You guys crack me up with this shit.
Shoemoney is a tool. So what?
I would assume most of the people on this board already knew that, so why would anybody be wasting time reading his blog to even know what he was up to? Who gives a shit. John Chow could be giving away free handjobs with every credit report sign up for all I know. I wouldn't know because I would have no reason to ever be on his site either.
Are you guys forgetting the first rule of marketing? Convince people to buy shit (or sign up, or whatever) they don't really need, or didn't know they needed. He's taking advantage of his readership because that is what they are there for. He's not providing a service, he's taking advantage of his niche. Anybody that thinks otherwise is fooling themselves.
Who here has never tried to make money off of visitors to their sites? That's why you do what you do. It doesn't matter that it is his personal blog, that's who he is and anyone that bothers with him should already know that. If not, oh well. As some Proverb or some shit once said, "A fool and his money, will soon part ways".
Stop trying to compare him to guys like slightly shady, eli, smaxor or others that have given away useful info. Different mentality. Different strokes for different folks, and all that shit.
Stop wasting your fucking time worrying about what a washed up, has been is doing and go make some fucking money.
/rant