Not everything is about the money.

In line with Darren’s post about Blogger Credibility, I’d like to share a few thoughts of my own not only about blogging but the internet as a whole.

First, there were several suggestions to me that I should do some referral incentive program with my hosting business. While that sort of program which pays people just by referring your business may have worked with other companies, I have always refrained from such activity. Credibility should be given freely and not bought, so if someone refers a friend or collegue to me or my business, I strongly believe it is because this someone really thinks I am worthy of such recommendation and not because there is compensation involved.

Second, not every project should have profits first in mind. When I registered smartwifi.org.ph and wanted to move all the discussion from my blog to that site, what I had in mind was the subscribers and how I could help them and not how I could cash in on the keywords (at the same time, keep the rude ones away from my blog).

When I started PinoyTopBlogs, what was going thru my mind was that this project could prove useful and interesting. A couple of people even mentioned I could be making a killing out of it which I promptly denied. In fact, the cost of running it on a dedicated server far outweighs the few cents (Adsense) I get out of it each day. Talk about a costly project, huh? (Tip to those who are doing the same project: once the users inflate to the hundreds, be prepared to buy the Pro version and get some really really nice web host who are willing to take in the cpu load.) The same is true with PinoyBlog though it’s cheaper to maintain it than the former.

The litmus test here is whether you are still willing to continue with the project even if it’s slowly burning a hole in your pocket.

If you start all projects with money in mind, people will always question your motives and it erodes credibility. Start projects with “others” in mind and though it will not bring you tons of green bucks, it will surely earn you accolades.