Blogging, SEO vs. being a bagman

You'd think that if you had Muskoka in your name, you'd either have lived or cottaged there. Not so.
Some marketing genius, and I use the term loosely, has figured out that the word Muskoka garners a lot of web hits, as GTA- Toronto folks tend to visit Muskoka on the weekends. Someone always knows another with a cottage or home here! With the Golden Horseshoe holding 10 million souls, it's not hard! This is the beauty of this place. We can tolerate 100,00 summer guests, and hunker down to winter with 50,000 residents.

And so, here is a website, with a cute young thing apparently reporting 'news' from Muskoka. It is more of a lovely walk down how-can-I-make-a-buck-off-Muskoka lane for her. For the most part she writes research-based info (give the little chickie credit), with little emotional content. She uses stock photos, or rips them off of the web with alacrity. This is *Fair Dealing (Fair Use in the USA) as you are reporting, or quoting another's info. She present the history of Muskoka, for some unnamed reason. It is neither up-to-the-minute reporting, but, perhaps designed to jump on the Huntsville G8 market share bandwagon?

She calls herself a 'sassy bunny in Ontario’s cottage country mecca.' Don't think so. She neither lives here, nor cottages here, according to her own bio. In fact, her family had a resort in the Haliburton Highlands when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but Haliburton—that is not part of Muskoka!

You will see that her 'blog' is connected to various holdings that are managed by someone else. He runs Smojoeblog. He runs Lenzr photo contests ("On 15 photo contest on Lenzr is sponsored by an over 50 magazine and is awarding over 50 lbs of chocolate as a prize..."), and Canada Blog Friends. He pimps out his work to make a buck. He is a bagman, in a new, Information Age kinda way. He is a Freelance Social Relevance Producer. He'll even tell you how to do it. With no ethics. They build 'social relevance'. It is not a natural thing. This means that he and she have nothing to do with Muskoka. At all. They use your web counts, and web page visits to increase their web page hits to market the web sites that make them money. Because it is all about the money.

When I was first contacted to put his Lenzr bit on my sidebar I thought, sure. He gave me a sweet review Jennifer Jilks writes My Muskoka. He has reviewed other Canadian blog friends. He has encouraged me to add my photos to his photo contests, since he was a bit short. He wanted to link to my page, because of my high page rankings, which raise his rankings. Did you know that? It's called SEO.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion.

He scoured my web pages and found the images that showed me younger, and slimmer! How fake is this?! I am a middle-aged, experienced, wrinkled grandmother. I love Muskoka and I honour it. I loathe being used! Ya gotta teach 'em how to treat ya - to quote Dr. Phil! Enough.

Now that I think about it, I am really upset. He asked me if I wanted to pretend to be Muskoka Girl.ca. I declined. I am not a girl. I am an educated, serious, committed member of the Muskoka Region. I will not pimp myself out to market someone else's webwork. This is not work, this is play, for money. Oh, no. That is pimping yourself out for money. You post some 'articles' and I'll pay you to do it. You use the word Muskoka, and we'll increase our web presence. What a scam. How, in all good conscience, could I convince myself that pretending to be a 'Muskoka Girl', could I live with myself? It may not be unethical but it is surely immoral.

And 'sassy' little Muskoka Girl, whomever she is, if she is, indeed, who he says she is (journalism student, living in London, ON), is prostituting herself to be on the web. It used to be that journalists were subjected to some scrutiny. They had editors and bosses who watched what they did. We all know who owned them, and why their biases existed in the first place. We could read a newspaper understanding their leanings. Their job did not include 250 word blog posts. There was content, and real experiences. Issues that mattered. News, fer gawd's sake. A blog is an informal, fun, experiential personal review of events. It is not a piece for a newspaper. You may be marketing your work, your resort, or your art, or professional expertise, but you state this clearly. Readers understand this.

My friend, Barrie Summy, published U.S.— teen's author, celebrates this. She runs a Book Review club to increase her web presence. This is honest. Up front. It is fun.

Nancy runs a resort, but honours the spirit of nature and wildlife in her blog. She teaches about respect for the wildlife in her region.

Beware what you read on the Internet. Check the credentials of the work you see. I am ashamed that I bought into this scam. I was paid $12.50 to put Lenzr in my sidebar for a month.  In the US you must indicate if you are paid for such writings, or promotions. A shame that this does not exist in Canada, too.


*FAIR DEALING IN CANADA The Canadian Copyright Act (R.S.C. 1985 ...[PDF]

Further reading:

My Reflections and Musings: SEO, blogging and ethical communication

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