something in the way of social media submissions. It’s part of the job now, unfortunately. The only redeeming quality is that I’ve met some really cool people through my involvement in some of these communities.
I appreciate you submit the articles you write for us to Tip’d. Do you submit to ZoomIt and Fwisp as well? Just curious, I don’t see traffic from there.
You do a great job Miranda!
Thanks, SPF! I do post yours to Fwisp and PF Buzz. But for some reason I have been neglecting Zoomit. Which I shouldn’t, because you are Canadian. Thanks for reminding me, and I’ll be sure to make sure to include SPF for the future on Zoomit.
I did find it interesting that this is posted on digg.
Hahahaha. You know who posted it on Digg, right?
I was one of those who voted on your last post to BE. I laughed when I read “They’re not paying me because my stuff is complete crap.”
The owner of BE has posted a reason for these deletions: http://www.blogengage.com/blogger/take-your-time-and-make-your-votes-count/
But it still doesn’t make sense why Miranda’s account was deleted. Oh wait, she wasn’t using the paid service.
Anyone interested in pointing out the basic elements of what makes a real social sharing community, as opposed to a manipulated one?
Thanks, Tom! I really was the perfect non-paying member. A few submissions, spreading votes to a wide variety of people, and only occasionally making the front page. But I do support David, and I criticized BE publicly, so there you are. No worries, though. I’m happy in my other communities.
Wow, this is a very awkward situation for me. Being a long time member of Blog Engage and I’ve always seen a lot of traffic from the site and met some fantastic people there. I started reading David’s post and I saw that you submitted it to BE. But by the time I was going to cast a vote the post was removed but I didn’t realize that your account was removed also.
I guess what is really taking me by surprise is that you didn’t have a paid account! I started using the RSS feed from day one and it saves me a huge amount of time. I wish BizSugar had the same type of service because half of the time I forget to submit my articles or I waste time fussing over what categories they should go in. I’d much rather spend that time voting and discovering new content.
As I told David, I’ll continue to visit your blog and I’m glad we’re connected on other sites so that we can support each others goals.
Hi, Ileane! Thanks for stopping by. I wouldn’t worry too much about it being awkward
I have other connections and friends still on BE, and I certainly don’t hold it against them 
I’ll just engage them somewhere else. Don’t feel like you have to “choose sides.” I’m a firm believer that you do what works for you. I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about the time an effort that goes in to social media, since I’d rather be writing. The whole BE thing just emphasized to me that you really do have to pick and choose what is going to work best for you. There are plenty of great people everywhere, and it just turns out that BE isn’t for everyone. I’m sure some of the social sites I spend more of my time on aren’t for others.
Hi Miranda,
I thank you for this article as it helps to explain some of the things that complicate being a member of a community such as BE.
It is the first time I have paid for this service and, I must say, have been rewarded with increased traffic and engagement by my readers.
Your article is very good and explains things that have recently taken place at BE well. I hope to remain friends to those who were removed from BE. I will continue to “engage with them on their sites. Sally
Thanks for stopping by! I’ve heard lots of good things about the paid service. I’m glad it’s working out for you.
I was the 1st Blog Engage RSS Syndication customer and have been using the platinum service for a long time now. I have only been somewhat involved in reading about the account deletions and banning, and I acknowledge both that there was homepage manipulation (this is evident by seeing too many articles with same low number of “just enough votes to get published” land on the homepage). But I also see the point of view from some that were banned as well.
I think as always there could have been more communication and clarified expectations. I do see value in BlogEngage and try to make sure I invest enough time to be a value to the community (vote, comment, engage with others). I am one of the highest content contributors, but have one of the lowest publish to homepage rates because I never ask for votes except for a contest article.
Justin, I find it interesting that you are one of the highest content contributors, but have one of the lowest publish rates on BE. Why don’t you ask your supporters to vote for your posts?
Miranda, I admire you for submitting David’s post even though you knew what the consequences would be. Being able to take public criticism is a sign of maturity IMHO. I used to really appreciate the way Digg would allow a critical post to appear on the front page.
Thanks, Emory. It’s kind of a bummer that we were all banned, but at least we have other places to hang out online
Gutsy of you to submit the post, knowing clearly that you have something to loose.
This was very informative! Thanks for sharing both the positive side and negative side of submitting.
By chance how did you find some of the high quality niche sites? Was it simple google search or did you get recommendations from people you met on various communities?
Mostly it was just keeping an ear to the ground with people in my network. But you can also search for social media sites within your niche using a search engine. You can also look for sites with categories in your niche.