The Direction of This Site and Hypocritical bloggers

This site seems to have stirred up some controversy in the world of Gardening. Twice in fact over the last few months.

I’ll admit that when I first started this site it was my intention that it would be a gardening blog. That’s why I called it As the Garden Grows and why it’s url contains the word garden. Obviously, this is not and never really has been a pure gardening blog.

I’ve always been interested in home decor and design, Do it yourself projects and home renovation. I learned about home renovation and gardening from my parents while growing up and both activities have become not only hobbies and interests, but it seems, a way of life.

In the 17 months that this blog has been in existence I’ve written about my personal journey with my own garden, tried to write gardening articles that I thought my readers might find useful, and I’ve written about my past, present and future home renovation projects.

Heck, the first posts on this site were actually Do it yourself reno articles about how I landscaped my yard and created the lovely raised garden beds that I’ve tended to for the last six years.

Home and Garden, plus reviews:

Now, I know some people have actually complained about this site to some degree stating it would be a great gardening blog if I’d stop posting reviews about other things. I think the terms used were a little more derogatory and frankly I wasn’t very happy about what was said. The remark was made in a writeup of what I believe was either “top gardening sites” or “Gardening sites to visit” something like that. I was pleased to have made the list, but wondered why I was included when such a remark was made.

Now there’s another post on yet another “gardening” blog highlighting this blog and the fact that I’ve written posts for certain companies on it.

When the first post came out including this blog in a list of gardening blogs I admire yet stated that I was “whoring” out this site to make a few bucks I was offended.

Not so offended however that I didn’t stop and take a good look at this blog to see where it had been and where it was going.

I am open to constructive criticism and don’t mind taking suggestions from my regular readers. After all, I write this site firstly for myself, and secondly for my loyal regular readers. I want to write about things that would benefit myself and or my readers in some way.

One of the criticisms in the second gardening blog rant about p posts on gardening sites is that I’ve written about loans on this site. Payday Loans to be exact.

I won’t apologize for writing four posts about loans or credit in the past. I once took out a Payday loan. What’s a blog if not to write about your experiences?

I’ve had financial troubles in the past. I suspect that many of you have or that you’ve found the experience of taking out a mortgage daunting. This is a HOME and garden blog. I’m a home owner with a mortgage who’s had major credit problems in the past. These posts about credit and loan discussed my personal experiences.

Anyway, as I said when the first post with derogatory remarks about As the Garden Grows was published I took a step back and re-evaluated where I was going with this site.

Was my site starting to lose it’s direction a little bit a few months ago? Yeah, a little. Not totally, but yes a little bit.

I have no intention of ending my connection with the companies that compensate me to discuss products for the home or garden.

I carefully pick and chose among the offers that come my way. In the past yes, I slipped up a little bit and let the $$$ whisper in my ear just a little bit. I haven’t let that little devil talk to me for several months now though so it was with surprise that I read the latest rant.

In the last several months this is how I’ve been picking and choosing what posts I might take – I ask myself would I write about this site or product if I wasn’t compensated to write about it and most of the time, if I take the offer, the answer is yes – if I knew about it, yes.

I also ask myself – have I used this product before? Would I use this product, service or website? Would my readers benefit from knowing about this product, service or website? Does this product, service or website fit with the general type of topics I’ve always written about on this site? If I can say yes to most of those questions then yes I will accept the offer.

I’m not new to the internet or to creating websites or blogs.

I created my first website in 1995. It was/is a pet related site. For the first five or more years I was quite the elitist about my site. No way would I accept advertising offers! No, I wouldn’t even accept donations from people that found the wealth of information on the site helpful or that had in fact helped them save the lives of their exotic pets. Of course most of the offers I got were from companies that made cheap products that hurt more than helped the animals about which my website is about so it was very easy to say no.

I also had a job at the time and couldn’t really see that I’d make much money by accepting offers on the site. In other words I could afford to be an elitist.

Well times change. The Internet changed. Blogging became popular. My job changed. I went from being an apartment renter to a home owner and gardener. My health changed too, which of course also caused my employment status to change.

I believe most of my loyal regular readers know that I’ve been stuck at home for 22 months due to my battle with Crohn’s disease. I have no income other than what I make on the internet. Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I’ve been so sick in the last few months that I’ve barely made it outside my house let alone into my garden to work and tend my plants.

This blog has always discussed gardening, home decor, interior design, and products and services for the home. Always.

Why did I chose to monetize this site and write about products, services and websites that I hope my readers find useful? Well, frankly it’s a good way to earn a living. I have experience with many of the topics and products I choose to write about. Why not get compensated to post about them if the article is neutral and if I can relate it to my life or the lives of my readers in some way?

What am I supposed to do? Lose my home? Take in borders who will drive me nuts, steal from me and stress me out so much that I end up being even sicker like I did last summer?

When I originally started this site I’d only been off work for about 6 months and I thought I’d be getting back to work soon. 17 months later and I’m still stuck at home with Crohn’s disease. What would you do if you were in my shoes?

This is an established site and I need to make some money. The internet is my only source of income at the moment and until that changes I’ll be doing write ups on my various sites. Even if I do get healthy enough to go back to work I’ll still likely do some of these posts here and there since it’s a good way to make some money and if it’s a product I use or that my readers would use then what’s the harm?

A little Hypocritical don’t you think?

Many of the sites that I see posting derogatory articles about this subject have advertising on their sites. Google Adsense ads in their sidebars, Amazon links and badges, affiliate links and banners, text links and more.

Why is it ok for them to put down posts that are on topic and that might in fact be helpful to the blogs visitors when they in fact have ads all over their own blogs?

I don’t see the difference. At least I get to choose what I write about in my posts. Many of the ads served up in sidebars are not always what a particular blogger might choose if he or she had a choice.

I also find it funny how many of the blogs that post articles making derogatory remarks about other blogs and their posting habits are not regular readers of the site they are blasting nor have ever been in the past.

I write this blog for myself first and for my readers second. I honestly do not want to do anything that would harm this blogs integrity or to disappoint my regular readers. I’m happy to take feedback from those who read this blog or any of the other sites I’ve created. If my readers feel that one of my sites has lost it’s voice or direction I’d be happy to listen to their suggestions.

At this point no one has complained except two bloggers who I’m to assume do not read this site regularly.

My readers know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. They are the people who’s opinion counts.

Over the last year readership has quadrupled on this blog. I haven’t lost readers. I’ve gained. Could it be the diversity of topics? Could it be that my readers find some of the things I blog about actually …. helpful?

I’ve also tried to give back to the gardening community in my own way by creating Green Thumb Sunday. This is an interactive weekly meme. Gardeners make postings usually about plants that are growing in their garden or perhaps the landscaping they’ve done to their yard and all members who participate in GTS end up learning about new plants, new ways of gardening and gosh maybe even new products or items they could use in their garden.

I try to give back to the community on all of the sites I’ve created whether it be by creating special types of blogrolls, mailing lists or even a community blog. I do care about my sites and each and every regular visitor.

If I didn’t care I wouldn’t have bothered to write this long post. I will not however apologize for trying to make a living the only way I can.

Back to the Garden:

I haven’t mentioned this much, but I’ve started a new site. It’s another home and garden site, however it’s my intention that, that one will be more home than garden. As I work on that site you’ll see more and more gardening related articles here and less home ones.

There will likely still be reviews of products, services or websites on each of these sites. The reviews will hopefully be on topic for the site and it is my greatest hope that they will add to the sites content.

Compensated posting will in fact not stop until I decide to stop or until someone actually pays for my domain name registration, hosting fees and pays me to blog about whatever they want me to blog about … but then it would still be compensated blogging now wouldn’t it. Uh huh.

Gardening Questions:

If you’d like to help me get this site back to gardening you can.

I’m working on a page where people can leave gardening related questions in the comment section. I may not answer all the questions I get – if I get any! – but if I know the answer or if the question is worth making a post about it will give me material to write about on this site and it will help others learn more about gardening.

I’ll probably call the new page “Garden Questions”. It will show up in the header where the other pages on this site are listed. If you think of a question I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a comment on this post for now, and on the question page when it is up and running and I’ll work on an answer for you.

In conclusion

I love blogging. I love talking about my garden and home related projects. I try to help others in many ways, through this blog, through my other blogs and through just about every single thing that I do each and every day.

The two blog posts I’ve discussed in this article and the comments on them were very hurtful. I actually began the draft for this post three months ago in response to the first blogs post. I felt better just writing the draft and chose to ignore one bloggers post, but now that there are two out there and the second one’s comments slams this blog even harder – even though the posts are very much on topic these days – well I felt that I had to respond.

Until you’ve walked in someones shoes you cannot begin to judge that person, what they’ve done or why they’ve done it.

If you are a regular reader of this site and would like to comment I’d be happy to hear what you have to say – good or bad. As I said I’m interested in keeping my regular loyal readers happy, but I cannot and will not stop writing about products, service or websites that I think add value to this site and that might be helpful to my readers – at least until another viable option comes along.

Note the two posts I’m referring to in this article, but will not link to are:

gardeningtipsnideas.com/2007/07/14_garden_blogs_to_watch.html

gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2007/10/a-post-about-pa.html

BTW I think the post that started the latest rant was my post about AuctionAds because well it obviously doesn’t belong on a “gasp” gardening blog. It’s not a compensated post. Sue me for trying to help people earn a free $25.