Finally Spanked by Google
It’s finally happened. After so many of the top-name bloggers getting hit with a severe PR drop, it seems that j2fi.net has finally made the cut. I should feel honored, but oddly enough, I’m not.
Since March of this year, this site has enjoyed a healthy PageRank of 4. After a quick glance at my page rank today, I was met with a big fat goose-egg. Guess what, Google … say goodbye to the small amount of data you collect from this site thanks to your Analytics package. This isn’t a big deal, as I’m no fan of Google Analytics, either. I’ve tried confirming the numbers they show, but everything seems to be completely incorrect when put up next to my raw access logs or the FireStats WordPress plugin, and you can’t tell me that Google happens to catch things that my freakin’ server doesn’t record.
Unfortunately, this is going to directly affect my PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads revenues … likely in ways that will require I repay any amounts received. Hopefully it doesn’t come down to repayments, but it won’t be pretty now that my average $50/month internet income is reduced to nil.
All this said, I can’t really be too upset with Google. They’ve made their position clear about paid links for some time. The people I should be disappointed with are the ones that pegged their valuations to a site’s PageRank. Both PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads should have known this would be an issue at one point or another. It’s almost like the Chinese Yuan being pegged to the American Dollar … eventually, people are going to complain and do something to cause some severe instability.
So, on that note, I’ll be sending off a few emails to PPP and TLA to see what the next step is going to be. If my little site was nixed of all PageRank, there are sure to be a few thousand others. If this means advertisers are going to request partial refunds, then this little move by the Big-G will have essentially killed all non-Google-based revenue streams on the internet.
It’s a shame that Yahoo and MSN hasn’t stepped up with something else we bloggers could flock to. The internet has a very transcient group of people. If we can accomplish the same goals with another provider with some guarantee that we won’t be penalized, then it would be a no-brainer for everyone to jump ship.
Oh well. Small-fries like me won’t make much difference in the big scheme of things. Not yet, anyways.
Has your site been hit with a PR-slap? Did you add No-Follow tags to all your links in an effort to rebuild some of the PR you lost?
Comments (8)
That sucks. Unfortunately it is because you’ve sold paid links for PPP. You should look at the PPP community boards for more info about what they’re doing specifically. I’ve personally stopped using that service and will look at other avenues.
My PR did get taken away. Alas, not much I can do about it right now and still get paid for those last couple of opps. It really depends on what you think is best for your blog and your own revenue. You’ve got to consider what it is that you want to do with this blog and how far you want it to go.
Anyway, here’s Google’s official stance on paid links.
Yep, it sucks, but I’m not going to be *too* upset by Google’s actions. We’ve known this was going to happen for at least a month, and steps could have been taken beforehand to prevent PR loss. That said, I am a bit upset that PayPerPost, Text-Link-Ads and other online revenue sources have pegged their payouts against the Google PageRank value. Quite a bit of our headache could have been averted if there was a better (and preferrably more tangible) website grading machanism in place
Yup, I’ve been hit too… Oh well goodbye PPP…January 2008 will be a new era for michaelmckinlay.com!!!!
Man, that’s got to be a bitter pill to swallow.
Maybe you can find some other way to monetize your site?
I’ve written about how crazy PR is on this post:
http://blog.jdonuts.com/2007/12/big-problems-with-google-page-rank.html
sorry to hear it. i never used ppp or tla so my blog didn’t get hit. doesn’t mean i can’t/haven’t sold links though. ppp and tla were just an easy target. and you’re right, as marketers, we all figure out another/better way sooner or later.
btw i love how everyone’s geolocation/os/browser configurations in this thread are all different
just something my ADD picks up now and then….
whoops forgot im on my work machine… windows…ugh…
Thanks, Danielle. I think the PR drop is just a temporary thing. It’d be nice if I could get the PR4 back, but from what I’m seeing everywhere else, it will likely be just a PR3 if I decide to cave to Google’s demands
That said, I’d love it if some of my readers from other countries would leave comments. I’ve noticed a large number of people from Europe and South Asian nations visiting, but they almost never leave a comment.
I wonder what kind of post a person could write that would compell the readers to leave a comment ….
[...] been several weeks since Google decided it was time to take my PR4 score and turn it into a big fat goose-egg, and in that time I haven’t been able to make a single dollar through new PayPerPost or [...]