Now that this blog is averaging about three visits per day and has seven RSS subscribers (it may be less actually, I’m afraid to look), I figured it was time to start alienating people. To add insult to injury, some might view this as self-referential and non-hilarious irony… Translation: hypocritical.

I’m not doing going to delve into the history of the term or provide dictionary definitions or quote wikipedia in an attempt to prove the headline scientifically. Off the top of my head: Ponzi schemes are those in which the people initiating them collect money from their earliest followers, then some money flows back to these people as more investors are convinced. More money then flows to the early adopters. People begin to see that they are making money and the whole thing builds momentum until things snowball and the prophecies are self-fulfilled. Adjusting for talent, industriousness, and luck, the farther down the food chain, the lower the return on your investment. As time progresses, these people start to reach the, “hey, what happened to my investment” moment. This isn’t necessarily the end, but cracks start appearing in the framework and eventually spread.

Look at blogging through that lens for a second. The most famous and successful bloggers have a network of followers out there referring people back to them. Information gets passed down the line. Everyone on the chain is blogging about how to make money blogging… and surprise, the path to making money blogging starts to sound eerily circular:

1. Integrate yourself into the blogging community by paying tribute to those from who you’ve learned by providing psychologically powerful “social proof” by way of referrals and comments on their blogs thus providing them with more content and making them look smarter and respected.
2. Create marketable content about helping others make money though blogging including the steps of building social proof aspect of Step 1.
3. Profit on the information by selling books, e-books, and advertising about how to do the things in Step 2.
4. Get those you’ve taught to now perform Step 1 for you.
5. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

Anytime you can fill in the following blanks with the same word three times, there’s potential for this type of self-perpetuating self-promotion: ______ers _______ing how to _______.

Marketers marketing how to market. Teachers teaching how to teach. Advertisers advertising how to advertise. Coaches coaching how to coach. Consultants consulting on how to consult. Bloggers blogging about how to blog. Social Media-ers Social Media-ing how to Social Media?

You’re right, MLM… multi-level marketing might be a more accurate term. Ponzi Scheme makes for a flashier headline. I’ll let you duke it out over which term is more appropriate.

It’s at this point, that I’m going to let a little wind out of the sails and get serious for those still reading this. Reading this without seeing the smirk on my face as I write write it might lead you to think I’m judging all of this as wrong, evil, nefarious, et cetera. Also, I started writing this post with tongue firmly planted in cheek and ended up sounding more like a damning critique than I expected since my intended level of damning critique was exactly zero. I swear… it wrote itself.

Despite being conflicted about writing this, and again about posting it, I was compelled by the following reasons:

1. I have consistently felt hints of this while reading blogs over the last few years.
2. As a reminder to myself to add value whenever possible, examine all processes, and not simply recycle information.
3. As clarification to anyone reading this site that the focus here is providing information to help you do what you want, not how to blog your way to bloggy blogging.
4. Blogging is not for everyone. If you’re not comfortable writing or sharing or whatever, then don’t. There are plenty of other options.
5. Blogging about things other than blogging is great and highly recommended!
6. Successful bloggers are used to criticism, have thicker than average skins, and are generally capable of reading things critically rather than personally. Y’all can take it.

There are at least two undeniably positive things you can say about the process: It’s smart and it works. There are some psychological buttons that get pushed that cause it to work and they don’t happen accidentally.

I’m hesitant to pose a specific question because I’m curious where this discussion could go without direction. I welcome your comments as always.

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