Well, it’s a lazy Sunday and I’m looking to make a quick complaint entry on the blog. Those of you who read this blog that are engulfed in the blogosphere or involved in any type of website might be familiar with the term Google PageRank. If you’re not familiar with that term, a website’s Google PageRank is calculated by Google using some ridiculously long formula that eventually decides if your website should be ranked higher or lower in search results. For those of us who are actively engaged in trying to make a few dollars via our blogs, PageRank means everything.
For the longest time, JerseySmarts.com was set a Google PageRank of 4. That’s pretty damn good. One gets a higher PageRank through link exchanges, frequent content updates, and getting a high level of hits – all of which we have here at JerseySmarts.com. However, Google doesn’t like it if you put up paid advertisements on your site that are not within the Google system. For example, I have the “Additional Information” links to the right of this entry. Those are paid through a company called “Text Link Ads, Inc.” which Google doesn’t like. Also, you may remember when I used to put up random entries about moving companies or hotels in Italy – those were all paid entries, too.
Well, I think someone at Google took notice because my PageRank fell from a 4 to a 3. Frankly, this is completely counter-intuitive to reality since my hits have gone up a great deal since a few months ago, when my PageRank fell. But more hits aside, there is a real effect to having a lower PageRank. For one, I’m not being offered those random paid blog entries any more, which means I lose certain revenues each month. Also, you’ll notice that the “Additional Information” links have been greatly reduced. That’s lost revenue, too.
And to think, the cause of this lost revenue (which is now over $100 per month that I’m losing) is all because Google isn’t happy with paid links on a blog. I’m still trying to build something with this blog and I’m pleased that my hits keep going up. However, it does appear that I’m going to have to rely on new ways to earn some money from this site since relying on systems that use Google’s PageRank don’t seem to be the way to achieve long-term success on the internet. What a shame.
