Few days ago, a blog post was brought to my attention and, two hours later (21 Reasons you must become an expert), Squidoo HQ came up with a blog post probably inspired by the post I read earlier.
It relates to expertise. It's the kind of article that makes an interesting read however, I'm not obliged to agree with it. All in all the article explains that we should to claim ourselves "experts" in the field our blogs or sites or general writings relate to.
First, I don't want to pretend that I'm an expert: I'm too humble for that. I hate self-licking lollipops and self-satisfaction. It is not my style.
Although I'm versed in French history I will never claim being an expert in this field. First because there are many more people with a wider knowledge than me, then because such experts (historians) never agree with each others which makes me wonder how they can claim themselves being experts. Ok, they're actually experts and each have their own way to see the history. And all other experts do that way too, period.
I've dealt with home insurance experts: when one saw my fault (my own personal home insurance expert!!!) another didn't. The same goes for science: while some can create medications that will kill you, others will create the exact same type of medication that's going to cure your disease. It all depends on what these experts added to the formula.
I see the World Wide Web with the same eye than I see the real world except that I'll never allow the Web to rule my life. Virtual world should remain as it is: something that's useful, that helps me and that entertains me. A place where I can find the things I search for, the things I want to buy and I don't need a long story nor do I want to enter the privacy of anyone before clicking that "buy me" button.
The extra of my Internet endeavours being those small earnings that we, Web writers can make out of work. After all, we, online writers, are here to make money through different means: platforms such as Squidoo, Wizzley, Zujava and the like, Google Adsense, affiliate commissions on our own writing sites ; e-commerce sites selling physical products, and so on.
I myself write to entertain and make money at the same time, I don't consider myself as an expert in anything. If you don't like me, go elsewhere. If you like what I write and consider that my opinion is valuable, then maybe I'll make a commission out of something I saw as worthwile talking about it.
I write for a specific audience, an audience that's like me: when I look for shower curtains, I don't want the advice of any expert. I just want someone to show me the most beautiful shower curtains out there. And if this person's tastes don't meet mine, I just close the door and go elsewhere. I really don't need an expert - an expert will make shopping for shower curtains boring. A useless personal story on shower curtains will make me fall asleep.
After reading the above mentioned article, I'm questioning the way things are run these days. It is a worldwide problem to say the truth.
Who are search engines to determine what I must provide my readers?
Are they Gods? No.
Are they my bosses? No.
Are they my parents? No.
Are they my bosses? No.
Are they my parents? No.
Have they taken the Web over? Is the Web their property? Not sure... Until now, the WWWeb is free to use for all of us. If they keep on ruling the Web the way they do, we won't have to wait for long before they decide which company is allowed to provide all of us a connection !
Luckily, it took me almost a week before making this post. As a matter of fact, this morning an interview with Matt Cutts was brought to my attention. Before reading this, I thought it was search engines that would force Squidoo to drastically change their TOS. However, it is not the case, it is Squidoo's HQ misunderstanding and fear that pushed them taking such decisions. Decisions that hurt, harm, their site and all the lensmasters. Decisions that will prevent lensmasters from earning a correct reward from their hard work, while HQ will keep on getting the bulk of our earnings. Cut into thousands of lensmasters, it won't make a lot of money to make out of the work we put into lensmaking.
Posted by Squidoo Angel Prosperity66
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