I see you now, yammering and hollerin’ that PR doesn’t matter Lisa! Okay, I hear you. However, let me dabble on the flip side of this issue. This is not going to be a long drawn out post because I want to show you something. And then get your opinion. 🙂
Why I Still Look At PageRank
It’s no secret around here that I am trying to make money blogging. I have written countless posts on the issue. You are probably tired of hearing it already!
What I have found is the following. Advertisers are more concerned with traffic stats and how many impressions their ad will receive. So for this purpose, PR doesn’t hold much weight.
However, what I have also found is that people looking to buy reviews/blog post and ads with the purpose of a back link, PR DOES matter. Many buyers specify they want to buy an ad or contextual link with a very specific PR.
And the higher the PR, the more money they will pay. Now, before you go all crazy, nutzoid about buying links, hear me out.
I have never purchased a link, but I have been approached about selling a link. Just as we do with whomever we link too, we do our due diligence in placing a purchased link. I am NOT going to link to any hanky panky, “how many chicks can I get” type sites.
When someone asks about a contextual link or post from me, I research them very carefully. I check out their site, whois info, who they link to and their niche. I don’t want The Friendly Blogger in any way attached to bad neighborhoods.
I also do not want a ton of outgoing links from my site that are paid for. So, I reserve this area for only high quality sites…and generally I like to link to these types of sites on my own anyways. I’m just giving you the positive side of a link sale. 🙂
As for advertisers, some buyers purely want the link back to their site and are doing so with a pretty little banner. I see no harm in at all if you do your homework on the prospective buyer.
Going Rates
The going rate for this type of buyer varies. People will pay monthly, tri-monthly, or even a year. And Google pageRank determines that price people! As an example, a PR 1 will net you somewhere between $7-$10/month. Yet, a PR 5 will take in somewhere between $25-$50/month.
You are looking at a 6 month earning of $60 or $300! So yes, in my opinion PR still matters for monetization purposes. The issue is determining how many purchased links you open your site up to. I find the lower the better. I want to concentrate on building traffic so I can focus more on ad sales.
The PR Chart
Okay, having said all of that….and I am sure I will hear feedback from you on it, here is what I wanted to show you. I found a chart that graphs out what you need to gain a specific PR. It shows you if you want a PR 2, how many backlinks you need to have and from where to achieve it. Meaning, how many PR1, 2, 3 etc…links you need to gain your projected PR for your site.
I don’t know how I feel about this graph and if it holds water. This is where you come into play. Check it out….tell me what you think. Do you agree? Especially the higher PR links….are they THAT meaningful?
The Bottom Line
I think PR will always be a source of debate for people. We all have our opinions on the matter and I think we all see different reasons for pageRank.
What do you think of this chart and do you agree?
Please share this so I can get more feedback on the issue. 🙂
I try to increase my Google PageRank too. It is an interesting read.
Hi, I Build my new website and search for how to market our site and I found wonderful and fruitful information here.
Thanks a lot
I was not even aware of the concept of PR, as I’ve started blogging as a hobby.
The last time I saw it, my site was promoted to PR1. I just focus on adding value. The rest of the things fall into place automatically!
fully agree with you. PR does matter for everything
Thanks for the PR table, I found it as a very usefull info. But to add links (do follow links) to directories that have more than a PR4, it seems to be difficult to find some.
If you have a list directories >PR4, it will be cool if you can mention them into your blog. It will be very helpfull.
Pingback: Google PageRank: How To Go From PR1 TO PR3 | BackLink Resources
Great read, especially the PR Chart, good giude on getting your desired PR. Anyway, from what I read, PR does not really play a big role in the search results, does not matter what PR you have, its the contents of the site for the search term will only matter to Big G.
That’s just my 2 cents. =)
And I tend to agree with you!! Thanks for your feedback!
I agree with this comment, great article
Appreciate your visit!
Hi Lisa, long time no say hello to. ((sorry)) been upto my armpits in alligators …
PR isn’t even on my radar at this stage of the game (LOL)… but that doesn’t stop the spammers from visiting.
What’s really wierd though is I have a static site, its been up for quite a few years. I rarely look at it, but it has some really good PR pages amongst its mix… funny nobody offered to buy a link… hmmm. Wonder why… ?
Lovely to see your smiling face… I’d listen to you yammer and stammer anytime!
Talk soon!
Jayne
My website is 6 month old and is PR 0. In the last 2 motnh I have build more backlinks. I hope in a good PR on next pagerank update!
This is a very useful info. However, i’m not 100% sure about the chart. I have different experienced too.
Lisa,
Page rank will always be a matter of debate since we are mostly guessing at what it takes to get page rank. I think most of us just dig in and work and an increase in page rank becomes a nice bonus. Also I think there is a make break point for a blog. There is a point that your blog rolls forward and increases in subscribers, visitors and rank, and stands on its own.
My old blog got a PR2 after about 3 months and I started getting regular requests for links, usually in the range of $50 to $75. (although one guy wanted to pay me $100 for the whole year!) I was told that my fee was based on the PR and of course the higher the rank the more money I would get. The blog was a mommy blog and that kind of thing seems to be common in that niche so maybe the importance of PR just depends what you’re writing about. Great post!
Tisha:
Thanks for your feedback! Those are GREAT prices for your PR 2 links! Kudos to you. As I say, I always give people a shot, but their site has to be worth it! 🙂
I think not only many backlinks but also quality and or authority sites can increase pagerank value.
you are correct!!
I also believe that Google looks at much more than just the incoming links for PR. I know that my main blog is a PR4 and I can’t tell you how many emails I get from people wanting to exchange links or pay me to have their links put into my posts. Oh, and they are crappy sites I might add. So I don’t know if this chart is right on or not but I did find it very interesting. I enjoy getting other views on this topic.
Thanks for sharing Lisa… Very interesting indeed.
Adrienne
Glad you enjoyed Adrienne! I ALWAYS chek the sites that want a link!! Could be doody heads for all we know!!
And nobody likes a doody head, do we?
NO! Doody heads are poopy people :))
Yeah, people want to pay me all the time too………..I just can’t spend all this dang money……….I’m old school though….no advertisers, I’m going solo baby………..
I go through my phases of caring about Google Page Rank, some times I’ll get annoyed when there is a GooglePR update and my number doesn’t move and other time’s I’ll laugh off a Google PR update.
When it comes to selling, in all of my experience it played a factor in 50% of the domain sales I’ve had over the last 10+ years.
Hi John:
I think 50% is a large enough number to convince me that PR plays an important part in sales!! 🙂
Hey Lisa, interesting article. While I do agree with you about how many advertisers are looking at PR when it comes to purchasing ads / sponsored articles etc. I’m not sure I totally agree with the chart that represents backlinks required to obtain PR. Google themselves have said that Page Rank is dependent on over 200 different factors, backlinks being only one of those factors. Google is only going to reward relevant unique sites with high quality content, simply obtaining millions of backlinks won’t just give any old site a high PR, there are simply too many other variables.
Hi Daniel:
Thanks for your feedback. Seeing some of the results Google shows for certain terms, I wonder how much they actually rely on relevancy. I see sites returned from 2007 when I know for certain there are more updated pieces of info. So, I wonder if those sites from 2007 have a more powerful link profile?
This is a good point Lisa, and sparks a good debate. I would suspect what you are saying is true, although it is not always the case. Still when dealing with organic information teaching a computer program to discern what is relevant and isn’t is difficult. For instance Einstein’s theory of relativity is the same today as it was when it was first proposed. An article written ten years ago explaining the theory may be just as relevant then as it is now. At the same time when I google “world series” I want to find out who won last year, not in 2004. For google’s algorithm to figure out which results are relevant has got to be some super complex programming. Lots more I could think of to discuss on this point. 🙂
Daniel you are spot on with that one! I never looked at it that way. I think Google touts being super smart….so if they can weed out the advanced spammers and discern bad links from good….maybe they could return more relevant results. But I totally see what you mean about written in stone type content. For example, today is saturday…that will never change. However, when we talk about link building for instance, if you Google that, you get a lot of irrelevant crapola!
The horror………..you actually ‘want’ to make money. What would you do with that; like eat, buy gas, pay rent or something? Trust me, making money is NOT a bad thing so never apologize for wanting to do so.
Good post as I did not know difference from PR1 to PR3 to R2D2…….but someday in this social media life of mine I might need to and now I will know what they are talking about.
Thanks for sharing and making me social media savvyer; or is that more savvy?
Have a good weekend.
Bill:
At this stage, Im pretty sure the money will go ALL to gas!! I need to learn how to skateboard. 🙂
I think it’s “most savvier” or “savviest of saavy” Just sayin! 🙂
See, I’m smarter already…………:)
I try not to worry about the PR of my blog, mainly because when I did worry I did stupid things to try and increase it, but actually it had the opposite effect.
If PR helps to make more money with my blog, I won’t complain, but I’d rather focus more on creating good content.
Hi Paul:
that’s my point about building quality back links so that I increase traffic. Therefore my traffic can speak for itself as far as advertisers are concerned. Appreciate your feedback.
Lisa
I’ve seen many a chart like that, they all look about the same.
I’ll stick with good quality content and plenty of it, that’s how I went from 0-3 in one update. 😉
Dennis:
Once again you’re rock star muscles shine!! I still am convinced links help us with gaining that PR, but since the Google changes, maybe not as much? I am leaning more towards social proof and relevancy.
Who knows…I have been known to be wrong before!! :))
LOL Thanks Lisa. Links are a KEY element, I don’t wanna shy away from that. I think it was the combo of the two…if comment links are still worth anything.
Explanation: I had a good thing going over at my old blog when I got the idea to move all to the current DEDC. (A long story in itself.)
Long story short, I wanted to build up fast; I must have posted between 50-60 posts in the first 1.5 months or so…much more then usual, I really went on a spree.
My #1 promotion method for years now is blog commenting. I know for a fact that these links are not nearly as worthy anymore as popular opinion seems to think they are, which is why I said it was the content that did it.
To be fair and honest, I’ve barely checked other inward linkage. If it’s not a trackback to a specific post, there is a good chance I will never know about it.
Thanks for the explanation Dennis. I always trust your opinion so I know what you say to be true as far as the commenting links. I have noticed they don;t so as much for me. My next issue is going to be whether keeping my blog do follow is hurting me. Any opinion?
I only say “I know for a fact” because Google, and by that I mean Matt Cutts, has stated it on more then one occasion, comment link value is slowly phasing out.
Do Follow hurting or helping is another one up for grabs.
Google says, while it passes juice along, you don’t actually “lose” any yourself…I know it doesn’t make much sense, but that’s about as far as they go.
I DO know bloggers that have high double and even triple digit comments on posts with a PR of 3 and up, so they can’t be losing too much.
I hope that helps, though it’s doubtful. lol
useful post, yes if you have many backlinks means surely your pr will move towards to achieve those task.
Exactly!
Nice example of PR how you can achieve it . Definitely you need number of backlinks for up the PR . It’s not possible only with money if your blog will nice then you will get backlinks definitely.
Well said Sam!
Thnx for the chart, that was useful. And youre right about advertisers requiring certain amount of traffic and PR rank. I deal with that nonsense all the time…so lame.
Whats funny is that the number of uniques advertisers look for has increased over time. I find it weird because fragmentation allows for a more targeted focus. Anyways…cool post and cool beans 🙂
LOL, thank you Dino. And yes, I find it a bit odd sometimes the requests that are made of potential buyers with regard to analytics. Maybe advertisers should start looking at “reach” in social media sites achieve….I always like the ads that request millions of views a day! It’s just lil ole me!!!! 🙂
I am one of bloggers that do not look into PR anymore but of course, if the big G give me a high PR, I do not refuse it. 🙂
I feel exactly the same way Dana!!! Im not gonna turn it down that’s for sure!!
Looks like my previous awesome comment was eaten. Curses!
NO!!!! I always enjoy your feedback John!
Yeah pagerank definitely matters to *someone*. When my home page went up to PR4 I noticed a lot more spammers dropping by and a lot more (lame/automated) link requests. Basterdz.
Although…I tried to sell some ads on buysellads.com and they ignored the pagerank and turned me down due to traffic. Aw, shucks.
Now watch I’ll get back to my site and it will be PR2 or something. Oh well…
I found you John! Somehow you ended up in spam. dag nab it!! 🙂
Try Digital Point forum, that is where I have had the most success. BuySellAds didn;t do crap for me!!
Not sure about the chart cause I did have a different experience with the number of links I had when my sire got PR1 after 3 months of existence about a year ago. I had almost no links and was actually surprised to even see the PR.
On that site, the minimum amount I have ever charged for a NoFollow link was $30 and I got that price with no problems.
Now I guess this might wary from niche to niche but that niche is actually as saturated as blogging is…
Or maybe those peeps were just desperate for links, lol, who knows 🙂
That’s a great profit for PR1!!! I think maybe it also relies on niche? I don’t know, I’m shooting arrows in the dark here!! 🙂
btw, when are they announcing winners??