Agloco has bombed. Forget about my saying I told you so, because I already did earlier today.

What I want to talk about right now is more about branding.

One of the biggest proponents of Agloco when it first came out was John Chow. I mean, the guy blasted it to his followers over and over, and according to his stats, he generated a TON of “referrals/hours/whatever” for himself.

But today, he declared it dead, with no apology to his followers who bought in to his super promotion of it. He just placed blame on the leaders of the system when he said…

AGLOCO was a good idea that was poorly executed. I guess those MBA grads should have got some street smarts to go with their book smarts.

So John Chow gets a free pass, and he should. I bet you thought I was going to argue the other way didn’t you?

Well, I’m not. John’s blog is all about “making money online”. He’s an opportunist. An internet capitalist. This is his brand. He had nothing to lose, and everything to gain, so pimping Agloco for his hopeful future bottom line meant nothing.

His readers expect him to give them these types of offers and information. Key word there: expect.

The point is. Your audience/customers expect something from you, and that is part of the brand experience they eventually have with you.

I couldn’t get away with promoting something like Agloco and having it blow up in my face because it would reflect very poorly on my brand. It’s not what I am. But John can/could/did.

Decide what your brand is and live by it, because it defines you forever.

What do you want your brand to be? Be careful. Your short-term goal may directly conflict with your long-term goal.

Update: It appears me and Techcrunch are on the same page. They wrote this shortly after I wrote my post below.

Well, have you? Did it bring you the dreamlife traffic and riches of your dreams just like BlogRush did?

Just wondering. I remind you of this post I wrote back in April of 2007. Another piece at ReveNews about Agloco I wrote.

I hate to say I told you so, but… I’m gonna.

Quit chasing quick riches and traffic for doing nothing. You know better. You know you do.

The only one that works is BlogBucks.

I’m getting about 10 new blog entries a day now into the BUMPzee How to be successful online community I am managing.

I would say that 8 out of 10 that are submitted get included while the others get rejected because they are junk blogs full of Agloco promotions, or every blog post is written specifically to drive clicks to a “get rich quick” product.

Look, my version of “how to be successful online” DOES NOT include Agloco and get rich quick stuff. I want blogs in the community who provide helpful advice, and thoughts and stories about how to be successful.

Sure, they can have ads, and affiliate links, but there is a huge difference between writing content ONLY to sell some products, and writing content to help people. It’s a hard-sell vs. a soft-sell. If you’re hard-selling, I’m not going to let you join the community.

How Do You Define Success Jim?

Check out this neat blog I just included called The Hot Dog Truck. This guy bought a hot dog truck and set out on a quest to “make the perfect hot dog”, and he blogged the whole thing.

See, this blog isn’t necessarily about how to make money online, but it is about being successful, and he’s translated that wisdom into a neat blog that is entertaining to read.