Google

Google PageRank is sooooo.... how to put this politely... stupid. We need a high page rank in order to make money with our web sites, but unless you are using one of the methods that Google allows they will slam you page rank, marking you as a "bad neighborhood". They don't allow you to sell links to other sites. This means no paid articles, no back links, no links to advertisers at all, unless you use rel="nofollow".

What if you mistype the nofollow link? Forget to add it? What if you create a blog roll of all your favorite sites? All these things can cause Google to tag you. Is it fair for them to tag you as a bad neighborhood because you choose to sell links on your site? How does that damage the system? I've done several Google searches on how this can damage the system and all I can find is a lame excuse that it alters the search results. Basically, those that can pay to have their name out there would rank higher in the results than those that don't.

All right, I can understand how that might be a bad thing, but let's consider it for a moment. Isn't buying advertising normal? Isn't that how businesses have built up their businesses? We all know Sony, Pepsi, Ford, Microsoft, etc. Why? Because they make better products than others? No, it is because they advertise better. Just because Google made it without advertising, does not mean that it is not a normal part of the world.

Even without allowing the links, those that can afford it are going to rank higher than those, like me, that can't. If you can afford the time, or to pay someone for their time, you can get millions of links in short order. Links that you don't have to pay for. Paid links are just a easier way of doing the same thing.

It also makes it very hard for those of us trying to make a little extra income to make it. We have to be so careful of how we allow advertisers to use our space of we loose our rank. All right, maybe I'm just bitter over having lost my rank on one of my sites, but it is frustrating. I worked hard on that site, trying to make a few bucks. I have a few users who enjoy it and come back regularly. It is doing all right. But Google comes along and decides that the links that I have (yes, some, but not all, were paid links) make me a bad neighborhood. I loose my rank and along with it some money I was earning off a few links. (with no PR, they no longer want to link to me).

There are many sites now that will pay bloggers to write entries that include links to the advertisers site. These companies might require the blogger to write a positive review of the site, or some other manipulation of the facts. Are these companies evil or bad? Or are they just another way for a site to make some money and get along in this competitive world.

Google does not like them. Many sites that make most of their money from organizations such as these have found their once high page rank plummet as Google thinks they are link farms. Link farming is a site that charges for links to other sites, in order to raise the linked sites PageRank. Google considers such sites as "Bad Neighborhoods" and will ban them.

I have signed up on several of these sites and have written a few such posts. One I am really displeased with, because while I was not dishonest, I feel like the post was just a paid link and did not provide any content to my users. The other two were things I would have written about even if I was not paid.

Personally, I think that is key. If I would have written them anyway, getting paid for them is not a bad thing. I do need money after all. For me, however, the bad taste of writing an article that I felt dirty about is overpowering. I am not sure I will write another paid post. I have no problem including links to products or having advertisements on my site (nofollow, preferably), but I don't want to own link farms. I want sites that mom would be proud of. My mother raised me to be honest. She raised me to think for my self.

What about Google bashing the PageRank of those that write these articles. Google says they are paid links, therefor the site is a link farm. Both are bad in Google's eyes. Are they bad? Or are they just people trying to make a buck? And the sites that get the links? Are they trying to buck the system, or are they just trying to work in a system that makes it hard for the new site to get links? Without paying for links can Joe's Site, the newest site selling handmade zithers get a high PageRank quickly enough to make money during the Christmas season, or is he just supposed to work his way up the ranks and hope that he gets a high enough PageRank to make it for next season?