Every now and then, I receive a request like this:
Dear Editor,
My name is Jen and I’m the Editor at Jen Reviews. I was doing research on cheese recipes and just finished reading your wonderful blog post: https://www.tomwilson.
com/2015/05/zen-and-art-of-casserole-assembly.html
In that article, I noticed that you cited a solid post that I’ve read in the past: http://www.cheese.com/sartori-classic-montamore/
We just published a delicious cheese fondue recipe complete with step-by-step pictures and detailed instructions. You can find it here: https://www.jenreviews.com/cheese-fondue-recipe/
If you like the recipe we’d be humbled if you cited us in your article. Of course, we will also share your article with our 50k newsletter subscribers and followers across our social platforms.
Either way, keep up the great work!
Warmly,
Jen
Jen is asking me to add a link from one of my blog posts (Zen and the Art of Casserole Assembly) to a cheese fondue recipe at an advertisement-supported site with 50,000 subscribers. In return, some of those 50,000 subscribers might click through to my blog post.
I wrote back to Jen to let her know I would not be meeting her request:
Hi Jen:
That’s a lovely recipe.
I write my blog purely for myself, as an exercise to clear the mind. I don’t add requested links, as this changes the nature of why I write. For example, I am not interested in driving traffic to my site.
Good luck with your venture.
Best,
Tom
When a cluster of ideas swirls around my head I love to sit down and write. It’s an exercise in decluttering and framing my thoughts.
It makes me sad when I look around for instruction on how to write better researched creative nonfiction (my genre). The emphasis is too often on how to build an audience, or, in Internet parlance, ways to drive traffic to your content.
In my job life (“Life, Phase 2”) I wrote for others. I had to be persuasive, or had to ensure an idea was clearly understood, or had to meet a deadline. In my post-work life (“Life, Phase 3”) I write for myself while welcoming “engagement with my content.”