Updated Below
Apparently Google’s out smacking the hell out of blogs again (warning: that link goes to a really long forum thread). Everyone in that thread got smacked down to a PR 0. So did I. Woot! I’ve looked around and noticed that not everyone was effected this time. There’s a huge uproar in the PayPerPost forums. People are wondering what they should do, what will Google’s next move be, where’s the money going to come from now? Of course, those hurt the worst were those that needed that little bit of extra income the most. Ah, isn’t that nice?
I’ve only just started paid blogging. I don’t spend a whole lot of time at it and only do it when the opp seems too good to pass up. Back when I was a PR 2 (hahaha!!!) I did a couple of higher priced ones, but generally I was too slow to get to them simply because everyone who had been slapped down was grabbing at them too. I’ve been keeping my options open and continued to do my own thing. I’m by no means rich from those couple of opps, but it’s nice to have that extra little bit of money in my account. That little bit of money goes up and down, but overall I’m still not wealthy. So I’m still going to take paid opportunities if they suit my fancy as well as doing other things.
I’m definitely not going to start letting Google give me fits now, after all this time of not knowing or caring about PageRank. I’m not going to boycott Google or ban them or give a damned about them anymore. I’ll change only so much as going back to 3 months ago when I had no idea what was so special about PR.
I do see some people taking action to ease their PR woes, like removing paid links or adding nofollow. Some are even removing links to their own sites from signatures. It’s sad to see Google have that kind of effect on honest people just trying to make an honest buck. Go after the scrapers and the real splogs. Lord knows enough of them have trackbacked to this site since I joined the Do Follow movement. Yet there they are, full of adsense ads and other people’s content. Gah! They don’t care about PR and they’re getting Google’s money. Go figure.
There’s one bright spot to all of this. Costa at Blog Gigs has a really funny post up called “If Your PR Hasn’t Been Demoted, You Are a Square“. It’ll make you smile even if you’re crying. Way to lighten the mood, Costa. Thanks.
Update:
Please visit this post for an up-to-date opinion on this whole flippin’ matter.
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9 Comments
LOL. Thanks to you too, Lizzie.
Sploggers are using Adsense and making Google money. If a blog is using PayPerPost Google isn’t making any money. The choice for Google is simple, isn’t it?
That’s one way of looking at it, Frank. Right now it looks like Big G is going after the PPP folks because those hit are making a lot of noise. But I got a feeling there’s more to it than that in this present round of Google slap.
Really, I don’t care about PR. I’ll sell links and reviews on my blog even if it remains a PR 0 for the rest of its life…
Yep Frank agreed, sploggers are full with Adsense ads. Google has shown it’s true colors. It’s not about a rich search experience, it’s about the money.
I think you have the right idea. We can’t worry too much about something we have no control over. Besides, if we crawl back out of this hole they’ll probably just smack us back down again.
Costa,
You’re welcome.
Frank C,
Of course! That’s what I was saying. Google says they only want relevant search results, but have you tried searching for “arthritis clinic of Stark County”? Yeah, those are relevant results all right. Heh.
Markk,
I see more dire things coming.
Ruchir,
At least until advertisers start refusing to pay you for them. They want to pay for popular sites and have drunk the PR koolaid. Not much money in that if your PR is Zero. Ya know?
Jason,
Exactly. They have the power and they know it. Except I don’t care about their power anymore. I’m not sure I ever did, except for the ppp thing. I’m not exactly getting rich off of that either. Hopefully the big G won’t take away my Intertoobs key next time.
Actually not everyone got smacked, pretty much everyone who didn’t use nofollow.
Hi, Indiana! Thanks for stopping by.
I’ve already mentioned that in my post:
I’ve also reconsidered my my position regarding the whole issue. You can find more of my thoughts regarding this particular thing here.