Forget about Pagerank; Get back to blogging basics
(Update: Princessa has a counter-argument why Google’s PageRank is a blogging basic.)
There is a lot of whining out there about Google dropping blogs’ Pagerank.
Yes, Pagerank is important for you to get those paying blog post ads.
However, bloggers’ focus on Pagerank mirrors that of print publishers today where the perception is that the print rag is writing for the advertisers, not for its readers.
Maybe in the region, that is the only way for print rags to survive, but it doesn’t mean bloggers have to go down the same route.
Go back and ask why you have started a blog.
Did you start it because you want to share your daily experiences and thoughts with the world?
What makes blogs interesting and different from traditional media is that it gives readers, like me, a very unique viewpoint to certain issues and experiences.
Whether if it is general news, reviews, etc, I want to read what the individual experiences and the opinions are.
Bring the readers into your world.
That’s why Xiaxue’s blog pull the readers, not because she is the best blogger in the world, but because the blog let readers look into her world.
MrBrown’s blog is also interesting because you get to read what it is like for parents to bring up kids in Singapore and also the problems and highlights of looking after one with autism. And of course his humourous take on Singapore politics.
Yes, the world is voyeuristic, but that doesn’t you can’t take advantage of it.
The strategy should be how you get more readers to your blog so that the advertisers will be interested in it, not how to get advertisers to your blog.
Yes, because Google Pagerank is a formula and that means you can exploit the variables to increase your Pagerank.
But at end of the day, it is your content that pulls in the readers, followed by the advertisers.
In print media, most people take a dim view of those who take both the two diametrically opposing roles - that of the writer/editor, and that of the media salesperson.
If you write, you aren’t really supposed to sell ads. If you sold ads, you have no business doing the writing. If you did both, many believe it’s ethically wrong.
For the blogger, things are not as clearcut. Or is it? Do the expectations above also apply?
Do you blog because you want a voice in this world, or because your priority is making money?
It’s important bloggers ask themselves that question. Because your readers want to know the answer as well.
I couldn’t have said it better.
PR is not a fair representation of your blog’s value. I have seen disgusting one liner posts in blogs which have a PR of not 0 and a blog with a more than decent post content with a PR of 0. Is that a fair representation of the content? No it isn’t.
My PR dropped from 4 to 1 because of my permalinks change, but that isn’t a cause for a whining because I am only concentrating on having new posts to blog about and not how Google values my blog through some formula despite getting quite a number of visits from Google search results.
The roles that sales and editorial are supposed to be independent to each other, in theory.
But in reality, editorial have been said to turn down interviews, not because they are not interesting, but because the vendor hasn’t been supporting the pub in advertising dollars.
Yet the editorial isn’t selling ads, but they verbally highlight that advertisers come first.
It is also know that editorial self-censor themselves to be less critical of advertisers’
product.
That’s my definition of writing for the advertisers.
This blogger blogs to be that additional voice in the media/PR industry.
As one reader highlight, “the(new)mediaslut is about Integrity - Enlighten - Embarrass”. LOL. The reader was referring to the post about the social media plagiarism piece that appeared in an established online marketing site.
I had no intention of embarrassing the person who posted out the blog, but if no one pointed that article out, it would have stayed on the site and might allowed the writer to further practise plagiarism at his/her own will without worrying about the consequence.
Maybe its better to be the(new)mediaslut then to be the(new)mediaslutted.
If the ads brings me the money as an added bonus for my postings, it is most appreciated.
If any of the advertisers asked me to write about their products, why not? But I will take a critical view of it. If I write something good about it, I should also highlight why it is also bad. In both cases, I have to provide supporting paragraphs to prove my points.
But if the advertisers asked me to take out all the bad points of the article and only put up the good, my respond to them is to keep the money.
LOL…
I like the description - Integrity, Enlighten, Embarass.
To me at least, it’s not exactly that.
With the web the way that it is right now… user-generated content with no accountability, I like the way this site provides fodder for thought, discussion and maybe even a medium to keep content generators/bloggers, honest.
I’d personally like to see more blogs like this as opposed to the many personal diary type blogs in Singapore. If you took all the Singapore blogs today and weighed them … a child could lift them. Surely, we have more heavy weight thinkers and movers, right?