To Those Who Hate Or Do Not Understand: Some Thoughts On Why I Started Yakezie | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I can't say I know exactly how everything runs behind the scenes here, pretending I do would only confirm my ignorance. While there are people here that are criticizing the Yakezie, even they know more than I do about how the site works. I could care less about my Alexa rank, what I love and others have already said they love is the advice and support from people that know. I know that any technical question or otherwise I have I can ask here and have answered.

In sports there is always a coach or a captain, in arts there are directors, instructors or conductors, jobs have bosses and senior employees. But I think when people make the decision to start a blog they are often left a little bit alone. Yakezie gives innumerable people who have experience and expertise and gives them the medium to connect with those who will benefit from it the most.

I have nothing but good things to say. While the site may (again I don't know) have ulterior motives, it has provided something great, so who cares why.

Guys,

Why am I always the last one to the party??? I need to move faster. I read Nelson's post, the comments, the reactions, etc. 

Here's my whole thing in life: Every time you publicly bash someone, let alone an entire group of people, you lose. Period.

This goes way beyond someone talking crap on the Yakezie network. It's about how you approach things. Ever notice what happens when someone at work sends you a passive-aggressive email? I NEVER respond to those kind of things. And while I'll continue to treat that person exactly the same and I won't lose my cool with them, I've lost just a little bit of respect for them. They forgot the rules on how to play the game and I'll remember that because I'm always playing the game .

I see blog posts every day that I disagree with, some might even make me a little mad. But I don't go all kinds of ranty and angry. Every now and then I'll write a "respectfully disagree" type comment, but for the most part, I just don't react. I don't respond. 

You all did an amazing job of defending the Yakezie network and what it means, as well as Sam. Whether or not you agree with his writings, he filled a niche and provided a service to this market that's invaluable to the bloggers here and that's why we continue to come back. But you didn't have to defend it. As soon as someone starts spewing vitriol, they've already lost. Good luck Nelson. I could throw some dirty insults your way as degrading as the "circle jerk" reference. But I'm just too cool for that.

The way I look at it, yes Sam probably does get a lot of extra visits to his site as a result of having started Alexa.  If you think he or anybody here will deny that, you're probably barking up the wrong tree.

To that, I say, so what?

Sam has earned it.

As others have said, Modest Money, have you ever reached out to Sam? Have you ever communicated with him by e-mail?  Or are you just going by what Nelson and maybe a couple of other people who don't like Sam have said?  If that's the case, how can you possibly make judgment based on other peoples opinions and feel good about that, especially when Sam is right there to allow you to make your own opinion about him. 

It took me a while to reach out to him after the Yakezie was formed, and once I did I realized "This guy puts a tremendous amount of work and effort into this."

He put hundreds of hours into starting this site.  He puts his own money into it.  That's called taking a risk and if he gets some benefit from that, all the better.  Anybody that puts their time and their money into an endeavor deserves to reap the rewards.  It's called capitalism.  If you have a problem with that, there are still plenty of countries that practice sociialism.  Maybe one would be happy to have you, I don't know.

Personally, before Yakezie I tried joining forums that other sites had created and most sucked, and honestly if you think other bloggers who ran those other forums didn't do so as a way to drive bloggers to their own sites, you're kidding yourself.  The forums here are golden.  Anytime I have a question about blogging, someone has an answer or points me on where to look. I can just read through here and come up with 5 topics a day of potential articles.  I see some of the discussions here and learn about metrics that I had NO IDEA existed.  I was reading something about how broken links can really drag down your blog and some ways of how to spot them…turns out I had hundreds of them.

All pretty cool stuff that I would never have learned without Yakezie. 

Quite honestly, people that bash Yakezie don't get the biggest benefit.  It's not about Alexa. It's not about advertising bucks.  It's none of that.  It's about the interaction and promotion and networking. Before Yakezie, I followed most of the top 10-20 blogs in Wise Bread rankings religiously.  You know what they did to keep growing?  They promoted the hell out of each other.  Awesome for them, not so much for anybody ranked below them who was also putting out great content.  The Yakezie presented the opportunity for blogs of all size to build awareness, to present an opportunity for exposure and friendship and all that comes along with it.  The top twenty blogs, many of them still promote only each other, but now I don't give a damn because I have 100 or more other bloggers here that I can reach out to and can reach out to me. 

Groups form all the time to help people with similar goals get stronger.  CPAs get together for conferences to share information all the time.  Doctors, same thing.  IT professionals, librarians, retailer shop owners, you name it.  Why is it so out in left field to suggest that Yakezie, a way for personal finance and lifestyle bloggers, is somehow a cult or whatever, when the same thing happens every single day across industries all over the globe? 

So we talk about Alexa a lot?  Big deal.  At every type of conference or whatever that I just described, you'll find topics about how to improve their brand or bring awareness to the public about what they do or whatever.  It's part of what groups do every single day.  It's ONE things we talk about here, and if you focus only on that, well you're missing out on an awful lot, and that's your loss.

Sam – I think one of the most valuable parts of your post was : "Just know that there will always people who dislike you, no matter what you do.  You just have to accept this fact and push on.  Know that if you follow your own principles, everything will be alright."

I am not exactly thick skinned and have wondered how that is going to hurt me as I put myself out there and try to grow my site and its readership. But this is one of many reminders that everyone gets bashed at one point or another – the more successful and high profile you become the more people will be aware of you and some of them will lash out with harsh comments. The advice to let them go and move on is priceless.

Been slammed at work so I'm late to the discussion. I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said.

The main reason I love Yakezie is that you will NEVER hear some of the disrespectful talk that was in Nelson's post (circle jerking, hahaha so funny and original, like a Two and Half Men joke!)

As to Sam's quote about being hated, I would prefer to be loved by half and hated by the other half. It's better than being ignored by all.

I like the Alexa Challenge because it is simply a goal to shoot for. It's not the end-all be-all, but it is something that if you can't achieve in 6 months, you demonstrate that you can't keep pace with the herd. It's as simple as that. I've had to work my ASS off to get my Alexa where it is; basically it's a motivator. Yakezie is a motivator. Without industry friends, blogging is lonely.

I visit Financial Samurai because Sam creates original discussions and doesn't engage in regurgitation – not because he invented Yakezie.  

He's not afraid to say things that many will disagree with, and I suspect he doesn't hold it against you if you don't agree with him. With all the boring PF blogs out there, we should be thankful that our "Dear Leader" runs an interesting and sometimes controversial site, and pushes us to be a community of respect and help.

So long as we can keep things civil, and disagree without being disagreeable, then Yakezie wins.

I don't know about you guys, but it feels good to be hated. It means you are doing something right.

Modest Money said:

 When advertisers cannot see your actual traffic levels, of course they are going to take the alexa into account.

You're an internet marketer? 

Again:  Troll.

More assumptions from the peanut gallery.  Thanks JT!  I didn't say I didn't join the challenge simply because Sam ignored my e-mail.  I didn't join it because it's a bs setup, designed specifically to make him money.  I can connect with bloggers on my own without needing to pad his ad earnings.  When I saw him doing comment spam on blogs, I knew it wasn't for me.  I'm not going to overlook my ethics to follow a spammer who hides behind a 'selfless helping people' motto which is far from the truth.  Hats off to him for setting up his blogging pyramid scheme, but I just don't have interest becoming one of the herd.  If it makes me a troll for expressing my opinion instead of sucking up, so be it.  This whole thread just reinforces my decision to not join the challenge.

I never said I wasn't interested in connecting with other bloggers or helping people out.  I'm just not interested in the challenge side of things.  If that makes me an enemy of some people on this forum, oh well.  Those are probably I wouldn't have wanted to connect with anyway.  There are some people who justify their opinions rationally and then there others who are personally attacking me.  It's actually an interesting way to see people's true character.

@Tushar thank you for sending that interview link.  I did take the time to listen to it, but it just seemed like a big sales pitch for yakezie where he was putting on a false front.  He goes out of his way to deflect attention away from how he's profiting off the members.  There were a few times I almost had to turn it off after hearing some of his bs.

Anyways, there is no need for any of us to be wasting time in this debate.  People are entitled to their own opinions.  Hate me or Nelson if you want, but at least we are honest and not putting up a false front.