The social spark website itself has a robotisized female go on and on about the features, and I did pick out her saying ’search engine compliment blogs’.

I have to admit, the features they talk about for it are very nice, and if they get along with google and their competitors alright it should perform very well.

So why would google be targeting the bloggers instead of these sites themselves, if that’s what their after? Google is already well aware after all, that they own the search engine market, and anyone they hit with PR0 from a ’significant’ high of 5, 6, 7, is going to make the SEO monkeys that follow PR as a cult run away screaming like Japanese school girls from a tentacle monster.

That being said, I’ve been looking up PPP for a while now, and there have been two things I’ve found that people have of an issue with it. 2.5 now.

1: A lot of people are pissed off that PPP is a way for bloggers to sell out. They don’t actually care about transparency, for the most part. They just don’t want to get hit with the stigma that bloggers are out to get money.

Paid reviews, and that’s what they become at that point… Not blogs, but instead reviews, have been around forever. Movies, magazines, video games, blogs… Actors endorsing products on TV… Or hell, period, is a paid review that only takes a sentence or two.

2: Google apparently hates … Not them, but anyone that uses them.

2.5: Only just now thanks to another poster do I see why they apparently hate them. They won’t allow you to use no-follow tags on your reviews to websites.

Well Ted, that’s fair enough, isn’t it? I know it devalues the links a little for your customers, but keep in mind, they’re relatively permanent links to site’s you’re pimping for reviews and traffic, not PR. I really suggest talking to the google people to see if this is their problem with you, at least on the surface. I know you feel they’re just blocking you out as a competitor to their lucrative ad-sense program, and that may be true. It might not. Either way, we all know they couldn’t admit to it on the surface if that were the case, and as they haven’t banned or even knocked your sites down to the low PR’s, it shouldn’t be hard to find a solution.

Last I checked the other big arguement was that your posties don’t have to be transparent about being paid for their reviews. I’ve given this some thought, and I’ve come to a rather backwards conclusion.

Anyone who doesn’t admit their being paid, is probably afraid to because of how people react to the concept of selling out.
I’m young so far as an internet user is concerned… Maybe all of, say, ten years of netlife. Almost half my actual life at that. And in those meager years I’ve watched people swear and dance and cry that their precious free lunch might cost them money, or doesn’t have the same moral alignment… As it did before… Huh. Geeky moment: Alignment shifts in D&D 3.X cause you to lose followers… Something that only nominally made sense until now.
Sorry, that’s called a tangent.
In all fairness, people also scream, and cry, and set themselves on fire for any other change, often even minor ones. People are hard to please, they all seem to want fresh content, but at the same time, exactly what they’ve always had. That’s really why we have genres, and any slight change spawns a subgenre (if the creator doesn’t get scared off by people running around bawling their eyes out, blazing and threatening to beat them with a bat for tainting their precious genre).

As for weather or not the ‘realrank’ thing has any value? I can see that it does, for bloggers, advertisers, and of course, Izea and their sub-projects.

Those of you who say it’s just a way for advertisers to find people to work with, you’re absolutely right. Why else would it be there?
I’m surprised however, you sound so aggressive of the fact… Primarily because you’re talking in the comments to a blog that’s about … Making money… With your blog…
Anyway, It’s not like a ponzi scheme, or mc.donalds subliminal messaging. It’s a free service directed towards a niche crowd, for the benefit of the creator, the crowd, and anyone else who finds use of it. Is it a little bit sneaky? YES! They aren’t going to outright say ‘Yo! Put your site here so our clients can be impressed by us and do more business.’
Is that wrong? Nope. Not at all. Search engines and directories, alexia, whatever else.. All do the exact same thing. They don’t provide you tracking service, listing services, and searching services for free just to make you happy. They want it to look that way, but they do it so they can please their clients by offering them premium listing spots, advertisements on websites, or.. Hell.. Over time just charge you for the previously free services. In fact, there are thousands of online directories. Many of these start out free, then turn to recipicorial or paid, or just outright paid, for example.

Still, I went on about that a little longer than I meant to. My point is, you shouldn’t look at a service as evil because it has to do with making money. Well, some of them are, but it’s how they go about it. MLM’s for example, are evil, vile things. As is all manner of ad/spyware.
As for realrank, just look at it as another tool. Do you already have tracking software available to you for your site? If not, it’s a convenient way for you to get that data, and it’s very accurate. Do you already get that data? OK. Maybe it’s not for you. Then again, it could always increase your traffic, give it some serious evaluation rather than toss it because it’s surface intention isn’t exactly what you need.

Closing comment number 1: Too many of you are sheep. ‘I might use it, but only if more people do’. Uhh… You know what? It’s sad to say, but most people are good little lambs and won’t tread where the other lambs aren’t going. That’s why it takes sheep dogs (popular people) to move into it. Reference: Actor endorsements.

Closing comment number 2: If you’ve read all this… I’m sorry. It was all written raw into the comment box, it took me about fourty minutes. In fact, I’m going to copy it in case I got some cookie timeout effect. Forum posters know the bane.

Closing comment 3: Hi, I’m Justin. I’m working on my website, for a trading card game I’m making. As you can see from this post, I feel everyone is entitled to my opinion, and so my website will have a section called JRants. I hope to have the prototype version of the website up early this month. If you want to stop by because you like long-winded people, or because you’re curious about the game, or you just want to watch, eyes narrowed to angry little points, watching… Waiting for the day I fail, because my sheep comment hurt you. Well, do come by.

Closing comment 4: Mandatory introduction/shameless self plug out of the way, I’m subscribed to the replies here. So if you can provide some genuine reasons to loathe or love PPP here, that would be great, my research is fairly insubstantial so far.

I’ve found that some PPP advertisers don’t use the Alexa score or blog tack scores – they use only the IzeaRank system.

I see a use for it as far as internal platforms go (PPP being the obvious choice) because bloggers would want / have to use it, which then will at least give a good way to judge between blogs on the platform. Therefore, I don’t see any major use for it beyond IZEA itself.

To be honest, if you want a ranking system, a site that took all the different systems out there (that don’t require code to be added to the website), and let you weight the different factors as you wanted, would be most useful to me.

The idea that everyone values all factors equally makes no sense, so why not let the user decide for themselves, to make their own comparisons?

I know SEOmoz do this to an extent with PageStrength, but I don’t think they let you weight the factors according to your own preference, if you wish.

I look forward to seeing how this enfolds.

Join the discussion at my blog here

If this is the case then you really need to weigh how to make money in the long run, this is a flawed practice and to be flat out honest is the plauge google has started.

Monetize your blog in real ways.

Don’t quickly jump to the conclusion a few paid reviews on your site via PPP caused your PR to drop. I can give you a list of over 550+ blogs that do not use PPP’s service and about 90% of them dropped in TBPR.

The PR bitch slap was a web wide slap.

Unless Google says that it’s fine to participate in this ranking as long as there is no selling of text links, I don’t want to participate.

The point A ndypermits insertion of “nofollow” (which PP still prohibits); and therefore

- AND Anyone inserting the Izea tag can be flagged by Google as being likely associated with PPP; AND

- AND since anyone associated with PPP is still under the proscription of adding “nofollow” to their links

- THEN anyone inserting Izea code into their blog is more likely than not (and here the odds work in the favor of the little guys outnumbering sites like Problogger) likely to be doing paid posts through PPP which means

- END IF your site relies on leveraging Google PR into opportunities to make money

See how logical that is?

For me that’s what it comes down to: my PR died because I started doing PPP opps.

Mmmmm… buh-bye to PPP opps if they’re killing income while other monetization routes haven’t suffered.

Eventually you might get to wondering, as I have been lately, whether this isn’t a sword-crossing contest between Murphy and Cutts.

I think its very evident the people who are whining about PPP being the demise to their site, via the dropped PR, really do not know what they are talking about.

Those are the same people who buy all the spin that comes out of Matt Cutts mouth.

Make money on your site however the hell you want. Google is NOT god.

My purpose for use is to see how it stacks up. What do I have to lose? I login to the PPP marketplace everyday too… I still don’t post for them (or take opps).

To make assumptions that “posties” only care because it helps them is ridiculous and failing to realize how the overall concept could help everyone, from the big to small.

It appears, with the comments on this one post, the problem isn’t just people are assuming this is for posties but the connection with PayPerPost. Give it up, they have a great business model and you’re upset because you didn’t think of it first. That’s no reason to hold out on what could very well change everything…

Some of the comments are truly inane in this discussion…

I’m happy to be trying it out as a serious attempt to measure a blog’s worth… I’m also happy that advertisers will get the metrics that can help them judge what kind of site they want to advertise on…

I can’t see a real problem, really. It can’t be worth any less than Alexa or Technorati’s numbering system. And it’s a good attempt at a compromise between traffic and PR ranking, which just measures a site’s worth.

Most importantly, the algo is transparent. So, I’m willing to give it a go.

Kenneth”

Of course you’re using it, you are a postie.

Ironically, the PR loss only diminished my income opportunities at PPP itself. The other companies I’ve done work with in the past continue to offer the same (much higher than PPP) rates they were offering prior to the PR slash.

I will not be adding PPP, RealRank&tm; or any Izea-related tracking script to my newest blog unless and until PPP figures out how to stop making bloggers sell their PR in exchange for PPP opps.

I also would not trust the Pay Per Post people.

I’m happy to be trying it out as a serious attempt to measure a blog’s worth… I’m also happy that advertisers will get the metrics that can help them judge what kind of site they want to advertise on…

I can’t see a real problem, really. It can’t be worth any less than Alexa or Technorati’s numbering system. And it’s a good attempt at a compromise between traffic and PR ranking, which just measures a site’s worth.

Most importantly, the algo is transparent. So, I’m willing to give it a go.

Kenneth

Awesome.