Edit - I deleted my original rant, but in short, I was annoyed that it's practically impossible to find high quality link partners. Most of the blogs I encounter nowadays are full of gibberish spun articles and covered in ads. It makes me reluctant to link to them as it reflects on the quality of my website, which I take pride in.
Well said - most blogs are pants. It would have been encouraging if somewhere in your rant you stated that by following your quality content ethos it actually became profitable - it isn't too late!
Haha, quality content really does pay off. Countless blogs use regurgitated articles and content, and they never receive any quality traffic or return visitors. One of my blogs is updated about once a month (because of time constraints), but the content is totally unique. Its more of a hobby blog than anything. All the photos are taken by me, and all the articles are written from scratch. It does incredibly well in SERPS, and makes me a nice bit of pocket money as a bonus. Most importantly, I enjoy updating it! Its a win/win situation!
That's true. Some lazy bloggers dont even bother to write a single word, they use autoblogs and repost content from article directories.
I blame search engines for putting so much emphasis on backlinks. If backlinks meant nothing in ranking sites, all of these worthless blogs and sites wouldn't even exist anymore.
Got same sentiments here I'm in no way a supporter of auto-blogging, article spinning, and the so-called linking. These people are trashing the internet! Who wouldn't want to get rich fast? Of course, I do. But in this way? Creating trashy sites after sites and leave them there to add more to the growing number of trash sites that contribute nothing to people? I'm not trying to be a preacher here nor am I a goody two-shoes. It's just that I find it annoying to land to a site that I don't need, and much worse with contents that are totally incomprehensible. There are many students around the globe who are in need of valid and educational contents; these internet marketers make it hard for them to do their research. Sometimes, they even get the wrong information! Oh well. All in the name of money.
The trouble is (in my opinion) a lot of Blog owners use non native speaking writers to produce articles for them at dirt cheap prices. On these forums you get people offering to write 500 word articles for $1. Most of which are frankly rubbish. Yet they get snapped up left right and center. Even good writers (who are just starting out) are forced to mass produce work at reduced rates, leading to a lower quality than could have otherwise been had, all for the sake of simply saving very few dollars.