Sending Tips to Webloggers (A why-to, how-to and when-to)

< rant - justification for tipping>

As I mentioned in an earlier post about "weblog tipping", I frequently send people links that I think they might find interesting:

As I learn more about people from their weblogs and communication [with them], I send them links to things that they might be interested-in. Occasionally, I'll send people a link to one of my weblog posts. But, I mostly send links to other weblogs and sites that I think they might find interesting.

Ben Smith commented that this is the "holy grail" of networking:

Consider the fact that if Google could perform searches like that... ...and really know a person, not from what they typed in on a whim. I think this type of thing is what all of the networking companies would call thier "holy grail", empowering people's insight to help others.

The best relationships are those in which people are in tune with the other's likes and dislikes. Passing along something you came across to a friend is what WOM is all about anyway.

I couldn't agree more. And I actually think by being a tipster, I am fulfilling a role that few bloggers fulfill. Many bloggers are obsessessed with becoming thought leaders and dispensing their own advice to the masses. However, if everyone is busy doing that, who will the masses be? And people certainly can't develop thought leadership by speaking to the world without listening and observing first. Listening to diverse viewpoints, experiences and ideas is just as important in being a thought leader as analysing, remixing, combining, categorizing, naming and defining the views, experience and ideas in original ways. So, by being a tipster, I am getting people to listen to others.

Being a tipster may also be a bit simpler than affecting thought leaders. Many people blog primarily for the purpose of reporting news about a specific industry or niche or discipline (e.g. social software weblog, searchenginelowdown). For these people, their reputation is built on being the most informed about a specific industry's happenings. Since I read 200 blogs (I officially reached 200 today.), I certainly see news on other blogs, that I think they would be interested in, before they blog it.(example). So, sending them tips is just about helping them acomplish their goal of breaking the news.

Don't think giving tips is all about altruism, though. I have my motives. My intention is to gradually form relationships with other webloggers, that I may leverage at a later date. I don't have specific intentions that I don't reveal. But, I generally like to be in the good graces of smart people. Sending them tips that help them do what they are trying to do, usually accomplishes that goal.

< /rant - justification for tipping>

< How-to do tipping efficiently>

So, what I do right now is copy the url from my browser, tab to microsoft outlook, click create "New" message, type in the person's email (who I am sending it to), type a quick note, click send.

I want to expand on this and make this more efficient in a few ways.

Here are my Primary Goals:
Initiate message from my browser.
Grab title of page and url from web page.
Create separate bookmarklets for different recipients.

Here is how I plan to accomplish my primary goals:

I've created a javascript bookmarklet for individual persons or groups that I frequently send messages-to. The javascript bookmarklet will have a title like 'Tips for Judith Meskill' and have her email address coded into it. (Alternatively, it could be the nickname I use for Judith in outlook.) Then, when visiting a page that I think Judith will appreciate, I can click the bookmarklet, outlook will launch, the email will be addressed to her, the subject will read the title of the page, and the text of the email will include a link to the site. All I'll need to do is right a quick message and address it. (And sometimes that is unnecessary for tips.) The javascript bookmarklet automagically grabs the title of the page as the subject for the message and also places the url in the email.

Without further ado....

Click to create New Mail-To Bookmarklet. The one below is recommended.

Updated 6/17/04 by Bart Miller: Click to create New Mail-To Bookmarklet

(Don't drag it to your browser's links bar until you've entered the recipient's email address and name of the bookmarklet. Click it and you will be prompted for these two pieces of information.)

I haven't written this from scratch. I combined the functionality of this bookmarklet with this bookmarklet to create it. And then I got some help with javascript quotes from Steve at Bookmarklets.com. BIG SHOUT OUT TO STEVE AT BOOKMARKLETS.COM FOR THE ASSISTANCE.

< /how-to do tipping efficiently>

< need advice before taking next step>

I also have some more ideas on how to make this more efficient and to scale it so that I can send tips to more people. I see "sending tips" as analagous to initiating conversations. However, as I learned from recently sending Andy Beal a tip that linked to my event planning company's website, the line between sending tips and pimping my own shit, can get blurry.

So, before I embark on my secondary goals for scaling tip-giving, I want to get feedback from people on what they think is acceptable.

Secondary Goals:
1. Customize the footer to add an "opt-out of my tips" message.
2. Automatically personalize the message with a "Dear [Name]"
3. Send to multiple recipients at once.

The first goal, providing an opt out message, is high priority. However, since I will only be sending tips to "individuals" right now, it isn't pressing: I can just delete the bookmarklet, if someone asks me to stop sending tips. To do this, I was thinking I'd grab a specific footer that tells people if they don't want to receive tips from me, to just reply. Any ideas on how I could choose a footer from the bookmarklet?

The second one would make my life easier and eliminate a mundane task. I like to address my emails to people. It adds a bit of professionalism, even when you are just sending tips. So, if I could put this into the bookmarklet or somehow do this in outlook, it'd be appreciated. Any ideas? Update: I realized I could just add this to the text of the message when initially building the bookmarklet. If anyone wants to modify the bookmarklet to do that, I'll point to it from here.

I need some feedback regarding the third goal. I certainly don't plan to build huge lists of people (that I don't have a pre-existing blogging-relationship with) that'd be interested in all the same stuff. But I might, for example, have a list of a handful of people that are interested in the bizness of social software, or the SEO business. (I could build a short list for these topics right now with my current contacts.) I also might put my peeps at WhizSpark on a list. So, this is a gray area. Does this become spam? Will these messages be ignored if people know they are on a list, instead of the only person receiving a tip meant just for them? Feedback please.

Update 6/16/04: New Wish for the bookmarklet: This has to do with my browser's behavior after I use the bookmarklet. Once I use it, and the email pops-up, it displays the javascript function in the browser as text. If I click back, it executes the javascript bookmarklet again. I want the back button to go to the page that I sent. Not to the bookmarklet. I can use the drop down next to the back button and skip two pages back, but that is an extra click. Any Ideas? Update 6/17/04: Bart Miller (who finally has a weblog, yeah!) fixed this one for us. I've update it above. Here it is too:

Click to create New Mail-To Bookmarklet

< /need advice before taking next step>

And lastly, send me tips if you see something you think I'd be interested-in!

Comments

[Bart]

To fix the problem with the bookmarklet displaying as text in the browser, you need to add a void in the rendered link. Below is the corrected code:

AdR9Ek2H=prompt('Enter Recipient Email Address: (e.g. - guy@domain.com)','');if(AdR9Ek2H){NMwo81Cp=prompt('Enter Name for Bookmark:','');if(NMwo81Cp!=null){with(document){write(('Mail to '+NMwo81Cp).link('javascript:location.href=\'mailto:'+AdR9Ek2H+'?SUBJECT=\'+document.title+\'&body=\'+escape(location.href);void(0)'));void(close())}}else{void(null)}}else{void(null)}

Try the corrected link below:
Click to create New Mail-To Bookmarklet

However, there is a problem with the original bookmarklet in that it wants to put the body string in the subject line. No time to look at that now but I think that can be easily fixed.

[Bart]

OK, the problem I mentioned above will only occur if the page has no title. The version below will work even if the page has no title.

Click to create New Mail-To Bookmarklet

[Peter Caputa]

Thank you very much, Bart. I now know who to go to with javascript issues/opps.

It is amazing the help people give for no reason, other than to help someone out.

It is very appreciated. When I get a chance, I'll add the revised bookmarklet to the post.

[Bart]

No problem, glad to help. But there are still the three secondary goals you listed. For #3 I think all you need to do is enter the multiple email addresses in the dialog box separated by semicolons. If I have time I'll look at the other two tomorrow.