Other than spam, there are quite a few legitimate advertising inquiries regarding my Romanian blog, zoso.ro, by international advertisers.

And there are problems:

  1. the broken english. not a good impression on a first email when your wording and writing are poorer than mine. screams bad professionalism.
  2. lack of minimal research 1. because Romania is a poor country (debatable, but let’s assume so), advertisers don’t bother asking minimal questions about what are regular fees for services and offer upfront embarrassing sums, about 1/10 of what i usual charge. it’s a problem when they use the phrase “we identified you as a blogger with a big community that would be interested in our product”. really? and you want to pay pocket change for that?
  3. lack of minimal research 2. my blog is a top blog in Romania, in terms of readership, traffic and community. it’s been my full time job since 2008. it has 1/10 the traffic of a top news site. i don’t work for pocket change, nobody who is on top in their country does, no matter how poor you view Romania. and that is why i don’t reply to emails after you have offered me pocket change.
  4. the mystery. i hate it when they ask a bunch of questions and refuse to tell me what the product is.
  5. the use of free emails. yea, i know, you are a professional working for a big client with a big agency and writing me from gmail. i don’t bother replying.

I really don’t understand why they don’t just use an agency to guide them, like a PR or a Digital one, at least for the first 2-3 campaigns and go from there. And I don’t know how it is in other countries, but in Romania top bloggers know each other and talk frequently. Fashion bloggers also. You are better of as an international advertiser to pay one to advise you than to try to screw them over on price, as attempts have been known.

This is me. This is what i do.