No Straw MenEnlightened discourse proscribes arguments that are weak or imaginary, like straw, set up only to be confuted summarily.

Bad Pitches: Endurance Warranty Services

An e-mail I received a few days ago, which Gmail rightly filtered into my spam folder:

Hello,

I came across your Web site jonathanrick.com, and would like to propose a link exchange between your site and EnduranceWarrantyServices.com. Endurance Warranty Services is the leader in extended auto warranties serving car warranties, truck warranties, and all types of extended auto warranties.

Please consider adding our link to your site on your page: http://jonathanrick.com/2008/06/26/links-for-2008-06-27/

Here is our linking information:

Title: Car Warranty
Description: Endurance Warranty Services provides car warranties that are transferable! Car buyers look to make sure a car has a warranty.
URL: http://www.endurancewarrantyservices.com

HTML Code

<a href=”http://www.endurancewarrantyservices.com” target=”_blank”><b>Car Warranty</b></a> Endurance Warranty Services provides car warranties that are transferable! Car buyers look to make sure a car has a warranty.

Let us know when our link is placed and we will post your link in the proper category of the resources page listed here: http://www.endurancewarrantyservices.com/partners/index.html

Please be sure to include your desired title and description. Your link will be posted within hours, however, in some rare cases it may take longer. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for your consideration,

[Name redacted]
linkmanager@endurancewarrantyservices.com
9831 E. Bell Road Suite 110
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Addendum (10/21/2009): Even though it’s 10 months late, in the interest of clarification, I am publishing the below e-mail that I received today from Endurance:

Hi, my name is Paul Chernawsky and I am the Vice President for Endurance Warranty Services. The following link refers to Endurance Warranty Services sending out e-mails for proposed link exchanges.

http://jonathanrick.com/2009/01/bad-pitches-endurance-warranty-services/

I first want to apologize for your inconvenience regarding the link exchange e-mail(s). Endurance Warranty Services had entered into a business agreement with a search engine optimization company and entrusted the search engine optimization company with optimizing Endurance Warranty Service’s Web site the right way.

Unfortunately, Endurance Warranty Services learned that the search engine optimization company was sending out mass e-mails proposing link exchanges that did Endurance Warranty Services way more harm than good. When Endurance realized this problem Endurance, terminated its relationship with the search engine optimization company immediately.

Why You Should Know Blog Lingo

A version of this blog post appeared on Digital Flacking (May 21, 2009) and TechRepublican (March 24, 2008).

Earlier this month, Kathryn Stetz of Qorvis Communications e-mailed TechCrunch, the world’s second most popular blog, asking to “order[] a reprint on an article” that appeared there.

The response, a couple weeks later, came from the blog’s founder and co-editor, Michael Arrington: “We’re a blog. We don’t do prints, let alone reprints.”

Oops. Or as former Qorvis staffer Jesse Thomas puts it, “Selling digital PR and not knowing that TechCrunch is a blog is definitely an embarrassment.”

Yet before we scapegoat Qorvis, it’s instructive to consider the context in which this snafu might have taken place.

First, I’d bet that Kathryn isn’t an account executive. People who exclude a title from their e-mail signature tend to be interns. Indeed, the task of requesting a reprint is one usually delegated to interns.

Second, the request to reprint is probably prudent. After all, reprints take place offline, and in the absence of a hyperlink, which is the conventional form of credit online, it’s worth asking if the blogger wishes to be cited in a particular way, or if he wants it noted that the material is copyrighted. (Indeed, one benefit of such a seemingly trivial request is that it establishes goodwill and opens the door for future pitching.)

Still, the fact remains that Qorvis screwed up: Bloggers should be treated with the same respect accorded to their old-media counterparts.

Of course, if such blunders can happen at a powerhouse firm like Qorivs, can’t they happen at your firm, too? In fact, it’s likely they already have.