I added the Top Commentator plugin to this site a month or so ago. It automatically places a text link to the sites of the top 5 commentators in my sidebar on every page so that it's easy to see who's the most active here. Here's the kicker, though: despite the fact that I have an RSS subscriber count that I'm very happy with and despite the fact that the site gets very consistent traffic, everyone's apparently apprehensive about ... Keep reading »
Of course, that's not because I have budged from my PageRank of 4, but because ProBlogger.net, CopyBlogger, John Chow, and Blog Herald have all been chopped to a PR 4 -- apparently for selling links. Again, I'm not taking a stand on it one way or another, but if this doesn't convince you to stop selling text links, you must be earning a ton.
If you care about traffic from Google, it's time to stop selling text links. They have confirmed that publicly now. I realize this may be pure FUD on their part, and I realize that I'm totally drinking their Kool-Aid, but if the largest source of my traffic says that they'll penalize me for selling text links, then hey, I'm not going to sell text links. I'm going to find another ... Keep reading »
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