It seems like in this world we just love to rank things. Pretty much everything in our life has a rank. Some of them are useful, like rankings in the military and grades at school. They provide organization and reward people who have worked hard. However, even these systems have major flaws. I must admit that I think their is no perfect ranking system.
Pretty much everyone agrees that Alexa ranking is flawed. Just this week Alexa started reporting that Facebook has more traffic than MySpace. I think that most of us would agree that Facebook is better than MySpace, but it's just wrong that Alexa is reporting Facebook bigger than MySpace. Alexa also says that Google has less traffic than YouTube. That's just hilarious to think about. Alexa does even worse reporting traffic for long tail bloggers. Compete and Comscore do better with the major sites, but can't really touch the long tail bloggers either. Technorati even tries ranking the most popular blogs and Techmeme's leaderboard is trying to rank tech websites. Rankings are everywhere on the web.
Of course, rankings aren't just a phenomenon that we find in technology or websites. If you watch college football, then you'll be very familiar with the BCS rankings (show me a playoff already). I put them right up there with Alexa as far as accuracy. It's just too subjective to compare teams that don't even play each other. Not to mention intricacies like the effect injuries have on a team.
Website rankings aren't that much different from BCS rankings. Website rankings are subjective and have flaws too. RealRank is no different. It's going to have its problems like every other ranking system in the world. Does that mean that it doesn't have value? Emphatically No. Despite RealRank's flaws it definitely gives advertisers a much better ability to know which bloggers will be taking their opps.
I personally believe that satisfying the PayPerPost advertisers is in the best interest of bloggers. First, the more satisfied the advertisers, the more likely they are to return and do another advertising spend. Second, satisfied advertisers will talk to their friends and encourage them to try PayPerPost too. Simple supply and demand tells you that the more PayPerPost advertisers, the more those advertisers will be paying bloggers.
RealRank isn't the perfect ranking system. Mostly because the perfect ranking system doesn't exist. At least RealRank's methods are published, transparent, and based on raw stats. Something that bloggers and advertisers can both appreciate.
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Comments (RSS)
sagun said...
Maybe a new idea or concept will only provide a better way of ranking But I don't know how?
Nov 26, 2007 8:20:55 PM
Karen said...
Great coverage of a broad subject. I especially agree with RR being the best because it is upfront and open with all of its information. Advertisers will know what they are getting. Bloggers will be rated by real stats.
Nov 26, 2007 8:42:04 PM
Darlene said...
I am now happy of what you come up to, the real rank. I think that's a great idea of having rank here while we as bloggers are having hard time and it's almost next to impossible to improve our google rank. Thank you ppp for the effort that you have done, like i always hear from my mother, "if we work together, we will success together". What i am saying is you are helping us bloggers and the advertisers for the benefit to everyone.
Nov 26, 2007 9:43:24 PM
Flo said...
You're right, there is no perfect system. RR definitely has it's pluses over PR and it's all transparent so it's no secret how it's done. If you don't like it at least you will know why. I think it needs more time. Once it's been going for a while and everyone is not so still hung up on PR, it will probably be more accepted. I personally haven't been real pleased with the RR on my blogs, but I'm also willing to give it more time before I write it off completely. We'll just see how it goes. Time is the great equalizer :)
Flo
P.S. Watch for the University of Hawaii on the BCS rankings for like the first time eva!!!!
Nov 26, 2007 9:51:57 PM
techie said...
Sagun,
I think that PPP is on the right track. I'm really interested to see the ranking that comes out with SocialSpark that incorporates the number of click throughs a blog has for various opps.
Karen,
Thanks. Real stats are always better. Hopefully even this will improve over time too.
Darlene,
You hit the nail on the head with what PPP has done that from what I've seen no other sponosred blogging platform has done. They've done a pretty good job of creating a community.
Flo,
I just hope that advertisers accept RR. If advertisers continue with PR, then the outlook is gloomy.
I've been watching UH play. I went to their game here in Las Vegas wearing black and not UNLV red. They looked really good and the Hawaii fans were awesome. I hope that Hawaii gets rewarded even though they've played a patsy schedule. I think they'd be pretty competitive with most teams out there. I'm just personally still irked that my BYU cougars have 2 losses. Otherwise, they'd be heading to a BCS bowl with Hawaii. Maybe next year.
Nov 26, 2007 11:09:09 PM
Steve said...
RR mean nothing if the advertisers continue to use the PR system and don't accept. Since PPP bloggers have been spanked by Google, advertisers will find it very hard for posts to be placed on PR 5 blogs, because few of them exist.
Nov 27, 2007 12:36:29 AM
Ghosty said...
I agree with Steve, with the exception that RR does mean "something"; PPP has needed to track it's postie's blogs independently for a long time. RR is a step in the right direction in that regard.
However, PPP and it's posties do not exist in a bubble; advertisers are going to want their posts on blogs not just with good traffic, but good traffic from a variety of sources, notably search engines. While advertisers will come to appreciate RR for what it is, they are not advertising to other posties, or even necessarily just a blog's regular traffic, they are advertising to their niche on the whole web. This means they need their posts to carry beyond the blog's regular readers and hit those coming to the site for the first time, perhaps, on a search hit.
When I first started doing PPP posts,my search traffic increased measurably because I was getting hits for those products and services I blogged about. It's the very thing that makes paid blogging work so well.
If the blog in question is not doing as well in search results, traffic will suffer. Advertisers know this, and no amount of "PR is just a number" chanting will change that. As much as RR is a sweet answer to so many things PPP has needed in the past, PPP also needs a way to bring sponsored posts into the realm of "relevancy" to Google and other search engines, as that is often the traffic advertisers are trying to reach.
Nov 27, 2007 1:27:28 AM
shaid said...
this should be on the way...
scholarships
Nov 27, 2007 1:29:53 AM
Rhymes With Right said...
In light of the Google's decision to skew its rankings to harm its advertising competitors, i hope we will quickly see PR disappear as a criteria for OPPs on this site.
Nov 27, 2007 6:28:44 AM
Karmov said...
Here's a question, how has the uptake with advertisers been with regards to RR?
From what I'm seeing it's about 0%. While I expect that for a little while, I'm hoping that there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Nov 27, 2007 8:26:12 AM
Jack Spirko said...
Here is a question. When I log in to buy posts I select Real Rank Between 1-9.
When I log in as a blogger my blog has a real rank of 808.
What is the deal? Does 808=8.8? What is the value of my blog in real rank?
On the other side how do I as an advertiser know what the "real rank" is of the bloggers that take my opportunities.
There sure seems to be a disconnect between the numbers on the advertiser side vs the numbers on the blogger side.
Nov 27, 2007 5:34:24 PM
techie said...
Steve,
I agree completely. I hope that PPP has offered current opps the opportunity and suggestion to change PR to RR.
Ghosty,
Interesting analysis comparing search engine traffic vs. regular readers. I think that's worthy of a whole post at some point.
Rhymes,
It's up to advertisers. I hope they agree with you and I.
Karmov,
I've seen a few with RR, but not as many as I'd like. My personal guess (just a guess) is that we won't see this change much until SocialSpark.
Jack,
I decided to create an entire post to clear up this question.
Nov 27, 2007 8:15:11 PM
Alexa redirection is worthless? said...
A low ranking on Alexa does not indicate that the traffic is not being generated on www.google.co.in, www.search.yahoo.com and www.search.msn.com search engines.
Dec 1, 2007 2:51:16 AM
Alexa ranking affects SERP ranking? said...
A low ranking on Alexa does not indicate that the traffic is not being generated on www.google.co.in, www.search.yahoo.com and www.search.msn.com search engines.
Dec 4, 2007 5:49:36 AM
Alexa ranking affects SERP ranking? said...
A low ranking on Alexa does not indicate that the traffic is not being generated on www.google.co.in, www.search.yahoo.com and www.search.msn.com search engines.
Dec 10, 2007 5:28:02 AM