Towers, blogs and Google.
Thanks for all the comments on where I can get a new tower for the boys.
Dell will probably be the way I go, not sure yet, sis and I are going to do some comparison shopping when we brave the crowds on black Friday.
I just want a tower for less than $300, but I know I'm gonna be around $400.
That will probably be all they get for xmas, they said it was ok because they need one really bad.
It finally just died today.
It went beep beep beep, and then nothing.
I have no idea what is wrong, and I'm ok at fixing stuff usually, but this one has me confused.
It may be total hard drive failure, but I don't know.
It's a really old computer anyway, at least 10 years old.
It was handed down to the boys, when we got it, it still had windows 95 on it.
I wiped it and put on XP, and it held up a long time so I'm not mad about it, I just don't want to, can't afford to, spend a ton of money on a new one.
Sis is going to pitch in with me, so I'm sure we'll find something affordable and good enough for what they do.
In blog news, I'm so sick of all the whining about the Google smack down most blogs took in the last update.
Any blog that did any kind of paid linking, using links without the nofollow attribute, got spanked down to a page rank of 0.
Those of us who do any kind of paid blogging knew what we were doing.
We knew, the companies we worked for knew, or else they wouldn't have told us we couldn't have a blog with nofollow in the meta tags.
No paid posts were allowed to use nofollow on the links.
Every single paid blogger knew Google didn't approve of paid linking because it screws up the SERPS, so it really shouldn't have come as a surprise that something like a 0 page rank would eventually happen.
I admit I was mad when it happened, but after long and careful thought, I know that what I had done was against Google webmaster policy.
People are calling for a boycott against Google, they are telling people to write their congressmen about anti-trust issues.
Here's the deal.
Page Rank was something Google came up with, they are a private company.
They are free to increase or decrease page rank any way they want to.
We bloggers and paid blogging companies are the ones who made page rank an indicator of worth.
The paid blogging companies are the ones who said that higher page ranked bloggers could post higher paying posts.
Not all the paid blogging companies used Google page rank as that kind of indicator, they did use it, but it wasn't the big deal other companies made it to be.
I personally am not joining the boycott.
I find it incredibly silly to boycott a private company over the webmaster rules they have always had, when we're the ones who made page rank a big deal.
I know people don't agree with me, and that's ok.
I know I'm not making any friends with my stance, I'm sure I've even lost a few blogging friends over the issue, but I don't really care.
Boycotting a private company over something that we made bigger, and to have more importance than it really is, is stupid.
I will keep using Gmail, adsense, Google analytics, Google feed reader and their search tools like standard Google search, and Blingo where you can win prizes for searching.
I've won quite a few times, I get good search results, I make money with adsense, and I freaking love Gmail!
I'm so over the use this search engine, switch to this email, use this stat analytic, dump adsense, and write letters bullshit going around.
We made page rank have some sort of importance it never really had, we have no right to whine about it now considering Google is a private company.
I'm really happy that one of the companies I work for has not started a campaign against Google. I'm glad they never gave it that much importance, and I'm thrilled they haven't told bloggers to boycott them and write letters to congressmen.
I can only hope they don't cave into the pressure of using another company's ranking system which will be launched for public use in about 2 weeks.
I won't use it.
I have serious reservations about visiting the blogs of some of my friends after the new system launches due to the type of tracking that will happen.
Anyway, I'm just over all the hate Google speech going on.
I use what I use, and won't be switching because other people can't grasp the fact that they made PR more important than it is, and violated the policies.
Report me, de-link me, whatever.
Just stop sending me emails asking me to boycott with you.
Comments
what kind of tracking?
that irks me
but of course there is no way for me to know if I randomly land on a site hooked up to it.
as for google.. I'm still miffed about it. I did paid blogging for all of three months and my organic rating got wiped. Even after I edited my blog and got rid of links.
I know its not a big deal, but I was proud of that organic pr. Oh well, I quit paid blogging (not necessarily because of the google thing.. I just didn't like doing it.. period) The google thing though, made me think my decision was a good one.
Posted by: Carla | November 19, 2007 9:51 PM
Kat, I agree with you 100%. I have been fortunate enough that whatever money I have made from paid blogging has just been extra money. Yes, its come in handy for things we "needed" from time to time, but for the most part, its just been extra. I was blogging long before paid blogging came into existance, and I will be blogging long after its demise.
So, when all of this blew up with Page Rank and Google ... yes, I felt sick to my stomach -- alot of work and effort has gone in to trying to get my page ranking up. But then, I sat back, and looked at the big scope of things. Its not the end of the world. Work with what I can, and go on.
What I dont understand though -- and I'm not asking you to explain -- I think there is only very few who do understand -- you made the blanket statement, and it seems to be the general consensus -- if someone did any kind of paid linking, their PR went to 0. I know of 2 people who didn't. Matter of fact, one was at a 0 -- she finally got her own domain this spring, and wasn't accepted with PPP until this summer ... but has been doing paid blogging since August, I think. And she went from a 0 to a 1. Her sister, remained at a 2. Now....I do understand that maybe "the dance" is over just yet, and they still could get hit. Fortunately, they both do PU2B, so they will still be good to go regardless of what happens with PPP. So much I don't understand:)
Anyway. Just wanted you to know I agree with you, and this is one bandwagon I'm not jumping on either.
Posted by: Carolyn | November 19, 2007 10:13 PM
Hey Girlie,
I have a backup blog that I will be starting to use that will have no association with any type of paid blogging places, you know the ones that can track once it starts up. As I seen it and totally respect the ones that don't want to be tracked. The blog will not be linked to my Paid blog whatsoever. So if your interested let me know. Well gotta run, its late here for my lil man. G"night!!!!
Posted by: Christie | November 19, 2007 10:38 PM
Pu2B banned me forever after I lagged with doing their work... then I did it and they asked me for all the blog posts (remember? you lobbied for me?) and I told them it was way too much trouble to document all the posts. I told them to consider $180 worth of posts a gift. And in return, I got banned.
All this paid blogging PR crap is now just lost on me. I don't care about Google or other rankings. It is quite freeing, really.
Posted by: terry | November 19, 2007 11:00 PM