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Google is at it once again.  Pissing off its subjects with the latest PR shakeup, dropping the rankings of almost everyone including those who choose not to bow down to the king and surprisingly even those who do.
OK, so what is a Google PR?  PR stands for Page Rank and basically it is Google acting like the king of the da internet, rating all sites on a scale of 1 to 10, and of course putting itself right up there at a 10.   And in essence making everyone else clamour and obey the king doing everything they can to appease him hoping that just maybe he will lift up your rating to a coveted 8 or 9.
 Should you care? Unfortunately it still holds some clout.  Certain people whether buying ads or even buying your site will often use your Google page rank as a meter of its success.  Today’s shuffle will hopefully wake up a few people that put too much importance on this and see it for what it really is.   Google’s way to influence and controls its subjects.  
Some theories on why sites PR might be penalized:
-   The main theory, is if you purchase text links or sell text links
-   A blog roll could cause too many similar circle of friend links
-   NOT using Google Adsense on your site
-   Even exchanging un-paid links to your site.
Problogger is down to a PR 4 which is way too low for his site. (Mines a 4 for crying out loud ;)
DailyBlogTips has a list of some of the big blogs that have dropped. 

AndyBeard has put together a list as well.
Stumble Upon is my single highest source of traffic and surpassed Google search listings, and I’m guessing a lot of other blogs are finding that too.
Let go of your fear of the King and set your blog free…
    

As a long time veteran in the advertising & marketing world you become more and more aware of sneaky forms of hidden advertising.   Some, if done correctly are actually a value add to the users experience and others are just down -right malevolent and borderline ethical.  Let’s take a look at one example in the entertainment media news world.  The TV show Entertainment tonight is pretty much a 30 min advertisement with barely any content that hasn’t been paid for.  To the untrained eye you might not even notice that almost everything is fact an advert.   An interview with 2 of the hottest actors with their new movie that is coming out, a behind the scene look at a new fall show, the trendiest restaurant in Hollywood, the coolest new accessory for your outfit.  All paid placements.  Some of it is a bit obnoxious, but most of it is relevant to the show so as a viewer you usually don’t even notice or mind.
Occasionally when I’m reading a feature article in a magazine about a new product or company, I’ll actually flip over to the back to see if they have bought the back cover.    Fortune magazine is notorious for doing big features on companies that also advertises in the magazine.
Now let’s take a look at the guys on the block in the blog world that are taking full aim at credibility and potentially blowing it right out of the water:
Smorty:  Don’t just ask bloggers to write paid content, but ask the bloggers to sign up more Smorty users by the way of an affiliate program J
Blogvertise: Throw in a cool picture of the offending bloggers to make it look facebook’ish and perhaps a little less slimy? (Not one, but 3 links to the advertiser is required)
PayPerPost :  The king of the hill, the one company that seems to always take the heat when this topic comes up and rightly so.  I think they may even relish in it.  (The one thing these guys have changed over time is making disclosure required.)
Blogs were the original pioneers of one person’s true voice and un-biased opinions on a product, service or corporation.  It was the little guy who could be heard in a sea of millions and make a direct impact on the giants.   Paying the one voice, causes the listeners to hear a little boy cry wolf…
Related posts:
Tivo kills their PayPerPost campaign
PayPerPost launches random new service