That is John (the esi guy) if no one picked up on that.

Your observations are very true.

One of J moneys favorite blogs Four Pillar Finance joined VIB under ESI Money. When he was unhappy with the program quality, he politely decline to continue VIB.

ESI appeared cold in his response.

Four Pillar was a regular on the Rockstar Feature rotation because of his unique visual content. I am a big fan of his blog too.

He told me this: since he quit VIB over 6 months ago, ESI owned Rockstar has not featured him once.

It’s clear ESI has a chip on his shoulder about Four Pillar. Instead of responding to what VIB (as a business) should do to improve, it was get out. Content does not matter.

You have to pay to play.

It is not a community.

I am so disappointed J money sold RSF to someone with petty business sense.

Unfortunately, they are also monetizing their connection to Business Insider and Marketwatch. They act as unnecessary gate keepers, middle men, and toll handlers. Now it has become a mob mentality sort of place.

These concerns should be addressed to J. Doubting he care. He sold it.

You are brave young lady.

This is so true. I remember being deep in debt and barely having enough to pay the mortgage. I would read blogs about how to get out of debt and get rich. Almost all of them were about getting loans and flipping houses. First of all, I could barely afford my own house. Second, my debt ruined my credit so I can’t get a loan. Also, loans are what got me into debt in the first place so don’t tell me to get another one.I know they mean well, but they should realize that everyone doesn’t have the same background.

My Alexa score is at 1.5 million from paying no one for traffic, etc. I’ve just busted my ass for 4 months (launched in January).

2. I submitted for one of RF’s money matchups and was approved and it will be a feature..but not until late July. That tells me that I won’t have any features probably until well after that if I sign up for VIB now. I’d get a link, but is a link worth $1200 for the year? How much money could I make if I invested $1200 into creating a badass course, building a funnel that converts, and marketing the hell out of it?

3. I could give two shits about FIRE as well…it’s just not my jam, and I don’t care for all of the ass kissing going on. Networking is one thing, but I always want to stay true to who I am, who my audience is, and what they need/I can provide to them.

Anyway…sorry for the rant, but I appreciate you! P.S. if you ever want to hook a sister up with a guest post, let me know 😉 I’d love to contribute to your readers 🙂

Let’s all change our gravatars to pawns on the RS forum. Just for $hits.
Thanks for calling out what most of us are too sheepish to.

Sandi Martin, fee-for-service planner at Spring Financial Planning; I’m her co-host (along with Chris Enns) on the Because Money podcast, and her monthly round-ups can be found here.

Hey, I’m a new Canadian PF blogger. Who’s Sandi and how can I subscribe to the round up?

Speaking as a female quarterfinalist, Alyssa doesn’t ignore me. I’m not entirely sure why you think she ignores any of us. That seems to be something you made up out of thin air. Care to explain your thought?

I’m sorry you feel as though this is a brutal attack. It’s merely here to vocalize many concerns others have spoken. I think rather than doing the community a disservice, I have opened up a well-needed conversation.
Also, why do you seem to think people won’t welcome me? Many who have commented negatively seem to miss how collective the personal finance community is and it makes me sad. I also wish that you didn’t feel the need to be anonymous. I would never hold anything against someone disagreeing with me, but now it’s near impossible for me to justify putting time into the conversation. As you said — negative feedback and constructive criticism are useful. However, you’re providing it in the exact same way you told me was inappropriate. Doing it anonymously almost makes it more threatening.

But, after all this, I still appreciate you taking the time to comment! Every opinion is welcomed.