One thing I think every blog reader likes is comfort. They want to open up their RSS reader and feel at ease with their normal daily reads. What happens when a blog they love is sold?
One of my daily reads for the past 9 months has been the Blogging Experiment. The website was started with the simple premise that a newbie will turn his blog into a professional blog within 12 months. In the process author Ben Cook detailed his journey showcasing his triumphs and pitfalls. I enjoyed going to my RSS reader to find out how he succeeded one month, failed the next, and gave us all well thought out pieces of writing. He would detail all his earnings on his quest to turning his blog into a full time income generator. It gave me a feeling I could use the web to profit as well. It was hardly a novel concept but it worked very well for Ben.
It worked too well in my opinion.
Ben was able to sell his website to a new author who has taken the reigns over at the Blogging Experiment. In the process, they have lost a dedicated reader. I am sure I am not the only one. Their stats remain high, and I am sure the new author is getting his money’s worth (although he did recently remove his RSS stats from displaying. At first I thought maybe the subscribers were dropping them, but it is possible he wanted the real estate for the ad he has in its place now)
The new author is Max Davis. He is now offering a class on how he sold 3 websites for $725,000. That is a bold claim. I have no idea where one would back up that claim, nor does he have to prove anything to me. I wasn’t interested in his class because I had never heard of him before. He did come out right off the bat and say he hasn’t been in the blogosphere so that would explain that part. He seems knowledgeable. His posts border on tedious with the amount of detail in them. I have no doubt he will help someone make money online. That someone just won’t be me. The main reason isn’t because I couldn’t learn to trust Max of feel he is leading me down the wrong path. I just like Ben’s writing much better. Ben was engaging and entertaining.
I will give you two examples of what I am talking about.
http://bloggingexperiment.com/archives/new-experiment-business-makes-nice-money.php
Max right off the bat comes out with a claim that this product (which he is an affiliate to) made him $222 an hour. It is a very boastful claim to make. He then spends a lot of time explaining how it worked. The product did work in his case study, so he proved himself credible. Many people claimed fraud, but I think they just didn’t want to take his post for what it was. More importantly for me, the post was a difficult read in my opinion. He responds to all comments, which is always the sign of a good author, but his claims are just words. There were no screen shots. Usually, on a money making post like this, the author would show some statistical screen shots to back up the claim. Max offered none.
I have used one of Max’s techniques and it works well. (an Adsense technique so simple and clever, it made me kick myself that I didn’t think of it) So he does know what he is talking about, I just don’t like the content of the blog or the writing nearly as much as Ben’s.
Fortunately for me, Ben is still contributing thoughtful articles to the blog, such as this one about style of blogging.
Max made a pledge at the beginning. It was going to be different but he hoped people gave him a chance. I did for a month like he asked, and I am moving on from being a dedicated reader to his site. I am going to keep the link up, however, as I feel people will get good advice on how to make money online from his website.
It just goes to show how quickly you can become attached to a blog author and their style, and how fast you could lose interest in someone, even if the intent of the blog is the same.
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