- Calls from 3 journalists (one Australian and two US) wanting to get comments on the story
- Emails and IM chats with numerous SEOs sharing their ‘theories’ and ‘inside gossip’ from the Googleplex
Ironically the whole controversy has also had two other results:
Firstly traffic was up today by around 40% – the story has caused a lot of people to check out the ‘de-ranked’ blogs
Secondly and very ironically the controversy has caused a lot (hundreds) of extra in bound links to ProBlogger (and I pressume many of the other penalized blogs and sites).
What we’re being penalized and/or made an example for I don’t really know (Google’s not great at explaining these sorts of things) but the net effect has been that many of the sites being ‘hit’ could well come out of this better off than they went in – with new readers and perhaps even a better search engine ranking in the long run.
I guess there’s a few lessons here:
- Don’t Get Depressed Get Motivated – every person that I’ve ever met that makes a full time living from web publishing has a story to tell about periods where things didn’t go their way (or where they completely fell apart). Those that succeed find ways to push through these times, learn from them and come out stronger.
- Leverage Leverage Leverage – yesterday when I saw my slumped page rank I had a few options before me. I could have ignored it, I could have gotten down and despondent and wallowed and done very little work as a result or I could have found a way to leverage it. I decided to write a post about it and to see what would happen. The result was that today was one of the most productive days that I’ve had for a long time.
- Network – there are days when blogging feels very lonely. The reality is that you’re not alone in the challenges that you face as a blogger – not matter what the issue is, there’s someone else who has, is or will face the same thing. The key is to reach out, find these people, debrief with them, learn from them and work together on solutions.
I know I know – I’m one of those annoyingly optimistic people (it drives my wife nuts). I’m sorry, I can’t help it.
The problem is that it’s actually days like today that make or break bloggers. Not only is it days like today that many bloggers give up – it’s days where many miss great opportunities. Keep Punching!
