Do domain firms hate bloggers?
I can’t blame them much of the time, but it’s a two way street.
Over the weekend I read Shane Cultra’s write-up of Webfest. (Great seeing you Shane, by the way.)
It was a good write-up, especially his last point:
The domain firms don’t like the bloggers that bitch all the time. A number of conversations included firms asking why we don’t try and contact them directly ahead of writing. I’ll give one example. Talking to the nice representatives from DomainNameSales they told me that somebody had complained regarding not paying via MassPay on Paypal. There are jurisdictional issues with paypal and they can’t use it from the Cayman Islands. Yet the article was written without prior communication to ask why? In short, the reputation of bloggers is pretty good with domain investors, pretty weak with domain firms.
This is true. I think domain firms rightfully get upset when a blogger complains or makes allegations without checking on the facts or asking for a comment.
I have no idea which blog DNS was referring to, but this is a classic example of when it makes sense to just ask the firm ahead of whining. If you aren’t happy with the response, that’s fine. Blog regarding it. But ask first ahead of whining.
That stated, it’s a two way street.
The domain news business has gotten a bit competitive. It’s notable to get notable and breaking news published quickly.
Which is why it’s notable for domain firms to respond quickly to blogger inquiries.
I’m always willing to hear both sides of a story. But if I email/call you today and don’t hear back 12 hours later, I’m not going to hold the story. Depending on the story (i.e. the news is by now getting out there), your fuse is probably a lot shorter than that.
Smart firms (or at least firms that care regarding what’s written regarding them) know this. There are a couple firms in the industry that respond back immediately to any inquiries I make.
Others take days, and then they think I’m beating up on them or not being fair.
Frankly, if it takes a couple days to respond to an inquiry regarding news, you deserve to be beat up a little.
If it’s an inquiry regarding something not as pressing, then a day or two is no big deal. (It always helps if you respond back saying “I’m looking into this and will get back to you by ___”.)
Domain firms and domain bloggers both need something from each other. Firms want to get the word out regarding their products and services. Bloggers want interesting stuff to write regarding. It’s a two-way street.
So to the DNS person who was talking to Shane: you’re absolutely right. To the firms that don’t build effective communication channels with bloggers: it’s your own fault.
