5 ms·

Linking once to something you use or something you made that you are proud of is awesome. Getting that spammy about it caused me not to finish the post.

jirinovotny 15y ago
Thanks for the advice! I've removed the extra links. For some reason, it has never occurred to me.
- gruseom 15y ago
  For some reason, it has never occurred to me. Probably your software is so inextricably part of your life that the thought of a world (let alone a blog post) without it never occurs to you. It's a good post. The reason you're getting criticized ("spammy", "self-promoting", etc.) is that it breaks the informal conventions that have evolved for such hybrid (good content plus product promotion) posts. One is to give the reader a clear heads-up that the post falls in both categories. In the absence of that signal, the flow for me went like this: 1. A blog post about improving productivity? Cool. I like productivity. 2. Hmm, this guy isn't an idiot. Guess I'll keep reading. 3. Some of these points seem useful, I wonder how I could apply them? (In the meantime, completely missing the first mention/link to your product). 4. Further down, dimly noticing the product name, but not thinking about it. 5. Recognizing the third mention of the product - what's that? Seems vaguely familiar. 6. Finally: oh, I get it. This is software he's selling and the whole post has (also) been about this. 7. I feel like a bit of a dupe. No like. Bail. The only reason why 7 occurred is that the post didn't set my expectation correctly at the start, so I read it with a wrong expectation, then had the unpleasant experience of reality contradicting it. It's actually the fact that the content was good enough to absorb my attention that led to this; otherwise I would have noticed the other details right away.
  - jirinovotny 15y ago
    That makes perfect sense. Thank you for the detailed explanation, I see the issue now clearly. I've learned something.

jirinovotny 15y ago

Thanks for the advice! I've removed the extra links. For some reason, it has never occurred to me.

gruseom 15y ago
For some reason, it has never occurred to me. Probably your software is so inextricably part of your life that the thought of a world (let alone a blog post) without it never occurs to you. It's a good post. The reason you're getting criticized ("spammy", "self-promoting", etc.) is that it breaks the informal conventions that have evolved for such hybrid (good content plus product promotion) posts. One is to give the reader a clear heads-up that the post falls in both categories. In the absence of that signal, the flow for me went like this: 1. A blog post about improving productivity? Cool. I like productivity. 2. Hmm, this guy isn't an idiot. Guess I'll keep reading. 3. Some of these points seem useful, I wonder how I could apply them? (In the meantime, completely missing the first mention/link to your product). 4. Further down, dimly noticing the product name, but not thinking about it. 5. Recognizing the third mention of the product - what's that? Seems vaguely familiar. 6. Finally: oh, I get it. This is software he's selling and the whole post has (also) been about this. 7. I feel like a bit of a dupe. No like. Bail. The only reason why 7 occurred is that the post didn't set my expectation correctly at the start, so I read it with a wrong expectation, then had the unpleasant experience of reality contradicting it. It's actually the fact that the content was good enough to absorb my attention that led to this; otherwise I would have noticed the other details right away.
- jirinovotny 15y ago
  That makes perfect sense. Thank you for the detailed explanation, I see the issue now clearly. I've learned something.