Google PR has been updated again this month end and this site now has left with only PR2. It’s quite disappointing at first but then I don’t think PR is the primary reason why I’m writing, so life still goes on, I’ll still be blogging. Hongkiat.com is almost a year old now, started off with PR0, then PR1 -> PR3- > PR5 -> PR4 -> PR2. I’m not sure if PR updates itself this much this year, but I’m quite sure I’ve seen these PR bouncing on-off my Google Toolbar.

Anyway, it seems like many well ranked sites are suffering from this October PR update too. Here are some blogs that are affected:

• adesblog.com PR 7 -> PR 5
• copyblogger.com PR 6 -> PR 4
• blogherald.com PR 6 -> PR 4
• cybernetnews.com PR 6 -> PR 4
• engadget.com PR 7 -> PR 5
• johntp.com PR 6 -> PR 4
• statcounter.com PR 10 -> PR 6
• problogger.net PR 6 -> PR 4
• searchenginejournal.com PR 7 -> PR 4
• quickonlinetips.com PR 6 -> PR 3
• weblogtoolscollection.com PR 6 -> PR 4

And of course, many local Malaysian blogs like liewcf.com, chanlilian.net has dropped too.

This is not a Google Update, rather a penalization?

So I’ve read some article out there saying is not an official Google PageRank update, but rather penalizing those who sell text links or exchange links for profit or more exposure. As possible as it might sound, I still think it just don’t add up because I knew some sites that did not sell links and their PR still drops.

I don’t see the point of getting too de-motivated in blogging because of a PR drop, I started off blogging without having good PR anyway. After monitoring PR vs traffic all these while, I don’t see an obvious equation to it. Also, with PR2 now, what’s worst is only ending up with PR 1 or 0, not much to lose really. Those with PR5 and above might need to be caution, they’ve got more to drop.

Most sites dropped 2 ranks in their PR. So is this a penalization to text link selling? just a typical PR update? or Google has changed their PR algorithm. No one can be too certain until Google talks about it.

PR drop and Making Money Online

The biggest fear of PR drop among bloggers are probably because it will affect their traffics and online earnings. So will PR drop affect online earnings? The answer is a yes and no.

Yes if you

• gets 60% or more of your traffic from Google
• solely depending on ad network that pays based on PR value. Textlinkads, Payperpost, etc.

No if you

• have strong amount of link back from other blogs, sites, directories
• good amount of feed readers
• make money online with many different ways