Technorati Hates PayPerPost?
Posted by Stephen on
March 18, 2007
During my review of the Root of All Evil I mentioned how his evilness got banned from Technorati. His stunt to ping Technorati with over 17,000 links backfired and got him locked down, never to advance in ranking again. This stunt also got me banned because evil takes on collateral damage. At first, I thought it was just evils fault that I got taken to the curb, but after a little investigation, it appears that it’s something else that got me flagged on the play. Nope, it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Evil and me share a rack of servers.
They Blamed PayPerPost!
For a few weeks, I kept getting the same dreaded “HUH?” message as I tried to scrape for some hope that my blog would once again be pinged by Technorati. I tried their help forums and their admin there suggested that I submit a trouble ticket. Of course, I did that, but I found it funny that they closed off the thread that I started and that others commented on, before I could get a resolution from their technical department. A few days later, I got an email from tech support apologizing for the late reply. They cited that the delay was due to a backlog in support. I wonder if this is some other collateral damage that was inflicted by Evil Boy?
Their response was not what I expected. I was fully expecting them to question me on the huge list of pings that swept through the blogosphere, originating from a server that houses both mine and that evil blog. Instead, I got this:
It seems that your blog has been flagged for review. I am suspecting that it is due to the Ad and Payperpost links placed in every post. Because of this, your blog will continually be flagged with each indexed post. Please try including the links in your sidebar.
Wait a sec… You mean it’s PayPerPost’s fault? I’ve always had a not so sanitary feeling about them, but I never thought that I would hear that they would be cause of my troubles. I don’t really blame Technorati for flagging sites with PayPerPost especially since it seems that a plague of garbage blogs have reared their ugly heads where every post is an affiliate link or paid and the author goes as far as deleting or editing comments when they don’t like to be called on their bullshit. Examples like this really aren’t giving PayPerPost the legitimacy they want, and I sincerely hope that they do audits to eradicate crap like this if they want to survive.
Since PayPerPost isn’t that big of a deal to me, I gladly removed what PayPerPost links that I had on the front page and on my sidebar. I did have a few ReviewMyPost buttons posted at the bottom of some posts and an Affiliate URL in the sidebar so those were nuked right away. I then replied to the email asking them about the PayPerPost rationale for my banning, and they had this to say:
Technorati currently doesn’t have a policy regarding PayPerPost, but large amounts of linking to the same URL does flag a blog for review. Thus, if you have a link to PayPerPost in every single post, it may throw a flag.
So they don’t currently have a policy, but does that mean they are thinking about it? PayPerPost was not linked in all of my blog entries. I only sprinkled the button in a few posts and had the link in my sidebar and Technorati asked me to replace the link into my sidebar. Nonetheless, after removing PayPerPost from the sidebar and from most of my posts where I placed a button, it seems that I am BACK!
To my surprise, I jumped from the tens of thousands, to under 10,000, to under 2,000 in the course of a week since the unbanning. I am now sitting at 1,777. That’s absolutely insane! On a sidenote, my ReviewMe went up to $100 per review. You can see my new rate listed at the bottom of my latest ReviewMe Review.
Although it would SEEM that Technorati has something against blogs that have sold themselves out to PayPerPost, the facts are still a bit unclear. If PayPerPost was not an issue, why would Technorati point them out as the potential problem? Is there an unofficial policy against them? I don’t know, but I’ll take my new ranking and smile. Just to be on the safe side, PayPerPost is on hiatus for the time being and it doesn’t seem that the Root of All Evil is totally to blame for this one, but his evil ping scheme did expose what looks like to be an alleged Technorati bias towards PayPerPost.
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This is certainly an interesting turn of events. I have nothing against PPP itself, but it’s because of dimwits like Lemmy that PPP has become disliked (hated) by so many in the blogosphere.
My site doesn’t have enough PR to do the PPP reviews that would interest me.
So I have not done a PPP review in a really long time. I liked the idea of making money by doing reviews on people’s sites but nothing there seems to peek my interest.
Congrats on getting listed again on Technorati! Don’t you love how you came back right when Technorati decides to use every one of John’s blog as it’s own blog? I’m curious to see how this affects PayPerPost and the whole industry of Paid Posting!
I had the same problem with Technorati where my blog had disappeared for awhile but when I contacted them, they responded right away and had my site back being listed within a few hours.
It’s very interesting though to see their mention of PPP but then come back and say that they don’t have a *policy* about it.
i submitted 2 work tickets for my other blog, which does contain aff links… but they never even responded. i don’t know what the hell kind of policy they have over there, if any
I can understand their policy, and what they mean when they say it’s not anything to specifically do with PayPerPost. I think what they are trying to avoid is any site at all that is set up to look like a blog, but is in fact just an attempt to make money and lacks real content. A good indicator (and therefore something to flag it) would be continuous links to on particular site. It sounds like you would get flagged just as quickly if every post told me what a gorgeous girl your are, and that I should click here to meet you, with the link being an Adult Friend Finder affiliate link. The tech probably just did a quick scan of your site and saw repeative links, and suggested that a further investigation might reveal that to be the source of the flag.
It was interesting they brought up PayPerPost because on the same page, i had ReviewMe links too. As in the example I gave in the post, I guess they are having a problem, like you said, with blogs that are attempting to make money and that lack any real content. Since PPP seems to be more accessible to these sort of garbage blogs.
Gregg’s answer sounds the most likely. Evil’s Technorati ping stunt rubbed off on you and then a techie was trying figure it out after the fact by a quick review of your blog.
Anytime you’re debugging a problem with multiple variables, it’s nice to isolate. Now that you’re back in, I’d love to hear what happens if you add ReviewMyPost to your post footer flare. Getting flagged for flare would be evil in its own right…
I only made one change which was the removal of the sidebar PayPerPost link and the 5 ReviewMyPost links that I embedded into a few posts. Wham! Reinstated! I did nothing else, and that’s a fact.
On the same page, there was equal or greater ReviewMe representation at the time:
http://www.stephenfung.net/reviewme-launches-a-new-affiliate-program/
http://www.stephenfung.net/half-off-reviewme-requests/
http://www.stephenfung.net/thank-you-again-february-sponsors/
http://www.stephenfung.net/jay-profeit-blog-review/
My ReviewMe affiliate link is still on my sidebar. It was not removed.
If you roll back a few weeks using my Live Archive, you’ll see more mention of other repetitive links that did not include PayPerPost, yet it is funny that our techie mentioned PayPerPost at all in this case. I actually notice the ReviewMe logo, Text Link Ads (aff) and ReviewMe (aff) more going back.
I think I’m going to lay low on the PayPerPost. I kind of like having a Technorati rank that is under 2K and an unbanned account. Let me enjoy that for a while.
hah…and watch out for more of evil’s collateral damage as well!
I’m curious what link you had in the content of every post and whether you did that manually or via your blog templates. For example, if you’re placing your “Review My Post” badge in the post content repeatedly then you might want to try moving it to the post template similar to Digg, Reddit, Sphere or other post-footer flare…that’s where I have mine and I’ve had no issues with Technorati.
I don’t link ReviewMyPost OR PayPerPost in every post. When I got banned, I only had my referral URL to PayPerPost in my sidebar, which is where the Tech Suggested I put it POST-Banning. It was already in the sidebar PRE-Banning.
When the tech went over my site on March 3, I only had two posts on my blog relating to PayPerPost as below:
http://www.stephenfung.net/do-payperpost-posts-make-you-feel-dirty/
http://www.stephenfung.net/new-blog-features/
The ReviewMyPost buttons were introduced on posts after my post about it, and in very limited quantity. I placed a total of 5 buttons because I remember removing them all and the sidebar link. After I did that, I emailed the tech back and I was reinstated.
The only theory that I have about your blog not being flagged is that it wasn’t skyrocketing to a sub 10K Technorati ranking. I guess when you get up that high, you get looked at with much more scrutiny and it looks like PayPerPost might be in the “Unofficial” flag on the play list.
As Artie Lange would say on the Howard Stern show, “Waaaa!”.
You might be right about getting more attention from Technorati because your ranking was much higher. I think my site might have been dinged when John pulled his evil trick because I haven’t had PPP at all and that was before I did my two ReviewMe posts.
Still nice to hear you were reinstated regardless of their reasoning, or lack thereof.
Thanks Derek! I’m glad I was reinstated too!
To be honest, I never liked the PPP thing. It does seem like a blatant sell-out maneuver. Although I’m not against a bit of revenue generating ads, making posts for the sole purpose of making a few bucks takes the fun out of having your own blog.
Now I’m wondering if my affiliation with PPP is the reason I can’t claim my blog with Technorati. I moved my blog off of a free host and to my own domain a little over a month ago. The “Review My Post” program kicked in around the same time and the button appears at the bottom of each of my posts, whether sponsored or personal. I’ve contacted Technorati about a dozen times and they have yet to reply or issue a suppot ticket. I certainly haven’t drawn attention that merited flagging for having a high profile blog. My old blog was a PR4, but the new one has not aged enough to have any status.
I’m thinking a little experiment might be in order. If I remove the “Review My Post” buttons, will they suddenly acknowledge my existence?
They reinstated me after I removed them. Funny. If lightning strikes twice, I think we might be totally on to something here.
I’ve just removed the link. Tuesday evening ,eightish, Hawaii time. I’ll try to reclaim tomorrow night & for a few days & see what happens.
How are you actually claiming your blog? Are you using the Quick Claim or the Post Claim? I actually claimed my blog using the Quick Claim.
Pardon my ignorance, but I don’t know what a quick claim is. I click on “claim your blog” on my page & get a message that says there was a prbolem claiming my blog. Where is the other option located?
Hmm… It doesn’t sound like a PPP problem. It sounds like Technorati will not recognize your URL and get to the next step. If it went through, you would have the option to Quick Claim and to Post Claim. I’d make a post in their help forum to see if someone picks up on it.
Half an hour after removing the PPP review button from all of my posts, I was able to claim. The only thing that is different is that the review button is gone.
For real?
The plot thickens! Looks like Technorati might really have something against PPP.
Update: I re-installed my Review My Post icons an hour ago, about three pm Wednesday afternoon, Hawaii time. Right now I still have a claimed blog with stats showing. Whether it will hold over time remains to be seen, but right at this moment it looks like Technorti was not picking on me because of the PPP script.
If anything changes, keep us posted!
Not sure what to make of this. There are a lot of blog ad networks out there these days. Makes me wonder if, and if so why, PayPerPost is being singled out.
I think PPP gets singled out because it is much easier to be approved for an account and that results in more blogs that do nothing but PPP posts to make money, thus not adding any real quality content.
The other review sites, such as ReviewMe, are a little more difficult to get into and thus carry a little bit more quality in the participating blogs (generally speaking).
If you compare PayPerPost to ReviewMe, yes, PPP is easier to be approved for an account. Not because PPP is easy, but because ReviewMe is the most stringent.
From my personal experience PPP was much harder to become approved for than some the other blog ad networks. I was approved to post for Loudlaunch, Blogsvertise, Sponsored Reviews and a few of the other paid blogging services before my blog was approved by PPP.
I’d say ReviewMe is harder to become approved for than PPP and all the rest. Not so much that PPP is easier.
(your mileage may vary.)
Sorry, I was only comparing PPP with ReviewMe as I haven’t applied for any of the other services.
Well then, My New Choice, you had better get busy! Thar’s gold in them thar hills!
I’ve been a little hesitant to do many paid posts on my site. I’ve done two ReviewMe posts but I haven’t pursued any PPP posts thus far. It is true that I am leaving money on the table but I am still trying to build a reader base and keep building quality custom content.
I wrote a review for Stephen’s site for PPP, but they denied me because my site was too new. They won’t look at me again until LeoChiang.com is 90 days old. I got one more month.
I do agree with you there… There are a few PPP posts I could take right now but I don’t want to make my blog look like one big living breathing PPP advertisment. If that ever happens I hope someone reins me in.
If the articles are still available in a few days I might write about one or two. If not, then that’s fine too.
It’s easy to get enticed by the money. I did for a bit, and I know several very good bloggers who did, also. We all recognized it in ourselves and went back to writing quality content and only taking paid opportunities that we could feel good about. If you don’t self-regulate the market will do it for you. You’ll lose loyal readers & with them, the stats to qualify for opps. If blogging isn’t fun, if you’re not talking to your readers, what’s the point?
Well said Skeet!
I must confess I sometimes worry if I write too many paid posts. No complaints so far… from my cats and my friends… lol
Yes, I think PPP gets flak because they are the most visible and popular. There are many blogs I do see that do back-to-back PPP posts which are against the rules. It’s sad they give us all a bad name.
That said, PPP and other blog marketing programs have helped pay the bills so I am grateful. As long as we keep blogging honourably, I think we’ll still have visitors.
I also experienced “Huh? in Technorati but after emailing support, the problem was immediately sorted out. There are other blogs that encountered the same error and you will know it if you visit the Technorati’s forum. Even John Chow’s blog encountered the same problem. There was no explanation given as to why my blog had that error. There was a time when I tried to add PPP button to my every post, maybe that did it. Just maybe.
John Chow caused John Chow’s “Huh?” If he did to me what he did to Technorati I’d ban him too. But he’s evil and that’s his thing.
I think commentor “Skeet” experienced a similar problem where the blog could not be claimed with PPP buttons. After removal, the blog could be claimed.
It would be interesting to see how many blogs with the “Huh?” problem are actually doing PPP. I decided to look through their support forum and the FIRST “Huh?” complaint contained two blogs that both have PayPerPost.
http://support.technorati.com/topic/234?replies=1
Both of his blogs got the “Huh?” message all of a sudden.
This is the next “Huh?” one on the list where the person cannot claim.
http://support.technorati.com/topic/216?replies=3
Both of these “Huh?” errors were the first two that I saw on the latest posts and both were PayPerPost. Interesting.
wow. that is insane. a lot of directories and pinger things don’t like PPP either.