Having a popular blog is great. Mine’s probably not as popular as it once was – mostly that’s because I don’t get the time to write all the content that I would like to – but there are still more than 2000 posts here, so I do see a reasonable volume of traffic.

Unfortunately, that also means I get a lot of emails (sometimes several a day) asking me to add a link/feature some content/something else – much of which is clearly scripted bulk email. And not replying only results in multiple chaser emails… so I’m fighting back with my own scripted response (I actually got the idea from a journalist who provided advice to PR teams to help them only pitch items he’d be interested in…):

“Hi,

You’re receiving this email because you recently emailed about the website at markwilson.it/markwilson.co.uk. Thanks for getting in touch; however, I receive several emails each day that take a lot of time to respond to (or multiple chaser emails if I don’t respond) so please don’t be offended by this automatic reply.

• If you’re looking to place ads on my site, please don’t ask me what I would charge. Instead, please make me an offer. I don’t really know what the market rates are but you probably do. Please also include details of the page you’d like to advertise on, the landing page you would like and the period you would like to advertise for. I’ll only advertise sites that I think will be relevant to my readers so please don’t be offended if I don’t reply.
• If you have a great resource that you’re sure would improve my content, please consider that markwilson.it is a blog. I’m not going to go back and edit posts from months or years past but you could always leave a comment on a post instead, as long as it’s genuine and not just spam.
• If you’re offering to create content, please note that the content on the site is all written by me or by one of a very small number of trusted colleagues or family. I do not feature content written by others to promote their goods and services. If you’re starting out as a writer, I wish you well but would politely suggest you write on a public platform – or maybe start your own blog.

Thanks for your understanding.

Mark”

It’ll probably make no difference at all… but at least I can legitimately ignore repeated requests that haven’t acted on my reply…