Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Philosophical Questions

It is sifting fine powder snow at the moment, but there is little wind so conditions are actually quite fine. Here is Molly standing in the 0 degree weather and asking why I am not joining her in frolicking in back yard.

She is clearly disappointed that I won't venture out to help her scout for squirrels. I didn't have the heart to tell her that squirrels seldom frolic on days like today. If I were a faster photographer, I might have been able to capture Molly rolling in the snow and then laying on her back in the snow. With all that long white fur, cold never seems to bother her. (And I love the powder because it leaves rooster tails behind her as she sprints out to the tree hoping to catch a squirrel unawares.)

Newsflash - the weather bug on my desktop finally hit 1 degree - a heatwave.

On a more philosophical note, I have a question that was triggered by an email after yesterday's re-appearance of the tattered moccasins. It seems some  shopping/retail organizations run web spiders to pick up blog posts that might tie in to their promotional efforts. Something about my worn moccasins tickled the fancy of couple, at least enough to generate an email or two. So the question posed is this: Would you run a giveaway on a non-giveaway blog?

I ask because we all obviously see giveaways on various blogs to increase readership, etc. And of course there are blogs that are primarily giveaway oriented. But for the small, non-commercial blog like this one, I run headlong into my belief that holding a once in a blue moon giveaway is a violation of the implicit contract with you the reader. It would seem that running a giveaway and forcing/offering following as a method of entry would indeed be a short lived gain when there was no more moolah forthcoming. Am I insane in my beliefs?

I already answered the emails in the negative for a giveaway on this site, so you don't have to worry about changing my mind. I am really more curious about the feelings and thought processes you undergo on the topic. Feel free to flail away in the comments or email. I've been called worse things than crazy before, so feel no compunction to hold back.

Time to get back to work. It will be interesting to see if the weather changes enough to impact the Christmas reception hosted by the college tonight. Only time will tell.

5 comments:

  1. Ha, keep your snow out there Dr.

    On the give-away, I am ok with it. Perhaps the blogger maybe ridding himself/herself of something unwanted anyway--so there are two winners.

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  2. If you had hosted the giveaway would they have given you new moccasins? If the answer is yes- I totally would have done it. And I'd enter a giveaway you offered on here. And really...it's all about the followers for me so yeah, I'd do the giveaway. :)

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  3. I don't think a giveaway would be a bad idea in this instance.

    My kids would love to chase squirrels with Molly :)

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  4. Idk if you know but I have a cookbook blog too...The Eat Food NOT Money Cookbook. Occasionally I'm contacted to run promotions on it. If it's something cooking related (like right now I'm running a contest for dinnerware) then I will post it. If it's not, then I won't. I also post a monthly review for a magazine on there for which I receive a free magazine each month to review. I don't get any money for any of it. On the other hand, I don't (and won't) run any kind of giveaways on my other two blogs. I do have the Freebie Reporter on my sidebar on one of my other blogs (the one you visit most) but who doesn't like free stuff? lol anyway, I just don't want to make my personal blog a place for that stuff. It seems like too much work to me. Sorry for rambling on Dan. Happy Wednesday :)

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  5. I'd do a giveaway, but not to attract readers or anything like that, but because I would like to share the wealth.

    I definitely wouldn't make a person tweet, follow, jump through hoops....nor would I put it in my title. I think it's because I'd want a loyal reader to win.

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You know you want to ... so just do it!!!

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