One thing that has really struck me in the last couple of years, mostly since I started guest blogging and receiving some guest posts, is that so many people seem to have forgotten that this is the web.
This series of HTML pages hosted on various computers for public viewing was termed the web because of the way websites would link to each other, so that people could find other related (and sometimes unrelated but interesting) sites to look at. Before the rise of the search engines and their predecessors, the web directories, this was how people discovered new websites – along with “word of mouth” of course, which would have been done via email and chat rooms.
However, today so many webmasters (why never the term web-journeyman or web-apprentice I wonder – everybody is a master from day 1?) consider the rest of the web to have one single purpose – to deliver visitors to their site, and end point on the web.
The trend of people writing about topics which they are not an expert in and then not referencing where their facts and opinions come from continues to rise. I receive so many requests for guest posts these days, and just the suggestion that they reference what they write sends most writers (or are then all content marketers now?) running.
I say, stop this silliness now! This is the web. If you wish to be favoured by it, ensure that you are a part of it.
Link to others as you would have them link to you! Do you really think that if you do not link to other websites all your readers will really respect that and stay forever on your site, clicking your ads and buying your products? No, of course not – they will still leave.
Linking out to other sites ensures that people can still surf the web – an art which is surely dying. Many newspapers are as much at fault for not linking out these days, it is not just affiliate bloggers and MFA webmasters.
That’s all I have to say. Be a part of the web and maybe the web will like you the better for it.