You are not your customer. Your advertisers and affiliates are not your customer. Your advertisers are there to fund the customer’s needs. For every decision you make you have to stop and ask yourself: Is This Best For The Customer?
This part I disagree with--in how many business models is it true that advertisers aren't the true customers? There are many businesses that are predicated on delivering actual value to actual individual customers, but it seems as though most content-farming sites are giving away value specifically to serve their true customers, the advertisers.
I think it's meant more as an exhortation than a description. Is your disagreement an observation that some business models work that way, or is your disagreement that a business with an advertising based model should work with the advertiser's needs foremost, rather than the non-paying end-use (aka "customer" for purposes of this essay)?
If the former, then I don't think there's an actual disagreement.
This part I disagree with--in how many business models is it true that advertisers aren't the true customers? There are many businesses that are predicated on delivering actual value to actual individual customers, but it seems as though most content-farming sites are giving away value specifically to serve their true customers, the advertisers.