Google Dance: Is Your Blog Jiving Now?

Much as we would like to get a life instead of being a blogging junkie, most of us bloggers just can't get over this Google Dance thing. Some are just getting freaked out as they wait and wait...to know their fate. Website directories are feeling the heat, too.

According to a WebProNews Insider Reports, as many as 60 directories have suddenly dropped in rank. Could this be algorithmic flux or selective penalties?

It seems nobody is talking at the moment as paid link directories started going south in Google search results. Could this be a sign of an impending Google slapfest on so-called "errant sites"?

Since late July up till today, there have been a number of false sightings that this crazy Google dance was about to go on stage. But to the disappointment of those dying to see how their blogs would fare in the PageRank, it must have been a frustrating wait - a rather long one this time around.

Some bloggers have reported noticing erratic movements on the green PageRank toolbar but that must be an illusion or their imagination must be running wild. The advice: Don't get paranoid and uppity about it all. Looks like the little green thingy is in hibernation.

Are we seeing something new on the horizon?

Perhaps, as some blogging pundits are suggesting, the PageRank updates may no longer take place. Maybe it's because Google are cooking up something else instead of looking at links to evaluate your page rank. Before we proceed further, for the benefits of newbies, here's a brief take from Bill Platt's article "The Roller Coaster of Link Popularity" about why blogs do links...

Links are the roadways that keep Internet users moving from one website to another. Before the search engines became the all-powerful providers of Internet traffic, the role of Internet promotion was to establish links on pages where a website's target audience is already going. The goal, of course, is to get the person reading the page to click the link to the target website. With every visitor to a website being a potential customer, it makes good sense to get as many visitors to the website as possible, and that requires getting as many links as possible pointing to a website."
Are you still making dollar and sense out of blogging?

Obviously, if you're a webmaster you need to take actions to boost your incoming links in order to move up in the SERPs especially Google PageRank. Now is the time to reflect on what you have been doing as far as link-traffic building is concerned in the past three or four months. And also ask the following questions:

• Are you still into meme projects to gain more links?
  
• Are you still doing that Alexa redirect train scheme?
  
• Are you still planning to run more linkbait contests?
  
• Are you still handing out various types of blogging awards for obvious reasons?
  
• Are you still buying or selling links?
  
• Are you still charging people to make comments on your blog?

One cannot deny that, for most bloggers, the major drive factor is making dollar and sense out of blogging. It's the number one reason. Numero Uno. Period. That's why we have top 100 lists of money-making blogs to whet the appetite of bloggers who are just getting into the act or still struggling to do so.

The evolution of blogging

I don't see this trend changing because blogging is evolving, and with that comes more sophisticated methods and ideas to make more money and more converts to the blogging world.
Bloggers are becoming multi-platform users and, therefore, their online presence will become even more dispersed with social media playing a prominent role in this changing blogging landscape.

Back to the linking issue, Jason Lee Miller at WebProNews wrote an interesting but foreboding article about the impending death of link authority. He's saying that, according to Edelman's Steve Rubel, link authority was good while it lasted, but now "there are so many places where people can publish and connect with peers."

Jason, who has covered the Internet scene expansively, also mentioned a Social Media Index article by David Brain, president and CEO of Edelman Europe, who is working on a formula for this social index which we may see embraced by Google and other search engines in the future.

If these are any indications of the future, will we be seeing the death of link authority? I'm not qualified to give an answer, but I would like to ask another question:

Are we bound by links from here to eternity?


Of related interests:
Link popularity: How, why and what to do about it?
Social networking: Tailing the Long Tail
The hots on linkbaiting
Why this PR is doing the shadow dance
Is Google PageRank still a valid marketing tool?

Social Networking: Tailing The Long Tail

The proliferation of blogging communities is amazing since "social networking" and "social media" became catchphrases after Rupert Murdoch snatched up MySpace.

The signs are everywhere that these two catchphrases are the next big thing in online communications, if not, they are already here.

A recent iProspect study reveals that "social networking users are growing at an accelerated rate."

The study says: "One in four Internet users visits a social site at least once a month, and that figure only looks to increase over the next several years. The Internet is shifting from a medium of information to one of participation..."

So, it's no surprise by now that more and more bloggety kind of communities are sprouting. MyBlogLog is a good example. There are others like StumbleUpon, FuelMyBlog, BumpZee, SpicyPage, Bloggst and a host of other sites working along the same line with some variations.

Not because they want you and I to sign up and start posting ourselves silly in forums, but there's the potential of business benefits down the pipeline. Shades of Yahoo buying up MyBlogLog and Google gobbling up YouTube.

Some will see success while others may drop out by the wayside. The multitude of bloggers will decide who are the eventual winners and losers.

There's so much going-on in this so-called Blogosphere that Internet marketers like e-book and e-mail merchants, and other "old school" practitioners are looking at themselves and asking the question: "Is this the death of Internet marketing?"

The heat is on.

Niches are where the action is...right down the Long Tail. As expounded by author Chris Anderson in his book, there are three driving forces that represent a new set of opportunities in the emerging Long Tail marketplace.

They are:

• Democratize Production
  
• Democratize Distribution
  
• Connect Supply and Demand

What sparked blogging in the first place? According to Anderson in his book, democratized tools started it with "the arrival of simple, cheap software and services that made publishing online so easy that anyone could do it."

E-business is definitely evolving and the key factor is the increasingly important role played by the Blogosphere. For sure, as one expert puts it: "It's a virtual hotbed of information dissemination."

It has opened up a free, democratic market for all and sundry to grab a piece of the action. Anderson writes in The Long Tail that "amateur blogs are sharing attention with mainstream media, small-time bands are releasing music online without a record label, and fellow consumers dominate online reviewing."

And the iProspect study on how social networks have changed the way consumers respond to marketing messages indicates that although it's still early days for social networking, "one out of three Internet users is already taking advantage of a site containing user-generated content to help make a decision to buy, or not to buy something."

"This bodes well for the future of these sites that take advantage of our human nature to trust the recommendations (and warnings) of fellow consumers more than we do the claims and 'marketing-speak' of professional marketers," says the study.

Alas, in a nutshell, individual bloggers can set up sites, publish content, drive traffic and establish links to move up the ranking ladder. And, thereby, put themselves in a position to monetize their blogs like landing ads and qualifying for better sponsored reviews payment and so forth.

You, the blogger, now has a voice that can be heard. Innovative and creative ideas are being generated...and they are evolving. Who knows? The next most talk-about business model may be just around the corner.

*BlogView by Mark Khoo*

The Long Tail Fallout

I have read it. Many of you have read it. Chris Anderson's much-talked about visionary business book, The Long Tail, has captured the imagination of many people. It's about the new marketing niches and sub-niches. It's about the limitation of yesterday's market choice and the economics of abundance in today's marketplace. And thanks to the Internet phenomenon for that.

It's all about the consumers of the future, their shifting demands, moving away towards the niche markets of the "Long Tail" and why the major media giants are feeling the effects.

Social media such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and others are getting the spotlight. The new consumers know what they want and that's not so good news for those depending on the traditional "Top 10 Hits" lists.

TV ratings are heading south, newspapers and magazines are losing circulation, Hollywood box office is slipping, sliding away, and top-selling albums are figuratively down by the millions.

So where do we go from here? Well, slide down the "Long Tail" where it straightens out at the base. That's where the niches are and they are gathering momentum if statistics, facts and data are any indicator.

How about a niche like Blogkits?

Imagine Adsense is not generating enough dough for you these days. Assuming you want to ditch Adsense, then who do you turn to for your new web income source?

How about Blogkits for starter? Blogkits who?

Entrepreneur Jim Kukrai created Blogkits in 2004. It was acquired by global affiliate marketing company Forge Corporation early this year. and it was launched recently.

The promo says it's the "world's first true performance marketing network built just for bloggers."

Your blog don't have to be a high-traffic one to get approval. Blogkits is based on CPA (cost per action) so the bane of click fraud does not arise. If you still want to retain Adsense on your blog together with Blogkits that's not a problem.

You have to sign up your blog and get approved. You grab a tracking code and place it in your blog template. And you'll be earning whenever a sale is made.

It looks like this is one of those new niches that are positioning themselves at the tail end. This may well be an alternative to Google Adsense for website publishers with low-traffic blogs to get an extra piece of the online pie.

> The man behind Blogkits and his blog