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Smorty Offers Advice On How To Thwart PageRank Loss
December 12th, 2007 by
Garry Conn | 55 Comments
The whole issue of doing sponsored posts is honestly driving me up the wall. I really feel like it is accepting money from the devil. I feel even more strongly about it after observing a private message on my Smorty Login screen:
The above image may be hard for you to read, so I will quote the text:
Hello and thanks for all your great work with Smorty.
There have been some recent changes that Google have made with regard to sponsored postings.
Smorty would like to offer you some advice on this issue. Google has primarily targeted PayPerPost member blogs and reduced their Page ranks across the board. Although this WILL NOT REDUCE your rankings or readership, your blog will receive more campaign offers if it has a higher page rank. To prevent any future loss of page rank due to this issue you can take the following steps:1. Remove all sponsored post tags on each of your posts. Google can follow these tags to determine if you are being paid for posts.
2. Remove any PayPerPost tags on your posts for “hire me” and “review me”. Any general affiliate banners are fine to keep.
This information is misleading. Don’t think that you are safe by using Smorty instead of PayPerPost or ReviewMe.com. Here is why.
Google isn’t stupid. People are failing to realize is that Google can sniff out a paid or sponsored post a mile away.
With Smorty, they claim to help protect your PageRank by not forcing you to admit that the post is sponsored or paid. ReviewMe.com forces publishers to disclose that the post is sponsored, same with PayPerPost. Smorty doesn’t make you do that and this makes people feel really warm and fuzzy all over.
Make no mistake, this security blanket of NOT having to disclose that your Smorty post is a sponsored review does NOT protect you from getting caught by Google. As I mentioned above, Google isn’t stupid.
How Can Google Catch Me Without Disclosing?
Easy! When you write a post for an advertiser in Smorty, more likely that same advertiser is also using ReviewMe.com as well as PayPerPost.com. As you know, Google can sniff out a sponsored PayPerPost articles as well as a sponsored ReviewMe.com posts because of the sponsored post disclosure statement. All they have to do is take a record of who the advertiser is from ReviewMe or PayPerPost and then run a filter on that advertiser to see a list of sites that have pointed links to their site. They can either:
A.) Manually investigate their findings, or…
B.) Say screw it… we’ll just adjust PageRank for all sites that have passed links to these particular advertisers.
Either way, if you use Smorty, you are equally at risk of getting caught cheating Google’s PageRank system as you would be with using any other system that is in a direct violation of their Webmaster Guidelines.
Paid Reviews Is No Different Than Prostitution
I understand that you want to make money online. I totally feel for you there. You have been using programs like Google Adsense, and the money just isn’t there yet. You discovered sponsored posts and paid links and quickly saw how the money was much better than Google Adsense. But unfortunately, short lives the life of a hooker and if you run your blog this way, you’ll soon be left with nothing.
After PayPerPost, ReviewMe, Smorty and other places use you up like a street corner hooker, you’ll be kicked out to the curb as they will no longer will have a use for you. Without PageRank you are useless to them and after burning your bridge with Google, your blog will be worth nothing.
Selling paid links and writing sponsored posts is like taking money from the devil… eventually you’re going to get burned.
Google can provide you with free traffic. Your opinions being based loosely off your previous poor performance with their search engine as well as their Google Adsense program is by way of your own ignorance and lack of experience in using their systems. Invest time into researching how you can rank well in their search engine and invest time into learning how to find success with Adsense. In the long run, it will pay off much better than accepting money from a pimp daddy for doing whorish work.
Or, you can cheat Google’s system and your blog can live a short life by becoming a paid links and sponsored posts prostitute for a pimp daddy such as ReviewMe.com and PayPerPost.
The choice is yours, I personally blog for the long term success and don’t fall for the temptations of easy and quick money from the devil.
Google is an awesome search engine with some amazing technologies and systems. However, there is no perfect system, and it is those that pimp out sites and those that allow their blogs to be whored out that put Google at risk of not being the great search engine that they have come to be. Without a doubt, I am not surprised to see Google taking measures to protect their valuable system. Millions of people depend on it… I see it as not only their job but their global responsibility to assure the public that their search engine remain accurate.
If you participate in programs that sell PageRank your blog will eventually be found and your site will be adjusted in Google’s ranking system. When this happens, your pimp daddy will no longer want you and you’ll be left in the dark with no job, and no PageRank to come crawling back to.
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Related Keyword Tags: Google Webmaster Guidelines, Selling PageRank
Ooh.. strong words man! I haven’t used any of the paid review sites even though I have registered before. I think the playing field has to level off somewhere where these paid services can coexist peacefully without Google punishing them. After all, you can’t blame a blogger for taking the easy route when it’s out there for the taking. It’s part human nature, part ignorance. And they must not have read your posts.
I am closely looking at IZEA and their RealRank to see how that pans out. I would love to hear what you think about PPP’s new incarnation.
Interesting post. In regards to paid posting being tantamount to prostitution — remember prostitution is not illegal everywhere. And, in actuality is up to the morals of the individual involved when separated from the legal system (whether legal or illegal in your jurisdiction). Thus, it is just as murky as the entire Google/paid links debate.
This may be the stupidest post I have ever read on the internet. How do you justify bloggers with links in their sidebar? I guess they are the sluts who sit at the bar and hustle rather than work the streets.
They can coexist. rel=nofollow.
It is in Google. and one of the problems I have is that everyone doesn’t know about their webmaster guide lines. And companies like smorty will play off the ignorance of the publishers. If many of these publishers were told up front that they could lose their rank in Google, they would opt out.
Yeah, real interesting post. At least I can still make my subjects and verbs tenses match. Google can’t take that away.
Oh, so this is how you handle link exchange on your blog?
In much humor, I have made worse spelling and grammar mistakes… LOL!!! I have no shame and no one is perfect. BTW are you going to attack my grammar or you gonna step up and attack the context of my post? It seems that you don’t like my post and I’d bet my money that you’re NOT offended by the grammar error… LOL!!!
Wow what an honest guy!! Don’t print my comment but change your bad grammer in the title after I alert you to it. Good going! Of course this comment won’t see the light of day either. I mean as long as we are talking about honesty and all……………
But what about the glaringly stupid error that remains in the permalink and your sidebar?
That ad you have at the top of this post for Micro Niche Finder makes you a slut who sits at the bar and hustles rather than working the streets. You can call me a whore for writing post with links but at least I am honest about what I am doing. Hypocrite.
LOL!!!
That ad if you look carefully, uses REL=NOFOLLOW!
If you are looking for someone to tell you that you can write paid posts and sell paid links and tell you that everything will be ok, sorry dude… you’re not going to get that from me.
So PayPerPost, ReviewMe and Smorty are street corner pimps? What does that make Adsense? A brothel? You make money from your blog that makes you a whore too and Google is your madam.
Bad analogy dude.
Oh, and bad grammar does offend some people. Especially when people are making money for sub-par writing such as yours.
You’re too funny…
I am sorry? What about it? Is there a point that you are trying to make? Are you going to tell me that you haven’t made a grammatical error or spelled something wrong on your blog? Wow… you’re perfect, nice…. I want to be just like you!
Broke and wishing I was making money online… LOL!!!
You really just don’t get it, do you? Places like ReviewMe.com, PayPerPost, etc.. have 100% intention on helping advertisers pay their way to the top of the SERPs in Google… and that takes the position away from people like myself who worked hard to earn it for free. If you want to rank on the top of the SERPs then do the right thing and buy your way using Google Adwords.
How would you feel if you worked hard for months to earn a position in Google and then have some jerk in less than a week pay his way to the top and knock you down, all because he had money and you didn’t?
Google is here to protect the poor from the rich who use their money to influence their ranking in the SERPs. If you are too dumb to see that, then probably many of the other things I write are over your head. Go read a fluff blog where the content makes you feel better, because you’re not going to get that here.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don’t agree 100% with you , but, I agree in general. What gets me is how people act in comments. I thought the post was funny, of course I know you better than most so I know your humor. I am against Paid Post, I rode the fence on it for awhile, but, I do not think it is the same as selling products like Micro Niche Finder. I have no problem with paying writers for content, but to pay for articles based on Page Rank is wrong, and like it or not that is what all these systems are doing. IMHO. I wonder if I can pay the Human Resources dept of my company to give me a good review?
Very well put David… and thank you for putting this discussion back into perspective.
As Jason says I used a bad analogy, I wonder what his response will be to this:
I’m relatively new to these paid reviews or sponsored posts thingy. The way I understand it is, if you join these programs your blog or website will die an online death? O_o
Ok, I guess you are missing the point. Bad grammar, especially after one error is pointed out and others are not fixed until they are in turn pointed out, gives one the impression that you don’t pay much attention to detail. Makes one wonder about the quality of your articles, and the veracity of your research, especially when you make statements like “I wish I was like you, broke and wishing I was making money online”. That’s very telling. I didn’t give you an impression I was broke. In fact only one of my 3 blogs does sponsored posts and and the money I earn for those is spent on toys for me. I don’t think I’m broke, but maybe you know something I don’t?
And LOL, “paid reviews” is plural and so is “paid posts”. Do yourself a favor. Go out and purchase a copy of William Strunk’s Elements of Style and learn grammar basics so you can write like a professional. Feel free to order though my Amazon link. LOL!!
Paid reviews come when your site has reached an increase in your PageRank. Advertisers with the networks will offer to pay you money if you write a review and include a link to their site in your post. The reason why they are willing to pay you is because they get a backlink that points to their site. The more backlinks that an advertisers has on their site, the higher and quicker they will rank in the free section of Google’s SERPs.
Google doesn’t like to have their search engine gamed like that. So, they take pretty good measures towards adjusting both the advertisers site as well as all the people that got paid to write the paid post. When that happens, you will lose your PageRank and be left with a blog that no longer has search engine traffic and no longer makes money using these programs.
How much money are your sites making?
Let me know how that continues to work for you.
Looks like a great read, I just might do that… and if I do, I’ll buy it from you.
-Gizmo, People who live in glass houses should not throw stones!!
http://www.todaysgizmos.com/?p=59 - Please look at the title and then visit this page to see the proper spelling of Rechargable http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/Rechargable
The point is this, we all make mistakes.
I see but is the term “no longer has search engine traffic” also apply to all search engines? So, if someone used Yahoo to search then you won’t be there too?
@ David,
Oops… and a big 10-4 on that one! We all make mistakes, even the ones that like to point out the mistakes I make. LOL!!! It would be nice for the people that oppose to my view to bring to the table some legitimate responses instead of attacccckinnng hows I spelz. LOL!!
@ Kabalyero,
Search engines for the most part look at backlinks. Its not just Google, but because Google is the primary leader in the industry they make the most noise about it. With that being said, I don’t really concern myself much on other search engines. I rank equally as well in them, but they lack in traffic compared to Google.
I’m looking forward to social spark getting started. They will be offering no follow paid posts. Payperpost is showing some success with using real rank with their advertisers, so who knows what will happen?
I admit I’m a paid post whore. lol It helps pay some bills and keeps gas in my car. Honestly, I don’t like doing them for a multitude of reasons, but I will until other sources of income take their place.
I enjoyed your post, I think it’s funny and controversial. I don’t totally agree with you but I see your point. And Google’s point too. But I’m not a fan of monopolies, like Microsoft used to be. Someday it will be ‘like Google used to be’.
Laura,
Now that is a cool comment. Thank you! The post was intended originally to be serious but also have some humor on a touchy subject. I think you and David might have been the only ones to read into that.
Believe me, I know where you are coming from. I used to do sponsored posts too before I discovered the whole issues about passing PageRank. It can be frustrating because I am literally sitting on $550 dollars worth of ReviewMe.com posts that I could write as well as over $300 dollars worth of Smorty posts that I could write…
I don’t know about you, but $850 dollars sure could come in handy for Christmas. However, I have to look at the long term health of my sites. Yes… I can score a lot of money NOW, but what will happen in the future when I get busted and my site no longer has its PageRank. The end result is, I am out of a job and I am left with a site that now gets ZERO search engine traffic and ZERO regular readers.
Thanks so much for taking the time to post your comment.
Gary you have good point. I don’t think a lot of people knew about passing page rank at all until all this Google slapping took place. I know I didn’t. And as a result, I have been reconsidering the whole idea of sponsored posts for the past several weeks and will probably wait to see what Social Spark brings. This is also why I won’t do sponsored posts on my other two blogs, spelling mistakes not withstanding (but no grammatical errors). But calling over 100.000 people whores is a little over the top in my view.
Hi Gary,
Being a PPPimp Daddy, I have to say that your luscious little PR 5 blog could make more than $500/day here. Sure you don’t wanna go for a ride?
LOL!!!
Oh, I am torn between right and wrong…
which voice in my head do I listen to?
I stopped reading as soon as I saw your ugly design. Really I never got to the title
Dew,
Oh no… it must have been a terrible experience for you having to scroll down to write the comment then…
Do you need a glass of water. Perhaps you should elevate your feet above your head?
Gary, you are so paranoid and afraid of Google. You’re a girly man, but I guess that’s better than being a pimp, prostitute or a john. BTW: You do know hat prostitution is known as “the oldest profession” don’t you. I’ve known some hookers with Masters degrees. Try Nevada, kid, or the blocks around the Plaza Hotel in NYC. You’ll never put down prostitution again. Sounds to me like you maybe need to get some.
Now, as for your understanding of the issue, you said: “When that happens, you will lose your PageRank and be left with a blog that no longer has search engine traffic and no longer makes money using these programs.”
You lose PageRank. Period. It’s a number. No biggie. Google’s SERPs are unaffected by PR. So, you’re statement is simply false.
You may think you’re smart for calling out piad posters, but at least many of them research what they’re writing about and have a good understanding of the topic before posting. I can’t say the same for you.
Rick,
Wow you sure do know how to hold an intelligent conversation, I am proud of you buddy! Keep up the great work….
Personal attacks add absolutely no value to your comment. Why not present some facts to back up what you say? If you think I am so wrong, then prove me wrong? Show me something that backs up what you say. I doubt you can or will.
You also might want to read more carefully as I am not calling out any names or pointing fingers, but rather want to help and make sure people are truly aware of what can happen to their blog or site if they participate in these programs.
As far as many of them doing research… LOL!!! You have GOT to be kidding me? I have seen so many paid or sponsored posts that are way off beat and unrelated to the typical content found on their blogs, its pathetic.
What this means is that people are willing to do just about anything to get money in their pockets. I can visit a blog about electronics and discover a sponsored post about dog grooming. I wonder how researched posts like that were?
I have a few friends that actually used ReviewMe.com in the past for advertisement and they voiced to me how utterly terrible their service was. The reviews were terrible, poorly researched and didn’t accurately describe the business or service being offered.
If you would like to engage into a debate or discussion about this, that would be great… I encourage you to. However, when you drop comments like your last, then only thing you do is make yourself look like an ass. Whether you truly are an ass will be confirmed in your next comment, if you actually come back.
-Rick, I have a question. And I am open minded, so convince me. If you lose PR, who is going to buy Posts from you? Why would they? Every system I have seen keys off the PR. PayPerPost even has a Minimum Google Page Rank listed on each opportunity.
PR is not just a number,and it does affect the SERPS. Just read Google blogs to understand that. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/