Google PR Updates Underway

It appears that Google is once again busy telling people how they can use the Internet and what they can and cannot do with their blogs and websites. In case you missed it the last go-round, Google took it upon themselves to let the rest of us know which advertisers we were allowed to use and which we were not, as well as which advertising methods we are allowed to employ. Luckily, Google AdSense remains "whitelisted" - which was obviously good for... well, Google.

While there is a sector of the Blogosphere that dislikes those of us who monetize our blogs, I could care less about them. There is still a large sector of the Internet audience that despises its current form because everything online isn't free and free of advertising, and I could care less about them. My position on this matter is simple: I spend a lot of time blogging and webmastering and I should be allowed to try and recoup that time, money, and effort anyway I can, so long as it is moral and ethical and aboveboard. And receiving a small amount of compensation in return for writing ad copy is a very ethical, very aboveboard way in which this is done. If you disagree with me or the practice in general, then you're in luck: there are several billion other websites and blogs out there that you can visit!

If you don't like the fact that I have a monetized blog, you do not have to read it, but you shouldn't try to keep me from doing it! I don't come to where you work and knock you off the pole, so don't come stirring-up trouble for me!

Google is apparently upset by tags such as "sponsored" and "paid post" and so forth - and that is effing stupid! They are lying their collective, monopolizing ass off when they say that paid posts are "misleading" because they are targeting blogs with tags that clearly define paid/sponsored posts! The only way these posts can be considered misleading is when they do not contain tags which delineate them as being paid spots! In fact, that is why I have not changed my tags or tagging scheme: while Google may continue to unjustly penalize me for having the audacity to try and make an honest living through any means other than Google AdSense, I would feel worse misleading my audience by deleting the tags which tell you which posts are sponsored.

It's called "ethics" - that thing which Google forwards as the reason for bullying the rest of us.

Further, I'm extremely interested to see how Google tries to justify it this time. Last time, they claimed we were "passing along PR" by "selling links" - which is a total lie; writing full posts is writing ad copy, not simply slapping a link on a page and promoting it - the way Google does with their paid search engine results. Since Google stripped most of us of our PR, we have no PR to pass along! The fact that certain other bloggers and webmasters take the low road and use misleading, and simply bad, forms to do the same things I do is not my problem - what are you Google, the Decatur County, TN police department and DA!? You're certainly doing whatever the hell you want and harassing the living shit out of me and other decent, honest netizens! Just because these streams of monetization can be abused doesn't mean that everyone who uses them should be punished; that's like saying none of us should drive because some people drive drunk.

I am paid to review and promote sites and products.

I receive products to try out and give my opinion on and I am asked to visit sites and discuss them. No, I am not an expert on most of these things and I do not pretend to be, but I absolutely do spend at least a few minutes checking out whatever it is I am promoting - if for no other reason than to find something to discuss! If I disagree with whatever it is I am asked to review, I do not accept the review; this is why you will not find any posts promoting Aruba on any of my blogs or websites. Further, even these lines can become blurred, since I sometimes receive items to review for which I am not paid (advance copies, etc.). In fact, I recently had a row with one big-name advertising firm when they did not understand that an official Marvel press release containing an active link was not a sponsored post!

Besides all of this, no one really understands what is going on with the whole Google PR thing. As others have stated, several blogs and sites that do not have any sponsored posts or advertisers have been downgraded, while others openly flaunt the rules and have been upgraded! Further, there's still the matter of AdSense: blogs and sites utilizing AdSense were not penalized, while other sites using similar programs from different companies were... strange how that works, no?

Yes, hits have been off since Google unfairly removed us from their engine listings, but RSS subscribers have risen slightly. And regardless, I blog for myself and y'all - not Google - so one of the cool things about this is that it has forced me to work harder on marketing and promotion outside of Google, which I sincerely hope they think about, because I'm not quite certain that was their goal. In so doing, I have met some great bloggers and readers that I did not have the time to meet previously, because I was so busy learning and working on "SEO" and improving my "PR" and trying to get "top placement" and all that happy horseshit.

All Google has done is make everyone very upset with them. I have used the Google search engine only once since November and never installed the Google Tools which came with my new computer - I deleted them. I removed my website from all the Google services with which it was registered and am working on switching over to a rival ad network.

Of course, nothing I alone do is going to cause Google to lose any sleep and I am not going on some sort of campaign to try and get others to follow my lead. But I have something Google can't offer: quality content. And seeing as how they unfairly blacklisted my quality content, along with that from many, many other quality blogs and websites, more and more people are starting to complain about the amount of spam, repetition, and generally useless results from their engine.

And Google did that to themselves.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008