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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.