Aftermath of the recent Google penalty on blogosphere has not been so bright for many bloggers. It created a lot of discussion in the beginning, but then it was time to take action. Bloggers had to decide whether they want to be on the Google side or against the Big-G. Some thought very hard and after a lengthy discussion decided to play by Google’s rules. Obviously it was not an easy decision to make for them, because they had to forgo hundreds of dollars (if not thousands) in order to be Google’s friend.
Number of blogs up for sale increase
Another interesting phenomenon after the penalty on the net, is the increase in the number of blogs up for sale. Many blogs, especially in the “make money online” category are being sold in many auctions. For example: Blogging Fingers was sold for $6000 recently, even the blogs with personal name in the URL such as Ryan Ramsus was not spared, it was sold for $2,500, and OneMansGoal is up for sale with BIN $8,500, so far the highest bid is $6000. And some blogs sold for mere $110 dollars (sure the stats play major role here).
This shows how powerful the Big-G is, Google can and will change the internet if they want. It can destroy your business in one day, even though they believe in “do no evil” philosophy.
One thing I noticed that the number of RSS subscribers decreased sharply after the above mentioned blogs were sold. Some by 100 percent. I guess many people do not have confidence once the man behind the blog is no longer in charge.
Defiant bloggers
Finally, some bloggers simply ignored Google’s demands and continue to make more money… of course, JohnChow comes to in mind. Even he managed to pull the highest revenue on the penalty imposed month. I don’t think the next month earnings will be any less.
When can you fight Google?
If you are a website that sells products, then you want Google to be your friend. Obviously in this case, even if you do not like the better decision would be to comply with Google’s demands.
But if you are a blog that have thousands of regular readers, why need Google? That’s exactly why JohnChow can ignore Google. Because he simply does not need Google traffic. Most of his traffic comes from direct visitors, and from the blogosphere mentioning his blog (like in this post). But I am sure John will consider abiding Google’s demands for his other sites.
So, here, emotions and being hero does not count. And decisions based on just emotions wouldn’t be the right decisions. Therefore, your next course of action regarding getting back your PR (if you were penalized), should be based on logical factors that can benefit you in the future, rather than just on emotions and anger. As I said, if you are a website that sells something, you will probably need Google’s traffic. And the wise decision would be to abide by Google’s rules of game.
What AdesBlog will do?
I am going to wait for few things. First, I will wait for Text-Link-Ads‘ and LinkWorth‘s official stance on this issue. I will wait if they will consider including “nofollow” tags on their text links. Because I am sure they are loosing many publishers (thus lots of money), so they have to make a big decision soon. Secondly, I will wait for my direct advertisers’ stance on how important is PageRank for them. This will be known in the coming few months. Two outcomes can happen: they will either stop advertising on this blog or keep running their text links. Thirdly, I will wait if Google’s penalty has had any affect on my SERP (search engine result page) positions. This shall be known in the next 1-2 months as well.
And depending on these factors, I will decide if I have to abide by Google’s demands or defy them and continue making money by selling text links.
How about you?
Have you already decided what you will do about selling text links on your blogs? Will you keep selling text links or will you remove them so that you can be Google-friendly?
don’t think paid links program will allow “nofollow”. You try to edit TLA links to insert “nofollow”, soon you will get warning letter from TLA ;)
my blog depends on google traffic, i have to make it google friendly.
I specifically asked TLA about their stance on rel=nofollow and they sent a terse email saying you “can not add nofollow to the links” and that about said it for me. They (at the moment) are the ones defying Google. It will be interesting to see what happens when their customers go somewhere else?
Another interesting point… since I asked that question, I have received no TLA’s on the site in question. I am running a few on another site, but none on this particular blog. You have Google and TLA fighting for “their rights” and the bloggers providing the content stuck in the middle. Scott
RSS subscribers decreased sharply does not related to the blogs were sold.
Feedburner glitched, and something caused it to mis-report Google Reader’s Feedfetcher hits as zero.
Feedburner posted an official explanation today:
“It appears to have rallied, however, and amid firm declarations of “I’m never doing that againâ€, Feedfetcher has started diligently reporting subscriber numbers to us, early this morning Pacific Time.”
They also said that numbers may not quite be up to snuff today, but should be fully righted by Monday.
LcF, I have no intention to add “nofollow” tags on TLA or LinkWorth ads. Rather I am waiting for their own response. Because tens of bloggers are already leaving them, and that translates into thousands of dollars of loss for them. I think it’s only fair if they make an official statement, whether they will include “nofollow” tags or not. So that bloggers (like me) who are waiting can decide what should we do.
Ray, you are right. The RSS count loss probably is from the feedburner glitch.
I have canceled my text link ads account…waiting for reconsideration
I doubt TLA or LinkWorth will give official response about the Google PageRank matter. It will ruin their business even more.
TLA mother company(http://mediawhiz.com/) has other programs and new shoppingads is coming. I think they know their problem with google. remember, TLA changed all referral link code previously?
No way are TLA and others going to include nofollow..
they will loose there business that way. I am on Gs side and will always be. G gives me a huge traffic and I cannot afford to loose that. As far as money is concerned..I never went into selling text links so never got that money…so I am loosing nothing..
I am not selling any text links on my blog yet but I think I will sell, provided the advertisers are willing to have their links parsed with the nofollow tag.It is too risky to go against Google for a new blog.
Although most of my traffic are not from Google, I still need them to scrape some search engine traffic.
One thing that made me mad of Google is that they failed to upkeep Feedburner which causes all the glitch!
I think if TLA and other similar text selling sites add “nofollow” tags to their links, it will just become a norm (new rule) of online advertising. And people including advertisers will accept it. And that way they won’t loose the publishers either. Otherwise I think they will loose lots and lots of money (it’s my personal opinion).
I hope they add the “nofollow” tag in the future. I for the moment will continue selling TLA in my blogs. I’ll be more concern if I lose traffic.
Hm.. I’m also hit pretty bad, some of my blogs have stopped making money since the PR went down the toilet.. anyway, I need your feedback on an evil masterplan that I’m up to. It’s about getting loads of traffic through social media sites – It’s the first post on my blog – let me know whether will it work or not :) Thanks really appreciate it!!!
Hi Ades,
I leanred about Linkworth from your blog and have very recently been approached by the company to place a LinkAd on my website. However, it seems that the client is coming from the so-called “Recreation & Sports” category and the anchor text is something like “pai gow-poker”. I am abit concerned whether the Adsense adverts will be pulled out by Google if I advertise that particular LinkAd on my site. What’s your view on this? Your advice is really appreciated.
Tada, if you are muslim then I advise you to reject that ad. Since it involves gambling. However if you are non-muslim then it’s up to you to decide whether to put or not based on the following suggestions;
1. LinkWorth supports both; with and without “nofollow” ads. So if you have set your website to show only ads with “nofollow” tags on them, then there is no problem with Google.
Google will create problem if you are serving ads that pass PageRank i.e ads without “nofollow” tags.
2. If you serve ads without “nofollow” and you serve Google AdSense ads as well on your site, then if Google finds that out, then first it might lower your PageRank or give you PR0. And next, it’s possible that they might disable your AdSense account.
So please decide for yourself.
Thank you very much, Ades. Really appreciated.
I think it’s something normal to be a difference between blogs and online stores, because the latter want an accurate assessment of their site while many online stores play dirty, I discovered some ugly ways to my competitors in the market with 2-3 stores link between them ,
Sometimes google can hit you pretty hard. it is best to try and stay as legit as google wants you to be to avoid a drop in the serps.