Member-only story
I’ve been blogging for nearly 15 years, creating more than 7,000 blog posts on my own site and across other blogging platforms. No one is compelled to read my content, but nothing makes me so frustrated as having it scornfuly derided as spam or self-promotion, then dismissed without a glance.
Obviously, some blogs are set up to attract clicks and ad views and capture information for monetization purposes. But not all of us, not even most of us. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater to protect the original content of your Facebook group or Reddit thread is well, akin to what happens when you stop caring for babies — you limit new ideas and new contributors to the conversation. No babies eventually leads to no community.
Some of us write and create content because we have something to say. Inviting you to read the content is not a sin, nor is it some sort of mandatory attempt to trick or deceive you. We create content and share it because we think there are important things to say, to amplify, to explore through words.
If you administer a Facebook group or subreddit, I have a few suggestions to incorporate blog content and keep those babies shiny and bright.
First, allow content that is relevant to the conversation to be shared. Use moderating tools to weed out the posters who violate this rule as you…
