Pagerank for Munny4Hunny

I did not quite believe my eyes the other day when trying out the Google Chrome SEO plug-in - I have been using this to run quick tests on my sites. the SEO plug in showed a pagerank of 1 for this blog - it has been a long long time since I have had any PR at all, so at first I was a bit skeptical. Since then I have tried a pagerank checker: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php and sure enough, that also says I have regained pagerank on this blog...

I have not been pursuing PR at all for quite a while, so it is quite a pleasant surprise to see it return even though I doubt whether it makes any real difference except for prospective advertisers. I have long begun to disregard PR as having any real value, especially as I have (in other experiments) been able to have sites ranked very highly (ie. up to position 1 locally and position 2 globally) for keywords on sites that have no PR whatsoever. The main focus of SEO has to be search position alone, and if you can get search position without PR, why bother going to the trouble of trying to gain PR?

As to the return of PR, I can only surmise that finally the effects of all the viral linking between blogs has finally faded away to nothing. Out of curiosity I have been checking Technorati ranks too (as this is included on the Google Chrome SEO plug-in). I used to have a huge 'authority' ranking for Technorati due entirely to viral links, but on all my blogs but one, I now have an authority of 1 - My creditcruncher blog has authority of 105 for some reason, but this also was something of a surprise, and Technorati no longer seem to show you the links that endorse your 'authority'...

It's interesting how PR and Technorati 'authority' were two things that drove my blog a few years ago, but now, they are merely incidental. what it comes down to is this:
Just do your thing the way you want to do it, follow your own goals rather than following the crowd - at least that way, if you don't make a breaktrhough, you will be at least doing what you want. Following the crowd however, is never going to result in individual success.

Associated links:
Looking for PageRank
PageRank explained
Be yourself

Technorati Update

Looks like I just broke the 4oo mark on Tech Authority rating recently... I've been hovering at 397 for a while, so it was good to get the breakthrough. I think the latest viral scheme I have been involved in is moving a bit slower than previous examples, but seems nonetheless to be relentlessly pushing the authority to new heights.
View blog authority
I am convinced though, that the viral-linking schemes that have provided such a rapid 'non-organic' boost in my back-links (I had an authority of 23 in June...), have caused my pagerank to drop as a result.
I have not found any other instances of bloggers losing pagerank yet, so I appear to be unique.... also I have not heard of anyone actually GAINING pagerank either. I would love to hear whether anyone has experienced pagerank fluctuations - or has pagerank passed most of the blogging community by this time? Please comment....

June 2007 earnings

For me June was not about earnings but about getting links and boosting popularity. I continued to do the odd paid post just to keep my hand in, but actual earnings are very much lower this month. On the other hand, my PPP opps are paying out this month so my Paypal account has been boosted with the fruits of last months labours.
To spell it out then, I earned just $62.28 this month, and I received a total of $125.51 from previous work which had not been paid out. PPP is still the run-away leader and will continue to be the focus for the future. SMORTY have started to email opportunities now, so I watch for emails from them and from Creamaid. I also had a job emailed to me from blogsvertise. This job was especially interesting as it promised an additional $5 per month for a permalink. However, the next day another email came out to say that it was a mistake. I was assured that I would get paid for the original post even though I was then requested to remove it....

Now, if you are interested to learn how the link-love month went, I can report a resounding success via the following methods:
Viral Links - MASSIVE, MASSIVE boost using the tag links and the favicon link schemes
Reviews and comments - The more 'traditional' methods proved time consuming in comparison.. Although I did manage to get a piece of the action in a paid post that appeared on 40 blogs (I hasten to add that I didn't pay myself as that is against my extremely strict principles!! ha ha). I also spent more time than I normally do in social sites such as Spicypage in an effort to do some socialising, but inevitably got side-tracked on some interesting blog or other...
Directory Submitting - slightly tedious, but a large amount of links accrued - more about this in a later post.

View blog authority
And my Technorati Authority??
I was rated a mere 23 at the start of the experiment, I aimed to double it to 46 but rather overshot the mark and am currently standing at 277...!!(the widget above displays the current authority figure, as you can see, it is still rising)
I have posted my thoughts on viral linking here and elsewhere, but I am confident that I have used a mix of tactics which will stand me in good stead and hopefully achieve the intended result of a raised Page Rank next time around...

The future for viral linking

I'm somewhat embarrased to reveal that I've overshot the mark somewhat in getting my Technorati 'Authority' rank raised. Greg Stratz took part in a link project hosted by JaKelDaily - this was a scheme where you could have three URL's posted on numerous blogs with varying PR's. Greg submitted an interview that I did for him, and was kind enough to sacrifice one of his links and use mine instead. My 'Authority' was immediately raised from 23 to 53!! This is a scheme which will be growing under Jasons careful nuturing...

I noted that the ranking was slipping over the next few days, and then I got involved in the Viral Link going on over at Founders Cafe , based on an idea put forward from Andy Coates . This one seems to have immediately boosted me by about 10 authority points and will no doubt build as the idea catches on. The viral links in this matrix are growing daily and need frequent updating, the rankings should really grow as long as everyone hosting the matrix is updating it.


This brings me to question of how Google might treat this type of viral linking in the future.
My measure of popularity is Technorati since it is easy to gauge results, however my real aim is to make the site more favourable to google to gain google page rank (this in turn should open up more paid post opportunities). Whilst these schemes undoubtedly boost rankings now, I am not sure that Google will see this as a natural organic form of validation of a site or blog, so my gut-feeling is that they may change their ranking formulae to take account of it. The upshot of this wil be that bloggers and webmasters will still need to be thinking about 'valid' linking techniques and good content in the long-run if they want to climb the Google rankings. Having said that, you could argue that you are just reproducing a valid mini-directory, but I have a feeling that if you participate in a number of similar schemes with no doubt a high number of the same participants, you could be seen as a link-spammer.

I feel that a lot of the social/community link sites such as Technorati will be happy to allow the schemes to run, so as far as that goes, they will be successful. If gaining Techorati authority is the end, rather than the means to an end, then the viral link will be valuable. My initial feelings are that this is just too easy for Google to 'like' it. What do you think?

June 2007 activity

I haven't posted for a few days, and after doing 50 posts last month, I needed a little time to recharge my batteries and think out my strategy for this month.
My aim is to raise the profile of my blog so that it will be perfectly placed to gain further page rank points when they are next allocated. This will be done through a ‘manual’ process of link-exchanges, commenting and submitting my URL wherever I think it will help.
How will I gauge my success (or failure)?
It occurred to me that Technorati’s ‘authority’ ranking system would be a good measure, so I have set myself the task of doubling it. I currently have a lowly 23, so my target must be 46…
I have no idea when Technorati update the authority statistics, but I guess that will be one of the things that I can find out.
This month will find me commenting on as many blogs as I can find in the same genre, promoting my mini-banner offer wherever I can and doing reviews and review/link exchanges.
Wish me luck!