Unfortunately for readers who value transparency with the online content that they consume, web deception is continuing unabated.  This article shares wording from a solicitation that I recently received via email. I have highlighted in bold face an egregious attempt at web deception contained in this most recent solicitation.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge. Photographs have been added to serve as visual breaks. And yes… I chose some images of snakes purposefully.

Since I ignored the original solicitation, I’m now receiving follow-up emails from this same individual/organization to check up on my interest level in participating with their web deception. *sighs* I guess simply ignoring solicitations that lack an ethical foundation is no longer enough.

Having to deal with a stream of continuous follow up efforts on my lack of interest has become a part of everyday reality. Another solicitation that I previously ignored from a different organization followed up 11 times before they finally gave up on contacting me.

I make it a habit to label all of these solicitation emails and subsequent follow-ups as “spam” so appropriate bounce backs go the original sender. This does not deter the senders at all.

So… here is some exact wording from the most recent email solicitation that I received. As noted earlier, I added the bold face highlighting. 

“My company partners with brands to help promote them on authority blogs such as yours. 

So, we would like to partner with you for advertising at your blog by writing New Guest Posts & Link Placement on relevant existing pages.

We only require a dofollow backlink, permanent placement and no “Guest Post” or “Sponsored Post” tags etc.

Please let me know if you would be interested in such partnership and also an insight on pricing for these.

Looking forward to hearing from you.”

Image that… what this individual/organization would “only require” of me is to basically mislead my readers. I’d have to hide the fact that something that could appear on my blog is not paid advertising/promotion… when it most certainly would have been.

The halcyon days of photography websites are long past, and directly linked to the massive decline in new camera equipment purchases. As most of us realize, the camera market peaked over a decade ago.

As a result, some photography websites have experienced precipitous declines in their revenues from ‘click through’ camera equipment sales commissions. Their advertising revenues have also likely contracted to a significant degree. These market changes can put a lot of financial pressure on people to consider revenue generating schemes like paid product placements/articles.

I have no idea what level of success that solicitations like the one that I recently received are achieving. To be perfectly frank… I couldn’t care less what other websites do. All I know is that I intend to continue to ignore all of these solicitations as I’ve always done.

Whether you love, hate or feel indifferent about the articles and photographs that appear on this photography site… you can rest assured that no articles, reviews or photographs have been paid for by an outside source. Either overtly or covertly.

 Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. This is the 1,312 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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Article is Copyright 2023 Thomas Stirr. Images are Copyright 2016-2023 Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, duplication or adaptation of any kind is allowed without written consent. If you see this article reproduced anywhere else it is an unauthorized and illegal use. Posting comments on offending websites and calling out individuals who steal intellectual property is always appreciated!