I found out about this post on Twitter. I wasn’t following you, but someone that I do was … so because of that I got to visit this great site of yours. But, the difference was that the link was dropped in the context of a conversation (sort of) … one that we choose to participate in.

Anyway, I take the good with the bad on the Internet as it’s part of the game. I take what I want and disregard the rest and move on.

And, thanks for letting us drop a link here, hehehe. Really .. your blog is very nice, both design and content .. so glad about that. I’m just a little guy n the blogosphere .. but that is the great thing about the Web, everyone has a voice. I love diverse voices! But, No mass emails please (unless they have potential clients listed).

Frank
Faces of Web 2.0
http://franksblog.edublogs.org

I’d like us all to evaluate the email you received–which might be compared to the multitude of emails we all receive on a daily basis–for transparency and openness.

When a vendor or someone is trying to sell something, they have to share WHY they are doing it. Sometimes, it’s as bald as, “I’m selling this product, but I want you to know, I’m selling it to you because it’s something that I think will meet your needs. If I’m wrong, let me know. I apologize if I come across as pushy.”

Again, a human being’s voice has to come across that is authentic, relevant to our message, etc.

Grateful for the conversation and the opportunity to share my 2cents,

Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net

As for the shameless self-promotion, that’s not such a big deal. I think bloggers do need to do that now and then (go to http://www.freetard.com for a more concise explanation of that theory, ha ha). I often hear of cool shtuff out there in the blogosphere that way- but I am deadly serious: ignore the cardinal rule of the bcc and the Inquisition will have their Way with you!

And yes, you may be leaving some potential readers on the table by not doing a newsletter or emailing them about a blog post every once in a while. On the other hand you might have a different 10 people think you are full of yourself. It’s sort of the penalty for living some of your life online in semi-public.

If I worry about what 20 edubloggers think, I can’t even imagine what it feels like to be in the public eye for real, where 10 million people know about your latest liposuction or court ordered visitation.

But email your mom, at least!

PS Hey, i hear there’s a cool new tool you could use to get the word out …called Quetchup

Simply, more people are comfortable with email than blogs. Fact of cyberlife right now.

That being said, am I being foolish by not letting friends and family know when I write a blog post I consider to be significant? I’m assuming that everyone on the list is someone that Sheryl knew somewhat personally (even if not F2F). So what’s the harm? It really isn’t anything more than taking advantage of the resources you have available to you.

I’ve been going back and forth on this one quite a bit, as you can probably tell. As I said, my gut, initial reaction was that it felt ‘icky’ for lack of a better term. And yet, so long as it’s done with discretion is there any harm?

I think you overestimate the RSS-driven blogosphere. It’s just not that widespread. I bet 80% of my friends in my very techie-laden address book don’t subscribe to blogs regularly. For Sheryl, I’d imagine that many people receiving the email passed the email on to other friends. Seems perfectly reasonable to me and not something blogs do well.

We are in a tiny slice of a small minority, so I think we have to make allowances for the rest of the world.

For more inciteful commentary from an actual teacher about educational technology, come join the discussion on the Tech Savvy Educator (www.techsavvyed.net)! Lots of great resources, websites, and FREE PUPPIES!

The point being, If I want truly meaningful discussion and input from my readers, I rely on the RSS feeds that I’ve published, and the e-mail subscription on my site to bring those that are interested to me. Most of the times it works pretty well, and recently received a nice handful of suggestions and thoughts after a particularly trying day with my 3rd graders.

I’m not about to go bothering people with “shotgun blast” e-mails hoping to get a few people engaged. It’s the equivalent of a List-Serv…you know, those e-mail things that no one pays attention to anymore because somebody decided to starting blasting everyone on the list serv with silly jokes and mom’s apple pie crust recipe.

In all of these situations, I have the option to read, post, ignore, delete, or unsubscribe. I write because I feel I have something to share. If no one reads it, I still write because I have something I want to write. For some, it is important to have the numbers, followers, linked in connections. I appreciate hearing about new ideas, strategies, and people’s concerns because I am so busy just like the rest of you. Numbers are great but it is more important for me to reach my target audience and hear back from the few who really are impacted and want to comment.

I feel that many of the people in EdTech are doing self-promotion because they have to. Many depend on their audience to help them get the word out. Many people including you and me, put up links or embed code to our other sites. And even if it is self-promotion, I enjoy reading what you write.

I don’t know that it makes any difference whatsoever that she usually BCC’s folks – why is the act different if it’s done without your knowledge? I usually assume that personal-ish sounding e-mails with no people in the To: field or no personalized salutation are mass mailings. And I delete them and move on.

I also don’t know that we’ve a right to not ever receive anything that we didn’t ask for, as one of your commenters says above. There’s a wonderful serendipity in the occasional e-mails I get from folks who need something or want me to see something or know something – I’d hate to lose that.

And as for the self-promotion – I struggle with that. I figure, though, that people who are subscribed to me via Twitter or another RSS feed have opted-in to what I’m writing, sending or saying. If they no longer want what I’m offering, they’ll unsubscribe. And I try to keep the “hey I just wrote a blog post”-type tweets to a minimum – although I do admit that I’ve done them.