Are you a Sellout? You may think you are but…
Disclaimer: This ended up from a quick post to a long rant. Strap in for this one. It’s angry and hateful 
When it comes to blogging, many people have a pressing thought on their mind. Recently Andy of the A2 Blog asked the question, “Are you a sellout?” to which he admitted being one. If you think about, Andy isn’t a sellout, even though he thinks he is. He’s a little eager, monetizing his blog without a solid base (although I’ve noticed quite the growth there), but he is definitely not selling out with his blog.
Why? Because he had his goals from the start. He said himself, “I started my online company with one thought in mind — money“. How can you sell yourself out, when you didn’t have anything to… give up, or sacrifice. Anything to give in to the man. If he says his first and standing goal was to make money online, then he is just following his dreams, if you will. Not selling out.
I’ll tell you what would be selling out. A site like this, where I write personally, has shreds of my portfolio (which will resurface soon) and is basically all me, starting running AdSense, having sponsored posts, and huge image ads. Why? Because I hold my site’s, and my own integrity very close, and would rather see growth and participation rather than money in the bank (from ads).
Andy, he would obviously rather see money in the bank. So when he says, “I am a sell out“, what he really is, is just determined. He wants to make money online, and he will. He’s not selling out.
I’ve mentioned it a bunch of times previously here, but to reinforce it, I will never monetize this site. Why? The aforementioned reasons of integrity and all that good stuff. For a personal blog, try thinking of it as the physical manifesto that is you. Would you wear a t-shirt given to you by some company (which you don’t support nor use) if they paid you? Many people would say yes, and that is personally selling out. You’re basically selling your self out for a quick buck.
When you monetize a blog, site or anything, think about this: are you trying to make a quick buck off your readers, or do you want them to come back. Maybe even read what you’re saying.
Let’s backtrack for a bit, back to when Andy posted about “Self proclaimed experts“. He calls out Phil Bader for claiming SEO knowledge and really not being able to back it up, or have others agree with him. Andy talks about how he doesn’t want to pick on Phil, but because I don’t know Phil, and because this is a growing rant, I don’t really care.
You say a sitemap helps a site? Well, obviously. It’s like saying breathing will help you live. Pardon the crappy analogy, I’m running dry, but no where near done. Reading his blog over a little, he says he doesn’t design or code, but unfortunately he doesn’t write very well either so it’s an interpretive job reading it.
How can you say in one post that you’re (exact quote here), “very good with SEO (Search Engine Optimization)” and then the next post talk about your “PR update”. His blog went to PR1. Do you know how hard it is to get PR1. No matter how hard you try, you will likely get more than that. In fact, following his own advice, you should be able to use your Sitemap to do the “intralinking PR4 spectacle” where even after a month like his own site, you can get PR4.
Personally, I can’t say I’m very good at SEO, good, or even OK at it. I can help people with it, because I am actively involved in it, but that said, what do I have to show for it? This site went to PR5 in three months, Tutorials-Live (since sold off, redirects here) went to PR4 with many PR3 subpages in a month and a half, and I rank #1 for my name. That’s all I could ask for right now, and the extra SE traffic I get (5-10 a day) is a bonus.
Better yet, he actually tries to defend him self in the comments of Andy’s blog. I was actually starting to fell bad about all this, but after reading his comment, he totally solidifies mine and Andy’s point, and his own personality.
Have I ever said “I’m a SEO expert” ? I said ” I’m good at SEO”. Being good at SEO does not mean being an expert ,
“Upon looking at his blog even further, it is hard to find any examples of websites that he owns, and he never explains to you what keywords he ranks for or anything.”
Well , upon looking at YOUR blog even further , it is HARD to find VALUABLE posts , you just post crap about Donald Trump, How to get rich and your uncle stuff … or attacking YOUR OLD FRIENDS THAT YOU SCREWED THEM.
All right , you wanna know which sites I own ? lol , I think you are blind , you are just attacking people , If you have looked at the bottom of My blog there is a BIG PHRASE ” MY SITES”
Real Madrid C.F : www.realmadrid-club.net
Ragabbader’s Sat Forum : www.ragabbader.org/forum/index.php
“We don’t actually know if he is an expert or not, and even if he was, it would take a lot for me to believe him since he said that he was good at SEO already.”
Once again I’m not an EXPERT , I’m good at SEO and my sites prove that ! (www.ragabbader.org/forum/index.php) (www.realmadrid-club.net).
One more thing , the reason I don’t write much , is that I’m always busy and don’t have time for blogging , I just work on my websites and not giving any time to my blog.
Andy , you’ve just stepped on the red line , If you were right and I had called myself a SEO expert, I wouldn’t be annoyed.
The red line? We’ll get to that in a second, but first I have to go at this one: “Once again I’m not an EXPERT , I’m good at SEO and my sites prove that !”. Unfortunately, they don’t. Nowhere near. Sign of a good SEO’er? Backlinks. Backlinks pretty much equal rank and PR (in a nutshell). A couple of PR2 sites and a PR1 mean you haven’t the slightest clue.
To give you an example of how easy getting a PR4 and below is (PR4 can be tricky sometimes, depends on other factors, like content, etc…), I, and any other person with an internet connection could buy a domain today and by the next PR update it would be at least PR3. I don’t want to sound arrogant or anything, but if you build something around it and make sure your pages are linked well, you’ll do fine!
This is getting increasingly long, so I’ll get on only a few more things and conclude this 
One commenter to Andy’s post on the experts, Barman, who coincidentally doesn’t leave a link, proclaims:
I don’t understand how you can call someone out on ‘being an expert’ when you don’t know what you’re doing either.
I’ve never seen a blog sell out so fast without actually having any substantial content or user-base. How do you expect to grow when you have contextual ads, text-link ads, sponsors and all this other bullshit everywhere you look?
First of all, let’s look at Andy’s “not knowing what he’s doing”. This post, regarding his stats is pretty interesting. He’s got more posts, comments, better Alexa, Technorati, etc… Than I do, and I’m the one writing all this! Hah, there’s irony. So, it’s safe to say Andy knows what he’s doing. Numbers prove it!
And then this gets back to the sellout thing. Read from the top, and Barman, who we can only assume is some alcoholic drunk-commenting (barman, get it? No?) because he didn’t leave a link. I bet he likes Comic Sans. And I’ll leave it at that.
Oh, and another thing, Phil, never link your own sites with “my other site”, and “click here”. You should know that, right?
Well, that was longer than expected, so let me wrap it up. I somehow expect a response from Phil Bader, but he really deserves this. Sometimes people just need a long calling out on a couple of blogs. And the “red line” he said Andy crossed… I wonder what I did to it >.<
Also, this post was wrapped up around 
</rant>
About 1500 words/6500 characters. Not bad
Leave a comment
Adnan
May 18th, 2007 at 12:12 PM
Wow, that really was a massive rant - nice
In terms of being a sellout, I suppose you could say that I have a quite a lot of potential advertising on my site. However, and as I’ve said to you, I’ve only added monetization if I think it will keep reader interaction and ease of reading the same.
The ads below the logo are easy on the eye and once filled up will have relevant links to website/entrepreneur related sites. My TextLinkAds are numerous but also aren’t that imposing, and there is another Sponsor section further down the page which definitely doesn’t get in the way.
I try and make decisions based on the longrun - “will reviewing this site lead to my decrease in respect as a blogger?” By asking myself a similar question each time I want to make a quick buck, I make sure that I don’t become a site which is inundated with ads.
Great post and something which I think needs addressing in the blogosphere where 99% are looking to make a quick buck - hence the reason why so many blogs fail after their first few months when they realise that blogging is long term.
Andy Rouhafzai
May 18th, 2007 at 3:33 PM
Great post
You bring an interesting point which I hadn’t thought about. Since my sole purpose of making any website at all was to make money, I can’t actually be a sellout. Now that I think about it, I agree with you. A sellout would be more like someone who has a personal page and monetizes the crap out of it or something.
And yeah, I have no idea why Phil got so pissed, if the tables had been turned, my comment would have been something like “Thanks for the free backlink”. You can get PR1 from exactly 1 backlink. IMO, PR6+ sites are the only ones that get my respect, since the first two websites I even owned hit PR5’s on their first update.
Oh, I regarding blogs, yours is 4 billion times better. My feedburner stats suck, I can’t get my custom theme online, and you have all the plugins working that I couldn’t get to work
Anyways, thanks for the links and great post!
Barman
May 18th, 2007 at 3:44 PM
Comic sans is the shit my friend. And you can’t go wrong with the wingdings or whatever.
The only reason i made that comment on Andy’s blog is because that site was littered with advertisements at the time (to the point of annoying me enough i was going to remove it from my reader) That’s fine and all but I thought he was selling out way too prematurely. There is nothing wrong with making a site with the intention of making some loot. I just figured he shouldn’t be ripping on someone (a “friend”) without criticizing himself first.
Connor Wilson
May 18th, 2007 at 6:21 PM
First off, Comic Sans is a scar on the face of all things in general.
And how would the advertisements affect your RSS reader? RSS ensures a pretty ad free experience.
Connor Wilson
May 19th, 2007 at 8:50 AM
Andy, I just pulled the comment of Akismet. I have no idea why it was caught, because it’s not like there’s links or Viagra or anything
But when I initially read your post, it brought me to think of various bands (when I see sellout, my mind goes to music) and how they’ve ’sold out’ in the past. Some bands were just growing and going different places, and it was seen as a bad thing, whereas your actual goal to make money keeps you… legit, I guess.
But, PPP, and other companies that tell you what your opinion is for the piece that you’re to write, that is selling out.
Goob
May 19th, 2007 at 5:32 PM
I wholly agree that PPP is the worst of worst when it comes to selling out. I cringe every time I go to a “personal blog” that is telling me I need to go out and try a new product or service. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even trust word of mouth referrals anymore thanks to services like PPP because I just can’t tell whether the author actually recommends the item or if he’s simply being paid to recommend it.
It also appears that Phil Bader’s site has vanished. Too bad, because I wanted to read what you were commenting on.
Also, if a site can’t get up to a PR4, they’re doing something wrong. PR4 is like the new PR0, yet making the jump from that to PR5 is hard as heck experience. Kudos to however you did it
Connor Wilson
May 19th, 2007 at 7:13 PM
That’s a good one, PR4 being the new PR0. It’s totally true.
For me PR5 was luck. But I earned it over time, after getting it. It’s like someone giving you a gift that’s really nice, and then you pay them back over time until you own it
MB Web Design
October 5th, 2007 at 8:03 AM
And seeing as Google might have abandoned PR updates, you may be a PR5 for life
Tanvir Ahmad
December 8th, 2007 at 5:53 PM
“Have I ever said “I’m a SEO expert” ? I said ” I’m good at SEO”. Being good at SEO does not mean being an expert , AND I’M NOT LIKE YOU , Just showing off !!” — Like this style. I don’t think no one in this world can be a SEO expert. Someone can be better than a few out there.
Login »