So if he didn't own an SEO company, would this post have been acceptable? Or would you still have accused him of writing a thinly veiled product pitch?
And yes, this stuff would work for a bootstrapped startup. I have a bootstrapped startup (a competitor to Moz actually) and I can vouch for the points he's making.
So if he didn't own an SEO company, would this post have been acceptable?
I think the point is that if he wasn't an SEO maximizer, it would be worded and/or titled differently, perhaps more outwardly usefully. In other words, why does the number of tips or the likelihood that the reader is aware of them matter in a headline? Linkbait, there is no other explanation.
Statistically, "number of things" articles have historically been bad content. Good writers don't structure their points as lists, bad ones do because they can't write well and so they can't segue from one to another effectively.
I know you're speaking in broad generalizations, but you should read some of Rand's stuff before passing judgment on him. He's written some amazing stuff on Moz - http://moz.com/community/users/63#posts
Full disclosure: I'm a Moz associate and a personal friend of Rand's.
you should read some of Rand's stuff before passing judgment on him
Just an observation that this is pretty much a hi-touch version of clickbait. I'm sure your friend is a nice and intelligent guy, though.
I think there's a reason you don't see Harper's titling their Annotations like, "17 reasons CAN-SPAM is fatally flawed," but US Magazine does. I use these examples of meatspace magazines to counter any possible, "but it's the internet, that's the way people write there! dealwithit.jpg" No, it's just another instance of the same old thing discovered decades ago by Cosmopolitan and the National Enquirer.
I'm totally open to evidence to the contrary! What is some of the best writing you've ever seen that is structured as a list? If it exists, I haven't seen it.
I see the "X (Unusual|Unlikely|Weird|Bizarre) (Tip(s)|Recommendation(s)|Trick(s)) for blah blah blah" format everywhere.