News By Tom Brownsword

It all starts with Robert Phillip’s Cybercashology blog. Robert talks about a problem he was having with his blog in this post (I won’t go into the details here; click the link to read the details for yourself) and asked people to leave comments if they might have a suggestion.

I love this type of blogging; you get the opportunity to help somebody and just might learn something yourself along the way. Many people, including me, say that the path to success is by helping others, and I firmly believe that we also need to ask for help when we need it.

Getting back to Robert’s post, it has thus far spawned four comments, including mine (it should also have a trackback post after I publish this entry). The first comment was from Gavin Allinson of OutsourceSuccess.com — and in my opinion, his reply was one that simply makes you want to say, “Huh?”…

Basically he told Robert that he had the solution to his problem and would gladly give it to him for $5.

Gavin, if you’ll post a comment here with your PayPal address (I won’t approve it to protect your privacy), I’ll PayPal you $5 if you’re THAT hard-up for cash.

And did you know, Gavin, that you and Joel Comm have a lot in common? Yes, your uninvited vocal interruption annoyed me… You, too, intruded upon the sanctity of my office with that annoying audio clip.

Color me unimpressed.

Let’s move on to Comment #2, shall we?

This one was posted by Pat B. Doyle (who is going to name her new ebook “Online Action Blogging: A Direct Road To More Visitors In Less Time”). Now I don’t know Pat, but from checking out her blog post, I like what I see (and best wishes on your upcoming product launch, Pat; if you need help planning the launch, Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula is the best — as is Jeff).

What did Pat say? Basically the same thing I did, that Gavin blew an incredible opportunity to build some credibility. She then went on to share what she does after admitting that she’s not a techie. I love to see things like this (and Pat, should you ever need technical help, I’ll undercut Gavin by $1 and give it to you for $4… hee-hee!). You don’t need to be an expert to help somebody; you simply have to be a helpful person with experience.

Next up was Hill Robertson, who made a simple suggestion that, once again, worked for him (and there’s a reason God gave us two ears and only one mouth, Hill…!). Hill even went so far as to test Robert’s page in a couple of other browsers and passed the results to Robert. Hill’s answer would have cost at least $6.37 if it came from Gavin… (OK, I’ll stop busting on Gavin! Maybe…)

Then there’s this Brownsword guy… We’ll ignore him for now!

So what did I get from all of this?

1. Two new blogs to add to my iGoogle page (Pat Doyle and Hill Robertson). I like them both.

2. Some amusement from poking fun (hopefully good-natured!) at a response I never would have left (it was the response, Gavin; I don’t know you so I can say anything about “you”, although I suspect that you really *ARE* helpful!).

And hopefully Robert’s blog gets fixed.

Please; be helpful, and don’t hold $5 worth of information hostage. Granted, we all have to make a living, but the blog-o-sphere is kind of a different place and I don’t think that putting a sales pitch in a comment to somebody else’s post is being “neighborly”. Making a blog comment is, in my opinion, kind of like visiting your neighbor’s kitchen (via the back door, no less). If you’re asked an opinion about how the chocolate cake turned out, you do so politely, even if it tastes like yesterday’s chopped liver, left in the hot sun to ferment. If you’re asked to help move something or stir a pot, you don’t run home real fast and write up an invoice. To take it even farther, such behavior seems to come from a scarcity mindset, which I strongly dislike.

Be kind, helpful, and above all, buy stuff from my blog links so I don’t have to beg for nickels in other people’s blog comments…

Thanks for listening,
Tom

EDIT: Guess what? I just noticed that my opt-in form gets chopped off on the right side, too! Except mine does it in both Firefox AND IE. Time to go visit Robert’s blog again…