One of the more controversial money making blogs has to be Cash Quests. I used to read Cash Quests regularly and even posted about them a couple times. If you didn’t hear Cash Quests was sold for $15,000 about two weeks ago. There was no mention of the sale on the website - which most people would do either during, or after the sale. The site just sat there with no posting and no commenting. Well, I thought it would be interesting to read about the sale after it was complete and checked the site periodically in anticipation of the news. I gave up after a few days of not seeing anything posted about the sale.
Today, I decided to check out Cash Quests again and what do you know - there are a few new posts! Well, I don’t think it is anything to get excited about. If you read the 3 new posts you get the idea they are still being written by an “I”. No mention of a new author - no mention of the sale. It’s almost like the original blogger never left from the sounds of the posts.
This is a very deceiving thing to do to loyal readers of your blog. Not getting personal - “Hello everyone, my name is _________ and I am the one who purchased Cash Quests”. I think the readers deserve to know what is going on at Cash Quests and who the new blogger is.
If you do a little digging and click on the About, Conact, and Advertising links you will notice they direct you to a website called IEntry. What the heck is IEntry? Well, with a little Wikipedia search (you have to love Wikipedia) I found this:
In the dot-com boom days, iEntry published email newsletters carrying a variety of content. Many focused on technology, while some ranged into topics like humor.
When the dot-com crash took place in March 2000, iEntry retrenched afterward and shifted to a more technology-centric model. The shift proved successful, and unlike many online businesses, iEntry survived the economic downturn. iEntry is now one of the largest B2B email newsletter publishers and owns popular eBusiness websites. iEntry owned sites includes the popular news site WebProNews which covers eBusiness and search engine news. WebProNews has recently (Oct 2006) pioneered video news coverage of search engine conferences.
iEntry Web sites receive continual updates from its staff of writers and contributors and cover issues related to the search advertising, e-commerce, and technology industries. iEntry has approximately 40 employees based in Lexington, KY. iEntry also has over 100 blog partners which it republishes content from and over 500 contributing writers.
Looks like the personal and controversial posts are over at Cash Quests for now. I am a little disappointed because I enjoyed reading the blog and whoever this new author is needs to introduce themselves, or they will lose much of their readership. For $15,000 I wouldn’t think they are just trying to suck the life out of the blog, but who knows - I am just a rookie blogger.
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wow. i have this same post in my drafts section. well not the same but i talk about whats new with cashquests. haha i guess great minds think alike
Noob,
That is hilarious. Sorry to post it before you did!
I placed a link to this post here http://www.whydowork.com/blog/wdw-insider/182/#comment-15538 (would have put in my main article had I read this first)
But I’m glad you are recognizing when takeovers don’t go so well..I just started a series of posts on that topic yesterday!
Looks like you beat us all to the jump on this topic
johncow wrote about it today. either all of our minds are super advanced or theres not much to write about
I can actually say I posted before John Cow!
Thanks for the link whydowork.
I was reading Kumiko’s blog back when it was on blogger. I noticed that alittle bit after she switched to her own domain, the tone changed from a personal 1st person dialog more towards an authoritative 3rd person tone.
I suggest that this isn’t the 1st time Cash Quests has changed hands.
Your observations are so true. Besides, the blog looks awful with those ads repeating all over the place. I suppose it will die pretty soon, and the buyer will never get any profit.
I believe Kumiko had the intention of selling her blog from the time she bought her own domain and removed “Kumiko” from the original blogspot name “Kumiko’s Cash Quests”. She then dropped using her name altogether and signed off posts and comments as “CashQuests”. I have no doubt we will see her resurface somewhere on the blogosphere pretty soon.
From a business point of view it seems stupid to deceive the readers. I mean, everyone knows the blog has sold. It’s not like it’s a big secret. Why would you not take the time to address that fact and move on from there? I think most of the regular readers would stick with them or at least give them a chance if they at least had the decency to let everyone know that there might be a few changes.
This is exactly how you destroy a blogs reputation. Its sad too, they spent $15k and aren’t doing anything with it…
I just went over there and checked it out. Oh my god, what a mess.
In their first post they say RSS subscribers are the secret to success.
Have you tried clicking on their RSS links, they don’t work.
After reading what they wrote in the 3 posts they have made I’d rather put a baseball bat through my computer than subsribe to their feed anyway.
Sheesh, they wrote garbage.
Its just turned into a billboard of advertising now.
I have also followed Kumiko and Cash Quests since her blogspot days, won’t be following Cash Quests anymore.
RIP Cashquests and good luck to their $15,000 investment, I think they may well need it.
I don’t think the new blog owner has been checking Cash Quests lately. Looking at the most current posts, there are currently no comments, probably because they are all awaiting moderation.
My whole “theory” on this is that the iEntry company paid $15,000 for this blog just as a way to get traffic to their main site. Oh ya, and don’t forget those excessive ads that are everywhere. They basically used CashQuests as a bait for new customers.
You’re 100% right, this is a very good way to ruin a website and throw away your investment.
The sale of Cash Quests was a great loss for the make money online community. Kumiko’s blog was one of the best blogs out there. What a loss!!