When I started blogging, I never really thought it could be used for anything else other than as an ordinary journal, well except for the fact that it is online and available to anyone who would like to read it. The truth is, I took it up simply to satisfy curiosity.

It wasn’t after a few months of trying it when I realized that other people do blogging for purposes other than expression – that some bloggers post to earn some money, and that if I wanted to, I too could get some extra bucks while jotting down my thoughts and ideas. It wasn’t until then that I finally committed to blogging.

Afterwards, I worked my ass off fine-tuning my blog with that as an extra motivation. And since the company that I affiliated myself to required a certain popularity measure (i.e. pagerank), I aimed to increase my blog’s visibility in every way I can. But because I lacked the technical knowhow about Google Pagerank,  I figured I’d have to do it the only way I know how – to invest in writing and content. That’s what I did. And for a little while it paid off. After months of blogging, google seemed to realize that I was drawing enough attention to merit a PR of 3. The more popular my blog became, the more opportunities I got to earn money.

Unfortunately, google decided to update their ranking and for some reason, discriminate against bloggers that do paid posts. So from a hard-earned PR of 3, my rank was reduced to 0. And for what? Is there anything wrong with wanting to earn a bit more while blogging? I mean, I don’t think I’ve violated any ethical law or moral standard in writing. I didn’t invent any stories nor distorted any to suit my needs. I just simply chose the topics that fit my experiences. That’s it.

I admit. I initially chose to try out blogging because I wanted my very own journal. And I know that Google’s sudden change in PR computations should not affect this initial reason. It doesn’t. And I can safely say it won’t. I’ll continue to post and blog, but that’s not the issue here. The issue here is the ranking.

You see, Pagerank, I believe was built to show how popular or search-friendly a page is. If that’s the case then, why should it be affected by the presence of advertisements or paid posts? I mean, let’s say, your site gets visited a lot by people because you’re interest appeals to theirs or perhaps because your style of writing is so rudimentary and crooked that it makes people laugh. Why should your rank be compromised then simply because you also do paid posts? I’m not gunning for the best blog in town award or anything like that. I’m just here to blog! Now whether or not to earn while doing so, that’s mine to judge. Right?

Anyway, I’ll still continue to blog because I like it. It just pains me to think that I lost the chance to earn some money while doing it. Oh well…