You know, I preach and preach about creating win-win situations in business.

If you can come up with a scenario that will benefit both parties, and you make it silly for the other person to say “no”, usually you end up with a profitable JV in the end.

However, if you just go to another person and say “Do this for me…” — GOOD LUCK!

You will absolutely not believe this latest one…

I was asked to do a written interview. No biggie. I do those all the time. Oh shoot. That reminds me that I haven't sent one back yet to my buddy Tracy. Tracy, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten! 😉

I have to say that I do a pretty good written interview, too. I take my time and put together a nice resource for the person — and in trade, I normally get a few links back to my website. Fair enough, right?

WELL… an editor for a website contacted me for an interview and I wrote it up. I then went to their website to see what it'll look like. (Yes, I should have gone there first, but I didn't…) There were no links to the author. None at all.

So, I'm thinking that maybe these were unique situations and the people didn't have websites? I asked and the response I got was …

Our focus is on the content, keeping it interesting and helpful for our affiliate readers. That is the main and only reason we publish interviews and articles. This is hence not a way for us to get free content and backlinks, why I had not considered offering that when we contacted you for an interview. I apologize if I was not clear on this and I hope that we can work this out. I contacted you because I think your experience in the business can teach our readers a lot.

Huh?! Of course, I replied very kindly saying “Yes, I'm very glad to share information, BUT… I normally don't donate my time to other webmasters with nothing in return.”

I donate my time to my church and my kids' school and to my friends who need it and to organizations that I believe in. I'll give products of mine to online events that donate their proceeds to charities.

However, I'm not writing a 3 page interview and giving it to someone without even a link to my website in reference. Hello?!

ok. End of rant.

Has anyone else run into this type of situation before? I mean, I do anywhere from 3-5 interviews per week and I always have been given something in return. I'm feeling a little taken advantage of right now. Can you tell? 😉 Glad I haven't sent the interview back yet!

Thanks for listening!
Nicole