Shane Life is a blog.

Never Dupe Your Readers

Mike Davidson really hits it on the head here. Calacanis (and Scoble for other reasons) has always rubbed me the wrong way. This should discredit him to the point that hopefully everyone will see him for what he is…an egotistical, self-serving moron.

If you want to be influential, lead by doing, not by talking, and certainly not by duping. If what you create is really good, other people will talk about it for you.

It’s perfectly ok to talk about your own product and do some promotion when appropriate, but what it’s never ok to do is dupe your readers.

I don’t follow Calacanis (anymore, I did for a while, but unfollowed once I realized that this kind of stuff was his M.O.), but this sounds exactly like something he would do. He’s a publicity whore, and like Mike says, “loves the sound of his own voice, will say anything to get ink, and has very little regard for the truth.”

I think the same could be said about a lot of bloggers, that they (and by they, I mean me) love the sound of their own voice. But I would hope that we would place a higher emphasis on integrity. Calacanis obviously doesn’t. He’s just trying to stay relevant, and he’s doing a poor job of that.

Then again, we are talking about him, which is the only thing he likes more than talking about himself.