I feel like ...

It has been a while since I've just sat down at my laptop and written a blog post. You know the kind? The ones that you write and then after re-reading them like ten times you ultimately hit Publish. And that's without any options to delay posting, etc. No scheduling involved? Yeah - that's the kind I mean.

I'm kind of trailing off between posts lately, just sort of floating around. Pretty much meme-free, as well. I love memes, and I love the friends I've made through them. Whether these are hosts, participants or just people peeking in, it's all good as far as I'm concerned.

But I'm slack lately. On various levels. I even started a post the other day and I forget what it was supposed to be about. Guess I need to head into my drafts folder and see what I can find.

I like just talking about random things. I would like to get back to that a little bit. I also like the occasional giveaway. I've got one going on right now for Beecology, some great products that smell yummy and are special treats that pamper ME. (Or YOU, if you're the winner!) I've been approached by a few other people for various things, and it amazes me the kind of outreach that goes on out there in the blogosphere.

I love the cold call messages that say, Dear "Good Girl Gone Redneck," I love your blog.

Enter the following sentences:
* I'm Jewish, too.
* I recently relocated to the South, as well.
* I came across your blog "Good Girl Gone Redneck," and am very impressed.
* I want to let you know about ... I think you'll want to share with your readers at "Good Girl Gone Redneck"

It's interesting, and yes, I do admit that sometimes I am really intrigued by the available products to review, or it seems to be a perfect fit for my readers, my blog and/or me. So I try to take those offers and do my best to share my experiences with the products, etc. But other times when I get the generic outreach I kind of feel like the person is stabbing in the air and not really reaching out to ME. It's almost worse when they use my blog name. Hence my detailing such requests with the quotations above. Sometimes they actually write their requests so you know all they are doing is replacing the info in the quotes.

Anyway, that's my most recent take on giveaways, cold call-like approaches and more. I totally look at books differently, because I know that publicists have a list and just toss out the information with hopes that someone will take a bite at the book that's being offered. They've always been open, easily approachable and totally fine when I say a quick 'No thanks!' to something that's not my reading style.

So, what do you think? Are you open to being contacted about stuff? Do you hate these kinds of emails? Or do you just delete them if they come in and aren't for you? I think it's so easy to get caught up, especially early on, when you're a new blogger and get those first few emails, it's like, holy cow! Someone knows who I am / likes me / thinks I might be helpful or worth contacting. It's a whole different outlook once you've been doing this for a while. Even if it's a short while. So - what say you?


p.s. I do know that this may lead to my not getting more outreach with respect to giveaways, but that's okay. I just wanted to get this out there anyway. I'm happy, no, thrilled, to work with businesses that seem to mesh with me and what I want, who I am, and more, and I promise to be respectful to those who don't seem to be the right kind of fit, but forgive me if I'm not going to jump through hoops if you keep pushing, because that, my dear friends, is not who I am. Thanks!

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