I’m Done Reading “I Made X Dollars Writing About Y” Articles

If people want to exploit SEO algorithms for cash, that’s cool. Just don’t expect me to play along.

photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash

Before the internet, when there were print and classified ads, legend says that there were enticing ads that simply read, “Send me a dollar and I’ll tell you how to make $100.” And when you sent in your dollar, the reply you got — the secret to making money — was to do what the person who placed the ad did.

“Put an ad in the classifieds that reads, ‘Send me a dollar and I’ll tell you how to make $100.’”

Cute, right? Very neat, very circular.

Now, let’s come back to the present. If that classified-ad trick sounds familiar to you, it’s because a lot — and I mean A LOT — of internet business articles (looking at you especially, LinkedIn) remind me of that.

I guarantee you’ve seen them. Like me, you probably clicked a few. These blog posts hint that you too can make money writing for the internet — if you just write articles about writing on the internet.

I don’t have a problem with people wringing every last penny out of SEO trickery. If a website is going to be lazy and pay people to write (or have AI software compose) marketing articles that tell you…