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You don’t have to be ‘right’

Last night I was flipping though the TV and I came across Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show (Mad money is a call in stock market show hosted by hedge fund manager James Cramer. Read more about it on wikipedia). Curious about Cramer’s reaction to the recent elevated market volatility I tuned in. Just before Cramer cut to commercials several lines of glowing praise from Man Money fans were briefly displayed. And at that very moment I came to an important realization; you DON’T have to be right to be a success.

Cramer’s stock picking track record has been spotty ever since Mad Money’s inception in 2005. According to a scathing Barron’s review, Cramer’s stock picks have underperformed the major market averages by many percentage points. Cramer’s under performance is also verified by many other sources, and yet amazingly enough Mad Money is as popular as ever. Jim Cramer’s Mad Money grew 37% from last November, to 243,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. You would think that Mad Money’s rating would fall due to his poor stock picks, but it certainly hasn’t.

But what does Cramer have to do with internet marketing and blogging? A lot, in fact. For the same reasons why Cramer is popular in spite of his inability to consistently deliver winning stock picks is the same reason why bloggers like Johnchow.com, seoblackhat.com, Shoemoney, Aaron Wall, and johncow are still so popular. These blogs are intended to help their readers become more experienced in internet marketing and making money online, but generally fall short of those goals in the same way that Mad Money falls short. Sure these blogs offer interesting insight and industry updates, but I don’t know anyone who has reaped a small fortune after reading these blogs. A lot of the advice in these blogs tends to be vague and inexplicit, yet readers continue devour it.

The reason why people remain loyal to Mad Money and the popular SEO blogs is not due the content, but because of the perceived AUTHORITY of the TV host or blogger. Naturally, people seek authority sources for answers such as “How do I make more money online?” or “How do I make more money in stocks?-even of the answers are insufficient. The content or ‘being right’ is irrelevant. It isn’t what you say, but who says it.

This actuality is somewhat discouraging to aspiring bloggers and publishers that seek an audience because there is less emphasis on content and . My recent criticisms of Bluehatseo and Johncow are irrelevant because I am judging these blogs on content and content doesn’t matter. Being ‘right’ doesn’t matter.