The community of genealogists and family researchers is a friendly, helpful group of people.\u00a0 For the most part.\u00a0 Lately I’ve recognized some undertones of the business world that deserve a cautionary warning.<\/p>\n
Remember that genealogy podcasters, bloggers and newletter authors want to earn some extra money, and sometimes it’s their living too.\u00a0 However many times that means their opinions and reporting are biased in favor of their sponsors, or their professional relationships with others in the genealogy community.<\/p>\n
I bought genealogy software based on the seemingly sincere recommendation of podcasters, only to find the software was barely out of its beta testing phase.\u00a0 It certainly wasn’t the glowingly wonderful product the podcasters mentioned.\u00a0 Their sponsor?\u00a0 The software vendor in question, of course.<\/p>\n
Some bloggers delete comments about their postings if there’s even a hint of criticism about a product or service they mention, when that company is a sponsor or provides them with free evaluation copies.\u00a0 That is certainly their right.\u00a0 It’s their blog and their opinion and they can censor comments as they wish.\u00a0 However as a consumer, you should be aware that you may not be getting the whole story.\u00a0 There’s no rule that all sides of an argument should be presented so you can make an informed decision.<\/p>\n
As a shareware author myself, I know there are other useful genealogy products and services you will not hear about because they don’t pay the podcaster, blogger or newsletter author to mention them.\u00a0\u00a0 By the same token, there are things you will not hear about popular genealogy products and services because it would jeopardize the commentator’s revenue stream.<\/p>\n
Be wary.\u00a0 A glowing review from a popular podcaster or blogger may entice you buy a product.\u00a0 Did you believe a trusted personality in the genealogy world, or were you manipulated?\u00a0 Even an innocuous\u00a0 mention of new online records may get you to sign up for a subscription somewhere else. \u00a0 Genealogy is unfortunately a business like most others.\u00a0 Profit motive can skew perceptions.\u00a0 Don’t think that because genealogy enthusiasts are friendly and helpful, that you are always getting the truth and nothing but the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The community of genealogists and family researchers is a friendly, helpful group of people.\u00a0 For the most part.\u00a0 Lately I’ve recognized some undertones of the business world that deserve a cautionary warning. Remember that genealogy podcasters, bloggers and newletter authors want to earn some extra money, and sometimes it’s their living too.\u00a0 However many times … Continue reading “Business as Usual”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[72,73,71],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcasts-and-blogs","tag-blogs","tag-newsletters","tag-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}