(This is a guest author article.)

There an increasingly disturbing trend I notice among a certain section of the blogging population of the internet and that is the excessive concern over google pageranks, technorati ratings, Alexa stats and so on. There are two reasons why I feel worried about this trend.

Firstly why is every second or third blog I see about "online marketing", "internet marketing", "monetization" or "SEO tips"? I blame this on the media. A bunch of newbies suddenly discovered a tool called blogging on the internet which they found that they could get into without much effort. They slap on a bunch of advertising links, sponsorships, paid content and so on and feel that they have a safe revenue stream. Most of these newbies have some things in common:

  • Excessive confidence about their own skills which is not justified by their level of expertise.
  • Been blogging only for around a month or two but suddenly think they can expertly advise everybody about blogging.
  • Have an amateurish outlook but like to call themselves "pro bloggers".
  • Have nothing unique or different to say about anything.
  • Have minimal technical knowledge but are quick to catch on to the latest technology fads without fully understanding it.
  • Participate in shady linking schemes and "memes" in order to boost their popularity (as seen by the large number of Javascript "widgets" loaded up on their pages.
  • Usually have a condescending attitude to other bloggers and won't link out to anybody without clearly seeing any (monetary) benefits.
  • Main priority: think about making money. Secondary priority: marketing their blogs in order to make money.

If you feel you fall into the above category, ask yourself why you feel targetted instead of asking me whether I pointed you out.

I partly blame this crowd for the increasing concern about pageranks, SEO, technorati and so on. After all, these tools are important in some ways, but their importance has been exaggerated beyond all limits. The bottom line about blogging is about people and that's where the focus should be. If they'd been spending half the time that they were optimizing their content for search engines or looking for other ways to improve their "revenue stream", in reaching out to other bloggers socially (by linking out or commenting on their blogs) or generally being nice to their friends, they could have achieved so much. Instead of which, these people keep up an arrogant face and shun the "unimportant" people as a whole while continuing to blindly follow the SEO trends and fads. Their main aim has been to be kind to mere web robots (scripts) rather than interacting with the primary audience: people. Reciprocity is a great thing! But once you get it into your head that you're an important guy or girl, then you've automatically isolated yourself from your audience. Even if you are in it for the money, you need to think of a business model that doesn't primarily rely on web search engines crawling your site.

I don't have much respect for online celebrities or popular bloggers. It's not a case of sour grapes. I simply cannot find anything to emulate in these people except the fact that they're famous for being famous within a certain limited circle. They want you to follow their trends but they are primarily concerned about marketing and making money and making money by telling others how to make money. Yes, there are some bloggers who are popular for reasons other than blogging, but I'm talking about this "frog in the well" crowd who cannot think much beyond "monetization". Making money isn't bad or wrong. But being obsessed about it will just ruin your sleep.

All I hope is that people (especially new bloggers) soon realize that the true value of blogging and social networking goes beyond numbers and software. It's about quality of interaction with real people and genuine friends and that's what makes the internet a truly social place… not google or technorati (or any other search engine/social networking site).

Sorry if I offended anybody with this piece. I couldn't think of a less harsh way to make my point though.