Rural World - For anything rural or agricultural in the UK

[Rachel Squires]

Hi,

You might be interested in my site (or then again, maybe not). Rural World http://ruralworld.org is a place for rural and agricultural businesses to advertise to each other and more importantly, to the general public. The site is still fairly new and small but it's growing all the time and people are using it as a way to find suppliers so it seems to be working!

The site is a diversification project and you can read more about what we do on the site and in my blog but basically we're farmers who would dearly love to own our own land and the site is one more project to help us get there. We farm over 200 acres of rented land but ironically live in a tiny house with no back garden so we grow lots of grass but no vegetables! I'm hoping to lobby our local council for some allotments soon so maybe that will change.

Anyway, if you do have a look at my site, I hope you like it and find it useful!

Best wishes

Rachel.

[Martin]

a pay site..........in these days of Google........yeah right!
Spam!- nicely done, but still spam!

[Rachel Squires]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. Sorry, but I thought that this was the right section of the site for promoting websites. I didn't think that my posting was actually spam at all cos of where I posted it. Just goes to show, you just never can tell. As they say, one mans trash is another mans treasure.

For your information, although my site does currently cover a lot of businesses with websites at the moment whilst it gets off the ground, the original and the continuing ethos is that the site will be for farmers who aren't particularly web friendly and do not know how to advertise on the web. It doesn't matter how talented you are with google, if they don't advertise themselves, you will never find them. Yes, I charge but I do so for two very good reasons. 1) the eventual aim is that people who can't advertise on the internet themselves will be able to submit paper info that will be manually typed in. This is time consuming and costly for me. 2) I am prepared to do anything I can to keep my husband farming and need to raise cash so we can buy a few acres for him to run his farm contracting business from. All our land is rented in the short term, usually on a yearly basis so we have no long term security at all. We farmers make very little from what we do and we have to diversify in order to raise anything above and beyond a basic standard of living so I make no apology for charging £15 for a three month ad including an image, description and web link. My customers consider that to be pretty good value and so do I.

I appreciate that you have your own opinion that my posting is spam and I respect that but I'm afraid that I will continue to let people know about my site at any venue that I consider to be appropriate. By all means if the site administrators agree with you, I'm sure that they will remove my posting. That's their choice. But I'm not a big company, there's just me, doing what I can to promote our countryside and keep my husband and myself out of the benefits office so there you go.....


best wishes

Rachel.

ps, thanks for the tip, it would never have occured to me that the easiest way to get extra links onto any part of any blogging site would be to put it into my signature! However, having seen you advertise your own company in just this manner, I will live and learn....

[Martin]

now let's just see if I've got this straight.........you come wandering in here "off the street" as it were, and grab a couple of free adverts for your admittedly profitmaking business...............but if the owners of this site wanted an advert on yours, they would have to pay YOU £15 for the same privilege.......seems entirely fair to me!
But it's completely all right because you want to be a big farmer instead of a little one..........by the way, what did the web design company sting you for the site?

[Martin]

well this isn't a "blogging site" it's a web forum, and I had the good manners to ask the site owner before using my site link......wayyyy back in prehistory!
You really do seem to have missed the point - it is considered incredibly bad "netiquette" to just arrive on a website, and start "flogging your wares" before even saying hello properly.......
To do so gets you labelled as a "spammer" because your motives are pretty clear....

[Rachel Squires]

Try looking at my blog on the Rural World site. Not only did I promote the book and the forum, I also added a link myself. As for my ads, it's a free world and if my members want to join, that's up to them. I'm not twisting anyones arm and there is no obligation for anyone to continue advertisinif they don't want to. I know for a fact that they are doing business out of it and I send out a newsletter every month with their news and offers in it for free as well as highlighting different businesses as business of the month. Yes, I want to better myself. I gather you do not offer your own services for free? I do give free ads for some companies but I do not see why I should justify these to you.

I would love to be a big farmer. My husband and I work long hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We deserve to do well. We treat our animals well and operate a low intensivity policy. We look afer the land and try to preserve it for others to enjoy. If I were a big farmer, I could do this on a larger scale which to my mind can only be a good thing for the environment which is what this site is supposed to be about. If I won the lottery and could buy the land I need, I would run my site for free .

I do as much of the website as I can and I'm learning all the time. What I paid for my site is my business. I wasn't 'stung', I used a reputable and highly proficient company who were a pleasure to work with and who I would recommend to anyone. Why do you feel the need to be nasty about this? I'm new to both blogging and forums and no, I don't know your 'netiquette' (obviously this is also a crime). I read the rules before I said hello and saw what I thought was an open invitation to link in the links section so as far as I understood it, I had the site owners blessing.

Yes, I'm new. Obviously that's a crime. I joined the site after seeing a lovely piece in the countryfile magazine and wanted to say how good it was and that I intended to buy the book, which I have promptly done. I just wanted to join a friendly site that I felt that I could add to in some small way.

If you don't like my site, don't look at it. If you don't like my posting, complain about it and get me removed if the site owners agree with you. Please do remember however, that when new people attend any site, if what they are doing isn't violating anyone's space or isn't offensive in anyway, it really isn't very nice to pick fault with them for your own gratification. In my humble opinion, it's rude and you have made me feel very unwelcome. All I wanted to do was allow people to know that there was somewhere where they could go for British produce and services. I didn't want or expect negativity. If you choose to respond then do so but I really don't want to enter into any further debate on this. I really wish that I hadn't bothered now, what seemed like a bit of harmless fun and an interesting site to join has really left me somewhat sad and disillusioned.

[Shirley]

Let's keep it nice!! A spammer generally posts and leaves, so let's give Rachel the benefit of the doubt eh Martin

Andy or Dave will obviously have the final say as to what is spam or not.

[Millymollymandy]

well this isn't a "blogging site" it's a web forum, and I had the good manners to ask the site owner before using my site link......wayyyy back in prehistory!
You really do seem to have missed the point - it is considered incredibly bad "netiquette" to just arrive on a website, and start "flogging your wares" before even saying hello properly.......
To do so gets you labelled as a "spammer" because your motives are pretty clear....

Martin please do not start bashing into new members like this - it is you who is being incredibly rude! It is not for you to say who may or may not post and what they may or may not post! This is up to the Admin Team.

Everybody who joins the forum has the right to put their website link in their signature, and make ONE posting advertising it in the Links Section, so long as it has to do with the general theme of Self Sufficientish.

If it is d rugs or p orn, then you have the right to point out a spammer!

Welcome to the site, Rachel.

[Andy Hamilton]

Either here or the swap shop and trading area is the right place to sell your wares. Unless it is a multinational or a chemical industry then I don't think it really matters. One post in one area we have always allowed.

Not about to change the rules.

[Martin]

fair enough, if that's what Andy has chosen to do!
I moderate other boards with far stricter rules on spam, hence tend to leap in!

[Millymollymandy]

So you've banned yourself then Martin?