How Do You Handle Unsolicited Requests?

If you have a contact form on your website, EVEN with a CAPTCHA to help with spam, you’re going to get the occasional spam request. If your industry isn’t in your title, or your title leads people to believe you’re in a different industry, you get emails like this one that I received last week…

Good Day indeed! Typically I just delete the emails, but this one was worthy of a screen shot and an Instagram post.

If you are contacting some one through an online form hoping that eventually they’ll hire you, here’s a couple of suggestions:

1. Know what their business is. This isn’t hard – it’s on my home page. I’m not a dog groomer. I also have a short haired dog who you can clearly see, on almost every page of my website, doesn’t need to be shaved.
2. Check for Typos – we all make mistakes, but do a once over before you hit submit
3. Be Specific in who you want to talk to  – “Hi to Everyone at Yellow Dog Consulting” – when it’s very obviously a one woman/one dog show. You can find out my name pretty easily….
4. Be Polite – Alex is polite but pushy. He doesn’t bother to ask if I am accepting guest blog posts. He clearly hasn’t looked at my blog to see it’s been a while since I had a guest blogger, AND that I have never written about dog grooming on my blog.
5. Give me More Info – I know literally nothing about this guy and he doesn’t give me any info. They wrote a new article (good for you) do I want to share it with my readers (please cast your response in the comments below!)?
   • Who are you?
   • Why are you an authority on this topic?
   • How did you find my website?
   • Do we know anyone in common?

The next time you’re contacting someone via a form, take into consideration how you respond to these requests and make sure you’re handling it in a way that you would appreciate.