Do you check your referrers? I do. I even try to learn things about search from my referrers. Today, I learned two thing when I investigated why I had a high rank for the Google search PageRank Zero October 2007.

What did I learn? First, no matter what else happened during the PageRank dust up, Google still likes older pages. Second, we should all give some attention to our archives.

Now, a bit of background. When I was my highrank for PageRank Zero October 2007 I thought three things:

1. Google relevancy on this search term is not so hot.
2. Who ranks #1 for “PageRank Zero”? and most importantly.
3. Archives matter.

These thought led to a bit of investigation, from which I “learned” a thing or two. Below, I’ll expand on these thoughts, and provide the lessons they taught me about Google search.

Why do I think Google’s relevancy for this search is not so hot?

Two reasons.

1. The #2 result was the top page of my monthly archive. The top page of my October archives were relevant for this search several days ago when they matched the current Google cache. That shows text from Ten Google Page Rank Haikus. which matches the topic of that search rather well.

   Today? There is no mention of “PageRank Zero” on that url.

2. The #1 result for that particular long tailed search is Courtney Tuttle’s Going From PageRank Zero To PageRank Hero. (I’m condomizing the link in my never ending effort to seize the #1 position for totally useless search terms!)

   Sound relevant, right? The problem? Whoever was searching for “PageRank Zero October 2007″ likely wished to read articles about the “Google Page Rank Debacle of October ‘07″. Courtney’s post was published in April; his October article would have been relevant.

Lesson:
Before proceeding, it’s worth noticing something: My October Archives page is older than my haiku page. It also has a direct link from my main blog page. Court’s April 2007 article is older still and it’s older than his October article.

Google still seems to like older pages.

Guess what ranks ranks #1 for “PageRank Zero”?

(more…)

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 6 comments

Recently, Sebastian suggested that paid link sellers could switch their business model by secretly no following links. That is, making the paid links look like they “follow” except when viewed by Google’s spiders. These type of links would be called “cloaked nofollows”.

As it happens, I thought about this strategy way back when I wrote How To Cloak Nofollows on Individual WordPress Articles. Sebastian’s article discussed the “pro” side of this cloaking nofollows on paid links. I’m going to discuss the “cons”.

But first, a bit of nuts and bolts.

Is it possible to cloak nofollows?!

Absolutely! It is entirely possible to deliver one page to the Googlebot and another to human visitors. I discuss how to deliver cloaked nofollow entire pages in How To Cloak Nofollows on Individual WordPress Articles. Should you wish to delve deeper into the subject; I recommend reading Sebastian’s and Tellin’ Ya’s articles.

If you were to want to cloak nofollows with Wordpress, you would likely do it using a plugin you could use as linkbait, right?

Here are 6 reasons why I wouldn’t write a plugin to cloak nofollowed paid links!

(more…)

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 15 comments

An advertiser paid Venomous Kate to run a haiku contest mentioning Google. Naturally I entered! Then, I wrote more haikus.

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 11 comments

Today brings a flood of announcements that Google has knocked down many blog Page Ranks. This is thought to be due to a number of factors including excess numbers of paid posts. So, it is natural that I should hurry up and update “No Old Spam Links”, the plugin that lets you automatically “nofollow” sponsored posts after your contractual obligation to “follow” has expired.

In principle, this plugin may help protect your PR. In practice? Matt Cutts’ has never commented on “No Old Spam Links” and is likely unaware of it. So, who knows?

That said, here are the recent changes to the plugin:

1. I discovered and fixed a bug that sometimes when widgets were used. I fixed the bug.
2. I discovered and fixed a bug that sometimes occurs when you have no specific people in your “nofollow” list. Unfortunately, this bug was affecting my knitting blog so I was giving out way more followed paid links than I intended! Way more.)(Yes, my knitting blog’s page rank dropped; I’ll elaborate on this in a separate post.)
3. I tested the new version with WP 2.3. It works fine.

So, if your worried about excess followed paid links, I suggest you install No Old Spam Links. If you aren’t worried about Google, or you are waiting for them to announce the plugin helps, then don’t use it.

Other plugin news:

1. Tricia is testing the new version of Kontera Control at her WP 2.2 blog. I’m testing at my test blog. She was the one who alerted me to the general issue of plugins going buggy when widgets are used.
2. I updated “Hide No Sponsored Categories” but I’m letting it sit a few days so I can do a better job detecting any bugs. The future version should work for WP 2.3, be compatible with widgets (in fact, it is widgetized) and hopefully work for all versions of WP 2.2 and above. I also coded to detect problems with early version of WP and inform the user why the options page doesn’t display. (This was, btw, the update from hell because my favorite WP category hook vanished!)

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | No comment

Have you ever thought about what you would want if you were buying a paid review through a service like the Pay Per Post marketplace? It’s worth thinking about if you ever considered paying to advertise your blog.

In the PPP marketplace an advertiser does not hand select from the 70,000 available blogs. This saves time and cost. But if an advertiser doesn’t hand select blogs, can they come up with effective ways to filter out blogs that provide a poor ROI?

I don’t know. But, I’ve been thinking about what I consider to be “best practices”, which I group by function:

Rules about posting frequency

1. At least 2 posts in the seven days prior to my paid review.
2. No more than 3 posts on the day my review runs.
3. No more than 14 posts in the seven days before my review.

Why? I want some minimum posting frequency to ensure that the blog is active; at least 2 posts the previous week should do this. I also want to ensure my post remains visible for a reasonable period of time; fewer than 3 posts they day my post runs will generally ensure this.

But why no more than 14 posts in the week before my article runs? The PPP marketplace is restricted to single author blogs; many of high quality. It also contains quite a number bloggers who also blog for PayU2Blog, V7N, Smorty, and a large variety of different services.

I may be mistaken, but I believe some of these sneak back-to-back paid posts run past the PPP reviewers; one of the hall-marks of those running back-to-back-to-back paid posts is a very high posting frequency. I also believe these blogs will give poor ROI. I think restricting an OPP to blogs with fewer than 14 posts/week will eliminate most of these blogs.

External Rank Guidelines

1. Alexa rank below 500,000.
2. If blog existed at the time of the last Google Toolbar rerank, PR 2 or greater.

Why? Well, let’s face facts. Any blogger who is monetizing is trying to apply SEO practices at least a little. PPP already requires blogs to be at least 3 months old. Posties know other posties, and all install Alexa toolbars. If a blog in in the PPP system and has an Alexa above 500,000, there is a serious risk it has no traffic at all (or it’s a very inexperienced blogger.)

If their PR is less than 2 after a Google Toolbar rerank, there is a serious likelyhood the have no quality back links and very, very few people value that blog.

Rules related to links

1. No sitewide ‘Postie Roll’ link.
2. No sidebar or footer links to “PayU2Blog”.
3. No more than 2 links to gambling, mortgage, loans, credit cards or insurance sites on any pages displaying my post.
4. Post before and after mine may not link exactly one external domain.

Why? I would want to create rules about links that either a) minimize the number of bloggers who have achieved their PR almost exclusively by gaming the system or b) riddle their blogs with paid links.

The “Postie Roll” is described at the PPP boards, and is simply an agreed on link exchange with a large number of other posties. It’s appearance on a sidebar may suggest that blog’s Google PR is gamed to higher than truly deserved.

The other three rules pertain to a blogger running constant paid links.

PayU2Blog is a service that emails bloggers a list of links to include in blogs. The posts need not be relevant, there is no requirement to space out posts. The result is loads and load of paid links which devalues the values of any individual link.

Likewise, ads for mortgages, loans, credit, casinos, poker or anything associated with those industries are the hallmark of heavily monetized blogs.

And why the curious requirement that the post before and after mine not contain links to exactly one external domain? When advertisers do pay for a link, they generally insist on specific links pointing only to their domain. Zero external links, quite obviously, is not a paid post. But, strangely enough, two or more external links is almost never a paid post.

Rule about categories

1. Post must be placed in at least one ‘non-sponsored’ category that maintains a “followed” archive.

Why? Heck, I want to be maximize the likelyhood that my post remains visible on the web and ends up in an archive with other decent posts. So, I insist it goes in a category that, hopefully, contains some unsponsored posts!

What would you ask for?

Well, it’s Sunday. So, with some luck, readers have a bit of time to tell me what criteria they might insist on in a PPP post. Or, maybe debate whether or not these criteria are either over-restrictive or under-restrictive.

Then, if I figure out the best set of criteria, I may someday actually buy some reviews through PPP.

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 4 comments

Recently, “Hey you SEO biggies don’t be ashamed to link to hard working newbies” hit the front page of Sphinn. I visited the author’s blog, only to discover he was, himself, rather stingy with links. In fact, he’d specifically named eleven A-list bloggers without linking any!

Oh, the irony! A d-list blogger complains A-list SEO bloggers won’t link D-listers, yet he doesn’t link them!

In honor of that post, I bring you …
The Top Eleven Reasons to NEVER Link to an A List SEO Blogger:

1. A few of the A list blogger’s visitors or fans might click the trackback and visit your blog.
2. They may comment subscribe to your feed.
3. They may click on your ads.
4. They may have B-D list blogs and link you!
5. One or two may Stumble your post.
6. The A list blogger might notice your trackback and visit your blog.
7. Your visitors may think you faked the comment left by the A list blogger.
8. The A list blogger might subscribe to your feed.
9. The A list SEO blogger may be familiar with social networks and submit your post to Digg, StumbleUpon or Sphinn.
10. The A list blogger might love your blog and eventually link you.
11. Someday, the A list blogger may invite you to guest post!

Of course, all this can only happen if you have good content. So, I figure I won’t be invited to guest post at any of these 11 blogs any time soon. That’s why I’m taking the risk and linking out!

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 7 comments

Recently, Wendy Piersall asked Does Google Page Rank Foster an Attitude of Stinginess? Of course, it very well may foster stinginess particularly on the part of established bloggers.

Today, on my PR0 ranked blog, I want to ask the opposite question: Does Google PR foster a false sense of entitlement on the part of bloggers with brand new, out of the box, PR0 blogs?

Let’s look at the story that moved Wendy, which she summarized as follows:

Lizzie has a brand new blog and wanted to try and monetize it. She turned to PayPerPost as a source of revenue, only to be flatly rejected because of her lack of Google Page Rank. So, in a quest for inbound links, Lizzie found a blogger who did link exchanges :: only to find that same said blogger refused all requests from sites with a Page Rank of less than 3.

Wendy think this is a bit stingy on the part of the blogger who refused the link. Maybe so…or maybe not.

Let’s look at what Lizzie, the blogger who requested the link, really did, and think about what she might reasonably expect.

Let’s fill in the details!

Fewer than 90 days ago, Lizzie started a new blog which appears to fall in the “whatever I feel like blogging about” niche. After fewer than 90 days, and a dozen posts, she applied for PPP, which rejected that particular blog. She tells readers she was rejected because of her PR0.

Lizzy is incorrect: PPP accepts PR0 blogs. They reject blogs less than 90 days old and with excessively long gaps between posts.

However, since her goal is to monetize this brand new blog, she also concludes that she needs inbound links to improve her page rank of zero. She is correct about this — not because it’s required by PPP but because advertisers will pay more for ads and reviews on higher ranked blogs.

So, Lizzie sets out on a link hunt. Where does she go first? Apparently, not to her own three year old blog with linkage!

Lizzie tells us she has such a blog, but doesn’t name the blog. I did run a back link check at iweb tool and glanced at the blogs giving Chipped Polish backlinks. Nne seem to be written by a Lizzy and those that show images clearly don’t match her face in one of her online profiles.

So, while my backlink check isn’t thorough, it appears Lizzie may not link her own PR0 blog from her own, well established higher PR blog!

Instead, Lizzie surfs the “make money blogging” corner, and finds a blog that evidently provides instructions for being added to the blog roll. Lizzy reads the content, and concludes, to use Lizzy’s words ‘it was a little “meh”’ and proceeds to request a reciprocal sidebar link exchange from:

1. A blogger whose blog Lizzie only read because she was on a link hunt.
2. A blogger whose content Lizzie thinks is “meh”.
3. A blogger who has almost certainly never read or visited Lizzie’s blog.
4. A blogger with a vastly higher PR than Lizzie.
5. A blogger who is entirely unfamiliar with Lizzie herself and
6. A blogger who is publicly advertising her willingness to do reciprocal links exchanges for no other reason than to juice rank,
7. A blogger who, after reading Lizzie’s blog, may have visited it and decreed the content “meh”.

So, in this context, why would Lizzie expect a to get a link? Why should the PR5 blogger give her a link? At least, vis-a-vis Lizzie, the entire reason for the proposed link exchange is to juice Lizzie’s PR rank.

What Lizzie proposes is, quite frankly, an entirely economic exchange. Presumably, under these circumstances, the only reason the PR5 blogger would give Lizzie a link is if the PR5 blogger got something in exchange.

And what, precisely, would that be? A link on the sidebar of a PR0 blog of a blogger with 12 posts in the “whatever” niche who thinks your content is “meh”? That link has little current value as link juice. It probably has little ability to drive traffic. Moreover, if the PR5 blogger is engaged in loads of reciprocal link exchanges done to gain link juice only, there is the possiblity that this particular link exchange would look suspicious to Google.

Still, I guess a case could be made that a link Lizzie’s blog sidebar has future value and so should be granted.

But does it? Lizzie thinks the PR5 blog is “meh”. She is establishing a “made to monetize” blog. Space on sidebars is space where one can advertise. Will Lizzie keep the PR5 bloggers link in place should Lizzie no longer desperately needs the link juice?

We can’t know. The PR5 Blogger can’t know. So, there is little value for the PR5 blogger here.

Does Lizzie recognize the problem and up the ante and offer the PR5 blogger a link to her “meh” blog on Lizzy’s established blog with PR? It appears makes no such offer.

So, unless we think bloggers PR0 Bloggers are entitled to any and all sidebar links they request, why would we conclude the PR5 blogger is ’stingy’?

Why not conclude Lizzie has a false sense of entitlement?

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 10 comments

Many of us comment at blog for a variety of reasons. One question we all need to ask ourselves is: what comment length best achieves our goals? The answer is: “Goldilocks Comments” are just right! I’ll explain why.

Reasons to comment

So first, let’s examine what commenters goals generally are. The three I am aware of are:

1. To participate in a conversation with another blogger or blog community,
2. To publicize our own blog.
3. To drop a link and get Google link juice.

I know, many people will deny motive #2 and vehemently deny motive #3. Nevertheless, I think in honestly, most must admit our motives are often mixed. Frankly, I think we’ll behave better if we admit rather than deny selfish motives.

And now, on to the Goldilocks Principle of blog comments.

What is the Goldilocks Principle?

We all remember Goldilocks. She tried out Pappa Bear’s bed (too hard); Momma Bear’s bed (too soft) and finally found Baby Bear’s bed (just right.)

“Just right” was medium. The Goldilocks Principle is: leave medium length comments.

Why is “medium” the correct length for a comment.

• “Medium” length comments are conversational.
  Since we were children, we have learned that the best conversationalists express some interesting opinion or provide useful information.

  An interesting snippet of conversation must be longer than “Uh, huh.” or “Yeah. Could you hand me a beer.” At the same time, if you intend to converse, you must give the other person a chance to speak. In particular, you must permit the blogger who wrote the post to be able to comment. To this end, it’s best to avoid a long dissertation.

• Medium length comments publicize you and your blog

Say you leave a very short comment like “Great post!” and drop a link. Do you think the blogger or the bloggers fan are going to think, “Wow! I bet she has lots to discuss at her blog?

No. You will spend a few minutes loading the page, scrolling and clicking and get, at best a link. If you spend an extra minute and leave a thoughtful medium length comment, you can sometimes get clicks to your blog.

Say, you leave a very, very long comment. Maybe you post 7 paragraphs (I have done this.) If it’s a good comment (or a particularly silly one) , some blog visitors might click your links.

So that seems good, right?

Mostly, wrong. If you find yourself typing 7 paragraphs into a comment box, you should stop and edit down to 2 paragraphs. Then write a blog post, link the blogger and leave a trackback!

That’s the way to use comments to publicize your blog while also building decent content appropriate to your niche.

• Medium length comments get you link juice!
  We are now on the the totally selfish reason to leave medium length comments. Yes, we must admit it, sometimes one of the reasons you want to leave a comment is to get a dofollow link. But you know what, if you leave the classic fly by “Great post” comment, you run the risk of having your post deleted. It’s up to the blogger who controls the blog. So you will have wasted your time loading the page, clicking the comment box and what not.

  In contrast, if you leave a decent medium length comment, you’ll get that link.

  Oh, and guess what? If you get in the habit of leaving decent comments, you will probably train yourself to actually read the blogs you visit. Then, you’ll find yourself wanting to write long comments, which will inspire your own blog posts.

  And guess what? There is a darn good chance, the person whose post you discussed will be inspired by something you said and eventually link you back.

  And that, ambitious blogger, is the way to get real, editorial links from comments!

Does this all sound selfish? It sort of is. That’s kinda’ why the strategy works!

That’s why I’m using the tactic I’m describing right now! I was about to leave a long comment at Riley Central’s post “Blog Commenting” where Damien discussed the idea length of comments.

As I was typing, I remembered that if a post makes me want to write 7 paragraphs, that means that blogger wrote a thought provoking post. I figure my readers might want to read the interesting blog post. So, I tell them about that post!

Will Damien of Riley Central or his visitors will read my trackback and read my post? I don’t know. Will Damien link me? I don’t know.

But they won’t read or link my blog if I leave a bajillion long comment in his comments thread! Then watch to see if the other blogger responds, my experience is they do respond roughly 1/3 of the time!

Now, you practice!

Now everyone, I encourage you to practice. Leave ‘medium’ comments here and at other blogs. Tell me what you think makes a good comment. And if you find yourself going on and on, write your own blog post describing your thought to your readers and link me!

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 16 comments

Some will recall that I previously John Chow Effect: Does it Kill Young Blogs? Today, I will discuss the effect of a John Chow Review on a medium sized blog — Gaman’s Sabahan.com.

My conclusion? Based on data I can access, I believe the John Chow ReviewMe for Sabahan.com had a moderate 2-4 day effect; it brought no long term traffic boost. The John Chow review exerted practically no positive effect when used to promote a time critical event like a contest.

It is, of course, up to each individual blogger to decide whether a 2-4 day long modest boost in traffic is worth transferring lots on money into John Chow’s pocket. As for myself: I will not be ordering a John Chow ReviewMe review!

History of the John Chow Review Me Review

On July 10, 2007, John Chow posted a ReviewMe review of Sabahan.com. On July 23, Gaman posted Is it worth spending $400 …; he told his audience that his main goal in buying the review had been to promote a blog contest with a prize of free lifetime hosting for a blog.

Did the John Chow ReviewMe advance that goal? Evidently not. In Sabahan’s words:

I did get a couple of new entries as a result of the review but I am actually quite disappointed it wasn’t more than a handful!

But never mind. Maybe John Chow sent lots of traffic? It appears not. (more…)

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 8 comments

Are you a fresh new blogger who has wondered whether you could kick start your blog by paying John Chow to review you? Based on the history of two blogs he reviewed in December 2006 and February 2007 — which died– I’d advise against it.

Both Pubincome.com and Allenation.com, now dead, were reviewed by John Chow. Below, you’ll find a plot showing Alexa estimates of their traffic reach. For comparison purposes, I also show my new blog, “BigBucksBlogger”.¹

Here are the plots:

The Blog Kill Effect?

In late December of ‘06, Jason Rodriguez paid John Chow to review the very new pubincome.com. In early January, Jason posted that the review brought his blog a lot of traffic; by March 23, Jason had taken his blog off line.

PubIncome is now dead. May it rest in peace.

On February 7, Allen paid John to review his new blog “Allenation.” In the Alexa graph, you can see Allen’s traffic had increased during the month before the review and then increased more rapidly around Feb. 7 when the review occurred.

At one point, the “reach” noted by Alexa exceeded that of BigBucksBlogger! Imagine getting more than 47 unique visits a day! And without even discussing a topic that really draws in traffic — like knitting!

In the short run, it’s clear Allen was happy with the results and reported a spike in traffic. But, alas, Allen’s traffic dropped precipitously, and for some reason, Allen pretty much stopped posting at Allenation in March 2007. You can read more at Allenation.

Allenation is now dead: May it rest in peace.

Final Analysis

I tried to find other new blogs John Chow may have reviewed more than 3 months ago, but I didn’t find any. If you are aware of any, let me know. I’d love to look at the Alexa plots for those.

Still, based on the results I’ve found, I would advise new bloggers to resist the temptation to buy a ReviewMe by John Chow. The sudden drop after the thrilling rise may kill your blog.

Concentrate on other things– like building good content.

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 10 comments