Jason Calacanis is arguably one of the most hated individuals in the blogosphere. He made his money by selling Weblogs Inc. for $25 million to AOL. Now he is more famous for talking himself up and everyone else down in a series of arrogant statements and speeches at summits all over the world.
Recently, Calacanis delivered a keynote address to a room full of affiliate marketers at a summit in Las Vegas. Getting Calacanis to speak at your summit is like giving a monkey a gun. It might seem like a fun idea to begin with but it’s going to end in tears, many people will get hurt, and the monkey will probably be put down.
In an amazing display of arrogance and hypocrisy Calacanis berated the audience with his views on why they were a bunch of spammers, clogging up the internet with their meaningless blogs. In his opinion, anyone who sets up a blog purely to make money is a spammer, despite the fact that this is exactly what he did a few years ago and it made him $25 million a few years later.
The bullets kept flying from the monkey’s gun with this gem being the highlight of the morning,
Is anyone here from Pay Per Post? You should kill yourself. I’m kidding. Well. I wouldn’t mind if you did.
It didn’t stop there. One by one various A-list bloggers were drawn across hot coals and made to look stupid. Most of the keynote could be summed up as follows,
Do what I say not what I do. All affiliate marketers are spammers and the bottom feeders of the internet. My new search engine is wonderful. Seth Godin is a spammer. You are a spammer. I am richer than you. My name is Jason Calacanis, it’s been your pleasure and privilege to be spoken to by me. Use my new search engine. Good bye.
Calacanis is entitled to his opinions but his unprofessional attitude, arrogance and dogma prevent him from being in any way engaging. He moves around with as much drama as possible, seeking attention wherever he goes. If his insecurity complex was any bigger it would be visible from space.
The shame of it is that some of what he says is true. A lot of affiliate marketers are spammers. Churning out keyword filled articles to attract search engine traffic doesn’t add any value to the internet, it just clogs up the web. However, it doesn’t follow that anyone trying to make a living online is a legitimate target.
A monkey’s aim is never good, and Calacanis seems to thrive on making enemies with a lot of genuine and highly intelligent people. If you see him dancing on any street corners don’t pay him any attention. Have a chat with the organ grinder and tell him to book a different monkey. The audience will thank you for it.
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Having not been there, I’m not ready to rush to Calicanis’s defense. But I think you do hit the important point: “a lot of affiliate marketers are spammers.” Whether that’s 10% or 90% or 100%, it’s pretty easy to guess that Mr. Calicanis was (mistakenly) assuming that that was 100%. It’s certainly a mistake, but one I know I make a lot (not about affiliate marketers, but about other things). I can’t really hold it against him too much.