DISQUS

ccleaner has saved my butt on many occasions. Its seems the only time I install a freaky trojan or nasty malware is when i do something on some else's computer!
I also like Malwarebytes Anti-Malware- a really good free removal tool.

Andy, if you are looking for help moderating Bumpzee- I would love opportunity.

This is probably one of my favourite posts this month :-)
I still don;t understand why the nofollow attribute is not removed from blogs- or even if you opted in to adding nofollow in options.
Yes, I do get more spam. I also get more traffic and more comments and value added to my blog. I could not possibly write the content readers add to my blog in the 5 minutes it take me to moderate spam. The cost/benefit ratio tips in blogger's favour.

Andy- I did set up a DoFollow directory a while ago- admittedly not for entirely altruistic reasons- but are they "bad"? I do see it a valuable resource for bloggers looking for the best place to spend their time commenting and developing relationships. Am I off on this? Never occurred to me I was adding to the problem.

When I stared writing for blogs about 3/4 years ago it was strictly in an SEO capacity- it was how I got into blogging (more fun for about the same money and no clients).
I really only saw a blog's usefulness from a branding and SEO perspective and was looking for an increase in targeted traffic and higher ranking for business sites. It worked extremely well.
I set up a couple of blogs of my own to test different strategies- mainly for keywords and search patterns and specifically long tail search results. So, I relied on keyword titles and cared very little about "interesting" titles.

With my "money making blogs" I care about getting targeted traffic and the conversion for me is basically clicking on AdSense ad. When I have played around with catchy or eye grabbing titles traffic and CTR plummets. SEO-title tag plugins and seo-all in one solved this problem for me but I do find out of habit my titles are usually fine to stand.

I will ALWAYS use an interesting title in social media or forums. People are blind to key word stuffed titles.

On my blogs where I am more interested in branding or establishing someone as an expert and expanding readership loyalty, etc thoughtful titles are key. However, the title of your post is usually anchor text people will use when writing or posting about it so I will use SOME keywords. If you don't better make sure you title is something that SCREAMS out at people i.e. controversial/funny/thought provoking

Popping in keywords is second nature to me and I have found that it is one the HARDEST concept to get across to people who are starting out blogging.
I have set up blogs for many people - intelligent people who appear to grasp the idea of keywords and search and then will post with titles like " My Bad Day" , " Update" or similar. argh.
Figuring out keywords and how to use them is vital to a blog that needs to get found. Creating titles that are snazzy and use keywords is a skill that must be developed.

I appreciate how much information you share with your readers. Most hold their card pretty close to their chests. I have thought about domain flipping as a revenue source but to be honest seem like too much of a crap shoot. If you don't mind me asking- how much time a week do your think you spend at it?

Also- how are you building traffic for domain names that have have no intrinsic value? What is the standard for measuring traffic? Suing web stats and logs? Alexa?
Thanks!
Lisa

Yes- I had high hopes for this as well and after reading your article... *sigh*

Feeling like a thief half the time or going through the hassle of asking for permission to use a photo when time is a factor just makes me not bother.
We can embed video in seconds but can't get a decent photo to accompany an article. I suspect the trouble is figuring out how to make money off a still image :-)

The key is to not procrastinate trying to create perfection, because nothing is ever going to be perfect, and once you achieve perfection, it might not make any money.

Pierre Trudeau once said "It is better to have an imperfect SOMETHING than a perfect nothing"

I tell this to all the nay-sayers at mom's groups who want to make money with a blog BUT
- don't know how to build a website
- don't know anything anyone else would care about
- don't have time
- are not good "at that kind of thing"
argh. I tell people if you can send an email you can write a blog.
Just jump in and learn as you go.
I will admit that when people start reading and are faced with finer points of blogging/affiliate/marketing/SEO they get freaked out and run.... bit intimidating to some one starting out.

Maybe I am missing something- I have tried and tried but I just don't get the whole Twitter thing... I know several people who are addicted to it. I WANT to like it.. but I can't get into it.

Andy- something for sidebar widgets would be fantastic!!! I love your nofollow dupes plugin- HIGHLY under rated.

I look forward to a possible plugin :-)

Good luck with your re-inclusion. It must have been a hard decision for you to make.

This is a tough one. I lean towards the either offering it for nothing to your readers or share with friends/colleagues discreetly .
Nothing makes you feel like more of an outsider than reading a post like "PM me if you are in MY special circle of friends and I will tell you". It may work one of two ways- encourage the person to return and try and try and become "in with the in crowd" or it may turn them off and they may choose not to play that game.
If the info is so sensitive an explosive than share it with friends- but to publicly declare " I know the meaning of life and won't share unless you are one of my friends" is annoying- unless you are one of the friends. If the idea is to make you loyal reader feel special then it may work but the risk might be not worth it. Those kinds of post in blogs and forums REALLY irritate me and make most people feel small and excluded from "the bog boy" circle. More opportunities available from the 90% of average readers than the 10% inner sanctum types.
As for an e-book. I love you Andy. I am one of your biggest fans- If I lived in Europe you might be in danger of me stalking you :-)
I think with an e-book you will have to carefully weigh the benefit of offering information for sale sometimes and changing the way you interact with your readers over open dialogue and absolute trust. Readers- and maybe even you- on a subtle level may see each new post or article as a way to convert readers into e-book sales. Not that there is anything wrong with that .. I have no doubt anything you would publish would be top notch quality and worth every penny.

However, when the perception changes from giving way information freely to charging for select/best information the dynamic changes.

I understand the value in both and each have its merits, however it just changes the direction of readership relationship. Making money passively from readers via ad sales, etc. is different from seeing them as direct source of revenue.

In a bit of a moood today- hope I don't offend you- not my intent.

Thanks again for the great post Andy. Manipulating data for advertiser's is not a new game :-).
I don't know how you can get a totally honest and open "report" of rankings/relevance that are unbiased, untainted and are widely accepted. Google is the closest thing available but they become less credible because they have something to gain from rankings i.e. directly profit from a sites ranking or lack thereof.
Is the Internet to vast to come up with standardized "rankings" and who will pay for it?

Connection worse than dial-up! I know you moved recently, do you see any end in sight?

Matt- thanks for taking time to reply to my somewhat flip question.
Getting a site to top of results pages for a set of keywords *seems* to be a matter of to whom you give your money. I do write at length about the conflict in Mission: Organizing The World’s Information (minus everything we didn’t get paid for)
Having clean results and then taking money to circumvent those results are a conflict.. Slapping paid link/sponsored link above the link doesn't change the placement of the link. The perception for searcher is that the top result is the BEST result. To buy desirable SERP placement you can buy paid links from a third party or you can pay Google.
By knocking out sites that sell links you also knock out competition- but you also drive UP the prices of high ranking sites that sell links and create another market for cheap links on zero or low rank sites. The problem was inadvertently created by Google in the first place by making links the cornerstone of Page Rank.

In my experience, when a user types a broad query such as "radiosurgery" they typically want overviews, tutorials, and introductions to the topic rather than a) paid posts showing up in the search results, or alternatively b) websites that received links mainly from paid posts.

Are users also eager to see sponsored link posts ahead of all other results as well?
If the goal is giving user best search experience then placing sponsored links at bottom of search results would be best.

Hi - Andy- glad to see you back. Hope you are emerging from moving hell...
I was very very disappointed with Matt's post. The post is supposed to clearly show how the average user is negatively impacted by the use of paid links and how paid links can skew results and create less accurate SERPs. What it really did was underline the problem Google is facing in determining a "real" link.

If the problem is : what makes a page have the most authority is how many other relevant sites link to it - And results can be fixed by acquiring inbound links through other means other than organic.
Then what is the answer?
What is organic anyway?
Is it organic when i start a new blog and ask 20 link builders that I know to mention my new site on some of their sites?
Is it organic when one of those link builders the next day asks me to digg some of their articles?IS it organic when I pay some on in third-world country $1.00 for every inbound link they acquire>

If natural linking is the way you want a system to work and natural links are impossible to detect then knocking out sites with paid links is a drop in the bucket.
In a system where links are the method of currency and you can counterfeit so easily then the whole economy will eventually collapse.

I would be curious to hear what you think the solution to Google's dilemma is.

Lisa

In another upward climb on the roller coaster- one of Page rank Zero'd sites got back some of its PR today. PayPerPost/Izea disclosure still there as are posts.
Site was a PR5 before it got zero'd out last week. A few hours ago a PR3. Traffic took a HUGE hit as shown in this graph (warning... not for the feint of heart):
http://www.bigfootwebmarketing.com/2007/11/19/v...


Lisa

Does using Page Rank as a method of punishing for bad behavior defeat the purpose of "Page Rank" in the first place:

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set. The algorithm may be applied to any collection of entities with reciprocal quotations and references. The numerical weight that it assigns to any given element E is also called the PageRank of E and denoted by PR(E).

Does the relative importance of a site change when you accept money for your opinion? Does it change bias? Does your opinion or research matter less when it has been paid for? Is the information on a site less right or relevant if there is a paid post beneath it?

Hi Andy- thanks for the excellent and well thought out post and arguments FOR services like PayPerPost.

To play Gevil's Advocate- If a site (like PPP) is offering a fee to post and the fee is based entirely on Page Rank (and sometimes Alexa traffic) then why can't it be interpreted as paying for page rank?
A post coming from PPP on a PR3 site may cost advertiser 10.00 and the SAME post on PR5 is 50.00.

Why wouldn't Google seeing this as gaming PR?

Thanks,
Lisa