I have read snippets of criticisms and accolades of Ken Rockwell on this rumor site and although I am an ardent fan of his website I am in no doubt, as an SEO consultant what Ken's motives are.
1) To get top ranking on Google for the most often and latest search terms
2) To have as much traffic as possible through his site
3) Photography Tips
He cannot achieve 1) unless he writes tons of articles stuffed with keywords and keyphrases. This involves covering the same old topics repeatedly and laboring the point so Google get the message - you, his readers are not his primary target. He is often accused of writing about stuff he has not got in his hands yet. Why? search engines of course - because he is in a race with other website of the same ilk that rely on making a living by being relevant for the newest searches. Once you have been the first found by Google it is a difficult job to knock that website off that top spot. All webmasters are at it in every walk of life so why should Ken be different.
This relevancy give him traffic 2) out of which he makes a living from Google Adsense (Those tiny Google ads on the sides of his pages)of which he receives a small amount of each click. This traffic also helps him get a kickback from Adorama etc and he make no secret of this. Another source of revenue for him is the mentions he makes of an interesting bit of information he has or an experience etc.these usually lead to courses, books or some other revenue generating avenue.
The third reason Ken writes is because he is actually passionate about photography and is a technical geek that we can all learn a lot from - as long as we use our intelligence to discriminate between good objective advice and the sort of speculative advice he gives for the benefit of search engines.
I for one will keep reading his site because it is interesting and controversial and he has added words to my vocabulary (eg measurebator) that I would not have come across otherwise.
Well done Ken and keep up the good work for yourself and us!
