Let me begin by apologizing to readers who are not bloggers, because today’s post will be a bit boring.
I just want to let you readers know that I’ve been flip flopping on this decision, but I’ve finally decided to just give up and go along with Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Readership has dropped 25%, subscribers reduced by 50%. This has probably got to do with me writing too many spammy sponsored posts than anything, but it is another reason for me to stop writing paid posts.
I have tried CPC ads from other companies with no success. NuffNang just doesn’t work for me because I don’t have enough traffic to qualify for any opportunities. I would have removed the ad on my left sidebar if it wasn’t for their cool analytics tools.
I tried Advertlets, and it has been doing better than NuffNang so far. At least there is a trickle of income from there. The problem is, the ads come in a funny size and don’t really fit well into my template.
The threat of being banned by Google is not something my blog can withstand.
Anyway, I have decided to get back to AdSense. And back to trying to get my PR reinstated.
This means:
- No more sponsored posts (unless they allow nofollow tag for the links)
- Nofollow tags on all outgoing links. This applies to sponsored links and also memes. The only exceptions are links in my Blog Roll and relevant in-post links.
I’m still waiting for payouts for my last round of sponsored posts, so I will probably wait one more month before I make changes to previous posts and removing the Triple P scripts. But this might be moved forward if Google decides to take further action.
Photo: Luis Alves
November 26, 2007 at 11:56
Not to worry, Adino, your PR will be reinstated. My personal blog went from a PR0 right to PR3 when Googly did the reshuffling.
You’ll be all right
Adino: Thanks for your encouragement
November 26, 2007 at 14:09
I think if you are writing for 3P then RR is important..
Adino: From what I see, RR doesn’t seem to have any impact on the posts we can get. My blog has a RR of 166 but I’m still seeing PR0 and PR1 type of opps
November 26, 2007 at 16:35
I will still read your blog
Adino: Thanks for the reassurance.
November 26, 2007 at 18:17
actually do you guys make a lot from sponsored posts and ads? i have never thought about them before - being a new blogger and all - but if its really lucrative maybe i will do them too…won’t know where to start though!
Adino: It depends on your Google PageRank (PR). If you have a higher PR you qualify for better offers… for example a PR4 blog can get paid USD80 to write one sponsored post.
Recently Google took action against those who were selling text links and writing sponsored posts, eliminating all their PR to zero.
This is why I have decided to stop writing sponsored posts (for now).
As for ads, it depends on your web traffic. The more visitors you have, the more ad income your blog can generate.
November 26, 2007 at 22:42
I read your blog… sponsored posts or no.
Adino: Thanks… that means a lot. Unfortunately Google doesn’t like me writing sponsored posts
November 27, 2007 at 02:24
I’ll also continue reading your blog, but sponsored posts are not very interesting to me, so I tend to skip them most of the time.
I wonder why you are apologizing in the first sentence, this post is not that boring… Oh yes, I’m a blogger.
Adino: It would be boring for non-bloggers, because they might not understand all the fuss about Google PR
November 27, 2007 at 08:48
Haha
Ok, as I don’t write much PPP
I might as well removed everything as well
Adino: Yeah, that would be a good step to getting PR back.
November 27, 2007 at 12:04
Adino, you and i are in the same type of blog. Personal blogs. These sort of blogs are not very popular. I think maybe we need to be more specific in our areas to blog - if we want to take the route of earning an income from blogs.
Otherwise, lets just blog for fun’s-sake.
All this PPP stuff really irks readers.
Adino: That’s a good view point, and I think you’ve told me that before. I agree also about PPP posts… every time I go on a sponsored posts spree I see very low reader activity.
Let you in on a secret: I have another blog project in development
That blog should be the income generating one in the future, because it’s one of those ‘niche’ topic blogs
November 27, 2007 at 17:43
Having any opp offered to me nowadays would be a big bonus. With PR0, those advertisers still think that my blogs are suited for the waste bin. Bah! Nevermind, can always make side income elsewhere.
Adino: Yeah, time to look elsewhere.