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.

Yeah, real interesting post. At least I can still make my subjects and verbs tenses match. Google can’t take that away.

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.

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.

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?

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!!

-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?

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’.

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?

I stopped reading as soon as I saw your ugly design. Really I never got to the title

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, 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/

Interesting article, I found that Smorty message rather disturbing myself. It’s kind of like secret spy information on how to save your blog before it’s too late. Some of us paid posters were looked at by Google (they made their rounds three times in my case) and were passed by, which doesn’t go along with the theory that every single paid blogger lost their rank. I know one paid poster who went from a PR 3 to a 6. But who knows.

I can’t really see a connection between paid posting and prostitution, I usually don’t mix blogging with sex.

OK, first, David. People would buy links from me or anyone who doesn’t have pagerank for traffic, exposure, or maybe because they like the way I write (I have an advertiser who told me that), because the price may be right, or a thousand other reasons. Just because some advertisers want to use PR doesn’t make it perfect.

Read on, I have more…

Now, Gary, don’t be so sensitive. My site is a perfect example. You can click on my name above and access it. PR is currently 0. Used to be 5, then 4 last year. Now, go to Google and do a search for “magazine price guide” (quotes aren’t necessary). See that! I’m #1, and usually #2 or #3 as well. Google said nothing about search rank. What they said on their blog was: “October 2007: Google officially confirmed to Search Engine Land that we were taking stronger action on this issue, including decreasing the toolbar PageRank of sites selling links that pass PageRank.” … among other equally vacuous comments.

What really galls me is that I never set out to influence PageRank, and even when I sold advertising, it was based on my traffic and my expertise in placing links. So, basically, Google’s PR is a rather meaningless number. My site is the de facto authority for my niche, it’s been there for 8 years and has a ton of inbound links. Google would never even consider taking my search rank down because it would devalue their entire enterprise.

Fact of the matter is that Google has already devalued PR, so I don’t put anything past them at this point. Seriously, Google has no way of determining if a link is paid or not, so they’re looking pretty desperate, trying to push a pebble upstream. In this battle, which is just heating up, they’ll lose.

Ok, you have some good points. However, you make some statements that are not proven. If you study Google white papers and their algorithms PR is a big part of the equation for ranking.

However, there are several other factors, and you have one of the main ones nailed, domain age. And this is obviously a help with advertising, and since you can prove your serps, it makes sense that some one would want to advertise with you. I think your site is an exception, not the rule.

One other factor is that you are in a real micro niche market. Do I agree 100% with Google, NO, however, I can understand their stance as a database programmer wanting integrity in my results. It’s the old “one bad apple” syndrome. Too many paid posts are poorly written, way out of focus for the site and cause bad results. Then there are ones that are good and would be ok.

It is not hard to see what is paid and what is not, don’t kid yourself with that argument.

http://boards.payperpost.com/viewtopic.php?t=3510

I am relatively new to the scene here and I must say that this is one of the most entertaing post I have read. From Bad Grammar to name calling. I don’t mean to stir the pot but this has been almost petty.

Now outside of most of the adolescence I think there is some great relevant info here. So thanks for inspiring the newbie to go out and search more about the topic.

As a blog reader and not a blogger I can tell you coming across what I have affectionately called blog spam post is terrible to come across in my blog feed reader. Waste my time if you ask me and this is done in my free time. So that is a major buzz kill.

If you know of somebody that pays for reading post sign me up!!!

Sorry, I don’t buy it. Not from a blogger like you with a ton of AdSense all over your site. Above the fold, that’s all I see. I’m not impressed enough to come back when a site cares more about making a buck off Google then displaying content front and center.

If I’m a whore for doing paid opps, at least I get paid more then pennies, but I have creative and editorial control over what is displayed. No such luck with Google.

I hate you, Garry. I’m trying so hard to be Google’s whore but you get right to the head of the queue and become the head pimp. And what the hell - I came here to learn how to make money online but you give me bad grammar instead - I guess I’d better go back to school, perfects my poor english, and then you wait - just wait! I’ll be pimpin’ ya!!

“Google is here to protect the poor from the rich who use their money to influence their ranking in the SERPs.”
I agree, also it separates good search results from paid results.

If Google hides page rank then paid posts might work. Any one can run a blog then and do paid posts. Maybe then advertisers will stop using these services because they won’t be getting their moneys worth from a bunch of hidden low PR.

I won’t get to involved in the comments above, but I can verify that to date PageRank does not effect your SERPs ranking. My search engine traffic has continued to grow since the date that PageRank died. I’ve also had an increase in advertisers, none of which have even asked about PageRank. I don’t think to many people use it as a measure of rank any longer, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, Garry and I have gone over this several times and he know my views, but the great thing about blogging is we can all comfortly co-exist and enjoy each others work!

Kyle. I too can say that my traffic has not been affected by the page rank drop.

Oh, and I know I said I wouldn’t get involved with the stuff above, but I did want to say that I would like to defend Garry here.

I’ve known Garry a long time and he has always been a very “heart on his sleeve” blogger. Some may not like this style, but I think his emotion is why a lot of people read his content, and he’s certainly never been scared to say what he thinks or ruffle a few feathers.

Besides, this is technically a personal blog (just look at the domain name), so I don’t think he should be afraid to share his thoughts!

Based on the last couple of comments it is obvious that Google has either 1 or 2 issues. 1 - There system if broken, 2-People who have had there PR modified for selling links, have not been modified in the search rankings. (which seems impossible, but we know how that goes)

I say this because here is a direct quote from Google.

“Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search.”

Personally, I believe the PR component has become less and less a part of the complicated math equation for searching.

I just wish it was all clear. I too have low PR sites that do better than high PR sites. But it is more a reflection of their market than anything else.

So what is the best metric to use now ?

I can’t beleive this article sparked such anger in some. I was unaware of the selling of page rank until my PR got dropped down to a zero. Then I had to do some research to figure out it was my PPP posts and how to get Google to give me my page rank back. Once you lose all of your PR, suddenly it does seem to matter. Good post.

I was saying that my traffic has not been affected by a PR drop but I don’t do paid only adSense. Alternatively a client of mine was buying links from a site that was mass selling them and as a result his PR dropped because of the drop in PR of the selling site.

I wrote: ” remember prostitution is not illegal everywhere.”

Gary Wrote:
“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.”

–

I’m not saying I support smorty. What I am saying is that Google is not the ultimate law maker. Sure they make up the bulk of search traffic. But those of us who have been around for a while remember when the kings of search lived short lives as the #1 dog.

I generally believe in following Google’s guidelines (because I think they make sense), but when I hear webmasters fall in complete lockstep with the Google mantra and start preaching while drinking the koolaid, I envision sheep being led to slaughter.

Based on the last couple of comments it is obvious that Google has either 1 or 2 issues. 1 - There system if broken, 2-People who have had there PR modified for selling links, have not been modified in the search rankings. (which seems impossible, but we know how that goes)

I don’t think the two are tied together. PageRank is predominantly for passing link juice and such, and doesn’t seem to be included in Google’s algorithm (or not much if it is).

It is not in Google’s best interest to have it actually effect search results. If it did, then they would go from providing the most accurate search results to providing the most accurate search results of blogs that comply. If they did that, people wouldn’t be providing accurate search results and that would leave an opening for Yahoo search or another competitor to be more accurate.

Now I understand why I lost my page rank from 3 to 0 last week. To say truth - I don’t like most of those paid reviews I accepted (loans, loans and loans again… arrrghhh), but I did that to pay my hosting bills as I am bad blogger and not making any money yet in any other ways than only paid posts… As a result, if I don’t so paid posts anymore - no online money for at least hosting charges and that means that I would need use money from my family pocket, and I don’t think that my hubby would be happy with me then LOL.

And I wonder - what if after some time I will go through my posts, delete those worst ones about loans, add no follow for nice ones and don’t accept any more paid reviews, could I get the page rank back, or it’s all lost for me?

In addition, about no follow in posts and sidebar links - do I need to add that attribute manually for every link?