Kumiko's Cash Quest

How absolutely, positively, hitting the nail on the head in a most remarkable way true! It really p*sses me off sometimes that the blogosphere is becoming all too politically correct and that bloggers are becoming rather restricted and reserved in what they say.

If I read "I'm kind of sitting on the fence on this one" one more time, I'll scream!!

Web 2.0 seems to be a lot more reserved and cautious than it's predecessor and I believe this is devastating the blogging community. What happened to the good ol' days of blogging your honest, unedited opinions and being safe in the knowledge that nobody was going to come knocking on your door armed with a baseball bat to disagree with you?
Why is it happening?

Sadly, I think a lot of it comes down to money! Advertisers will not be attracted to a site that has a lot of negativity and rants and given the extent that advertising has seeped into the blogosphere, it seems to have influenced a lot of writings on a lot of blogs. I feel a lot of bloggers have become more concerned with blog monetization than blog quality.

It's not just the blogs with big sponsors either as even through basic Adsense advertising, the name of the game has become to increase traffic by putting on a happy face to promote your blog and have it seen in as many places as possible. This gives rise to the quick and easy "I agree" or "Nice blog" comments that are seen all too often. What is the point of these comments? Pure...self...promotion! Can you imagine having a conversation with someone about your opinion on a topic and all they reply with is "I agree"! You'd tell them to go get an opinion!

But then there's social networking and building a "community" around your blog. I think these are great concepts but having negative content on your blog would make it incredibly hard to achieve these concepts. Who would join a community where there is a chance the owner may abuse them in a post? But do you really want a community of sheep-like followers? How far will you sell out to make money online?

While most of the posts on this site are of a "positive" nature (that's just the way I am!), the few "negative" posts that I've made have resulted in me receiving messages saying "this will hurt your blog" or it will "give your blog a bad reputation".

I'd rather have a reputation for being honest and not afraid to put opinions and feelings out there than a reputation as being a "safe, advertiser-friendly" blog.

But hang on, this site's about making money online isn't it? Yep. Today's lesson is to keep your posts professional, neutral and un-opinionated. I've written this post as an example of the sort of things that you shouldn't be writing (ahem...yes..sure....that's it...) about. Go ahead...sell out...the advertisers with be lining up to get on your blog.

Who dares comment?