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With all the problogger sites making obscene amounts of money, it is only natural that other bloggers aspire to follow in their footsteps. Often these bloggers have achieved (at least in their own minds) Guru status. They are the leaders and everyone else, the followers … the wannabees. In a way, I’m a wannabee also. I wannabee rich. By the same token, I’d rather etch out my own path to fame and fortune than go the same route as many of the so called A-listers. I visit them often to see what they are up to and more often that not, they fail to capture my attention. Obviously, they are good at profiteering, but not very good at being interesting. As an example, I’ll use one of the most successful blogs on the Internet … John Chow’s blog. I don’t personally have any gripes against this guy, but to me, this blog is just plain boring. If I have to see one more post about what he eats, I will throw up. Latest topics and headlines from John’s blog:

1. I am featured in the February issue of Entrepreneur magazine. You should be able to find it at your local newsstands now. My article is on page 52. Here is an actual quote from that article: “His blog remains a somewhat banal combination of his money count and what he had for lunch–the blogging equivalent of Seinfeld, the show “about nothing.”

2. The second post is a guest post with some advice on writing:

#1 - Don’t Ever Talk About Being Dugg/Reddited/Stumbled
I don’t know … take a look at the discussions about what social media can do for traffic and you’ll see that maybe this is a good topic if presented correctly.

#2 - Don’t Disclose Failure Unless It’s To Make a Point
Sorry, I disagree. How do we learn if not from our mistakes? Why not share this info so that others can benefit?

#3 - Shout About Your Successes
Used incorrectly, this often just smacks of arrogance and is a real turn-off (see previous post on this)

4 - Write with Authority
Only write with authority if you are an authority. To do so without qualification will just bite you in the ass

#5 - You Don’t Need To Tell The Truth All The Time
Why?

3. The third post down is: First Production Corvette ZR1 Sells for $1 Million
All I have to say is wtf? I came here for the secret. Give me the damned secret.

5. Dine Out Vancouver 2008 - Raincity Grill
Oh my God Noooo … not another meal

The reason they have such a strong following is because they’ve achieved the level of financial success that many bloggers hope to achieve and people keep reading hoping to glean just one golden secret that will launch their site into A-list heaven. Usually, that secret never comes but people have got to believe in a dream so they keep going back to find it.

I ran across this post today by a blogger that just oozes interesting and it is so true … the one thing that many people fail to realize, is that you can’t teach interesting, and unless you’re interesting, your blog probably isn’t going to reach the level of fame and marketability that the A-listers have.

Remember, they must have been interesting in the beginning before they were famous or they wouldn’t have achieved the levels of subscriptions and traffic that they have. Unfortunately IMHO, once they’ve achieved that level of success, they fall into the trap of becoming a selling machine and little else. People want their ad spots and paid reviews because of all the traffic it will bring and people buy their affiliate products because it’s endorsed by someone who makes a ton of money so it must be great …. right? John Chow’s meal reports have no purpose whatsoever except that by writing them, according to John … “Eating out at a new restaurant means a new fine dining post. Not only do I get a nice dinner, I also get new content and the dinner becomes deductible for income tax purposes. ”

His content is now written for the sole purpose of making money rather than capturing the interest of his readers and perhaps igniting a lively debate. Not only is it not interesting, but it lacks personality. Who is John Chow? Can you tell from his writing? What does he care about except money? Anything? Well, ok … food maybe.  (Disclaimer:  There are still a few A-listers around who ‘get it’ … ProBlogger is an outstanding blog and although he has succumbed somewhat to the A-lister syndrome, Shoemoney still writes good content).

Here’s another great post called I Know What Is King by the same author as the one previously quoted. It is an eye opener for me and might be for you as well. Certainly content is critical, but personality, according to this blogger, is King. It all makes such perfect sense … I mean think of all the reasons why you like someone or don’t like someone and it mostly boils down to personality (unless they give you lots of money and buy you cool presents). The blogger that can break out of the purely marketing mode and interject a magnetic personality will be the ones drawing the traffic to their sites and will most likely become the next generation of A-listers. Just something to think about when writing your next post.

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