I finally got some pagerank for this blog! And I guess 4’s not too bad for a start!
My CNET blog’s pagerank has also been updated, and it’s a nice 6!
Actually I think PR is kinda over-rated, but having been skipped a few page-rank updates, this is a welcome relief I guess 
Now maybe I will hold back on that Google-trashing blog post… :p
But really, do PRs mean anything? It used to be that the higher your PR, the better placed you will be on Google search results. But I find that hardly the case anymore. I got well placed in Google search results even when I was PR-zero. Some businesses like PayPerPost uses PR as a gauge on how much they should pay you, but with the infrequent and somewhat unpredictable update of PRs, I think even PPP is moving away from using PR as the main gauge of a blog’s effective reach.
The question is does PR really translate to reach and readership? Are there better ways to know if a blog has an effective reach beside Google Pagerank?
I for one think that RSS subscribership is a far better gauge. What do you think?
And I don’t think PR is of much use for me since I don’t do PayPerPost or any blog ads.
Maybe I’m missing something here?
p.s. Back in SG after travelling more than 6 cities/towns in China in the past 2 weeks.
Tired and glad to be away from the Great (Fire)wall and being able to access this blog properly again!
5 Comments
November 1, 2007 at 8:01 pm
yo, welcome back and glad to see some updates
November 1, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Did you buy me anything?
PR is just one of hundreds of other factors Google use to determine your rankings. It’s a measure of “trust” based on incoming links from other websites (again another complex formula – whaddaya expect from a bunch of geeks from Stanford?). PR is not an indication of your reach – use Alexa if you’re that vain.
The PR number that you see is a delayed PR that is updated only every 3 months or so. Google uses their own internal PR – more updated and more refined than the 1-10 scale.
RSS subscription is also not a good measurement because some people (myself included) just don’t use RSS. Go use trackers like Awstats, Webalizer, ExtremeTracking, or the mother of all trackers Google Analytics.
P/S: I’ll be in Singapore the Monday after Deepavali. Interested for a chat over coffee?
November 2, 2007 at 9:47 am
Congratulations, Aaron, and welcome home, mate.
I don’t care much for page rank since there’s no intention to ever monetize my blog — it’s just not for that purpose as you already know.
Sure would like to hear/read more of your trip to China. Sorry I haven’t been able to reply to your email (thank you for sharing it though, I really enjoyed it!).
Shabbat Shalom.
November 3, 2007 at 5:57 am
I just read somewhere PPP is coming up with a system of their own to “outbeat” the Google PR. I don’t place too much emphasis on PR after reading through various professional guides and experienced bloggers. It’s quite an eye-opener for me when PR meant for effective search results transform into a benchmark for monetary earnings.
November 18, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Unfortunately for PPP, Google just de-ranked a lot (if not all) of blogs who write for PPP from whatever rank they have to ZERO.
can’t you imagine how tough that would be to PPP and its bloggers????