For the past few months, I am sure many of you have been reading about how Google have been going around “downgrading” the Page Rank of bloggers who do paid blogging, in particular, PayPerPost.
Well, I guess that is life. Things happen and other things happen. But the irony that I see here, is the fact that PayPerPost actually uses the Google Page Rank as a way for their advertisers to select and pay for bloggers. Talk about a vicious cycle! Advertisers pay more for a blog with a higher page rank. Google looks at these high page ranks, discover that they have PayPerPost, downgrades them, so PayPerPost loses revenue. Now, the question is, WHY would PayPerPost want to use Google Page Rank at all? Is there no other way?
I guess for most Internet Marketers, the discussion is pretty much a circular one. Google is NOT a public-service company. It is a commercial concern and it is very concerned about making money. The fact is that it’s doing a darned good job as a search engine. That is why everyone uses it. Now, think about this for a moment. That Google has so much power is because everyone is using it. Yet, there ARE other search engines around. Now, if Google’s new policies negatively affect the reliability and perceived neutrality of their search results, people will start using alternatives. But if the users feel it is still OK, then in reality, it will be “ok”. Just because a Blog has “paid posts” does it mean it is not a good blog?
In the end, bloggers blog because they have things to say. If they get paid because some people value their opinion, then they are like the many other writers who write for various publications offline. If Google feels that this somehow challenges the value of their search results, this is their prerogative. If users continue to feel that Google gives them the best search results, then all power to them. Others can use alternatives. That is the way of the free market.
Unless you are paying Google or you own Google, don’t expect a huge company like that to harken to the small still voice of a few bloggers. After all, you are just “content”, while they are the “engine”. There have been many arguments extended about how paid bloggers who blog intelligently and add value will not negatively affect search engine results. But I guess in the end, it is just a case of the Big Guy begrudging the crumbs, or it’s just me being sore about dropping a rank. I actually like what Rob wrote in his “no paid ads” post…
[tags]google, page rank, paid blogging[/tags]
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