If you look at a niche such as SEO, things are always changing. I’m sure if you looked through Aaron Wall’s posts from a year or two ago they would be outdated and I somehow doubt that he goes through and updates them.

If you do decide to add a disclaimer, do it at the very top of the post in italics or something. I did this on the bottom of a few high traffic posts in my archives that were no longer applicable and it was like noone read them, so I recommend putting it on top before the posts. I’ve deleted a few posts in my day, but I try to avoid it if possible.

Sorry for the continuing to derail this post

-Garry, Google is not into censorship, they are into indexing the world. What you said 6 months ago is not what gets you in trouble, all the support you give these programs passing PR is. I see no evidence on your site that would warrant action. However, if you go changing old content, that could cause some problems, IMHO.

The “do nothing” option is something I have been doing with efforts that thwarted access to my older content. However, I can’t begin to tell you how many people have been requesting more predominate access to my archives. Now that access has been granted, I kind of need to do something.

I think I will make a disclosure statement. Thanks for the feedback man.

If you delete, you need to redirect, which can be a pain with WP, but it is possible.

Or, the other option is to do nothing. Which is what I have done so far, lol….

Google, Inc. has a beast of a search engine and a hell of a technological backbone. I understand what you are saying about PayPerPost having a special JavaScript code that has to be installed on your site. Clearly, Google will be able to detect that. Text-Link-Ads have revised their code to disguise the links in an attempt to make it less noticeable. ReviewMe.com still mandates that users disclose that the review was sponsored. There are quite a few other places such as Smorty that don’t make users disclose.

With all that being said, it doesn’t matter. Google has an engine that can process and calculate things beyond human comprehension and if you barter, trade or sell links for the purpose of manipulating, changing and passing PageRank, it is a matter of time before you get caught and your domain name gets adjusted within their system.

How can this happen if the links are not identifiable? Easy… here is an example:

Advertiser: John Widget, Inc.

Joins the Text-Link-Ads advertiser program and purchases 50 text links to be displayed on 50 various sites.
Joins the ReviewMe.com advertiser program and purchased 10 sponsored reviews to be published on 10 different sites.
Barters link exchanges with 20 different blogs and currently displays their links in on his site.
Joins the Smorty advertiser program and purchases 12 sponsored reviews to be published on 12 different sites.
Joins the PayPerPost advertiser program and order 5 sponsored reviews to be published on 5 different sites.

Now, lets assume that you (Collin) are an active member of the NON detectable Smorty.com publisher program and accepted to write a sponsored review from John Widget, Inc. You write the review, get paid for it… life is good.

Now, lets assume that (Billy Bob) accepts a paid review from John Widget, Inc. from PayPerPost.com. He writes it and gets paid for it… life is good.

Now, lets assume that (Beth) accepts to trade links with John Widget, Inc and displays their link in her blogroll and visa versa.

With all that being said, now lets roll through some examples:

Googlebot will crawl and reindex Billy Bob’s site and record the page of the paid post from PayPerPost.com. John Widget, Inc. will now be on Google’s shit list…

Googlebot will crawl and reindex your (Collin) site and take note of the page you created that links to John Widget Inc. Because John Widget, Inc has already been noted as an advertiser and for the fact that you’re linking to it, it is possible that it could be assumed that your post was also sponsored and published for the purpose of passing PageRank.

Googlebot will crawl Beth’s site and see that she is linking to John Widget, Inc and also notice that John Widget, Inc is linking back to her… there is no logical relevance between the two sites.

Googlebot will eventually crawl and reindex the other 19 sites where link exchanges were done.

From there… it can totally be determined that John Widget, Inc. is an advertiser who pays for links and reviews and barters link exchanges for the purpose of passing PageRank. At that point in time, any affiliated site that links to or from could be suspect of attributing towards this activity. Any site from that point on could suffer from a loss of ranking.

Google, Inc. is a very rich company… heck, I can’t even afford to by one share of stock! LOL!!! They have a lot of money, authority and manpower and I believe totally that if you exchange, sell or trade links for the intention of passing PageRank, eventually you’ll get busted for it.

Google, Inc. tracks more things than you’re even aware of… even though personal and private information is never recorded, unless you opt in, Google, Inc. records your trends, activities, etc.. (ie. what does collin do typically after reading his Gmail account… does he: (a) visit Yahoo.com (b) visit Smorty.com (c) Turn off his computer, etc… Google follows your behavior and then makes calculations and predictions based off your traceable behavior on the Internet. If you use Google Desktop or even have the Google Toolbar installed… this information is being recorded and used towards predictions.

Believe me… if you’re doing shady link exchanges… Google will find out. People for some reason get a superman sense of privacy behind the screens of their monitors. The truth is, you probably have more of a chance of getting away with murder than being able to access, scan or surf the Internet undetected, unnoticed and anonymously.

That is why Googles page ranks system is crap and not at all based on reality. PPP and Text link adds have codes you add to your site which is why Google can come after you, link exchanging that can’t track unless they read all your posts and join every group you have been in to see if your doing this.

The more I learn about page rank and how Google does it I am seeing that other search engines like MSN might be better for bloggers to focus there efforts in.

LOL!!! Yes… from time to time, especially today, I migrate over to some of my older stuff and I just hear Doctor Phil in the background saying… “What…. were you thinking!!??!?! Were you smoking CRACK!!!??”

LOL!!!