Looks like Google’s laying some more smack down and causing a certain amount of panic among paid bloggers. In the forums of one site some bloggers are advising that we should all strip our links to other bloggers, reinstate no-follow, and pretend we don’t know anything at all about getting paid to blog. Other bloggers are suggesting all out boycotts of Google to get it across to them that THEY DON’T OWN US!
Word.
I’m not in the camp of laying down at the feet of Google and doing all they ask. I can see how some bloggers feel that they should conform, though. Still, it’s a little much to ask, isn’t it? Blogging India suggests:
Try and utilize the time to try and firefight. Remove the links, or bargain with the advertisers to have No-Follow tags inserted. STOP all viral blog chains, like Technorati Faves and stuff. Put your efforts into blogging quality content. And have patience. Google can’t do this for ever.
I’ve only just started seeing these Technorati Faves campaigns, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t work. Technorati brings more traffic to any of my blogs than Google. That tells me that more readers frequent Technorati for content. This is wrong? Google probably doesn’t like it and that’s fine. But I’m not going to stop living my life to benefit Google. I do agree that quality content is important and have been questioning my decision to begin doing paid blogging. Still, I have some short-term goals and I need money to meet those goals. What to do? I’m certainly not going to stop linking. That just goes against everything blogging was born to be. Shoot, that goes against everything the WEB is about! We see a site that interests us, we link. We don’t put a "no-follow" in the link because we want the support the sites we like. That makes no sense to me. I like Beth’s (AFrogToKiss.net) idea a little better. She says:
Do as I did-stop using anything Google. Un-install Google Earth, Google Desktop, don’t use Google Reader, DO NOT for any reason use Google as your search engine. Do not use Adsense- we all know very few make money from it anyway, except for those who kiss Google’s ass and, well, Google. If you visit a blog or website using Adsense and you see a product you’re interested in- DO NOT CLICK THE LINK. Not only is the owner of the site making money, but Google as well. Back away, go to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN, and do a search. Most of the “deals” on Adsense aren’t really deals and I can guarantee if it’s something you buy, you can find it cheaper someplace else.
Stop kissing Google’s ass. Don’t give Google the power. Google is feeling a pinch in it’s pocketbook from all the link adverts. And it’s completely understandable that they want to protect that bottom line, which means sucking juice away from sites that aren’t giving them the money. They’re a business and they need to profit. But they don’t need to control the Web and force website owners/bloggers to lay down and take it for them. They shouldn’t have that power. So, that means quit writing for Google! Don’t worry about Google. Another search engine is going to see a profit potential from what Google is doing and come in to reap the rewards. There’s big money to be made here and the people shelling out the money know this. They’re not going to let Google stop them. Why should we? I can’t stop using my GMail, though. I’m sorry, Beth. It’s way better than Yahoo! and MSN, so I’m stuck with that. I have already stopped using Google search and have never used BlogSearch (Technorati still rocks my socks for blogsearching). I don’t want to give my personal power to Google, but I don’t want to see them go completely away. Just, maybe, go down a couple of pegs. Because they don’t own the Web- we do.
Update:
Funny thing I just noticed. My political site is up from a PR 0 to a PR 3 since yesterday. 
That’s funny to me because until recently PR never mattered to me and the traffic I get there is minimal. It’s a deeply political blog that would never pass muster with some people, but I guess Google’s kind of fond of it.
Interesting, huh?
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4 Comments
I don’t blame you on not wanting to change from gmail- I really don’t want to change and I’m having a hard time deciding. Yahoo mail does suck, I could always use the email I set with my ISP but then spam is a huge issue. I don’t appreciate someone who also utilizes advertising for payment, telling other bloggers we’re to blame. The no-follow and Technorati movements were to help us not just with page rank, but readership as well. What were we supposed to do at the time? Sit back and continue to allow the big-name blogs make all the money? We didn’t know Google would drop our page ranks, simply because others have used viral marketing for years- and in unethical ways. Nothing we did was unethical. Down with Google!
Hi Lizzie,
Finally its all about money isnt it? We want to make money, Google wants to make money, but when Google tries to make money, we don’t get as much money, when we make money, Google doesnt get as much…
Catch 22
By the way, I wasn’t suggesting people should kiss Google’s a$$. But I still think Google search is the most accurate and fast. I’m on a very slow net connection, and speed sure matters. I’m a literature+journalism student, so I search like around 200-300 times a day. And Google helps me out pretty well by displaying the results in 2 seconds. Yahoo takes half a minute! MSN takes 1 minute! Now consider my situation. 200 searches @ half a minute = 100 minutes – 1 and half hours wasted… And for inaccurate results!
Not to mention, Google Alerts save my fat in this highly competitive journalism world!
So Google offers all these great services. Why boycott it because Google down ranked your blog? Actually, I don’t give a damn…
And do you realize something? Google doesn’t own the web, nor does it say that. But WE are the ones saying Google owns the web! Google made a change to THEIR search, THEIR algorithm, not a public property. Google didn’t change anything on the web – they changed something which THEY own. So what right to we have to complain? Ofcourse, we can opine… But thats about it
As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t want to waste time, and waste my readers’ time by posting a whine. I utilize the time for doing something which might still ensure a good readership for my blog. Time is really precious!
Cheers,
Mohan
Beth,
The no-follow and Technorati movements were to help us not just with page rank, but readership as well.
I understand that completely. I don’t think that PR is a good indication of traffic and traffic should be the ultimate indicator of ad revenue. If the A-Listers have 10 blogs each they can link them all together and BOOM! They’ve all got a huge PR, but they don’t have traffic. What’s fair?
I’m not trying to cut into their piece of the pie, though. I just want a slice for myself. With a world of readers and buyers, I’m pretty sure there’s enough to go around.
Still, Google is only as powerful as the users make it. If no one considered PR a big deal, who would care that it got smacked? But since that’s all people were talking about, used it as bragging rights, and advertisers used it to measure money making potential, well, Google got all powerful. Now they want to wield that power. Why is anyone surprised?
Now paid blogging services are looking into other ways to measure viability of a blog. Traffic, for one. This is where the social sites and Technorati will rule again. Get people to your blog by surpassing the Google search and you’ll be making money again. Then Google will have to rethink their strategy, but if we don’t give them power, they can’t take it from us.
Hi, Mohan, thanks for stopping by!
I hope you don’t think I was insinuating that you were whining. On the contrary, I can see where both you and Beth were coming from.
I use Gmail and Picasa, but not so much the search. Honestly, Google search just turns up too much junk for me. I don’t have alerts for some key issues that I watch, though. That’s very helpful. I have to same thing in an old Yahoo mail account though, and I have to say they’re a little speedier getting me the information I want. Using both makes sure I don’t miss what I’m looking for.
As I said in my article, I don’t have any problems with Google looking out for Google’s interest. They’re not a charity service, afterall, they have monetary interests in this Internet thing too. I disagree that they’re evil and forming a monopoly, as so many other people contend. It’s nerve wracking to know that you’ve put so much stock in Google and then they slap you in the face by lowering PR, but…
I think people have a right to complain and be upset and wonder what went wrong. Then they’ve got to stop and remember that Google is only as powerful as we allow Google to be. Plain and simple.