Four Thou Shalt Nots of the Web
Thou Shalt Not
Posted by Adam Hayes
No Spam, No Scam, No Scum, No Splatter
Another great piece of advice found in "Web Word Wizardry" by Rachel McAlpine is her four No's which is even more important today than when it was written:
- No Spam
- No Scam
- No Scum
- No Splatter
No Spam
We all know what spam is; all that junk you find in your inbox every morning. We also know the spam that happens because of Adsense and scrapers. Unfortunately, there is even more and more incentive for Spammers to spam the web. More money. They will wage an eternal war with every person that owns an email account until people find a way to ban them permanently from the web. More and more hosting companies will simply shut you down and refuse to host you if you spam.
No Scam
With the amount of bloggers in the world today, it will become harder and harder for scammers to hide. Just a month ago, I received a "scammy" letter via snail-mail that wanted X amount of dollars. After trying to decide whether to post the letter and warn others, I did a quick search and found a bunch of sites already warning others and revealing the scam. I'd hate to be in the business where someone searches for your business name and the first thing that comes up is "ABC Co are a pack of filthy idiots who will steal your money."
No Scum
Today it is even more imporant to choose your online friends wisely. After the Big Daddy update and the shakedown with reciprocal links, I'd definitely think twice before I share a link with someone who is even the least bit shady.
No Splatter
With an ever growing increase in number of websites, it is SO important to have a niche and a unique value proposition. No splatter means, don't go wandering off topic. Once you build up a readership, you want to provide the information they want. So help them out and stay on topic, or they will go somewhere else that does.