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PFBlogs.org
By JLP | February 7, 2006
Okay, this is great. It all started when PFBlogs.com started running ads on his personal finance blog aggregator, which means that he is essentially profiting off everyone else’s work. Maybe he’s new to the blogosphere. I don’t know. However, I do know that bloggers take their content seriously and don’t like it when other people use it for their own profit.
One of my friends set up PFBlogs.org as a free personal finance blog aggregator. The two websites look almost identical! In fact, it actually confused me. It will be fun to watch how this plays out.
Topics: Blogging | 18 Comments »
February 7th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
I like how you didn’t provide an instant hyperlink to pfblogs.com. Very nice.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Yeah, well I figured if we don’t like it, I shouldn’t promote it.
I don’t have any bad feelings for the PFBlogs.com guy. I just think he didn’t think the whole thing through.
February 7th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
I actually dont mind that he has ads on his blog. I find the blog aggregator to be a helpful service. besides, i doubt a lot of people go there and click on his ads anyways…
February 7th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
If your blog is on there and you don’t want it to be, be sure to email him and ask him to take it down. I asked him and he did so, as have many other bloggers.
My feed is still on PFBlogs.*org*, which is fine with me because it is not a commercial site. In the end, it is also simply a more complete aggregator.
February 7th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
I really don’t see what the problem is. He isn’t using full articles,
just the first few lines. It’s free publicity. If his site remains small,
he isn’t going to earn anything with the ads. If his site becomes big, he
will earn money, but also send more new users to my blog. Part of putting
your blog on a rss feed is so more people can see it…
February 7th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
Shocking. This is the lowest of lows when it comes to intellectual property because there is very little one could do about it. This is too obvious to be unintended and I, for one, will certainly avoid his blog.
February 7th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Not everyone is concerned about others making money off of other people’s content. Some musicians don’t care if their music is traded freely for example. The way I see it, anyone whose sole source for making money is based on other people’s content — and using that content for commercial purposes without permission from the authors — is simply stealing.
The counterargument is that a service is being provided in return (publicity in an aggregator, the occasional referral). I suggested he charge bloggers a $1/month fee to be listed, thus charging them directly for the service (and probably making more money than AdSense would provide). If he felt uncomfortable charging people for the “service,” he shouldn’t be making money with it.
It doesn’t take much effort to put up an RSS aggregator (software is available for free everywhere), scrape other people’s content from RSS feeds intended for other purposes, and throw up AdSense ads. Spam blogs do it all the time.
I’m happy to see there’s a similar but better service that can accomplish the same benefits (aggregation, etc.) without ads.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
A friend huh
February 7th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Born Famous,
Yes, I know this person but they don’t want their identity known so we will keep it at that.
Thanks for stopping by.
February 8th, 2006 at 9:30 am
I agree with pfadvice. I know the risk of having an public RSS feed is that others have the
opportunity to use my feed to make money. I have the option of not using the RSS feed to
promote my site, it would dramtically reduce my site traffic, but I have that option.
February 8th, 2006 at 10:41 am
PF Advice,
The question is: where do you draw the line? If you let one person do it, then everyone will do it.
Adult ADD,
Yes, but just because it is a risk doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight it when it occurs.
February 8th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
yeah thats a little bit iffy.. the wealthy blogger use to aggregate certain blogs, and I didn’t mind that at all. so far pfblogs.com isn’t bothering me too.. he made a note of the recent notices though on his development blog.
February 8th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Well, I think it would have been totally cool if he’d asked permission. Somehow, I’ve been overlooked..
I might not mind the links, and the whole article isn’t included. I think it would have been better if he’d used an AdSense revenue sharing concept 
February 8th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
I forgot to mention, that doing a whois on the .com yields a pointer to kimsal.com and links to this http://fosterburgess.com/kimsal/
If you’re not happy about it, give him a call and let’m know
btw, the law says you can’t call more than once per day and not after 8p or before 8a. Feel free to drop a letter in his virtual or postal mailbox.
Registrant:
MGK Internet Services
8172 Thornhill
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
US
Domain Name: KIMSAL.COM
Administrative Contact:
Kimsal, Michael G mgkimsal@gmail.com
40 glen oaks
youngsville, NC 27596
US
919 455 8488 fax: (734) 483-0861
Technical Contact:
Support, Technical support@affinity.com
Affinity.com
101 Continental Boulevard, 3rd Floor
El Segundo, CA 90245
US
(310) 524-3000 fax: (310) 388-1335
Record expires on 29-Oct-2006.
Record created on 29-Oct-1998.
Database last updated on 8-Feb-2006 22:52:37 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.KIMSAL.COM 216.40.247.38
NS2.KIMSAL.COM 216.40.247.38
Registry Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
February 9th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
I think Michael made an error in judgement putting the ads on and he’s done everything he can to fix things. There are lots of similar type thefts (the reason why I only have excerpted feeds in the first place) where the thief can’t be found and you have no recourse.
February 9th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
You may also want to throw http://www.w-street.com into the mix!
February 10th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
JLP – You know your feed is still on PFBlogs.com, right? I’m assuming you don’t mind then?
February 22nd, 2006 at 4:27 pm
The arguement about whether somebody makes money seems a bit spurious.
Most of the blogs on pfblogs com/org seem to run Adwords (eg this very site)….Seems a little bit hypocritical to condemn someone for running ads when their own site runs ads.
I have one Amazon ad to a big I recommend, howver i don’t won’t Adwords appearing on my site advertising dubious products
Also Joshua K it seems a bit petty to try & get people to harrangue Michael Kimsall. We all have better things to do….yes?
He’s made an error of judgement but who hasn’t.
What do you think?